Craig Shults on Why Collaboration Beats Having Answers

Craig Shults moved from insurance sales to home improvement retail to the CFO seat at a construction company in the Mohawk Valley. His story is one of continual rebuilding, anchored by degrees he kept adding along the way and a difficult chapter that taught him persistence can pull a person through nearly anything.

Craig Shults is Controller and CFO at JSL Construction in Upstate New York. He came to finance from insurance and home improvement sales, and along the way he collected degrees in general business, sociology, American studies, and social and behavioral sciences, plus a paralegal certificate completed with high honors. What drives him now is the challenge of solving problems that make a difference for the people around him, and the belief that adaptability matters more than any single plan.

How did you get from insurance sales to the CFO seat at a construction company?

I started in insurance in the early nineties, first at Combined Life Insurance of New York and then at Metropolitan Life. That work taught me how to read people and understand what they actually needed, which turned out to be more valuable than I realized at the time. From there I moved into home improvement sales with Tristate Windows, where I got sharper at financial planning, customer service, and solving problems under pressure. Those skills carried over directly to what I do now at JSL Construction, where I oversee financial operations, manage cash flow, and help shape the company’s broader business strategy. It was not a straight line, but every role built on the one before it.

You earned multiple degrees over the years, in different fields. What were you building toward?

I earned an Associate of Arts in General Business from Taft College in 2016. By 2023, I had finished degrees at Coastline College in sociology, American studies, and social and behavioral sciences, and I added a paralegal certificate from Blackstone Career Institute. For me, education is less about the credential and more about building a foundation no one can take from you once it is there. I keep looking for courses, workshops, and self-study opportunities because standing still is its own kind of risk. I treat most days as a chance to pick up something I did not already know.

Life does not hand anyone a script. The ability to rewrite your plan when circumstances change is what separates progress from standing still.

What do people consistently get wrong about your work?

They assume it is all about the numbers. It is not. The numbers are a tool, but what matters is what solving them makes possible: a tough financial problem worked out, a strategy that helps the team and the company grow. People see a CFO and think spreadsheets, but the real work is about making a difference for the people around you. The challenge itself is part of the appeal, but more than the problems, it is the people and the chance to help them that keeps me engaged day to day.

You have said adaptability is the single trait that mattered most to your success. How has that played out in practice?

Life does not hand anyone a script. Plans are useful, but the ability to rewrite them when circumstances change is what separates progress from standing still. I try to stay open to solutions I had not considered while keeping sight of the larger goal. That habit has served me across insurance, home improvement, and now construction finance. There was a stretch when I had to rebuild almost from the ground up, a difficult chapter in my life that left me needing to redefine who I was and where I intended to go next. I began with self-reflection, built a plan, and held to it one step at a time. Meditation and regular time at the gym kept me steady. That experience is proof that persistence, paired with a basic faith in your own capacity, can pull you through nearly anything.

What did you believe early in your career that you no longer believe now?

I used to think success meant having the answers. I have come to believe the opposite. The strongest outcomes tend to come from collaboration, and from a willingness to set ego aside long enough to actually hear what a coworker, a client, or even a critic has to say. That same discipline shapes how I handle negative feedback today. Rather than reacting to it emotionally, I try to strip out the sting and weigh the substance of it. I keep what is useful, file away what is not, and refuse to let either response knock me off course.

I used to think success meant having the answers. The strongest outcomes tend to come from collaboration, and from a willingness to set ego aside.

How do you actually strip the sting out of negative feedback when it lands?

I pause before I respond. That gives me time to separate the emotional reaction from the substance of what was said. I ask myself whether there is something useful in the criticism, even if it was delivered poorly. If there is, I keep it. If there is not, I file it away and move on. The key is refusing to let the feedback knock me off course, whether it is valid or not. That discipline came from having to rebuild once before. When you have done that, you learn pretty quickly what deserves your energy and what does not.

What motivates you to show up and do this work every day?

It is less about the numbers themselves and more about what solving them makes possible. I like that no two days look alike, that there is always something new to work out. The challenge itself is part of the appeal. But more than the problems, it is the people around me and the chance to make a difference for them that keeps me engaged. At JSL Construction, I try to build a genuinely supportive environment for the people on my team. That produces stronger outcomes for everyone, not just better numbers on a spreadsheet.

How do you define success in your own work?

Success is not primarily a matter of titles or material wealth. It is measured in whether I have made a difference in someone else’s life. I tend to frame that plainly: success means helping the people around me win. That measure applies as much to my professional work as to the causes I support, like the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I see both as chances to build toward a legacy defined by kindness as much as by achievement. That matters more to me than any single title on a business card.

Success means helping the people around me win. That applies as much to my professional work as to the causes I support.

What keeps you grounded outside the office?

Cooking, which I find close to therapeutic. It is a way of building something from scratch that I compare to a kind of meditation. I also spend time at the gym, which clears my head and keeps my energy up, and I travel whenever I can, seeking out new places and unfamiliar cuisines in equal measure. The values I return to most often are honesty, integrity, discipline, and resolve. Those are the same ones I lean on whether I am closing out the company’s books or cooking a meal for the people I love.

You grew up in the Mohawk Valley. What did that teach you about work?

I was born on August 30, 1970, and grew up in a small town in the Mohawk Valley of Upstate New York. My family taught me early the value of hard work and the importance of learning. Those lessons carried through both my career and the rebuilding I later had to do. Even as a boy, I looked for opportunities to expand what I knew. That habit defined the decades that followed. It is not the kind of thing that shows up on a resume, but it shaped the one I have built since.

What advice would you give someone starting out in finance today?

Stay curious and remain willing to take the next opportunity as it comes. Do not assume one degree or one job is the finish. Education is a foundation you build up over years, and no one can take it from you once it is there. Be willing to rewrite your plan when circumstances change, and do not be afraid to rebuild if you have to. Determination paired with a clear sense of direction can make almost anything possible, and every step forward is simply another chance to build something better than what came before.

What do you think will still be true about finance work in ten years?

The tools will change, but the fundamentals will not. You will still need to understand cash flow, manage risk, and help your company make better decisions. What will matter more than ever is adaptability. The people who succeed will be the ones who can learn new systems quickly, stay open to solutions they had not considered, and keep sight of the larger goal even when the landscape shifts. The technical skills are table stakes. What sets people apart is whether they can collaborate, listen, and adjust when the plan does not hold.

How do you see your own story unfolding from here?

I describe my story as still unfolding. The next chapters are likely to hold more of the same: further learning, further giving back, further building on a foundation assembled over decades, one degree, one job, and one rebuilding effort at a time. The throughline running under all of it is less about arriving anywhere fixed than about staying curious and remaining willing to take the next opportunity as it comes. That has always mattered more to me than any single title on a business card.