Welcome to a journey of transformation and timeless wisdom with the remarkable Don Clark. Although he began his career with Ford Motor Company, Clarke spent most of his career as an executive in retail companies. By the mid-1980s he was serving as chairman of May Department Store's Venture operation. He was chairman and CEO of Caldor Corporation from 1986 to 1998, both before and after it split from May Department Stores in 1989. Clarke then returned to work for May as president of Lord & Taylor. As he narrates his rise from the humble beginnings of Rexburg, Idaho, to becoming a powerhouse at Ford Motor Company and later in the retail industry, you'll uncover the essence of reaching beyond the expected. This episode is a treasure chest of life lessons, where Don, alongside stories of friendship with titans like Sam Walton, lays out the five bedrock principles that can catapult you to success.
Settle in for a heartwarming exploration of how success in the boardroom intertwines with nurturing values at home. Through Don's anecdotal tapestry, spanning from his transformative voluntary work at Southern Virginia University to life lessons in Bolivia, we unravel the profound impact of a 'fixer' mindset. This chapter is not just about accolades and achievements; it's about the profound influence of honesty, feedback, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge in every facet of life.
This episode is a must-listen for everyone from budding entrepreneurs to seasoned veterans in the throes of their career journey. Don's insights, enriched by the experiences of his son Todd Clark, offer a guiding light through the often-tumultuous path of professional growth and personal fulfillment. Join us as we unpack these narratives and arm you with the wisdom to blaze your trail, uplift others, and sculpt a legacy of success and principled leadership.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're tuned in to the Grit and Grow podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Guys, welcome back to the Grit and Grow podcast, the
show where we get theopportunity to sit down with
amazing entrepreneurs who havegreat stories of the journey
from going from nothing tosomething, everything in between
, what inspires them, whatmotivates them and, ultimately,
what led their pursuit to turntheir ideas into reality.
Something, everything in between, what inspires them, what
motivates them and, ultimately,what led their pursuit to turn
their ideas into reality.
And we're doing something alittle different with this
(00:29):
episode.
You might recognize Todd Clarkacross the table.
We just actually shot anepisode with him, and in the
room was his dad, don Clark, who, as it turns out, is a highly
accomplished former executive,with presidential executive,
with a retail company, and hadsome amazing nuggets of wisdom
(00:50):
that he started to talk to usabout, and we said you know what
we need to interview, don,let's do it and get those
nuggets.
And so I'm going to give youthe floor, don, but I just want
to quickly say that he's goingto give us the five
characteristics that he believesmakes you successful.
So, don, take it away.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Sure.
So first of all, it's an honorto be here today.
I know my motto is younger nextyear, so you may think I'm
older than you.
I like it.
I probably get up earlier thanyou do still, so I'm honored to
be here today and to share.
I grew up in Rexburg, Idaho.
Population back then was 5,000people.
My dad was a bricklayer.
(01:30):
I was a hut carrier.
Now, you've probably never beena hut carrier.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
No.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
If you would have been a hut carrier, you would
have studied really hard.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So I found out.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
This is what not to do right.
I found out that diligence ismore important than intelligence
.
Right not to do right.
I found out that diligence ismore important than intelligence
, right and um.
So I think that if we decidewe're a diligent person, then we
have an opportunity to becomesomething that nobody ever
thought we could become.
So who would have ever guessed?
(02:01):
Yes, my wife and I have beenall over the world.
We she grew up in Twin Falls,idaho, and nobody would have
ever guessed.
If I'd have written my storyback then, what would have
happened to Don Clark when I wasin the first grade?
If I'd come to school late, I'dturn around and go home and
then I had a phenomenal thinghappen.
I was captain of the footballteam, baseball team and the
(02:24):
basketball team in high schooland when I was there, a
principal came to me one day andasked me to run for vice
president of the high school.
Never in a million years had Iever thought about running for
vice president of anything.
I ran and I won.
So now I'm in charge of theassemblies and to get up in
(02:45):
front of the whole student bodyand have Miss Idaho come, or
whoever else would be.
Our assemblies changed me, soI'm always thankful to my high
school principal, hal Barton,that he would have cared enough
about Don Clark.
That made a difference in mylife and I think we find as we
go through life that happens forall of us.
(03:06):
If we'll look for those peoplethat care and are willing to
invest, we can always findpeople that will make us better
along the way.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So that I could tell story after story, but anyway,
so Don, what was it really quick, though.
What was it that it said?
It changed you.
What was it that changed?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
you what changed me?
Because I was not on thebasketball court.
I was great at throwing passes,at football I was great.
I could turn a double, play asecond base.
But to get up in front ofpeople, that wasn't who I was
and so I had to overcome.
Listen, when people say I can'tdo that or I'm just not like
(03:46):
that, that doesn't work for anyof us.
The question is how do I wantto be?
And we all have potential.
I read recently that the humanbeing uses about 20% of their
potential.
And if you think about it,about what's happened just in my
lifetime because people decidedyou could do things differently
(04:06):
.
So I always say there's alwaysa better way to do things,
always a better way.
One time, general Motors sold50% of the cars in the world.
