Success comes, though not as planned
By Clint Talbott
John Wyatt was not a party animal or a slacker. He went to class, studied into the night, worked hard, did his best. Like many smart students, however, his path through college did not follow a straight line.
That didn’t thwart his eventual success.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says now. He found his calling anyway.
Wyatt, a Boulder native, graduated from Fairview High School with the aim of going into business. He applied to only one institution, the University of Colorado, which admitted him. He took business classes and decided that a business degree was not, after all, the best fit.
So Wyatt enrolled in the College of Music. For many years, he notes, “I wanted to be a rock star.” He’d played piano since the third grade. At 13, he earned enough money working in the family business to buy his first guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Custom.
In college, Wyatt avidly pursued this passion, writing dozens of songs and recording them in his dormitory room. During recording sessions, he stacked mattresses in the room to muffle outside noise. He sent dozens of demo tapes to record labels. Many were returned unopened, and he still has packages marked “return to sender.”
Wyatt muses about the shape of his life if music had panned out: “I would have been called the king of sappy love songs.”
But Wyatt became convinced that other music students had more virtuosic talent. He decided to leave the Music College.
Wyatt landed in sociology partly for a pragmatic reason: He wanted to graduate within four years, and most of his credits would apply toward a degree in sociology, which he earned in 1987.
“I had no intention of coming out and becoming a sociologist,” he recalls. “I thought I might go into marketing.”
With degree in hand, Wyatt spent a few months looking for a marketing job in Boulder, his hometown. At the time, however, marketing jobs here were scarce.
Wyatt had worked during summers as a laborer in the family business, Wyatt Construction, and his father offered a helpful suggestion during his son’s job search: “While you’re looking, why don’t you come work for me?”
Twenty-two years later, “I’m still looking, apparently,” he says.
What he doesn’t say is that he helps lead one of the region’s leading construction companies. It has erected multi-family developments, light-industrial buildings, and familiar landmarks such as One Boulder Plaza, the Boulder Marriott, the Boulder Valley Humane Society, the Tebo Family Medical Pavilion, both additions to the Hotel Boulderado and the YMCA building in Lafayette.
Wyatt appears to be at the top of his game. And he has no regrets. “I enjoy what I do. I enjoy where I live, the people I work with” and the community service he performs. That service has been extensive. For instance, Wyatt served for six and a half years on the board of directors of the Colorado Chautauqua Association.
And for the last five years, Wyatt has served and led the organizing committee for the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, an organized bicycle ride of varying lengths that raises scholarship funds for good students who need the assistance. The event raised its millionth dollar for scholarships last year.
Wyatt is quick to credit his wife, Kelly, as his motivation. “Being involved in the community wasn’t my idea,” he notes. “I married a woman who was very involved in her community (in Texas). She said if we’re going to live in Boulder, we’re going to be involved.”
And they have been. Wyatt takes CU architecture students on tours of building sites. He explains the building process, helping them see architecture more concretely. And for more real-world understanding, he urges them to get jobs in construction.
But it is with the Buffalo Bicycle Classic that Wyatt seems especially pleased. “I’ve been very fortunate in my life, and to be able to help these students go to school and not work as hard is a great thing.”
Successful businessman. Active citizen. Philanthropic neighbor. Not a bad resumé for a guy who didn’t know what he wanted to do.
Kelly and John Wyatt enjoy some quality time with CU's mascot
John Wyatt was not a party animal or a slacker. He went to class, studied into the night, worked hard, did his best. Like many smart students, however, his path through college did not follow a straight line.
That didn’t thwart his eventual success.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says now. He found his calling anyway.
Wyatt, a Boulder native, graduated from Fairview High School with the aim of going into business. He applied to only one institution, the University of Colorado, which admitted him. He took business classes and decided that a business degree was not, after all, the best fit.
So Wyatt enrolled in the College of Music. For many years, he notes, “I wanted to be a rock star.” He’d played piano since the third grade. At 13, he earned enough money working in the family business to buy his first guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Custom.
In college, Wyatt avidly pursued this passion, writing dozens of songs and recording them in his dormitory room. During recording sessions, he stacked mattresses in the room to muffle outside noise. He sent dozens of demo tapes to record labels. Many were returned unopened, and he still has packages marked “return to sender.”
Wyatt muses about the shape of his life if music had panned out: “I would have been called the king of sappy love songs.”
But Wyatt became convinced that other music students had more virtuosic talent. He decided to leave the Music College.
Wyatt landed in sociology partly for a pragmatic reason: He wanted to graduate within four years, and most of his credits would apply toward a degree in sociology, which he earned in 1987.
“I had no intention of coming out and becoming a sociologist,” he recalls. “I thought I might go into marketing.”
With degree in hand, Wyatt spent a few months looking for a marketing job in Boulder, his hometown. At the time, however, marketing jobs here were scarce.
Wyatt had worked during summers as a laborer in the family business, Wyatt Construction, and his father offered a helpful suggestion during his son’s job search: “While you’re looking, why don’t you come work for me?”
Twenty-two years later, “I’m still looking, apparently,” he says.
What he doesn’t say is that he helps lead one of the region’s leading construction companies. It has erected multi-family developments, light-industrial buildings, and familiar landmarks such as One Boulder Plaza, the Boulder Marriott, the Boulder Valley Humane Society, the Tebo Family Medical Pavilion, both additions to the Hotel Boulderado and the YMCA building in Lafayette.
Wyatt appears to be at the top of his game. And he has no regrets. “I enjoy what I do. I enjoy where I live, the people I work with” and the community service he performs. That service has been extensive. For instance, Wyatt served for six and a half years on the board of directors of the Colorado Chautauqua Association.
And for the last five years, Wyatt has served and led the organizing committee for the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, an organized bicycle ride of varying lengths that raises scholarship funds for good students who need the assistance. The event raised its millionth dollar for scholarships last year.
Wyatt is quick to credit his wife, Kelly, as his motivation. “Being involved in the community wasn’t my idea,” he notes. “I married a woman who was very involved in her community (in Texas). She said if we’re going to live in Boulder, we’re going to be involved.”
And they have been. Wyatt takes CU architecture students on tours of building sites. He explains the building process, helping them see architecture more concretely. And for more real-world understanding, he urges them to get jobs in construction.
But it is with the Buffalo Bicycle Classic that Wyatt seems especially pleased. “I’ve been very fortunate in my life, and to be able to help these students go to school and not work as hard is a great thing.”
Successful businessman. Active citizen. Philanthropic neighbor. Not a bad resumé for a guy who didn’t know what he wanted to do.