Story & Lesson Highlights with Jose Romero of Heathwood, Taylors

We recently had the chance to connect with Jose Romero and have shared our conversation below.

Jose, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
My artwork and working on it. It brings me total freedom and joy to be able to paint… I have no boundaries or rules. The blank canvas welcomes anything I feel like creating.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Well, I am an artist and architect living and working in Taylors, SC and showing in the greater Greenville area. I have been painting for 26 years which started when I studied art and architecture in Rome, Italy in the Spring of 1999. The journey has been an interesting one since… I have battled PTSD and depression having witnessed 9/11 in New York. The years that followed were pretty dark but there were also some rays of light in them, having my three children. They were the reason I kept on working, getting up every morning and painting. Had I not had them I don’t think my wife would have stuck with me firs and foremost, and who knows where I’d be today. They are the rays of sunshine in my dark past.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
One of my first bosses, then Cindy Scofield. I worked for the State of New York in homes taking care of mentally handicapped individuals my senior year of high school and every summer during college. I stayed in touch with Cindy because we formed a special bond and she kept asking me, “Are you famous yet?” every time I spoke to her. Well, am I now?

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
It taught me to be humble. It taught me that you are never better than anyone else, and that you’re supposed to treat everyone with respect no matter who they are. Whether they’re 5 or 75. Whether they’re the mayor or the janitor, don’t ever get too big in your own head to think you’re better, because you may end up being the janitor someday, as I have been and am now. I have a white collar job during the day working from the comfort of my home, allowing me to paint as soon as the clock strikes 4:30 PM, but then go to the YMCA and clean it so the kids will have a nice clean building when they enter it the next day. I learned humility from my downfall…

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
That’s an easy but complicated one. I grew up thinking the world was full of good people… Now I understand that the truly good people are few and far between, don’t get me wrong, I feel they’re there, but not as abundant as I once felt. I was a very naive kid and young adult. My high school soccer coach and teachers growing up made me believe everyone had good in them. Going to New York and now the South taught me otherwise. These places taught me about malice and prejudice, agendas, and greed. But all in all I would have to say most people are in the middle, they have their good and bad traits, but sometimes you have to watch out for those bad ones…

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
That I meant well… Rumors, jealousy, rejudice and word of mouth by these things tend to paint an ugly picture of me sometimes. What people don’t understand about me is that I treat them with the respect (or disrespect) that they bestow onto me. I am nothing more than a product of my environment. Some people don’t understand how I can’t be prejudiced having been through what I’ve been through and having seen some of the things I have. I could easily hate Arabs for what they did to us on 9/11, but why generalize? Travel, go to places where people are “different”, and you’ll find some of the most warm hearts out there.. People in need, “poor people” dare I call them, are some of the most giving people out there. What most don’t realize is that these people are actually “rich”, for they are enriching.

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