Today, they're not even thelargest car dealership in the
world.
What happened?
So you always have to keepdeciding that there's how am I
(04:27):
going to get better?
How am I going to do thisbetter than anybody else?
And there's lots of ways to dothat, but you have to decide
that yeah, they left a lot ofspace.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Sure yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And so that's what you've come you know so anyway.
So I started my career at FordMotor Company in finance.
I have my MBA, and Ford MotorCompany was probably the best
place to ever work for a financeguy, because the finance people
were important.
It was run by a guy by the nameof McNamara who was Secretary
of Treasury at one time, and atFord they taught you that you
(05:01):
could have influence in thebusiness.
So while I was there,eventually some people left the
automobile industry and went towork in a retail company.
In fact, jl Hudson was downtownDetroit and my friends went to
work there and they moved thatfrom a 1% profit store to a 10%
profit store, and so eventuallyI got recruited to go to work
(05:24):
for a make company in St Louis,missouri.
My first job was to save 10times my annual salary $35,000 I
was making a year, and in oneyear I'd saved a million dollars
.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Oh my gosh.
So you exceeded by three times.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So what happened?
So what happened?
They started giving me all thestuff that had problems, love
problems, love life.
If you can solve problems,everybody always needs you, and
if you can save money, justthink would they ever get rid of
my $35,000 salary?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
No way.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Not if I can produce a million dollars, nope, and the
list goes so.
Every year in our business wewould save $20 million a year.
And every year you know whatthey would say?
The guy oh, there's no moreways to save money, $20 million
more.
Now let me tell you one morestory.
And so I.
(06:26):
Eventually, after I had done mycareer, I went to work for a
small.
I volunteered at a smalluniversity out in virginia
southern virginia university.
When I got there, I did threethings I taught business classes
, I was assistant basketballcoach and I was on the
president's council.
Their expenses were a milliondollars higher than their
(06:48):
revenues.
You know what they told me?
There's no way to save moneyhere.
Oh gosh, I said give me your 10best business students.
I took the 10 best businessstudents.
We meet at seven o'clock in themorning and I'd assign them.
I said you go work in thelibrary, you go to the lunchroom
, you go here, you go here, yougo here.
Within nine months we'd saved amillion dollars, and because we
(07:12):
did that, they could becomeaccredited.
But when I got there, they werenot accredited.
But there's always a better wayto do things, always so what
are your top?
five.
So, I'm going to give you my topfive things that make a real
difference.
First of all, those that canget things done can be counted
on.
You say I'll do it, you book it.
(07:34):
If you have to walk throughwalls, you do it, you do it.
Okay, and there's nobody thatcomes back with excuses, because
the world, as I mentionedearlier, is full of excusers and
complainers, and if you don'tbelieve it, just do your own
little survey and you'll findout.
But it's very few that say, hey, I can solve that.
Second question is you havehigh expectations or high goals
(07:57):
and you deliver.
So that means when I say I'mgoing to do this, I'm going to
do it and I'm going to find away around it to make it work.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Do you shoot really, really high or do you try to be
intentional to set goals you canmeet, or somewhere in between
to try to retire?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
No, the question is it depends on who you are Okay.
So, people, this goal settingthing is really visionary Okay,
and you have to decide, listento set goals that are
unrealistic and then come inshort and then talk about how
good it was.
That's ridiculous.
You teach bad habits.
(08:36):
So what you have to do is teachthat, hey, this is what we can
become, and I've counseled withmy team and I believe this is
where we're at Now.
Sometimes things come in andyou have a lousy year.
We can become, and I'vecounseled with my team and I
believe this is where we're atNow.
Sometimes things come in andyou have a lousy year and so you
say, hey, I didn't do a goodjob this year, but most of the
time you can hit high, okay, andyou can achieve.
(08:57):
So I'm used to, you know.
I mean, how would you wantsomebody to start out and say,
hey, I think I'm a 70% guy allthe time?
Do you want them operating onyou?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Okay, no not me no.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So that's what you have to do and you have to have
the skills to do that.
I don't know if you've everheard of Khan Academy, but Khan
Academy is an educationalprocess.
Khan was at MIT.
I think he was valedictorian ofMIT and he eventually left and
started an education process.
But in Khan Academy I've beenon it and in math, you can't go
(09:35):
on to the next step until youget 10 in a row.
Right, but how many kids do wesend on to the next step in
school?
And the trouble with math is,if you don't understand this,
you never understand this.
So you go to a survey how manykids today don't know math?
Why?
Because nobody ever demandedthat they learn it.
(09:59):
So if you learn the skills thatit takes to make it work, then
you can achieve your objectives.
So that's the second.
You've got to have highexpectations and you've got to
get them done.
The third is you have to beable to influence people,
because if you have people thatare always worried, you don't
want people to get ahead bypushing other people down.
(10:21):
What do you want them to do?
You want them to know that ifthey elevate other people up
with them, they get credit.
Okay, and there is only onethat gets promoted, and I
understand that.
But if everybody's doing betterand the company's doing better,
then everybody can do better.
