Junk to Gold: Lessons I Learned
Building Copart by Founder Willis Johnson
Junk to Gold is a personal story about finding success while maintaining your dedication.
Copart founder, Willis Johnson, described his journey from opening Copart's first auction location in Vallejo, California to being Chairman of the Board for a multi-billion-dollar global business. Even at the height of his success, Willis remained grounded in his values putting family-first. Willis' story will inspire the entrepreneur in everyone to start building their dream.
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About the Author
Willis Johnson was born in Clinton, Oklahoma where he learned how to run a business from his father who ran many businesses from dairy farming to restaurants and house building. Watching his father's hard work fostered Willis' entrepreneurial spirit leading him to found Copart in 1982 by opening the first auction location. Currently Willis lives in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife Joyce but remains a part of Copart as Chairman of the Board. While most of his focus is on family or work, Willis enjoys classic cars and black Angus cattle.
Thoughts from Willis
"When I look back, I think my success is partly due to the lessons my father taught me and partly due to God's hand guiding me along the way. I also think a good portion of it has to do with the fact it never occurred to me that what I was doing may not work. I never thought I couldn't do it. Some may call it confidence. Some may even think that kind of blind optimism comes from ignorance. But I just never let the possibility of failure enter my mind. And I think when you can leap into something whole heartedly like that you can do amazing things because you don't have fear holding you back." – Willis Johnson
Excerpt from Junk to Gold
From Chapter 4: Lessons I Learned Building a Dream
"As sales and inventory grew, I needed a bigger building to display all the parts and to continue to grow. Just like my dad, I turned to the paper for a solution. I saw a metal building for sale in West Sacramento, a fabricated four-thousand-square-foot building that had been put up to serve as a Seventh Day Adventist Church. The congregation had decided they didn't want a metal building for their place of worship, so they listed it for sale at $5,000 with the condition that the buyer would have to take it down and move it to his or her own property.
I thought it was a pretty good deal, a cheap way to get a new building. So Curtis, Joyce, and I and the kids went to disassemble it--me and Curtis doing the heavy work while Joyce and the kids took the hundreds of screws and washers that came from the building (worth 5 cents apiece) and put them into buckets so we could reconstruct it in the wrecking yard."
What Others are Saying
"Not only did Willis live the American Dream; through Copart, he enabled others to live it also… including me."
— Paul Styer, SVP Legal, Copart
"How [Willis] thinks and his capacity to be decisive is why Copart has grown from one junk yard to a $4.5 billion international high-tech inspired auction company."