Meet Paul Lake | Man on a mission

We had the good fortune of connecting with Paul Lake and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paul, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I grew up with an older brother who went into law enforcement, so I developed an early love for all things related to the first responder world. However, I was blessed with art and design skills, so I chose the design world as my career path. However, I always held on to the love for emergency services. At age 21 I became a reserve deputy in my hometown, then became and EMT and began working in those fields as a volunteer to scratch that first responder itch. Later I became interested in Search and Rescue (SAR) and when I moved to Dallas in 1980, I began looking for a SAR team to join. Unsuccessful in finding a team I began to explore the possibility of starting one from scratch. I built a business plan and presented it to several of the major law enforcement agencies in the DFW area and asked…”if I build it will you use it” and they all said yes. I filed for the 501 c(3) nonprofit status, then handpicked six other men who I knew and trusted. We all went through a year of initial training and in 1983 Search One Rescue Team was established.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In my professional career I started right out of highschool working for an architectural / engineering firm developing my design skills. From there I started my own design business for a while and later took a Design Director’s position for a large firm in another state. That job eventually led to me being hired by a firm here in Dallas which put me in position to start Search One Rescue Team and that has since been my passion. In the early 90’s I decided to become a reserve police officer here in the area as a way to help with some of the risks we encountered on the search team. That led to me leaving corporate america in the mid 90’s to become a full time police officer and served four years as a K-9 officer before returning to the corporate world.

Within the SAR arena, I determined early on that our team would not be managed like most volunteer organizations but would have a strict screening policy, high performance standards and be run by a business management hierarchy. To this day (39 years later) that principle has proven the be the key to our success. Our screening policy is one of the toughest and our training standards are some of the highest in the nation… all for a job that not only does not pay but cost you to perform. Ironically the harder we have made it to get on to our team the higher the caliber of recruit we see. Consequently, we can boast that we are not only one of the busiest teams in the nation but have some of the best qualified members doing the job.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I were entertaining a friend from out of the area, I would lean toward the Ft. Worth side of the metroplex and spend a fair amount of time in and around the stockyards. A good meal at the Lonesome Dove and a stroll through the historic sections of that part of town is always a memorable experience. To balance the scales on the urban side I would at least do a drive through downtown Dallas and possibly visit the top of Reunion Tower… just so they could be overwhelmed with the vast expanse of this tremendous city. From there it would be off to the gun range to do a little target practice… because any friend of mine will certainly be into that as entertainment.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My older brother, Don Lake, is the main reason for my love of the world I chose as my passion. He left high school and started work with the FBI in the mid 60’s as the start to a 37-year law enforcement career. He later returned to work for our state police and then rounded out his career with the sheriff’s department. As his younger brother by eight years, I was always in awe of what he did and the stories he had to tell. That love and admiration for his chosen path left a mark that has run deep in my life and always will.

Website: www.searchone.org