The True American Way Part One

A long time saying is"to pull yourself up by your bootstraps". This is usually said about individuals that starts with nothing yet manages to make something out of themselves thru their own superhuman effort. This can also be said about small business. This is and will be a continued series since it will be too long for one article.

There was a time forty years ago when a couple of guys with young families were both working for the same national corporation. Both had expected to work there until retirement and enjoy the easy life thereafter. One of these guys was a chemical major that ran the R and D efforts for that company and the other was a plant manager that had pulled himself up by his "bootstraps" to achieve a higher level of success.One had been with the company for twenty five years and the other for fifteen years.

A corporate decision was made to sell this particular division of the company. A group of four men joined together, formed a corporation to buy the plant at which they worked.The deal fell thru mainly because the chemistry was bad between some of the four participants.

The R&D manager and the plant manager was not retained by the buying group. This is where the true American way gets started.The R& D manager had offers in other locations many miles away. The plant manager had offers in others locations many miles away. Neither wanted to move their families from where they were. The two of them had a lifetime dream of wanting more control over their respective lives. One of these guys could be called a "yankee" since he was originally from north of the Mason Dixon line. The other from so deep in the south that he could be called a true "Redneck". Each had their respective strengths. The "yankee" had majored in chemistry with a minor in accounting. Any business needs to be solid with it's accounting and it really did help that this business would have a dire need for the chemistry.The "Redneck" had his own strengths. Mainly he knew and loved people. He also was a skilled craftsman in several different crafts.In that day he was also called an "idea" man. These were the strengths of these two men.

They spent three months thinking, traveling, talking , and exploring various ways to get this business started. They found the necessary equipment, scattered throughout the country, formulated a business plan and started calling on all of the available banks for financing. They found that the banks weren't nearly as enthused with their plan as they were. Both of these men did have a deep Christian faith. They decided to liquidate everything that each had but keep the homes in which they lived. They used this as capital to start getting the equipment together that would be needed by the business. They managed to rent space in a defunct WWII building that no one else wanted..the deal for the building was that there would be no rent due until the plant started production.

More to come...

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