Episode 84 - The Generational Transfer of Interstate Batteries with Norm and Scott Miller
Today we’re talking to Norm and Scott Miller. Norm is the Chairman and Scott is the CEO of Interstate Batteries. They steward a company that for the past 6 decades has been leading its industry with outrageous dependability.
You may know Interstate batteries from their logos on the side of NASCAR winners, but you may not know that they offer over 12,000 different batteries and have sold more than 300 million units. They’ve also been innovating in discovering ways for their faith to lead them in caring for their team and developing an award-winning culture.
One of the growing trends in the Faith Driven Entrepreneur movement is seeing a generation of faithful leaders looking to pass the baton to the next generation. Interstate is one of the looked to brands that has gone through this recently, and today Norm and Scott are going to share what they’ve learned through the transition.
As always, thanks for listening!
Useful Links:
An Interview with Norm Miller - RightNow Media @ Work
Jack of All Trades - An Interstate Batteries Story
Interstate Batteries: Our History
2018 Most Admired CEO: Scott Miller (Video)
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
*Some listeners have found it helpful to have a transcription of the podcast. Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it. The FDI movement is a volunteer-led movement, and if you’d like to contribute by editing future transcripts, please email us.
Henry [00:02:38] We've been looking for this for a long time and we're going to spend a lot of time, hopefully today unpacking the concept of generational transfer with two guys who've thought about this and prayed about this and are executing on this subject a lot. Norm and Scott, we're really grateful you're with us today. Thank you for join us.
Norm [00:02:56] Thank you. Good to be here.
Scott [00:02:58] Thanks for having us.
[00:02:59] Before we get started and talk about generational transfer, a good number of our listeners are going to know about you all. They're going to know about your product. Many of them are driving right now on the way to work and have one of your products under the hood of their car. But some others might not. And as we start off with every podcast, we try to get a sense of the horror stories. So before we talk about how you guys are working together, let's talk about Norm. We'll start off with you, your story and also the interstate battery story, please.
Norm [00:03:29] You know, now. You know, to go all the way back. I grew up in Galveston, Texas, and a lot of people don't realize that Galveston was a completely illegal town. I moved there with my folks.
[00:03:40] I was five years old, 1943 in the middle of GWAR War 2. And Galveston was controlled city primarily by a group of individuals that were in the underworld, if you will. But it was kind of local. It was all just right in that area. And Galveston had the liquor by the drink 24 hours a day, open prostitution, wide open gambling, all of which were illegal in the state of Texas and even in most places in the United States. And my dad had a service station garage right in the center of the place. And he was a big drinker partier, grew up just that way. And I grew up right underneath him and followed right in his footsteps. I started party in Vertigan in the age of 15, and I was actually going into joints and nightclubs and stuff like 18, 19 years old, only legal and just live long that way all the way through high school. And, you know, I did a lot of really heavy drinking. I actually remember having some blackouts even in high school. And but I continued right on and went to college and exercise the same activities and kept right on the party and then drank. And then things got worse. I got out of college. Finally, I was an excellent student. If you went by tenure and I did a fairly short program over a long period of time in college. But anyway, I made it out of there and ended up getting in the battery business with my dad and I was still doing the same lifestyle party and then and going on. And we moved to Memphis, Tennessee, hooked up with the interstate through the founder John Searcy, and took a distributorship interstate was like nationally was nineteen sixty one. It was founded. So this is 1962 and they were open in distributorships throughout the United States early on. And then that took the distributorship over in Memphis, Tennessee, sold her house in Gaels and moved and started trying to sell batteries in the mid-south and then over there for two and a half years. And Mr. Searcy offered me a job to come back to Dallas and go to work for the national company. And he spoke first to my dad. My dad said, you know, that's what she thinks best for you all and him that he's happy to do so. So I came over here back to Dallas, and then I started traveling the United States, setting up distributors. And just matter of fact, there was like five of us at the time. And so that's how I ended up here in interstate. And travelin' is setting up distributors, but I kept right on party and and all.
