After starting Tires Plus with three converted service stations, I approached Jack McClard, a representative for [automotive wheel-service equipment company] FMC for pricing . . . . We ended up adding Jack’s equipment to our wholesale division and becoming his biggest distributor. Jack and I also became very close friends. Jack was always fair with his employees, but if they were pushing him to do something he thought would hurt the company, boy, he put his foot down. I mentioned once how tough he was on them, and he said, ‘Tom, if I did what they wanted me to, I’d go out of business. Then everyone would say, “Old Jack was a nice guy, but he didn’t know how to run a business.”’ I’ll never forget that. What I learned from Jack is that there’s a middle ground between being a dictator and a doormat, and that’s being warm hearted but tough minded.
I learned that lesson so well that it ended up damaging our friendship. About 10 years in, one of Jack’s rivals offered us a package of product lines that would save us $100,000 annually. I called Jack and asked if he could match the offer. He tried but came up well short. ‘I hate to do this, Jack,’ I said, ‘but one of our principles is to give the best value to our customers and shareholders, so I’ve gotta go with the other guy’s offer.’ There was more at stake than dollars. I felt the eyes of my people on me, watching to see if I would walk my talk.
We were still friends after that, but he didn’t look at me the same way. It really hurt him. I felt badly when he died a few years later, but if I had to do it all over again, I would have to have made the same decision.
