It started with a handshake, a truck, and a work ethic.

About twelve years ago, Laie Wong was a personal trainer in Gonzales, coaching a client — German Suazo — who had come to America from South America with nothing. No money, no connections, just a work ethic you can't teach. Laie knew that road. He had walked it himself.

When German lost his job for trying to build a business on the side — the same risk Laie had taken in his own life — he didn't come asking for a handout. He came with a plan: "If I had a little funding and a truck, I could start."

Laie had watched the man show up and sweat in his gym, day after day. He believed in that work ethic the way you only believe in someone you've seen earn it. So he put up the funds and the truck — and Xtreme Performance Construction was born, a brother company to Laie's Xtreme Performance Nutrition.

Two men who came here with nothing, betting on work. The bet paid off. Laie sold his partnership a few years back and still stays involved in the business today — because this was never just a business deal. It's family.