[00:06:24] So like nineteen seventy four everything it accelerated. And so actually. Gotten into a drinking problem and it priced on me a couple BWI as actually went to jail for a weekend run, a sentence, if you will. And so all this scene just kept operation down on me and I ended up going to AA. I had a friend that sent me and told me about any when I looked up. All anonymous than the thing in there that got me was they said that, you know, that it was a God deal. So I'm getting God from the wall is anonymous. And at the same time, I had a friend start coming to me. He started trying to tell me about God. And so I asked myself, where are you? Get all this? And he said, from the scripture, from Bible in acid Bible. I said, oh, both, all people long time ago. And the only thing to do with me. And he said, no, it's the word of God, given demand exactly as he intended it. And I said, it is. He said, yes. I said, prove it. So I thought I'd run him off. And he came back in a couple of days, actually, and brought me some materials and some apologetic stuff in the history of prophecy, an antique manuscript and these other things, scientific history, historical things. And so I went through all that and I thought, man, well, this is a lot of that here. A modern open the Bible here and see what this has to say about me is at the same time. I said I had been going to AA and their deal was a God based. And so I started reading the scripture and I thought, man, this is a lot of impact here. And so when I realized this old record, they want a serious problem. It was I blurted out the guards, help me, God help me. I can handle it. I remember say those exact words in any way through these other relationships are discussed there with you. You know, he did. And he took a compulsion for drinking from there. Nineteen seventy four. And I went on for like 17 years that I didn't drink anything at all. And then back in 91. Drifted back and if you will, social drinking and have been that way ever since. Probably looking back it may not have been the wisest thing to do. That's where things have gone and God's been able to be gone. Continue in the business and regular life there, life with the family, you know, for all those years.
Henry [00:09:02] Take me back to 1962 in your sound batteries. Part my story backgrounds. When I was in college, I saw T-shirts. And sometimes I think that was the last time I really knew what I was doing. What does it look like to be a young guy in the mid-South hustling and selling batteries in such a way that the founder of the company takes an artist here?
Norm [00:09:23] Well, you know, I was funny in the we started I remember the date exactly. Because it was July 5th. So it was after the July 4th weekend over there in the mid-South. And the very next day on the fifth wheel, I loaded up the truck full of batteries and head out and how we sixty-one going south by the Mississippi River and across the state land. It was in Tunica, Mississippi. And the interesting thing is the time President Johnson had declared war on poverty and they had a whole big thing about poverty and where it was and all. And in the paper I read where Tunica County was the poorest county in the United States. And that's where I crossed the land with my battery truck going south, trying to start a battery rail. And it was so funny because there was anything there that would he placed a pole on and on. I actually in that county there, I tried a couple times to go in to farms, the cotton farm. So, you know, land, solar batteries, direct. But anyway, that's where we started. And the big thing that I remember is the fact that, you know, if you make your decision that you're going to do it, well, then you just, you know, Landa store up every morning and go try to do it. And I go a little further south in the communities in all developed and was able to, you know, get some accounts and start trying to build around from scratch.
Henry [00:10:47] And so just driving up there at some farms and presumably some auto shops and just selling something to somebody.
Norm [00:10:54] Yeah, exactly right. The thing the need to express here is that Mr. Sheriff John Searcy, our founder, he developed the whole system in the name of the company, originally interstate battery system, and he developed a system of distributing batteries to primarily independent and service repair shops, tractor companies, both companies. How to establish that distributorship for a particular area based on vehicle registrations for a family could make a living.
[00:11:25] His whole intent was he had started a business here in reality, done real well with it. He learned it. And so his whole basis was to give families the same type of business and entrepreneurial opportunity.
Henry [00:11:38] That's a great nation. So fast forward 65 years later, inner city battery. A lot of our listeners will be familiar with the name they've seen on NASCAR. Again, they may have it under their hood, but paint a picture about what interstate barriers has become today. Under your leadership.