Everybody benefits.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Everybody benefits, and so what you want to do is
have them believe that their jobdoing better, then all
everybody can do better.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
everybody benefits everybody benefits, and so what
you want to do is have thembelieve that their job is to
make teams work better, make itwork function okay.
The fourth is you have to behungry to learn.
I just mentioned earlier that Iknew Sam Walton personally.
Sam Walton knew that everybodyknew something that he didn't
(11:09):
know, and so early in his careerhe was a pilot and he used to
fly around to his stores andbefore he'd go visit his store
he'd go visit the competitionand he'd go in and say to the
guy hey, this is what are youselling here.
This is a great looking store.
Probably wasn't.
And the guy would say, well,we're selling lots of these.
(11:31):
I mean, these are really,really hot.
So he'd write it down and he'ddo that all week long and then
every Saturday morning he wouldgather his buyers together, he'd
have his list of all the thingsthat everybody else was selling
and he'd talk to each buyer dowe have this?
No, how, I wanted in by Friday.
So all of a sudden they had 25new items.
(11:55):
Okay, that people wanted peoplewanted.
So what you want to do is youwant to see somebody.
If you see somebody doingsomething good, I mean that's
what you're trying to do here inthis podcast, hopefully seeing
some people doing things good.
And I'm glad and honored to behere with Todd today.
(12:15):
They asked me how I wanted tobe introduced.
I said call me Todd's dad, thatwould be good.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
He used to take me to do recon in stores.
By the way, that's a true story.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Oh cool, oh yeah, oh yeah, we spent all your time in
the stores.
You don't know what's going onin your office, I promise you
that.
But anyway.
So that's, you've got to behungry to learn, and that hunger
covers all parts of your life.
If you're a parent and you seesomebody with great kids, why
wouldn't you ask them what doyou do to have great kids?
Or if you see a great marriage,what wouldn't you ask?
(12:44):
Or if you see somebody that'sdoing things right, you say, hey
, how do I learn to add to?
And even at my age, I'm tryingto do different things all the
time.
They'll say, hey, I see thishappening.
And that goes on.
And then, last of all, you needto have the skills to analyze
(13:06):
and solve problems.
The world is full of problemsfull, and so you have to be a
great analyzer, figure out whatthe problem is, and then you
become the fixer.
When I'd meet with people, I'dpull up my wallet and say I made
a lot of money solving problems, a lot of money.
(13:28):
And so those were things thatmattered to us, and so we tried
to separate performance reviewsfrom attributes, because if you
have a bad year, it doesn't meanthat all your attributes are
bad.
You know, like in your real youmentioned, the real estate
business was lousy last yearbecause interest rates were out
(13:48):
of sight.
You know you didn't cause it.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
But, believe me, we've gone through that mental
exercise of what could we havedone differently.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Because when you ever say that I did everything I
could, that's false doctrine.
Nobody's ever done everythingthey can and all you have to do
is look at your if you ever wantto do a great evaluation.
Time is really money and wespend our time, lots of time, on
stuff that really doesn'tmatter.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
We were just talking about this yesterday.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Ironically, guaranteed.
So you have to decide.
Here's the fact that people laya list down of 10 things On the
thing is, lunch is the bottom10.
They'll always get lunch done.
Yes, oh yeah, they'll alwaysget lunch done, but they didn't
get the first thing that reallymattered most, yeah, and so you
have to decide that how willthis matter to our business?
(14:43):
Let me tell you a sweet story.
So after I finished my careerand then I spent time in South
America I was in Bolivia.
So we used to send young peopledown to help business in
Bolivia and we could tripletheir business in sometimes
three months, wow.
(15:03):
So how'd that happen?
Very easily, I told my people.
I said, when you go down there,don't have them do anything
that doesn't help them make moremoney.
And once they understood thatwe really cared about what?
Because people in Bolivia arepoor it's the poorest country in
all of Central and SouthAmerica.
They're poor.
It's the poorest country in allof Central and South America.
They're poor.
(15:23):
And so a little bit more money.
Then they would do what we askthem to do.
So one time we had this business, we went in and we're going to
help it, and the electric wiresare filed down here.
And so one guy comes oh, weneed to get all these wires
fixed.
I said how much more money arethey going to make if we fix the
wires?
He said, well, they could getelectrocuted.
(15:45):
I said have they beenelectrocuted yet?
So we didn't spend any time onthe wires, but we did spend time
on how to cut the cost ofproducing the product.
Three months tripled thebusiness, and so-.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Tripled the business, tripled the profit, tripled the
profit Tripled the business.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Tripled the business.
Tripled the profit.
Tripled the business, tripledthe business.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Without fixing the wires.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Without fixing the wires.
Now listen, the wires needed tobe fixed Eventually.
They didn't have any money tofix the wires okay, eventually.
Now the problem with helpingsmall businesses is they become
bigger.
Their problems become bigger.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yes, sir, okay, your son knows this well Guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And if you don't and that's why many entrepreneurs
you know most small businessesfail, and that's the facts of
life.
Yep, 90% plus.
And because they became a smallbusiness, because they had a
niche of something that was goodbut they let all the other
parts fail and they started tospend more money than you know,
(16:49):
I mean, and all those thingsthat happened.
