At just 33 years old, Arkeem Sturgis possesses a wisdom that seems to transcend his age. In a recent interview, while calmly changing his one-year-old daughter’s diaper, he paused to gently guide the Fortune reporter questioning him.
“Breathe,” he said. “Slow down. You’re gonna get everything that you need to get done. You’re not in a rush.”
This instinct—to steady, to teach, and to elevate others—has become the hallmark of Sturgis’s remarkable journey. A father of six and the founder of a successful handyman and HVAC business in Jacksonville, Florida, Sturgis has spent the last five years transforming his life. He has climbed from the depths of homelessness to the brink of his first $100,000 revenue year, a path he credits to faith, mentorship, and a firm belief that the skilled trades offer the very freedom that younger generations are desperately seeking.
The Rock Bottom
Sturgis’s struggle was not just philosophical; it was a harrowing reality. In 2020, as the pandemic swept the nation, he was laid off from his job as a TMJ fabricator. His financial situation unraveled quickly, plunging his family into a crisis. He became homeless, forced to shuttle his wife and five children between a succession of hotels, Airbnbs, and the homes of sympathetic friends.
“It was a really, really, really rough year … keeping my family together and smiling through that entire process was a lot,” Sturgis recalls, the weight of the memory still palpable.
The Turning Point
Though he had never considered a career in the trades, Sturgis had always been adept with his hands. Desperate for a new path, he discovered the Home Builders Institute (HBI). As the child of a Navy veteran, he qualified for a special program and enrolled in their carpentry course, later adding HVAC to his skillset.
He started small, assembling furniture and fixing leaky faucets, all while working grueling 10-hour night shifts at a warehouse. “At one point I was working 10 hours overnight, getting off at seven in the morning, clocking into my business at eight o’clock, and working another eight to 10 hours,” he said. “Then going to sleep and doing it again.”
Within months, his steady work ethic earned him a spot in Home Depot’s Path to Pro program, which connects skilled tradespeople with jobs. The skills he honed at HBI allowed him to expand beyond simple repairs, laying the foundation for his own business.
A Life-Changing Mentorship
The true turning point, however, came in 2024 when Sturgis returned to HBI to complete his HVAC certification. There, he met his instructor, Steven “Papa Steve” Everitt, a man who would change the trajectory of his life.
“He literally bought me a truck,” Sturgis recalls, still in awe. “The truck was $800 … and he cared more about me succeeding than he cared about the money he paid for that truck.” This act of faith was more than just financial; it was a profound mentorship that reshaped Sturgis’s self-image.
“He helped me change everything from the way I looked—I cut my hair, I started dressing better. He pulled something out of me that I didn’t see in myself,” Sturgis said. That year, his transformation was recognized when he won HBI’s Chairman’s Award, complete with an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas. His business, now on solid ground, is on track for that once-unimaginable $100,000 year.
A Message for a Generation
Sturgis’s story is a powerful testament to individual resilience, but he sees it as a damning indictment of a system that fails to prepare young people for the realities of the modern economy. He is frustrated by the cultural stigma against the trades and the societal push for a four-year degree as the only acceptable path to success.
“We as a country have done a poor job equipping our children for life,” he argued, lamenting the disappearance of shop classes in schools. “We expect children at the age of 18 to graduate high school and make a permanent decision in our lives by going to college. An 18-year-old does not have the mental capacity to make a permanent decision for the rest of their lives.”
He believes the skilled trades—HVAC, plumbing, electrical work—are wrongly viewed as being at the “bottom of the totem pole” for Gen Z, even as the U.S. faces a deepening labor shortage in these critical fields. This gap is widening due to aggressive deportation policies and a surge in demand from the AI boom.
“Robots can’t build houses,” Sturgis noted, aligning with sentiments from top industry leaders like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who predicts a massive need for electricians to power new data centers.
Sturgis envisions a solution: more vocational funding, targeted incentives, and grants or forgivable loans for small trade businesses to help them scale and train apprentices. “That’s how we fill the gap,” he said. “By giving people the tools to build something of their own.”
He argues that if schools could empower Gen Z to see the trades as a viable path to independence and wealth, not just a fallback, more would pursue it. “When you explain to the younger generation that one can make close to six figures in just a few years of work in the trades, it ‘piques their interest,’” he explained.
“And they’re like, ‘Wait a minute. So you mean to tell me, I can get my hands dirty and I can make that much money?’ Yes, you can,” Sturgis said with the conviction of a man who has lived it.
“It’s been a lot of trial and error, a lot of long days, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears,” he admitted. “But if you can manage to push past your feelings and the valleys, it gets easier. You look back down the mountain and realize how far you’ve come.”