Norm [00:11:56] So, you know, the thing that I want to be sure express that when I join John in Dallas here he was the founder president. He had developed everything. And here I am. I'm in this 25 year old, really six year old guy working for him. And I think I'm creative. And every 90 days, I would go in and say, John, I got a great idea. Why don't we do this? And I think he said, no, I've tried that. He's 22 years my senior. So he said, Norm, I've tried that. Just do this. And then three months later, I would have had another great idea how badly he said. Norm, I've tried. Just do this. And so where I will show fortune is to go to work for a guy that had developed something. He'd spent several years developing the distributorship. The way to do it here in Dallas. And so he just kept me on track. And eventually I discovered that there's like three or four hundred opportunities to set up these distributors and get families and people in business and to follow a system of distribution that would meet needs of the sellers. They've been businesses in those areas. And so once we kind of got proved up, I saw that it was full back up the middle, get three large and it wasn't fancy advertising. It wasn't fancy anything. It was other than that. Here's a vehicle registration. Here's where the people lived. Here's where the cars are here, where the service people are. Now go do it. And we discovered that we had 400000 shots out there all over the United States and Canada. And so our big thousand shops, you know, there was that many opportunities to go call on businesses. And so we discovered that if we tried hard with good people and weren't bad at there, we could get our share of the accounts and help these families start a business.
[00:13:48] You know, one week I'd be in San Diego. The next week I'd be in Toledo, Ohio, and I'd be in two weeks later. Actually, I was on the road every other week. But the whole point was we had a system and then it was just to work it out.
Henry [00:14:03] So tell us today, what is the company drawn up to? What is it that you and Scott are running?
Norm [00:14:10] Well, we have, I guess, how many, Scott? 300, approximately 300, 250, 300 distributors, depending on how you evaluate them. And we have a number of retail stores. We have 15 hundred employees not counting the two hundred and fifty distributors that have several employees, eight or ten apiece or something like that. And last year we sold right at 19 million batteries.
Henry [00:14:34] Wow. That's a lot of batteries.
Norm [00:14:36] We've probably had the base of accounts of like a hundred and seventy five thousand, probably for the Taylan average for the last 10 years.
Rusty [00:14:46] Scott, I had a question to ask of you, but beforehand, I want to commend both of you. We have an interstate battery not far from here in California on one to one in furling there millbrae area. And the values and principles that you must espouse to the company are very obvious when you go into an interstate battery. The helpfulness, the cheerfulness. Last time I was in one, one of your guys told me, he said, you know, I can help you stop coming in here. I said, Really? What can you do? And he goes, I'm gonna give you a trickle charger so that when you go away and you don't drive that car for a long time, you know, it will take care of the battery and you won't have to come in here as many times. And that I was like, but that's one less battery that you're gonna sell. He goes now because I'm here to help you. And I just thought that that was a great testimony to the kind of business and culture that's being created. I don't know if they're independent guys out here, but whatever you're doing. You could feel it. So they know. Thank you.
Scott [00:15:44] Thanks for sharing that. That's encouraging to hear. Yeah, that's one of our company owned distributorships. So we have 250 and we own 45 of them. And that one up in San Francisco is one of ours. So it's awesome to hear.
Rusty [00:15:59] It's great. So, Scott, you're the quintessential story of sort of generational transfer. You know, your story is you started at the bottom and work your way up to where you are today. A lot of companies and a lot of entrepreneurs that be listening here want to believe that that story can really happen. Right. That someone could come in, started the bottom, learn everything and come all the way up, but maybe be a little fearful of that, thinking that the expectations and all the pressures that might go on, either somebody in the family member or somebody that they're hired from the. Side take us through your journey, because I find it fascinating that you did everything you needed to do and now you sit in the corner office.
