MY father inspired me. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, for some years in the 1950s, then drove a truck before being drafted into the Army. His military experience motivated him to go back and finish college and become a doctor.

As a child, I was close to my maternal grandparents, who lived about two and a half hours away. I’d stay with them occasionally in the summers. Spending time with them, and growing up in a family involved in health care, spurred my interest in seniors.

While attending the University of California, Los Angeles, I waited tables at the Chart House in Westwood. Working didn’t get any better than that. There was sunshine during the day, night life and girls. I met my future wife, Tina, there. She was a cocktail waitress when I was still a lowly broiler assistant who scrubbed the rib oven at night.

I graduated in 1982 with a degree in psychobiology, which combines psychology and biology. I wanted to work in health care management, so I took a job as a manager at a residential care facility for seniors in Los Angeles. I found my calling — I loved it. The residents had reached a point in life where they said exactly what was on their minds, and had amazing life stories. It was fun. I still get a kick out of visiting residents.

In 1989, I convinced my wife that we should sell our house and that she should cash in her teacher’s pension so we could acquire a lease on a senior residential community in the San Francisco area. It was a risky proposition, for us and for the landlord. We had 12 months to turn around the operation and make a profit or we’d be broke. We succeeded, licensed the facility for assisted living and expanded to 14 communities.

In 1998, we sold the company to Summerville Senior Living of Alexandria, Va. I ran the California operations for it as vice president, while it focused on the East Coast. By 2000, the industry had become overbuilt. The capacity wasn’t needed then, and assisted-living communities were struggling.

A private equity firm, Apollo Real Estate Advisors (now AREA Property Partners), took over and asked me to become president and C.E.O. of Summerville in 2000. We worked through the tough period, and by 2003 were absorbing the excess capacity and growing again. In 2007, we merged with Emeritus Senior Living.

I became president and was co-C.E.O. with Dan Baty, one of the founders of Emeritus, for four years. In 2011, he relinquished his co-C.E.O. title. He’s still chairman, and I’m president and C.E.O. In the last two years, we’ve added 180 communities. Emeritus still operates the first facility that Tina and I took over in 1989. I like to say I’ve been with the same company, under different company names, for 23 years.

The average age of our residents is 85, and many of them are frail. There’s always the risk of an occasional tragic outcome, and we try to be open and realistic about the risks. For example, if a resident is a little unsteady but we have provided a walker for support and a staff person for assistance whenever possible, she could still get out of bed by herself and fall. The alternative is to restrain her, but we refuse to restrain residents, physically or chemically, and we find that physicians and family members agree with our philosophy. Quality of life outweighs the risk of falling.

I often hold meetings with line staff. I’ve received several requests, like ones for different uniforms, an extra sick day and a new bus for residents. One caregiver, who had been with us for 10 years, said it would be great if I could put the changes into effect, but that no matter what, she’d never leave. We were her family. That’s the kind of employee you want to attract in this industry.