- I enjoy working with other people in this industry and through my work with the American Society of Concrete Contractors I have developed friendships all over the United States. Those relationships are very important to me. I know I can pick up the phone and call any one of them if I need advice.
- I also enjoy sharing my knowledge with other contractors. This is where the World of Concrete seminars I teach come in. I enjoy teaching the young guys coming into the industry things that I learned the hard way and that have cost me a lot of money. When I talk to one of these contractors a year or two later and he tells me he used something I taught him and that it really helped, that makes me feel like a million bucks.
- I don't worry about whether I'm helping my competition. This business is so tough that you could give a lot of people a blueprint of how to do it, and they still wouldn't get it right. If I help my competitor and he becomes a better competitor, then it raises the bar for everyone.
- My dad started the company in 1959. After I got out of the Marine Corps in 1973, I started working for the business. But basically my dad's business was the same in 1973 as it was in 1959. Once he got things set, he just kept it that way. He only had two or three guys working for him, and in November he would just shut down and everyone would go on unemployment. Because one was a fireman and one was a policeman, they just did concrete work part time. My dad would go ice fishing all winter—basically take a 3-month vacation. Sometimes I think about that and wonder why I work so hard all the time.
- We do a lot of industrial work. It's a niche for us— machine pits, machine bases, docks, and slabs. The jobs we do are small but very complex. They require a lot of the same skill sets as someone who is doing a $10 million job.
- Just because our revenue hasn't grown doesn't mean we haven't grown as a company. Others in my MIX group look at my operation and say we've got the systems for a $50 million company although our revenue is only about $2.5 million. Our degree of sophistication is higher than that of much bigger companies.
- Back in 1978 I lost a lot of money. It took me 7 years to get out of debt, but I refused to file for bankruptcy. After that, I told myself that this wasn't going to happen again, that I would have my finger on the pulse of the company and have the tools in place so that I would really know what's going on—in financial terms, in managing assets and customer relations—and we've just continued to get better and better. Now we've got things in place so well that we are ready to grow our revenue. And we plan to do that over the next few years.
- It used to be that I was very patient with the marginal guys. The first 19 times they screwed something up I would try to be nice. Then the 20th time they did the same ignorant thing, I would blow up and fire them. They didn't remember the 19 times I was nice, they remembered the time I blew up and thought I was a hot head. But now, I encourage a guy for the first two or three times there's a problem, but if it happens again, I shake his hand and smile and say, “I'm sorry it's not working out. I wish you the best of luck.” The other guys know I'm serious about quality work and they don't see this hot head anymore. Bad workers drag everyone else down. I don't like to give up on people, but sometimes you have to, and it's better to do it in a calm way and not let it hurt your business.
- This industry is more educated today. The whole business is becoming more structured, more professional. We are starting to work together to make ourselves better. We're getting better about sharing information, about sitting down and talking about our problems and trying to find mutual solutions. We want to be more professional, and we don't mind doing what it takes to make that happen.
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