Randy Squibb Served as NWSA President From 1994-1995
It’s hard to believe that it has been more than 30 years since I served as President of NWSA. A lot has happened in that time. I’ve sold businesses, bought another one, worked for some of the largest companies in our industry, helped my wife open a boutique and found new ways to give back to my community.
But when I look back at everything that has happened since my presidency, it all comes back to the same thing I’ve been preaching for years: relationships.
Not long after my year as President, I experienced something that showed me just how important those relationships can be.
A very dear friend of mine, Jim Robertson, was in line to become NWSA President. Jim and I had a unique relationship. We had been roommates at Texas Tech before eventually becoming competitors. Industrial Oxygen was about five minutes away from Welders Supply. But through all of that, we remained best friends.
Jim was diagnosed with cancer in 1996 and passed away the following year.
During Jim’s illness, our good friend and fellow NWSA Past President Chip Valentine stepped in and helped Jim sell his business. There were tax and timing issues involved, and the transaction ultimately wasn’t completed until after Jim passed away. But Chip was there to help Jim and his wife, Gwen, through an incredibly difficult time.
I’ll never forget that.
I’ve always said that one of the greatest benefits of being involved with NWSA and GAWDA is the network of relationships you build. 99.99% of the time, those relationships are just a wonderful part of being in this industry. You see each other at meetings. You play golf. You have dinner. You pick up the phone when you have a business problem and call somebody who may have dealt with the same thing.
But every once in a while, life happens. And when it does, you realize just how valuable those relationships really are.
Jim’s passing also made me start thinking more seriously about my own future and the future of our company.
My dad had retired in 1985, and my brother, Terry, eventually came to me and told me that he wanted to do something else. I had always told our employees that if they weren’t happy doing what they were doing, they needed to find something else to do. Terry reminded me of my own advice.
I asked him to stay through my year as NWSA President to provide some continuity at the company, which he did. Afterward, I bought him out and gave two of our key employees, Warren Hankammer and Scott Joyce, an opportunity to buy a piece of the company.
Then, in March 1998, I sold Welders Supply to BOC and stayed on for another two years.
I learned a valuable lesson during those two years. It’s not the president or the chairman of the board who runs the company. It’s the HR director.
We had never had an HR director at Welders Supply. I guess I was the HR director and just didn’t know it.
At the end of those two years, I didn’t go running to them asking to stay, and they sure didn’t come running after me begging me to stay.
So, in 2000, I bought a small distributorship in Odessa called Basin Welding Supply. I went back to Scott Joyce and asked if he would move his family to West Texas and join me. Thankfully, he said yes.
That period also kept me connected to an industry that had been part of my life since I received my first paycheck in 1965. Eventually, my good friend Brent Sparks, who was President of Airgas Southwest, gave me an opportunity to share some of the things I had learned over the years about relationships with associates and customers.
And I always say those two things in that order.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you treat your employees with dignity and respect, that is how they will treat your customers when you aren’t around.
Anybody can treat a customer well when the boss is standing there watching. The real test is how that customer gets treated when the boss isn’t there.
That message gave me an opportunity to travel around the country talking about relationships and the role they play in building a successful business. Whether you’re an independent distributor or part of a national company, the principle is the same. People still buy from people.
I stayed with Airgas until 2015, when I turned 65. And then my career took a turn I don’t think anybody could have predicted.
My wife, Julie, had always wanted to own a boutique, so we opened Market Street Nest.
I went from selling welding equipment, industrial supplies and gases in what was, especially when I started, one of the most male-dominated industries on the planet, to selling knickknacks in a boutique.
And you know what I found out?
The relationship part didn’t change one bit.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling industrial gases or home décor. People want to do business with people they trust. They want to be treated with dignity and respect. They want to feel like their business matters.
Julie and I eventually sold the store after five or six years because we realized we were working harder than we ever had. We were open six days a week, and on the seventh day we were counting inventory and doing all the things that needed to be done when the doors were closed.
Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I can pay forward some of what this industry has given me.
I found an opportunity to do that through the Kaufman County Children’s Advocacy Center. I’ve served on the board for about eight years and as President for the last three. The Center works with some of the most vulnerable children in our community who have experienced physical or sexual abuse.
To see the work those employees do every day is incredible. They truly are angels on earth.
As I rotate off the board this year, I’ll be looking for the next opportunity to find a passion and make a difference. And even that, in a way, goes back to what I learned through NWSA and GAWDA about serving others, getting involved and paying it forward.
I attended my first NWSA meeting as a full-time employee in 1975. Some of the people I met through this association are still among my best friends today. People like Bill Higley, Chip Valentine, Dave Mahoney, Wally Brant, Jack Butler, Terry Hall, Fred Fitch and so many others.
Do you notice a trend in that group?
They’re all Past Presidents.
Even today, I can pick up the phone and call any one of them. It might be a business question. It might be something related to the Advocacy Center. Or it might just be an opportunity to renew an old friendship.
That is what I hope the next generation of GAWDA members understands.
People sometimes ask me what advice I would give today’s second-, third- and even fourth-generation business owners. There are a whole lot of people in this industry who have been more successful than Randy Squibb. But I guess when you have gray hair and you’ve been around as long as I have, people start asking you those questions.
My answer is pretty simple.
Run your business according to the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Take care of your employees and associates first. Treat them with dignity and respect, and they will treat your customers the same way. Give the next generation an opportunity to learn from you, but also encourage them to build their own relationships and their own network within GAWDA.
That is one thing I hope we never lose.
Technology will continue to change. Companies will be bought and sold. Generations will come and go. But the relationships we build with our associates, customers and peers are still the foundation of this industry.
I got my first paycheck in this business in 1965, and my life has never been the same.
Thank you, NWSA. Thank you, GAWDA. Thank you for the friendships, the opportunities and the many, many things this industry has done for me and my family.
I hope I’ve been able to give a little bit of it back.