Scott [00:16:39] Yeah. I'm equally fascinated and amazed. It's kind of crazy, to be honest. And, you know, I have to give a lot of credit to my dad because the path was a path really that he architected for me. And it's kind of ironic because his architecture was very light. It was, hey, I'm going to help you get started in this game and then it's really up to you. From that point, but really important for me that he instilled a work ethic in me as a youngster. So, I mean, at 14 to form even driving, my mother is driving me to the Dallas warehouse on Saturdays to work. And as you can imagine, a 14 year old, I'm not happy about that at all.
[00:17:26] But as a 51 year old, beyond grateful. So working at the Dallas DC as a kid, seeing teams work. Seeing healthy competition amongst teams within the Dallas, D.C., getting an appreciation for hard work. Slinging around 50 pound batteries in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning, you know, that'll get your attention and teach you a few things about hard work.
[00:17:54] A fun environment that was always part of the kind of the personality of not that Mr. Searcy didn't have fun. But I don't know that he had fun. Like you had fun, Dad. So his personality was a big part of that environment.
[00:18:10] And he just recruited competitive people that, frankly, came out of athletic backgrounds because he knew, hey, these folks are go getters. They're gonna fight, they're gonna win, they're committed. So I got to see that. Did that all through high school. College went to school, would work you know, holidays and summers. And, you know, I just knew everything about at least the street level perspective of the business at a really young age. And boy, talk about just lots the lessons, but also credibility. So for God, that state is now been in the business. You know, I'm 51, so I've been a full timer for twenty eight years. Is that right? Some like that. But anyway, the credibility and believability I had as a leader, it was just established and built over all those years of doing the ground level frontline work.
Rusty [00:19:03] I can't imagine the expectations on you were even higher. Right. You know, you're the boss's son. You got to be even that much better than everybody else.
Norm [00:19:10] You let me address that, because Scott had dealt even remembers. Well, after your mother drove you down to the warehouse, once you got a car. You would go down and they would leave. You work to do at the warehouse on Saturdays and you had to open it up and go in and do the work that they had left for you to do it and leave on your own. And one of the things that came up was that the guys would tell me that Scott did an excellent job. He got it all done just the way he was supposed to. And for a young guy, you know, 16 Satyarthi going down and working for hours to take batteries off the charge lines and do all this stuff alone and to get complimented from the porch down there that he is always shown that can of workability.
Scott [00:19:59] I think even at that age, I knew, hey, you're kind of the son of the man. And people are watching. Whether you like it or not, there's going to likely be a great deal of blessing that comes from the business. And this many years later, I can say that I've been blessed beyond measure. So I'm not going to sit here and complain about the weight. It's part of the deal was always part of the deal. You know, some days I feel it more than others, but at least I'm aware of it. And I can do something about it, you know?
Norm [00:20:35] You know, another thing that's really interesting is that he didn't ever work for me, that in the areas of the business where he was, he worked in different places and had completely different jobs. It was so funny because I always wondered what am I gonna do with the company? And I thought, well, Scott fits in there, but I don't know what he's going to really cut the mustard. And then I've always felt a responsibility to all the distributors. So you have to if I'm not going to run, got to have somebody else's going to run it and take their interests at heart. And so he worked for different people in the organization and actually moved out to Carolina for a couple years, two and a half years. So he went all the way from warehouse, you know, running him hall junk batteries onto battery trucks all the way up to the Carolina out there doing business and then back here.
[00:21:26] So it was really funny because I had decided that if he didn't make. You're of the. I was going to have to do something else. And came. Thank God. It just all worked that good.
Rusty [00:21:38] That's good thing that moment didn't come. You know, I recently talked to a founder who tried to say to me that only the founder knows the soul of a company. Only the founder can really, you know, put their arms around everything. And Scott, I got to think that part of the reason that you're the leader that you are is because of that experience where you walk through the soul of the company. And you talked a lot about conscious capitalism today. And so I want to bridge end of that. What did that experience do you know, that you've had and your leadership responsibility has shaped your thought on this idea of conscious capitalism?
