You probably won’t find the secret sauce of T and Sons Property Management LLC in a Harvard Business School textbook. 

But maybe it should be. 

The cornerstone of this small business in Mechanicville, New York, is kindness.

About five years ago, young Thor Hendrickson Jr. started helping out a neighbor, whom he spotted raking her yard with a cast on her arm. He volunteered to help. That single act turned into cutting the lawn, moving furniture, and shoveling snow for her. No charge. 

Lending a hand to other neighbors soon led to paid landscaping and snow removal jobs for Thor. “I’m not a sit inside kind of person. I like to go out and help people with their yards and stuff,” the 16-year-old told WRGB-TV in Albany. “And if they don’t want to pay me, it’s OK.”

In the past year, Thor persuaded his dad to buy a snow plow for his pickup truck, so they could help more people, together. Word spread. Their new father-and-son snow removal and landscaping business keeps growing.

“I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing with my son if it wasn’t for his inspiration,” Thor Hendrickson Sr. told Fox News. Growing up, his son was labeled as having a learning disability, Mr. Hendrickson told “Morning in America,” but that never stopped him.

It sure looks like the son is teaching the father how the currency of kindness can fuel success.