Jason Hill is president and one of the founders of Apex3 Systems, a security firm that provides and maintains security systems of all types including camera systems, alarm systems, fire suppression systems and access control systems. Apex3 Systems integrates these systems to fit a company’s needs, budget and mandated requirements. He grew up on a beef cattle farm in upstate New York after his parents divorced. “My mother’s father owned the farm, my grandfather was quite the man’s man. He was a 32-year senior master-chief aviation mechanic when he retired. I would have to say that he probably instilled a good majority of the positive qualities and values in me. I remember being around eight years old, we were baling hay and I told him I was tired. It was probably one in the afternoon. He looked at me and said, ‘Jason, you know for the rest of your life, as long as you get up early in the morning and you go out and do the best you can do, you go over and beyond in everything you have to do for everyone you deal with, you’ll be satisfied with yourself. You’ll be successful.’ Now I probably didn’t quite comprehend that the way that I do now, being 40 years old, but, that is something that I’ve carried with me my entire life. It’s something that I’ve reverted to in times of weakness. I can still hear my grand-father saying, ‘Over and beyond, every day, for everyone.’ It’s gotten me through a lot in my life. It really has.”

Jason Hill

When it comes to core values, Hill says that his center’s around his family. “I try to be the best father that I can be to my girls. I’m not always successful, but I do the best I can. I think honestly over time I’ve learned that when you grow up with strong men you’re taught to hide your emotions and not let people see any weakness. A lot of that has been built into my subcon-scious and I’m sure that’s part of how I became the entrepreneur that I am. But in the same token, having a sister and having daughters has helped me accept the emotional aspect of things. I’ve learned that winning at all costs is not winning. In the business world you see people who think they must win at all costs, no matter what it takes. They lie, cheat and steal. I don’t live like that. I don’t live by those standards.

While our society revolves around making money, money will never give a person lasting happiness or peace. “Much like people who say they’ve ‘lost “everything” in the stock market. They didn’t lose everything. They lost money. Money is not happiness or caress or love. You know how many happy, poor farmers I’ve met and knew, and loved growing up? When I came to the big city and I met all these presumably wealthy people, I discovered that most of them were miserable. They’re never satisfied with anything, ever. It always has to be more, and bigger, and better. They’re never satisfied with what they have. They’re going to die miserable people. It’s not that I don’t place value on monetary things — my home, my vehicle, and my attire so that I can look presentable with my business, of course I do, but I know that is not the key to my happiness.

Our society does not foster an attitude of contentment. When it comes to achieving success or making money, no one ever says “that’s enough, you can rest easy.” The attitude is always about being more successful, making more money. I had a good friend who played the stock market often. So, one week he was all smiles and he told me he made like fifty grand in the stock market that week, then a couple of weeks later he was down in the dumps and when I asked him about it, he said, ‘Oh, I’m really bummed out, I lost like five grand in the stock market this week.’ And, I’m like, ‘Yeah, but isn’t that part of the fifty grand that you made two weeks ago?’ That’s not how people who play the stock market think. It’s in every profession. I mean when Michael Jackson sold 29 million copies of his Thriller album, you know the people around him were going, “Yeah, but you can do better. The next one could be even bigger.” Nobody is saying “that’s enough.” “That’s also true in sports,” Hill points out. “I think that’s where it starts. I graduated from Cooperstown High School,

                                                                                                                                              Jason Hill and girlfriend Elissa

 the town where the Baseball Hall of Fame is located. So, I was burned out on baseball at a young age due to over exposure but I played soccer, football, track and was on the wrestling team. I captained many teams I played on. But again, our coaches did what coaches everywhere do, which is push people to go farther, to move beyond their comfort zone. That same attitude is applied to businesses of all kinds. I mean, I’m guilty of it myself. It’s like when my salesmen come to me and say, ‘Yeah, I hit my numbers for the past six months’ and I will follow with, ‘Awesome. Let’s raise your mark.’”

The truth is that people who are pushed tend to get higher results and people who can push themselves like that tend to succeed greatly. The hard part is learning to be content with that pushing and expectations placed on you. Sometimes the success is just not worth the stress that kind of life creates. Hill agrees. “I think, for me, part of being happy or content has been to learn how to be comfortable outside the usual, to be comfortable out of your comfort zone in a way.”