Scott [00:22:17] Well, I think, you know, when I took a seat in 2013, the very first thing that I wanted to make sure we were all levels set on was our purpose and our values. And so those things were very strong, really, really strong here, instilled by my dad and the guys that came before me. And one thing I felt like we could benefit from is really kind of codifying those things. Why are we here and how do we want to be with each other and all of our stakeholders? So we kind of embarked on this journey of from the ground up, talking to all of our stakeholders, saying, hey, what makes it special? What makes us unique? If you could define us as a personality, what would that look like? And so we went through that process. And during that process, we were exposed to this community called conscious capitalism. I've never heard of them. And it was like, whoa, hold on a minute. There's this whole community of people who run organizations who think the way we think now, a great diversity of purposes. Right. And, you know, you can talk about, you know, the Patagonia guys, its mother earth, you know, maybe. And for us, it's glorifying God. So there's all types there. So you've got to keep your head about you as you're exposed to a lot of diverse reasons for being. But just getting exposure to that group really helped us see that there's a community out there that we can learn from that can help us be better at fulfilling our purpose as an organization. And so we've been involved with them for whatever six years now, have learned a lot from them. We've had an opportunity to speak and share our purpose in front of this really diverse group down in Austin. You know, so we're like, yeah, glorify God. Check it out. And it blows some of those people away. So it's been a cool platform in addition to us learning a ton from those folks. But we've also been tested in it because there's a lot of humanistic thinking, a lot of pluralistic thinking. And we've had to work really hard to discern what we want to put our hands on and what we need to, you know, kind of put down and slowly back away.
Henry [00:24:29] You've got a line on your values section that I think is super compelling, which says profits will never drive us in a way that purpose can. And I love that. It doesn't mean that profits can't drive. It does mean that we don't measure them. But it's almost like if you focus on profits exclusively, you're not going to have a business that's going to be able to stand up for 65 years in presumably as you focus on your purpose and you do it so well. And we've had the great honor of rolling out this top 100 videos frontrunner's series that we license. Say we've got one on one of your fleet managers, Jackie McClary, that really I think that's great job of embodying this sense, a sense that a lot of your profits, a lot of your successor come about because of your sense of purpose. And, you know, like Russy said, you would think that a guy's talking out of a battery purchase is against profits, but it speaks your purpose. And yet you get a sense that Rusty's not going to go shop for battery any place, other nasty batteries. You're not doing that because, you know, hey, if I don't sell this battery, I get a winning customer for life. You're doing it because it's consistent with your purpose. And I want to move back on a generational transfer because it's such an important topic. But I get a sense that that's kind of was embedded in your DNA in the very beginning where there is a purpose of providing an opportunity for a person to be able to provide for their family by having a distributorship of enterprise battery. Your model itself had purpose to it.
Scott [00:26:00] Yeah, you know, it started with the founder. So you talked about kind of a founder's mentality and kind of the soul and spirit of the business. So he started that way into my dad when he took over. Frankly, he might, you know, downplay this, but he really took it to another level. You know, it was like, all right when he became a Christian. And maybe he's better to say this to me. But when he became a Christian, it was like, listen, this is a 24/7 deal. There's no compartmentalization. I've got my personal life in my professional life. And I'm not going to be. Any differently in one or the other, though, it was a real simplistic, commonsense thinking that said, okay, got this business. Now I think God's going to want me to glorify him while I'm doing that thing as well. And all we've tried to do is, like I said, codify that thinking those words and then cultivate that part of the culture because we believe the one we want to be obedient because we absolutely feel like God has propped us up and he's got us doing something special. And then, too, we just think it's the best way to do business. We just we think it resonates with people when you you know, three people the way you want to be treated, kind a golden rule stuff.
