Karl D’Angelo is a licensed plumbing contractor and owner of Karl D’Angelo Plumbing, dba Avante’ Plumbing, based in Santa Rosa, California. He holds a C-36 plumbing license from the state of California, a Certified Green Plumber designation, and a CA Solar Initiative Thermal Contractor certification. In this Q&A, he talks about how he defines success, both on the job and off it.
You’ve been in the trades since 1996. Has your idea of success changed since then?
Yes, a lot. When I was younger, I thought success meant getting through the day, finishing the job, and getting paid. That was survival mode. Now I think about it differently. I want to feel good about the work itself, not just get it done. There’s a difference between finishing a job and doing it right. I didn’t always know that difference. I do now.
How do you measure success on a plumbing job specifically?
I have my own standard, and it’s usually higher than what the customer would ever notice. Most people can’t see behind a wall or under a slab. They don’t know if a joint was done right or just done fast. But I know. So for me, success on a job means I could walk back into that house in ten years and still feel fine about what I did. That matters more to me than whether anyone compliments the work.
You mentioned earlier in your career you crossed a line with the law. How did that experience change what success means to you?
That was the lowest point, honestly. But it’s also where the real shift happened. Before that, I measured success by getting by, staying afloat, not dealing with things. After that, I had to rebuild from a different place. I had to be honest with myself in a way I never had been. Success stopped being about appearances and started being about whether I could look at my own life and not flinch. That’s a harder standard, but it’s a truer one.
Does sobriety factor into how you think about success now?
It’s the foundation of it. I’ve been in twelve step recovery for the last five years, and I go to meetings almost every day. Before that, nothing else could really work, not the business, not relationships, nothing. Success now starts with staying sober one day at a time. Everything else, the business, the customers, the goals, sits on top of that. If that foundation isn’t solid, none of the rest matters much.
You’ve talked about wanting to get back into things you loved as a kid, like ice hockey. Does that fit into your definition of success?
I think it does, actually. I played ice hockey for ten years when I was young, and I haven’t played in about 35 years. Wanting to get back on the ice is part of a bigger thing for me, which is allowing myself to enjoy life again, not just survive it. For a long time I didn’t think I deserved that. Success now includes room for things that don’t produce anything, they just make me feel like myself.
What about the business side? What does success look like for Avante’ Plumbing?
I’m still rebuilding it, and I try to take that seriously instead of just letting it run on autopilot. Success there looks like a company that reflects the same standard I hold for myself on a job site. I’m not chasing size for its own sake. I want a business I don’t have to make excuses for.
Is there a moment that best captures your current definition of success?
It’s less of a single moment and more of a daily pattern. I try to notice small wins instead of dismissing them, which is something I used to do without even realizing it. A clean job. A meeting I showed up to. A conversation I didn’t run from. None of that makes headlines. But stacked up over months and years, that’s what I’d call a successful life right now.
If you had to sum up success in one sentence, what would you say?
Success is doing the next right thing, at work and off it, and being able to live with how you did it.