"Junk to Gold" by Willis J. Johnson

Video Transcript

My name is Willis Johnson. I am the chairman of the board and founder of Copart Salvage Auto Auctions.

The book is named Junk to Gold. The reason I wrote the book is, as I built the company, I had a lot of good adventures, bought a lot of companies out, got to meet the owners of every one of these independent people that we acquired, and you get to hear their stories because they all started from the bottom up.

People don't really get to meet an entrepreneur that starts his business from the ground up, that actually takes a company public, and they want to know the adventure of it. How did that happen? I get asked that a lot, and most people don't know anything about a wrecked automobile. They just know they get in a wreck, call the insurance company, the car disappears, and it goes away. They have no idea what happens to that automobile afterwards, and when you start to tell them a little story about it, they want to hear more, and they want to hear more.

A lot of my lessons were learned from when I was a kid, being raised with my father as an independent entrepreneur that couldn't read, but he could start a business in a whim. Everything my dad said, you know, I just lived on it. I just thrived on everything he did, and I just wanted to learn, learn, learn. I didn't realize that I was teaching myself the importance of running a business.

Later on, we bought our first auto dismantling yard. The day that we bought it, me and my wife went and prayed on all four corners and dedicated it to the Lord. We've done that ever since we've been in business. Whatever we've done, He's always blessed us. We've had very few mistakes and it wasn't because of me being so smart. It was because we've asked for guidance and the Lord's always blessed our company.

The book is available now at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Copart.com, and it is available at this time.

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