Junk to Gold: From Salvage to the World's Largest Online Auto Auction

by Willis Johnson

Overview

Junk to Gold is about one man's journey from humble beginnings to unimaginable success. Willis Johnson, the founder of Copart [CPRT], offers up a personal and inspirational account of this journey to the top including lessons he learned from love, war and building a global, multi-billion dollar business. Even at the pinnacle of success, Willis remained grounded in his family-first values. His stories will inspire and provoke the entrepreneur in everyone to start building their dream.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781490816579
Publisher:	WestBow Press
Publication date:	01/13/2014
Pages:	188
Sales rank:	428,948
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Born in Clinton, OK and raised on a farm in Arkansas, Willis Johnson grew up learning about business from his father, an entrepreneur who dabbled in everything from dairy farming to running restaurants to building houses. Willis would go on to breathe the same air of determination and perseverance. Willis’ first company Mather changed the way the auto parts industry operated and he would go on to do the same with Copart which started as one auto auction in Vallejo, California. More than 30 years later, Willis is Chairman of the Board of a multi-billion dollar business and Copart is the global leader in online auto auctions with over 160 locations worldwide.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Preface xiii

Chapter 1 Lessons My Dad Taught Me 1

Chapter 2 Lessons the War Taught Me 17

Chapter 3 Lessons I Learned While Starting a Family 27

Chapter 4 Lessons I Learned Building a Dream 45

Chapter 5 Lessons I Learned as a Teacher 81

Chapter 6 Lessons I Learned Going to Wall Street 92

Chapter 7 Lessons I Learned from the Competition 113

Chapter 8 Lessons I Learned from the Next Generation 127

Chapter 9 Lessons I Learned from Our Employees 144

Chapter 10 Lessons I Learned Overseas 155

About the Author 171

Editorial Reviews

2014-06-23
A fast-acting entrepreneur with a positive attitude, good gut instincts and endless energy relates how he made money on junked autos in thisdebut memoir.In 1972, Vietnam veteran Johnson started his business with nothing but a 5-acre auto dismantling yard east of Sacramento. But he relentlessly expanded and innovated, eventually founding Copart, an international online auto auction, and taking it public. This is no mean achievement for a man from very humble beginnings. His first teacher was his father, who knew his way around the auto-wrecking trade and could spot good deals—even if he had to learn about them by listening to his wife read aloud from the local newspaper’s classified section. In this memoir, the son, now in retirement, tells a classic story of second-generation success, although he leaves the actual writing to his former Copart communications director, debut author and former journalist Pugh. Her professionally rendered account of Johnson’s steady, upward climb makes for engaging reading; it even includes chapter subheadings with motivational messages to good effect. However, Johnson’s unalloyed first-person voice is lost, and Pugh isn’t given to critical appraisal. Johnson is shown as trustworthy, decisive and God-fearing, putting family first but working himself to the bone, and all in all, he emerges as a man with something extra. But the narrative goes only as far as Johnson wants to take it, and the focus softens during rougher patches or when exploring the interstices of his little-understood industry. For example, the book laments the devastation and flooding in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as a prelude to disclosing that its aftermath was a bonanza for auto salvagers. However, it doesn’t detail how these swamped vehicles worked their way through salvaging, leaving readers unenlightened about the afterlife of water-damaged auto parts.A memoir full of entrepreneurial spirit that may be inspirational to readers trying to make it in business on their own.

Kirkus Reviews