Bill Child

We just interviewed Bill Child the other day on the Mormon Channel and I was so impressed with him. He took over a debt ridden R.C. Willey in 1954 and built it up and sold it to Warren Buffet. Our audio engineer was sick and he told him he hoped he felt better at the end of the interview, as we were walking out we complimented the floor buffer on what a good job he was doing. What a class act.

The interview was on Integrity and he shared countless stories where the company took losses to honor their commitment to customer service. One an outside warranty company went bankrupt and R.C. Willey honored the warranties at a cost of $1.5 million. He talked about his strict no debt policy and how none of the buildings were mortgaged. He said he hired people based on their work ethic not their resumes.

He talked about how prayer was crucial. He did a lot of innovative things, like offering purchases on credit and having an in-house finance department, and he said he felt prompted by the Holy Ghost to do each of them.

As I was listening I couldn't help but think about how the Holy Ghost had prompted him to do these things that led him to become very wealthy. I think the reason why is so that people would have an example of how having integrity and ethics in business can make you successful. I also think he was blessed because he didn't allow the store to be open on Sundays, even when they expanded to other states. We had to convince Warren Buffet to branch out to other states with a no Sunday policy, which Warren thought wouldn't work.

At the end of the interview he talked about how many comments he has received since the book "How to Build Business Warren Buffet Would Buy" was published. He said he gets letters and thank you's all the time. One company in Seattle actually decided to close its doors on Sundays after reading the book.

He also said one piece of advise I liked. He said that you need to be the same person in every aspect of your life. You often see these great men in the church who are different people in business and have ended up doing shady things. I think its hard sometimes because you often have to be aggressive or demanding in certain situations at work, but think if we applied the same patience in the workplace as we do with people in our wards or family.

The interview will be posted in a few weeks and I will put a link to it.