What's Your Word Worth?

Everything.

At O’Shea, our word -- or our promise - is how we measure our work and ourselves. It’s a value that originated with Bud O’Shea’s grandfather and O’Shea founder, John Timothy O’Shea, more than 100 years ago. He started the business in 1900 when he listed himself in the Springfield City Directory as a “contractor.”

To honor John and others who built the company, we just published a book about O’Shea’s 119-year history. Titled “Born to Build,” the book describes the work ethic and values John passed on.

“Many decisions I have made in my life are a direct result of the example and guidance of my Grandpa and Dad (Harold O’Shea),” Bud says in the book. “Grandpa passed down his work ethics: quality, integrity, and honesty. These remain with us and the company today.” 

Bud and his brothers had a firsthand look at John’s honesty in the 1940s. John was a landlord with several small homes on the east side of Springfield. “My brothers and I rode in the cab of his truck with him on Saturday mornings to collect rent. It was a big thrill,” Bud recalls, smiling. One of John’s renters was a blind man, so he gave John his billfold to take his rent money out of. “Grandpa always took a little less than the man owed,” says Jim O’Shea, Bud’s brother.  

“We’ve done well because the people who came before us in this company honored their word,” says Mike O’Shea. “I heard my dad say, ‘Your word is your bond,’ every single day. If there’s one piece of advice I could give a young person in any business, it is: if your word is, in fact, your bond and you are willing to work hard, the sky’s the limit.”

“’My word is my bond,’ I’ve been hearing that since I was about one,” says Matt O’Shea, Mike’s son and Bud’s grandson. “My dad says it all the time, too. Anybody I talk to that knows my Grandpa says that’s why he got work and that’s why we stayed in business, because Grandpa’s word was so good. If he said he was going to do it, he was going to do it. No matter what.”