Mentors Are My Secret Weapon!
Date Posted: March 7, 2024
Posted In: Discussion, Ideas, People,
by Bob Clark, Executive Chairman and Founder, Clayco
From Bob Clark Beyond: Since I acquired a self-inflicted poor education, I was really going to need life teachers and business mentors. As a well-defined Attention Deficit member, in the fifth grade my mind was on the construction project next to my school instead of studying during my time in the Pattonville School District (Go Pirates) in Bridgeton, Missouri. Later, I went to Parkway Central High School in West St. Louis County, where I barely graduated after completing a co-op program in my senior year.
There is a rumor that Noel Reuther and I painted our geography teacher’s house to get the final credit and receive a diploma. Once I became seriously ambitious about entrepreneurship and being in business, the first thing I had to admit was that I didn’t know a lot. I needed to actively seek help and find mentors.
Developing a mentor-mentee relationship is a two-way street with lots of give-and-take. I’d like to think my mentors also took away something from the experience too.
Family Mentors
My most important mentors were my mom and dad, for totally different reasons. What my mom showed me with her actions and attention, and my dad with his words and experiences, are the basis of what became my values, beliefs, non-beliefs, trust, broken trust, and dreams. These are where your visions come from and, ultimately, the desires that lead you to either community service, business, the military, college or technical school, or something terrible.
From ages 16 to 19, I worked closely with my father. I observed some of his painting company superintendents and operational VPs, and even some of their project managers. I learned impressive things from them. I was a great student of the actual actors of work and was ready to get my hands dirty or my clothes covered with paint to learn. I found that when superiors see an active learner, they want to be helpful in their teachings. My Uncle Bill Clark was my dad’s business partner; he graduated from West Point and later received an MBA from Stanford. He spent a ton of time with me in my twenties and influenced me on philosophy and left an indelible mark.
I’m on my Own
In my first serious business endeavor, an equipment company called MMECO, my partner Bob Luby and senior sales executive Richard Soppe had training from major equipment manufacturers like Ingersoll Rand and Caterpillar. They were madmen when it came to customer service. I’ve never met anyone, even to this day, who was better at closing deals than each of them. They were like a dog on a bone when it came to closing a deal. Then, if they got the slightest opportunity, they would deliver equipment as soon as it came off the line.
My True Ambition
After selling my interest to Bob Luby for his long-held goal of having a family business, I moved quickly to pursue my most ambitious dream, to be a designer/builder. (I always thought architecture and building were one thing.) This was a fairly new term then, but I knew it and felt that melding architecture and construction and working directly for clients could be a unique proposition. I was diligent in learning the pain points for clients who needed projects built.
I found a bumpy process when it came to hiring architects who typically didn’t know what projects cost, and then hard-bidding the construction out, and eventually hiring the lowest bidder, and also using a bunch of other low bidders. This often led to adversarial relationships up and down the line. I found construction hard enough without all these other painful processes and believed I could really differentiate myself. I also learned that nobody was getting paid on time, and not many people understood what cash flow was. I knew what it was from the high school snowplowing business I started when I was 16. Cash flow is important.
The Plan Becomes Reality
What a tangled web I started with Clayco. Man, oh man, what I knew for sure was that I would need all the help I could get, and I was not shy about trying to figure out where I could find it. My dad was essential. His three rules were: hire the best and brightest, use the Golden Rule in all things, and gravitate to the best clients. Dad was also my biggest critic and would often insult me by asking what my next line of work would be. I also leaned on some of his friends and business associates, many of whom were instrumental to my success. Gabe Alberici (my first official meeting the day I started Clayco), Ray Pieper, President of Alberici, and Ed Calcaterra – EVP of Alberici, along with friend Tim Crowley, were some of the very first people I called on in 1984. Lorry Bannes from BSI Constructors in St. Louis was also an early teacher, especially in the world of concrete.