So, anyway, it's been like Isay, nobody would ever imagine
that whatever's happened to mywife and our family would have
ever happened, and it's really.
Heaven blesses you okay, butthere's also heavenly principles
(17:09):
that if you apply they workokay.
It's not so different.
Family principles, businessprinciples good ones work in
families.
Family principles work inbusiness.
And if you're one person inbusiness and another person over
here, then people need to cometo know they can trust you and
(17:30):
to let people perform poorly.
One of the big problems inbusiness today is nobody ever
tells people how they'reperforming.
They're afraid to be honest.
So what they do is they waituntil there's a cutback and then
what do they do?
They lose their job.
If you're not honest withpeople, then you're doing a
great disservice.
I used to tell my people if Ireally love you, or if I care
(17:52):
about you, then I tell you whatI really think and I help you
improve.
And that's what thesecharacteristics were about is we
wanted them to do better.
I didn't want to lose anybodycharacteristics were about is we
wanted them to do better?
I didn't want to lose anybody,but their choice as to whether
they want to step up or not.
So, anyway, I appreciate theopportunity to expound and teach
(18:13):
a little bit of who knows.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Good nuggets of wisdom right there.
What role has your marriageplayed, and did it play, in all
of your success?
I didn't prep you for thatquestion.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Oh, this is right.
This is a great question.
One of the most importantthings that ever happened in the
life of Don Clark happened inJune 5th 1970, when Don Clark
married Mary Ann Jackson.
I'll tell you why.
I used to talk to a lot ofyoung people and I used to tell
(18:46):
them before you marry somebody,you'll take them to climb a
mountain If they complain on theway up drop them.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
That's amazing, that's fantastic, that's amazing
.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
It's purgatory to marry somebody who complains all
the time, never, ever, in fact.
I'll tell you a sweet story.
So when I was saving all thismoney at my first job this
million dollars I went to theguy at the head and I said we're
going to save $350,000 in badchecks.
Okay, so I took boxes of badchecks home.
(19:19):
This was before you had allthis digital stuff.
And Mary Ann that's my dearwife and I are sorting checks to
figure out what the rulesneeded to be of what we would
change.
Listen, we moved.
So we both grew up in Idaho.
There's a good question formarrying somebody how close do
(19:39):
you have to live to mother?
You have to be real carefulBecause never would it ever
happen if Mary Ann had to livenext door, live to mother.
You have to be real carefulBecause never would have ever
happened if Marianne had to livenext door to her mother.
We moved.
From there we went toWashington State.
From there we go to Michigan,detroit, michigan.
From there we go to Scotts Bluff, nebraska.
From there we go to St Louis,missouri.
(20:00):
From there we go to New Canaan,connecticut or Connecticut and
we had six children and I workeda lot.
But I also found time because Iwas the boss.
I could sneak away to thesoccer games in the afternoon or
the football games that wereheld.
So my kids knew that I lovedthem and we always Marianne's
(20:26):
thankful.
I didn't travel because I wasalways home in the evenings.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You'd still have to choose to do that, though as a
boss, it's easy to make thedecision to keep working, I know
, but they got more than theywere, I promise you my hourly
wage wasn't as good as it lookedlike, I promise you.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
My hourly wage wasn't as good as it looked like, I
promise you.
Okay.
So I was in early and you'veworked late, especially when
you're trying to fix a business,I mean, because every time you
turn around it's another problem, another problem.
So, anyway, I'm glad to be herewith Todd and we, like I said,
we have six children and our.
We've been blessed, they're allemployed, they're all doing
(21:11):
well.
But you know this you have todecide what you want your life
to be and this, like as Toddmentioned earlier in his podcast
, what really matters is youknow, I have five priorities in
my life.
So my life is really made up ofthis.
(21:33):
It's, first of all, myrelationship with heaven, second
is my family, third is my job,fourth is my and fifth is me,
and that doesn't have to be inthe right order.
But if those aspects of my lifework, then I'm a pretty happy
guy.
And if you don't have goodfriends, good friends make you
(21:56):
better, enemies make you worse,and too many people hang out
with people that don't make thembetter and that doesn't do
anybody any good.
And then you have to decidewhat you're going to do to
change In Todd's life.
He's decided he's going to loseweight.
I go to the gym every morning.
The other morning I was thefirst guy at the gym 6 o'clock
in the morning.
It doesn't open until 6.
I was there at 10-2.
(22:17):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Why?
Because?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I'm better the better if I do that, and so those are
the things that matter.
Listen, I appreciate whatyou're helping people do.
I think we just need to sharegood ideas, and some of the
things I talked about today mayapply.
Some of them may not.
That's fine.
Take the ones that are good anddo something with them, and the
(22:40):
ones that don't apply, I saythat's fine.
I mean, you have to find yourown.
There's a million differentways to do things.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Well, we're so appreciative that you were
willing to jump from off camerato be on camera.
It really is what we're tryingto.