Hill cites his grandfather again in regard to the source of inspiration in his life. “I would have to say my inspiration was my grandfather. I still think about my grandfather on a daily basis. He instilled things in me that I didn’t fully understand until my mid to late twenties, even in my early thirties, when there would be a situation or circumstances that would arise, I would think about something that he said. I’d go, ‘Wow, that’s what he meant. I get it. I get it now.’ For 20 years I thought I understood it, as best as I could at that time, but now I really get it. I would have to say out of all of the influences in my life, that old master chief, knowing his days were numbered, was intelligent enough to instill things in me that he knew I wasn’t going to understand until later, but, he drove it home. Also, my older brother is a huge source of inspiration to me. I look to my older brother, who has been a very hard, diligent worker his whole life. My father was the same way. So, as far as work ethic is concerned, that was never a question in my mind, because I didn’t know any different. I didn’t know that it was okay to take a day off. That’s just not how we worked. “ When it comes to the ills of our society and the possible pitfalls of its future, Jason Hill has some strong views. “Well, I’m very comfortable with this question, because I think about it a lot. I own a technology company. I make my living on technology, but, I’m concerned that our nation is gravitating towards an artificial intelligent society. I think we are so heavily dependent on technology now, that if some-thing cataclysmic were to happen like an electro-magnet pulse, on a large scale a good majority of today’s people, especially the young adults and youth would not be able to cope without the technology. I mean it’s in everything. It’s in our cars, our microwaves, our refrigerators, our computers, our phones, everything.

Jason Hill and daughters Alexis and Sophia

Everything is tech. Even our utilities are controlled by technology. Technology is taking over our vehicles. Pretty soon, the cars will drive themselves and the danger of that is we may forget how to drive. Try planting a garden instead of go to Jewel-Osco to get your groceries. I don’t think a good majority of young adults sustain a lifestyle without technology. I’d be a hypocrite to say that I’m as self-supportive or sufficient as my grandfather and grandmother were. As a nation-we’ve lost that. I mean we are so utterly dependent on technology and our government for food, water, clothes, et cetera, et cetera. I really see it with our youth, but I also see it in my own generation. I’m 40 years old, and I couldn’t get by day to day in business without my Samsung phone, or my laptop, or my Chevy Tahoe. I really think that the most life altering change for everyone has been the huge advancement in technology in such a short period of time. People lived in very similar ways for hundreds and hundreds of years and that has all changed. There have always been technological breakthroughs that changed things and times, but nothing as dramatic as it has in the last hundred years.”

Younger people are especially dependent on technology because they never experienced life without it, “I have a Rand McNally road atlas in the back pocket of the seat of my truck. My 15-year-old daughter pulled it out one day and goes, ‘What’s this?’ I said, ‘It’s a Rand McNally road atlas. Open it up.’ And she opens it up, and she is like, ‘Oh, its maps.’ I’m like, ‘You don’t get it honey. Before GPS, and phones, and iPads, this is how we got around, how we navigated.’ And she could hardly fathom that. She was like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding. That sounds like a total pain in the butt.’ Modern day conveniences are making us lazy.”

The luxuries of yesterday have become the necessities of today. When there was only one way to do something, people just accepted it and did it. You didn’t think about how hard it was because it was the only way it could be done. But now, when you have all these other easier ways of doing it, it seems way harder to do it the old-fashioned way because we’re used to the easier way. Hill agrees. “A week ago, we were making some banana bread and I pulled the Betty Crocker cookbook off the shelf. I got schooled by my 15-year-old. ‘Why would you do that? Just Google it. Here’s the recipe.” And she whips out her phone, says, “Google, the best banana nut bread recipe.” It came up with 50 of them.”

It’s not just accessing the knowledge; it’s also making the choices. Google ranks those results on some sort of basis. Most people just look at the first four or five. What if number 42 is the really the good one? And how is the order determined? “I think where this nation is failing the most is with our educational system,” Hill continued. “I truly believe that education from adolescence to adulthood it is not what it once was. The school curriculum is not what it once was. We’ve lowered the standards of testing percentage that we expect from our children. We have the, ‘No Children Left Behind Act’ but it has turned into pushing kids through school that don’t deserve to be moved on. I think that the problems of the nation are compacted and inflicted by greed, both personal and corporate greed. That is the downfall of mankind. We always want more and we don’t think about the long-term consequences of that.”

Jason Hill is a man who looks beyond his personal benefits and considers others and the world at large. That’s one of the reasons he is a man of value.