Norm [00:27:18] You know, that was really one of the basic things with everyone that came to work for Mr. Searcy. I did. I got saved John by John. I've got saved in 1974. So I spent five years. I really fortunate. I spent five years being disciple in the Bible and everything. And what I've got out of that was life is all day, every day, all the hours. You know, you're not, quote, religious or spiritual for on Sunday and Wednesday night or whatever. If you go through the scriptures, you point out point blank, that is to love God, love others, do all you can to help other people, try to be conscious of everybody else, involvement in not just your own. And so we decided that the Lord God said, quote, the golden rule. We wanted to treat people the way we want to be treated and that we even we hired people. We said this is the way we operate in the basis we believe is God's instruction. But if it's not for you, that's OK. Because what we feel is as long as you embrace the thought of to treat others the way you want to be treated. That starts out with employees and it goes all the way down to distributors and their employees and all the way to customers that if we treat people the way that we would want to be treated ourselves, then they're going to be happy. They're going to come back by another battery and we can go right on down the road. And Rhône, thank God here we've been all these years and here we are now are all out there, all over the place.
Henry [00:28:39] Okay. I won't bring back to the the topic that we promised our listeners would we'd head into. And I want to finish your time here. There are tens of thousands of different businesses there led by faith driven entrepreneurs around the country. And they all have different structures and they all have different stories. But the demographics in our country are such that those that went into business and started running businesses after the war and then through the 60s are coming to a place where they're trying to figure out how to hand the business to next generation. And that's happening at a pretty strong clip. 10000 people a day are turning 65. You have thought about this. You have lived it. You've seen others do the same. Scott, you've seen others of your peers that are 50 years old take over businesses. You probably seen some do it well, some haven't done well. I'd love for you both to riff on the good, the bad and the ugly. Just some tips, some thoughts, observations as this country goes through this type of transfer where entrepreneurial businesses are being handed down. What counsel would you give them?
Scott [00:29:50] Great question. I guess I can say not to be redundant, but being very intentional about why your business exists. So I think answering those kind of foundational questions about why you're here purpose, how you want to be with each other, your customers. So values now those things are super foundational things that maybe some businesses don't do. You know, they just get into, you know, just trying to execute on transactions. But we think those things matter. And when you get them right, they resonate with people. And you get kind of an uncommon response from whether it's employees and the way that they want to work and deliver value or customers who are like, wow, I'm really attracted to that. So that really matters. You know, I guess I could speak from my experience of what I'll just call myself a second, gener. You know, I got to give my dad big time kudos for, you know, put me to work and not an overly heavy hand in trying to manipulate my path. Just letting me find my path and prove it out. And, you know, if a job opens up and I put in for it and I get it, great. If I don't, well, take your lumps and give it another shot for the next one that worked for me. Not letting the next generation skip any steps I think is huge. I have tremendous. Luckily, thankfully. I hope it's still there, but I got pretty solid credibility with our customer base, our distributors. And it's because they know I learned the business from the ground up. So I think that matters. Having the next generation. Steps. OK. Suddenly I'm going to put Junior into a director level position or vise president position and you know, it's like junior skips first and second base and he's just immediately on third headed to home. I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think that's in service to Junior or the business. So those are a few things that come to mind. I think having a lot of diligence around having good wise counsel as you analyze your business and the changes in business over time, you know, the data is not great. The results aren't great for second Jenners and it's really crummy for third Jenners. Yeah, I think surgeon is like 30 percent cops that a business is going to survive to the third generation. And I got to I got my two boys in this business. So I'm living it right now going, oh boy, I really want to get in a position where those guys can take it, take something that's good and that they're actually equipped to do well.
Henry [00:32:24] So we understand, of course, how it works in your situation. You're 14 working in business and you felt the sense that people knew that your normed son. Yep. How's it look for your two boys? A lot of listeners here had their kids or have a dream. That's speak for myself. I'd love to invest someday with my children. I'd love to know the lessons that you're learning right now.
Scott [00:32:46] It's thrilling. It's emotional having my boys here. My middle son just started last week after four years in private equity and he just joined last week.