We want to do with the show isgive people good information and
wisdom, and and yes, we weretrying to directly apply it to
being a business owner, being anentrepreneur but we think that
(23:09):
a lot of the principles that arecommunicated on our show
absolutely apply to to everybodyin their everyday lives and
their career pursuits, whetherthey're looking to build their
own business or not, and and soso I wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I don't know that I'd have been a great entrepreneur.
I'm not sure Now.
Within here, I was as creativeas anybody, and so I don't know
that I'm the risk taker to moveout here.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
But again, I think a lot of what you were saying to
us off camera I think it reallyapplies and there's a lot of
young people, youngprofessionals, that need to hear
what you had to say.
Absolutely so, don, again, wereally appreciate you just
sharing your insight with ustoday.
And, todd, thanks for sharingyour dad you got it Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
That's amazing.
Thanks, guys, you bet.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Thanks again.
Have a great week you.
You're tuned in to the Grit and Grow podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Guys, welcome back to the Grit and Grow podcast, the
show where we get theopportunity to sit down with
amazing entrepreneurs who havegreat stories of the journey
from going from nothing tosomething, everything in between
, what inspires them, whatmotivates them and, ultimately,
what led their pursuit to turntheir ideas into reality.
Something, everything in between, what inspires them, what
motivates them and, ultimately,what led their pursuit to turn
their ideas into reality.
And we're doing something alittle different with this
(00:29):
episode.
You might recognize Todd Clarkacross the table.
We just actually shot anepisode with him, and in the
room was his dad, don Clark, who, as it turns out, is a highly
accomplished former executive,with presidential executive,
with a retail company, and hadsome amazing nuggets of wisdom
(00:50):
that he started to talk to usabout, and we said you know what
we need to interview, don,let's do it and get those
nuggets.
And so I'm going to give youthe floor, don, but I just want
to quickly say that he's goingto give us the five
characteristics that he believesmakes you successful.
So, don, take it away.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Sure.
So first of all, it's an honorto be here today.
I know my motto is younger nextyear, so you may think I'm
older than you.
I like it.
I probably get up earlier thanyou do still, so I'm honored to
be here today and to share.
I grew up in Rexburg, Idaho.
Population back then was 5,000people.
My dad was a bricklayer.
(01:30):
I was a hut carrier.
Now, you've probably never beena hut carrier.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
No.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
If you would have been a hut carrier, you would
have studied really hard.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So I found out.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
This is what not to do right.
I found out that diligence ismore important than intelligence
.
Right not to do right.
I found out that diligence ismore important than intelligence
, right and um.
So I think that if we decidewe're a diligent person, then we
have an opportunity to becomesomething that nobody ever
thought we could become.
So who would have ever guessed?
(02:01):
Yes, my wife and I have beenall over the world.
We she grew up in Twin Falls,idaho, and nobody would have
ever guessed.
If I'd have written my storyback then, what would have
happened to Don Clark when I wasin the first grade?
If I'd come to school late, I'dturn around and go home and
then I had a phenomenal thinghappen.
I was captain of the footballteam, baseball team and the
(02:24):
basketball team in high schooland when I was there, a
principal came to me one day andasked me to run for vice
president of the high school.
Never in a million years had Iever thought about running for
vice president of anything.
I ran and I won.
So now I'm in charge of theassemblies and to get up in
(02:45):
front of the whole student bodyand have Miss Idaho come, or
whoever else would be.
Our assemblies changed me, soI'm always thankful to my high
school principal, hal Barton,that he would have cared enough
about Don Clark.
That made a difference in mylife and I think we find as we
go through life that happens forall of us.
(03:06):
If we'll look for those peoplethat care and are willing to
invest, we can always findpeople that will make us better
along the way.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So that I could tell story after story, but anyway,
so Don, what was it really quick, though.
What was it that it said?
It changed you.
What was it that changed?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
you what changed me?
Because I was not on thebasketball court.
I was great at throwing passes,at football I was great.
I could turn a double, play asecond base.
But to get up in front ofpeople, that wasn't who I was
and so I had to overcome.
Listen, when people say I can'tdo that or I'm just not like
(03:46):
that, that doesn't work for anyof us.
The question is how do I wantto be?
And we all have potential.
I read recently that the humanbeing uses about 20% of their
potential.
And if you think about it,about what's happened just in my
lifetime because people decidedyou could do things differently
(04:06):
.
So I always say there's alwaysa better way to do things,
always a better way.
One time, general Motors sold50% of the cars in the world.
Today, they're not even thelargest car dealership in the
world.
What happened?
So you always have to keepdeciding that there's how am I
(04:27):
going to get better?
How am I going to do thisbetter than anybody else?
And there's lots of ways to dothat, but you have to decide
that yeah, they left a lot ofspace.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Sure yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And so that's what you've come you know so anyway.
So I started my career at FordMotor Company in finance.
I have my MBA, and Ford MotorCompany was probably the best
place to ever work for a financeguy, because the finance people
were important.
It was run by a guy by the nameof McNamara who was Secretary
of Treasury at one time, and atFord they taught you that you
(05:01):
could have influence in thebusiness.
So while I was there,eventually some people left the
automobile industry and went towork in a retail company.
