Six years after he resigned his commission, a Western Union mailgram told Michael Waldrop to report for Afghanistan in 30 days. He was wounded three weeks in, talked his way back onto a helicopter, and finished the tour. Today, he builds facilities that serve the veteran community he came from.

Chris Coghlan sits down with Michael Waldrop, founder and chairman of Blue Cord Design & Construction, to discuss leading men in combat, coming home, and building a construction company around the people he served with. From receiving a property-tax bill while deployed in Afghanistan — and turning that frustration into a Florida constitutional amendment — to convincing two men to take a million-dollar chance on his vision, Michael lays out the unlikely path that led to Blue Cord Design & Construction.