John Estep, Vice President

My name is John but you might recognize me better as the man in the ever present black Fedora.  I actually wear many a hat these days; Business Professional, Musical, Charitable and as of last year I’ve acquired the marriage hat which by far is my favorite, or so I’m told by my wife.  I am the youngest of 6 children so yes ladies and gents this means I’m the baby and my siblings won’t let me forget it. I have two brothers and three Sisters with the next in line being 10.5 years older than me.  I’m what you would call the greatest surprise ever.   I am a Musician though guitar is the instrument I cut my teeth on I also play Bass, Drums, Mandolin and Banjo to some extent.  I can also play a mean electric triangle if you catch me on a good day.  Though not really in any group right now, when I’m asked what kind of music I play I simply reply with “I’ve played everything from Metal to Bluegrass and pretty much anything in between.”  I am married to my home girl Deborah (haha) and when I told her that was what I just wrote she said “that’s great babe” in the cutest little sarcastic tone as she walked away in her Wonder Woman rain boots.  I’m probably getting punched for writing that but hey I’m the kind of guy who puts his pants on both legs at same time.   I have a dog named Jake who keeps staring at me from across the room waiting for me to move so he can pounce me then run off like I’m in shape and am willing to frolic after him.  Anyone who knows me knows this is not going to happen this time of night.  I love God and have been saved for close to six years.  I wouldn’t be where I am without him.  I attend Amazing Grace Baptist church in Thomasville.  My pastor is Hillis “Juicy Fruit” Burton.  I think my best friend Adam gave him that name because Juicy Fruit was always his gum of choice for the treat bags that were passed out during the holidays.

I tend to smile a lot and try to have a good attitude even when things aren’t looking the best.  I do take my work serious and can turn off the jokes at the drop of a hat and get right to business.  I think this really helps me handle the tough situations at work.  I’m looked upon as the people person or peace keeper because I have the gift of gab that tends to calm people down and I naturally care for people and I think that shows.

 I started with Computer Problems? Inc. (then known as RED Computer Service) in 2007 as a part time technician.  The way it came about was an act of God.  I worked at a computer company in Greensboro that will remain nameless out of respect, who wasn’t exactly doing everything what you would say “legally”.  I had a problem with this, but was told by the president of the company not to worry and that it is OK to install pirated copies of software onto every machine sold.  He stated that it could never be traced back to me and that if I wanted to keep my job I would do as instructed.  Feeling like a child scorned I went on working for months in an uneasy work environment doing everything I was told and feeling the conviction getting worse and worse.  I prayed about it time and time again until one day I finally realized that I hadn’t fully turned it over to God.  I don’t even remember what I said in my prayer that day but I had a peace about everything afterwards.   Shortly after this I was going home one day and the road that I always used to get onto the Highway was closed.  Keep in mind I knew nothing about Greensboro at the time so I was pretty much what you would say… lost.  I knew one way home and that wasn’t going to work with the road closed so I just drove until I thought “This looks like a great place to make a left.”  I ended up on Highway 68 in High Point at a stop light that took forever to change.  Bobbing my head to the radio, completely oblivious to the computer shop to my left, I was thinking to myself about calling the owner of the strip mall because the location would be great for a (you guessed it), computer repair business.  Seeing the sign “Red Computer Service” on my prospected corner I took down the phone number and called to see if they were hiring.  I spoke with a nice young man (Bradley) who told me it was a one man show and gave me a mobile number for his dad.  I hung up and immediately called the number. A man answered “RED Computer Service this is Rodney Everhart”.  This is where It all began, I stated that I was looking for work and after a few minutes we realized it wasn’t a good fit because he wasn’t looking to hire anyone and I kept thinking how weird it would be to work at a place called RED when I’d hated my Red hair pretty much as far back as I could remember.  We hung up with the understanding that I also worked on Video game systems so he could pass that sort of thing my way and I would give him any server work that I came across because frankly those things scared me at the time.  I didn’t think about it much after that until about a month later when I was ready to quit working at the “fore-mentioned” company in Greensboro.   I was drained from the strain of what now seems like such a small thing, but at the time it was such a huge weight on me.  It was a Thursday morning when I got the phone call.  Rodney wanted to meet with me so we set up a time for the next day.  I went into the interview not knowing what to expect so I basically said you know what if this is where God wants me than this will happen so no sweat.  The interview went well as far as I remember.  I couldn’t tell you anything that was discussed or what I did afterwards but he wanted the weekend to make the decision.   We parted ways and for the next 4 days I would pounce the phone every time it rang.  It’s funny I thought about it like the infamous Red phone ringing at the white house “Sir, you’ve got the job.”   Finally he called and I was all like “Hey man what’s up” acting like I was just sitting around and noticed that the phone was ringing.  He told me that It was hard for him to make a decision like this one because he over analyzes everything.  Looking at the good and the bad from every angle possible, he felt this would be a good addition to the company.  I was excited and I asked to finish out the week where I was even though I really didn’t want to.   I felt like I owed it to the customers that had their computers there for repair.  He agreed that was a very professional thing to do and from then on instilled in me professionalism.

 To this day I contribute the professional that I’ve become to his teachings and patience with me.  I can still hear the words “Figure it out” when I run into a tough problem.   This is what I needed to drive me and make me a better tech and businessman.  For this I will always be grateful.  In writing this segment I’ve come to realize that I really didn’t tell much about my past so maybe I’ll write more about that in future articles or blogs.  In closing I’d like to say that I am nothing without the grace and the help of My Savior Jesus Christ.   I don’t even know if I’d be here today if it wasn’t for him. 

I would like to say thank you to all my customers who have stuck with me over the years.  There are too many to list here and I would hate to leave someone out with my memory being what it is.  I will leave you with a quote by Aristotle that seems to be so simple but took me a long time to figure out.  I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing a little about me and how I came to be here at the company formally known as RED. 

“Quality is not an act; it’s a habit”     –Aristotle-

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