In fact, jl Hudson was downtownDetroit and my friends went to
work there and they moved thatfrom a 1% profit store to a 10%
profit store, and so eventuallyI got recruited to go to work
(05:24):
for a make company in St Louis,missouri.
My first job was to save 10times my annual salary $35,000 I
was making a year, and in oneyear I'd saved a million dollars
.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Oh my gosh.
So you exceeded by three times.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So what happened?
So what happened?
They started giving me all thestuff that had problems, love
problems, love life.
If you can solve problems,everybody always needs you, and
if you can save money, justthink would they ever get rid of
my $35,000 salary?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
No way.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Not if I can produce a million dollars, nope, and the
list goes so.
Every year in our business wewould save $20 million a year.
And every year you know whatthey would say?
The guy oh, there's no moreways to save money, $20 million
more.
Now let me tell you one morestory.
And so I.
(06:26):
Eventually, after I had done mycareer, I went to work for a
small.
I volunteered at a smalluniversity out in virginia
southern virginia university.
When I got there, I did threethings I taught business classes
, I was assistant basketballcoach and I was on the
president's council.
Their expenses were a milliondollars higher than their
(06:48):
revenues.
You know what they told me?
There's no way to save moneyhere.
Oh gosh, I said give me your 10best business students.
I took the 10 best businessstudents.
We meet at seven o'clock in themorning and I'd assign them.
I said you go work in thelibrary, you go to the lunchroom
, you go here, you go here, yougo here.
Within nine months we'd saved amillion dollars, and because we
(07:12):
did that, they could becomeaccredited.
But when I got there, they werenot accredited.
But there's always a better wayto do things, always so what
are your top?
five.
So, I'm going to give you my topfive things that make a real
difference.
First of all, those that canget things done can be counted
on.
You say I'll do it, you book it.
(07:34):
If you have to walk throughwalls, you do it, you do it.
Okay, and there's nobody thatcomes back with excuses, because
the world, as I mentionedearlier, is full of excusers and
complainers, and if you don'tbelieve it, just do your own
little survey and you'll findout.
But it's very few that say, hey, I can solve that.
Second question is you havehigh expectations or high goals
(07:57):
and you deliver.
So that means when I say I'mgoing to do this, I'm going to
do it and I'm going to find away around it to make it work.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Do you shoot really, really high or do you try to be
intentional to set goals you canmeet, or somewhere in between
to try to retire?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
No, the question is it depends on who you are Okay.
So, people, this goal settingthing is really visionary Okay,
and you have to decide, listento set goals that are
unrealistic and then come inshort and then talk about how
good it was.
That's ridiculous.
You teach bad habits.
(08:36):
So what you have to do is teachthat, hey, this is what we can
become, and I've counseled withmy team and I believe this is
where we're at Now.
Sometimes things come in andyou have a lousy year.
We can become, and I'vecounseled with my team and I
believe this is where we're atNow.
Sometimes things come in andyou have a lousy year and so you
say, hey, I didn't do a goodjob this year, but most of the
time you can hit high, okay, andyou can achieve.
(08:57):
So I'm used to, you know.
I mean, how would you wantsomebody to start out and say,
hey, I think I'm a 70% guy allthe time?
Do you want them operating onyou?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Okay, no not me no.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So that's what you have to do and you have to have
the skills to do that.
I don't know if you've everheard of Khan Academy, but Khan
Academy is an educationalprocess.
Khan was at MIT.
I think he was valedictorian ofMIT and he eventually left and
started an education process.
But in Khan Academy I've beenon it and in math, you can't go
(09:35):
on to the next step until youget 10 in a row.
Right, but how many kids do wesend on to the next step in
school?
And the trouble with math is,if you don't understand this,
you never understand this.
So you go to a survey how manykids today don't know math?
Why?
Because nobody ever demandedthat they learn it.
(09:59):
So if you learn the skills thatit takes to make it work, then
you can achieve your objectives.
So that's the second.
You've got to have highexpectations and you've got to
get them done.
The third is you have to beable to influence people,
because if you have people thatare always worried, you don't
want people to get ahead bypushing other people down.
(10:21):
What do you want them to do?
You want them to know that ifthey elevate other people up
with them, they get credit.
Okay, and there is only onethat gets promoted, and I
understand that.
But if everybody's doing betterand the company's doing better,
then everybody can do better.
Everybody benefits.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Everybody benefits, and so what you want to do is
have them believe that their jobdoing better, then all
everybody can do better.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
everybody benefits everybody benefits, and so what
you want to do is have thembelieve that their job is to
make teams work better, make itwork function okay.
The fourth is you have to behungry to learn.
I just mentioned earlier that Iknew Sam Walton personally.
Sam Walton knew that everybodyknew something that he didn't
(11:09):
know, and so early in his careerhe was a pilot and he used to
fly around to his stores andbefore he'd go visit his store
he'd go visit the competitionand he'd go in and say to the
guy hey, this is what are youselling here.
This is a great looking store.
Probably wasn't.
And the guy would say, well,we're selling lots of these.
(11:31):
I mean, these are really,really hot.