[00:32:57] So I had two of my three here, my daughters in grad school. So those guys, you know, they started working in the warehouse. Now, insurance liability, they couldn't start until they were 18 was like, you guys are lucky. Go get a mall job. You know, I couldn't believe it. So they got started a little bit later than Dad did. But they've done the hard work. They've moved around into different positions. I've not had a hand in that. My oldest actually was up for a job competing against an outside candidate about a month ago. And somebody called me and said, well, what do you want us to do? And I said, what do you mean, what do you want me to do? I said, it's your call. You make the call. And they said, well, we think it's outside. Candidates may maybe a little bit better. And I said, well, sounds like you've answered your own question. Make the hire and let's go. There'll be another opportunity for him. So I think they're headed in the right path.
[00:33:53] And I try to feed him as much stuff as I can about the business and what's going on in the industry marketplace. Disruptive forces that are there really encourage them to read you know, just read their faces off. I'm constantly sending them materials, books just to get themselves educated, really encouraging personal development, self-awareness, just being conscious of yourself, assumptions that drive your thinking and behavior. I spend time with them weekly, breakfast with all of them and we're talking shop. What's going on in life? So, you know, I mean, it's an investment. I've encouraged them to give, you know, mentors on their own all that good stuff.
Rusty [00:34:32] Well, they say that the best way to prepare a kid for business in the future is by what you talk about around the dinner table when they're 10 years old. So, you know, I've gotten that great head starts, as you did to my without work.
Henry [00:34:46] I've prepared my sons for a life of college football.
Scott [00:34:50] I was going to say 10 years old then. I'm not sure of the quality there.
Rusty [00:34:59] You didn't get the the pleasure of having our co-host William with us today. We miss him. And he has the task of always bringing us to a close. But I've got the time today. We always try to end our episode of a podcast by pointing back to scripture. So would you mind sharing with us what God's been speaking to you and teaching you from his word recently? And then any closing thoughts that you have for us?
Norm [00:35:23] You know, when I read the breakdown of this interview and everything, we were going to start trying to think of the scriptures that set out, if you would, a basis for us being back then. It was me after Mr.. Sure, she left when he left. When John left, I was told, how are we going to run this company? And what I had learned was that the trying to honor God is everyday deal, all day, all week, all year, like we talked about. I thought, my gosh, I spend more time in business than I do anywhere else. And so what I did, I went through a bunch of scriptures to express to you why I ended up trying to run the company of God honoring basis. Which one I tried to do these and then I tried to put them in order of significance. But anyway, the first one is God. Our Savior desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And so that was the driving force in fishes, for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. And then in John 12:32 says, and I Christ, if I am lifted up, I'll draw M.. And the first, John 5:12 says he who has the son has the life. He does not have the son does not have the life. I tell you this. So you may know you have eternal life. And Jesus said to them again. Peace be with you. As a father has sent me. I also send you. And so I took that is a mandate for life after I went through five years of this discipleship.
[00:36:55] And it says whatever you do, do your work hard, leave for the Lord rather than for men, and you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth. Then what's the future? Here was Gaza. Draw nearer to me, and I'll draw near to you. Bill, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. You must believe that he comes to God. He who comes to God must believe that he is the leader rewarded of those who seek Aspers. Sorry, Beezus 320. Now to him, who is able to do abundantly beyond all we can say?
[00:37:41] According to the power that works within us. So these scriptures, they really represent the movement in my brain and my heart. My man, way back when I took over to see the responsibility and the leadership from God himself, that we have to try to operate a business because our life time is spent and is much more than anything and a man.
Henry [00:38:07] Truer words had never been said on this program. Thank you. Does a great close. We are extraordinarily blessed by your time. When you run a business for fifteen hundred employees and have 18 million products out there that you that you want to service, that's a lot of responsibility and more grateful. Were the recipients of of a great gift of an hour of your time. And we thank you very much.
Norm [00:38:29] Well, thank you for having us.
Scott [00:38:30] Yeah. Thanks, guys.