At the age of 13, Prasad Reddy’s father passed away. Latcha Reddy worked as an engineer for the Indian government, and his death hit particularly hard as his steady hand guided his large family. As the eldest of three brothers, Prasad knew it would be his responsibility to fill his father’s shoes. Although it might have been scary for most teenagers, he had already enrolled in college at the age of 13 and was leaning towards making the most of gifts. In 1970, when he was 24, Reddy packed up his wife and newborn and left his engineering job in India to pursue higher education in America.

He landed at Ohio University and earned his master’s degree in just one year, including writing the first five chapters of a professor’s book on statistical probability and quality control and working part-time to make ends meet for his family. Eventually, Reddy entered the footwear industry, working with boot company Wolverine, followed by a decade-long stint with K-Swiss. In 2009, he moved to Texas from Michigan after 30 years and purchased Twisted X Global Brands, a Decatur-based lifestyle, western, work and outdoor footwear company.

Here, the president and CEO shares how his father’s life lessons and early adulthood in India shaped how he runs his company today.

“My father was a very kind person,” says Reddy. “At that time there was a caste system in India, and the treatment of different types of people varied. But he treated everyone equally. He said we were all equal, so there is no class difference just because we are born in certain households or places. He taught us that we must all be kind to all. At Twisted X, we want to be a team. I may be the CEO, and we all have responsibilities and roles, but we are all equal. We are all trying to make the company one of the best to be with. One team, one family, all equal. Treat everyone with respect and have fun. We always say, ‘Let’s have fun.’ In India we did not have many industries; I had no opportunity to do anything differently. It was very structured and regimented in business, so we had no flexibility or opportunity for growth.

“I was born into an upper-middle-class family. We were always a big family; my brothers, my father and my father’s brother lived together. It was a farming family, but my father was the first to quit farming and become a professional engineer — one of the few from the area we came from. So it was a bit of a different upbringing for me because I moved with the rest of my cousins ​​and followed my dad’s career wherever he went. So my schooling was done in different cities, and I took the same thing degree with two degrees, one in mathematics and another in engineering. But I wanted to pursue something more than what I had then. So that made me come to the US

“My wife was all for it. My mother was a bit hesitant. ‘Why do you want to do that? You have a nice life and your brothers need you,’ she said. They were still young, even though one of them was 19 at the time . So it took almost two years to convince her. My middle brother got excited and said, ‘Maybe you’re creating a way for us all to do the same thing.’ The younger one wasn’t so sure because he trusted me. He’d be happy one day, and the next day he’d say, ‘You’re leaving me.’ It wasn’t scary; it was more than I had expected. It was a bit of a thrill, but at the same time, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I felt I had to finish school as soon as possible responsible for my wife, children and mother.

“My experience was nice. I would come to a new country and go to the best country in the world and the most industrialized from a poor country. And I didn’t know how people treated each other. But from the first day everyone was so friendly. My wife always says that growing up in India you didn’t even say hi if you didn’t know anyone. She came up to me the first day and said how was she. They were so friendly, especially when we were from a foreign one country. It felt like home right away.

“There were a couple of times when I felt I should have gone home, not for professional reasons but for family reasons. ‘Do my brothers and mother need support?’ push?” A couple of times we talked about it, but my mom told me to do what I thought was right and not come back and take care of them.

“One event near and dear to my heart is in 1980, I became a full citizen in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I took the oath and came out of President Gerald Ford Memorial Hall. Two ladies from the VFW gave me a small American flag and a booklet with the Constitution, and they said, “Welcome to America.” It stuck with me because I was already in America, but this was another way to be welcomed as a citizen and a true American.”

Because of Reddy’s interaction over 40 years ago, Twisted X has been a corporate sponsor of the VFW since 2013. This past year, at the 25th Anniversary Convention, Reddy was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit by the VFW Commander in front of more than 10,000 veterans who received a standing ovation . “I didn’t deserve it; they deserve it, he said.