So he'd write it down and he'ddo that all week long and then
every Saturday morning he wouldgather his buyers together, he'd
have his list of all the thingsthat everybody else was selling
and he'd talk to each buyer dowe have this?
No, how, I wanted in by Friday.
So all of a sudden they had 25new items.
(11:55):
Okay, that people wanted peoplewanted.
So what you want to do is youwant to see somebody.
If you see somebody doingsomething good, I mean that's
what you're trying to do here inthis podcast, hopefully seeing
some people doing things good.
And I'm glad and honored to behere with Todd today.
(12:15):
They asked me how I wanted tobe introduced.
I said call me Todd's dad, thatwould be good.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
He used to take me to do recon in stores.
By the way, that's a true story.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Oh cool, oh yeah, oh yeah, we spent all your time in
the stores.
You don't know what's going onin your office, I promise you
that.
But anyway.
So that's, you've got to behungry to learn, and that hunger
covers all parts of your life.
If you're a parent and you seesomebody with great kids, why
wouldn't you ask them what doyou do to have great kids?
Or if you see a great marriage,what wouldn't you ask?
(12:44):
Or if you see somebody that'sdoing things right, you say, hey
, how do I learn to add to?
And even at my age, I'm tryingto do different things all the
time.
They'll say, hey, I see thishappening.
And that goes on.
And then, last of all, you needto have the skills to analyze
(13:06):
and solve problems.
The world is full of problemsfull, and so you have to be a
great analyzer, figure out whatthe problem is, and then you
become the fixer.
When I'd meet with people, I'dpull up my wallet and say I made
a lot of money solving problems, a lot of money.
(13:28):
And so those were things thatmattered to us, and so we tried
to separate performance reviewsfrom attributes, because if you
have a bad year, it doesn't meanthat all your attributes are
bad.
You know, like in your real youmentioned, the real estate
business was lousy last yearbecause interest rates were out
(13:48):
of sight.
You know you didn't cause it.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
But, believe me, we've gone through that mental
exercise of what could we havedone differently.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Because when you ever say that I did everything I
could, that's false doctrine.
Nobody's ever done everythingthey can and all you have to do
is look at your if you ever wantto do a great evaluation.
Time is really money and wespend our time, lots of time, on
stuff that really doesn'tmatter.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
We were just talking about this yesterday.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Ironically, guaranteed.
So you have to decide.
Here's the fact that people laya list down of 10 things On the
thing is, lunch is the bottom10.
They'll always get lunch done.
Yes, oh yeah, they'll alwaysget lunch done, but they didn't
get the first thing that reallymattered most, yeah, and so you
have to decide that how willthis matter to our business?
(14:43):
Let me tell you a sweet story.
So after I finished my careerand then I spent time in South
America I was in Bolivia.
So we used to send young peopledown to help business in
Bolivia and we could tripletheir business in sometimes
three months, wow.
(15:03):
So how'd that happen?
Very easily, I told my people.
I said, when you go down there,don't have them do anything
that doesn't help them make moremoney.
And once they understood thatwe really cared about what?
Because people in Bolivia arepoor it's the poorest country in
all of Central and SouthAmerica.
They're poor.
It's the poorest country in allof Central and South America.
They're poor.
(15:23):
And so a little bit more money.
Then they would do what we askthem to do.
So one time we had this business, we went in and we're going to
help it, and the electric wiresare filed down here.
And so one guy comes oh, weneed to get all these wires
fixed.
I said how much more money arethey going to make if we fix the
wires?
He said, well, they could getelectrocuted.
(15:45):
I said have they beenelectrocuted yet?
So we didn't spend any time onthe wires, but we did spend time
on how to cut the cost ofproducing the product.
Three months tripled thebusiness, and so-.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Tripled the business, tripled the profit, tripled the
profit Tripled the business.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Tripled the business.
Tripled the profit.
Tripled the business, tripledthe business.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Without fixing the wires.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Without fixing the wires.
Now listen, the wires needed tobe fixed Eventually.
They didn't have any money tofix the wires okay, eventually.
Now the problem with helpingsmall businesses is they become
bigger.
Their problems become bigger.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yes, sir, okay, your son knows this well Guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And if you don't and that's why many entrepreneurs
you know most small businessesfail, and that's the facts of
life.
Yep, 90% plus.
And because they became a smallbusiness, because they had a
niche of something that was goodbut they let all the other
parts fail and they started tospend more money than you know,
(16:49):
I mean, and all those thingsthat happened.
So, anyway, it's been like Isay, nobody would ever imagine
that whatever's happened to mywife and our family would have
ever happened, and it's really.
Heaven blesses you okay, butthere's also heavenly principles
(17:09):
that if you apply they workokay.
It's not so different.
Family principles, businessprinciples good ones work in
families.
Family principles work inbusiness.
And if you're one person inbusiness and another person over
here, then people need to cometo know they can trust you and
(17:30):
to let people perform poorly.
One of the big problems inbusiness today is nobody ever
tells people how they'reperforming.
They're afraid to be honest.
So what they do is they waituntil there's a cutback and then
what do they do?
They lose their job.
If you're not honest withpeople, then you're doing a
great disservice.
I used to tell my people if Ireally love you, or if I care
(17:52):
about you, then I tell you whatI really think and I help you
improve.
And that's what thesecharacteristics were about is we
wanted them to do better.
I didn't want to lose anybodycharacteristics were about is we
wanted them to do better?
I didn't want to lose anybody,but their choice as to whether
they want to step up or not.
So, anyway, I appreciate theopportunity to expound and teach
(18:13):
a little bit of who knows.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Good nuggets of wisdom right there.
What role has your marriageplayed, and did it play, in all
of your success?
I didn't prep you for thatquestion.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Oh, this is right.
This is a great question.
One of the most importantthings that ever happened in the
life of Don Clark happened inJune 5th 1970, when Don Clark
married Mary Ann Jackson.
I'll tell you why.
I used to talk to a lot ofyoung people and I used to tell
(18:46):
them before you marry somebody,you'll take them to climb a
mountain If they complain on theway up drop them.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
That's amazing, that's fantastic, that's amazing
.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
It's purgatory to marry somebody who complains all
the time, never, ever, in fact.
I'll tell you a sweet story.
So when I was saving all thismoney at my first job this
million dollars I went to theguy at the head and I said we're
going to save $350,000 in badchecks.
Okay, so I took boxes of badchecks home.
(19:19):
This was before you had allthis digital stuff.
And Mary Ann that's my dearwife and I are sorting checks to
figure out what the rulesneeded to be of what we would
change.
Listen, we moved.
So we both grew up in Idaho.
There's a good question formarrying somebody how close do
(19:39):
you have to live to mother?
You have to be real carefulBecause never would it ever
happen if Mary Ann had to livenext door, live to mother.
You have to be real carefulBecause never would have ever
happened if Marianne had to livenext door to her mother.
We moved.
From there we went toWashington State.
From there we go to Michigan,detroit, michigan.
From there we go to Scotts Bluff, nebraska.
From there we go to St Louis,missouri.
(20:00):
From there we go to New Canaan,connecticut or Connecticut and
we had six children and I workeda lot.
But I also found time because Iwas the boss.
I could sneak away to thesoccer games in the afternoon or
the football games that wereheld.
So my kids knew that I lovedthem and we always Marianne's
(20:26):
thankful.
I didn't travel because I wasalways home in the evenings.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You'd still have to choose to do that, though as a
boss, it's easy to make thedecision to keep working, I know
, but they got more than theywere, I promise you my hourly
wage wasn't as good as it lookedlike, I promise you.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
My hourly wage wasn't as good as it looked like, I
promise you.
Okay.
So I was in early and you'veworked late, especially when
you're trying to fix a business,I mean, because every time you
turn around it's another problem, another problem.
So, anyway, I'm glad to be herewith Todd and we, like I said,
we have six children and our.
We've been blessed, they're allemployed, they're all doing
(21:11):
well.
But you know this you have todecide what you want your life
to be and this, like as Toddmentioned earlier in his podcast
, what really matters is youknow, I have five priorities in
my life.
So my life is really made up ofthis.
(21:33):
It's, first of all, myrelationship with heaven, second
is my family, third is my job,fourth is my and fifth is me,
and that doesn't have to be inthe right order.
But if those aspects of my lifework, then I'm a pretty happy
guy.
And if you don't have goodfriends, good friends make you
(21:56):
better, enemies make you worse,and too many people hang out
with people that don't make thembetter and that doesn't do
anybody any good.
And then you have to decidewhat you're going to do to
change In Todd's life.
He's decided he's going to loseweight.
I go to the gym every morning.
The other morning I was thefirst guy at the gym 6 o'clock
in the morning.
It doesn't open until 6.
I was there at 10-2.
(22:17):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Why?
Because?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I'm better the better if I do that, and so those are
the things that matter.
Listen, I appreciate whatyou're helping people do.
I think we just need to sharegood ideas, and some of the
things I talked about today mayapply.
Some of them may not.
That's fine.
Take the ones that are good anddo something with them, and the
(22:40):
ones that don't apply, I saythat's fine.
I mean, you have to find yourown.
There's a million differentways to do things.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Well, we're so appreciative that you were
willing to jump from off camerato be on camera.
It really is what we're tryingto.
We want to do with the show isgive people good information and
wisdom, and and yes, we weretrying to directly apply it to
being a business owner, being anentrepreneur but we think that
(23:09):
a lot of the principles that arecommunicated on our show
absolutely apply to to everybodyin their everyday lives and
their career pursuits, whetherthey're looking to build their
own business or not, and and soso I wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I don't know that I'd have been a great entrepreneur.
I'm not sure Now.
Within here, I was as creativeas anybody, and so I don't know
that I'm the risk taker to moveout here.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
But again, I think a lot of what you were saying to
us off camera I think it reallyapplies and there's a lot of
young people, youngprofessionals, that need to hear
what you had to say.
Absolutely so, don, again, wereally appreciate you just
sharing your insight with ustoday.
And, todd, thanks for sharingyour dad you got it Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
That's amazing.
Thanks, guys, you bet.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Thanks again.
Have a great week you.
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