Unauthorized Autobiography – What I learned from Piranhas about Surviving on the Less Traveled Road

By Herb Lair

My story includes:

What I learned about business while working at the CIA

Handling the social challenges of the sixties when making money was “out” and making contributions to society was “in”

Starting and growing a technology company in the Ozarks

Having the “Father of survivalism” as a client

Battling foreclosure against the FSLIC and the Rose Law Firm – including the legal team of Hillary Clinton, Vince Foster, and Web Hubbell

Making business presentations and getting on prime time TV in Beijing and Hangzhou, China

Catching Piranha on the Amazon

Selling and installing software in Russia for one of the richest people in the US and dealing with former members of the KGB.

Dealing with multimillion-dollar ego’s in Saipan, a forty-eight square mile island in the Pacific Ocean including the “H” in DHL Freight

Selling a system in Indonesia with ties to the former Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker; the Riadys; former Rose Law Firm Attorney, Joe Giroir; and President Clinton

Providing service bureau work for a survivalist whom later received a lot of national media attention in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing

Dealing with the lack of accountability of the media

Finding support from the media to grow your business.

Selling my business to industry leader with the assistance of the Rose Law Firm

Dealing with success and failure through my eyes and through my brother’s eyes

Working with local politics turning around 911.

CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND

I grew up near Harrison, Arkansas; a small rural, isolated, community nestled in the Ozark Mountains. Sometimes referred to as “the hub of the Ozarks or more fashionably now, the crossroads of the Ozarks”. A community that is not unlike other rural villages that dots the map across the US. Being a native of the area I will show, at times, my prejudices for the many redeeming social qualities of the area; but as a businessman I will attempt to show the frustrations that an “agent of change” experiences in rural America. Even to the point of forcing the founding fathers to rethink what kind of community they really want to live in. A community associated with tourism, manufacturing, or technology and information? I won’t bore you with all those Chamber of Commerce facts and figures (Additional background information about Harrison can be found in the Appendix or on the Internet). But remember Harrison is a nice community where the quality of life is second to none. I grew up there and chose to return and raise my family.

During most of my younger years, my sources for information were the radio, newspaper, and the Twentieth Century Fox newsreel at the local movie theater. Hard news about the weather and tragedies was received within a few hours or at most within a day of the event while soft news including movies, music, the arts, and fashions generally took weeks and even months to filter down to the Ozarks. There were times when I would buy a record when on vacation and bring it back to be played on the local radio station KHOZ.

Since Harrison is 75 miles from a city of any sizable population, the community has operated, in the past, like a medieval castle with an artificial moat surrounding the city. The city was complete with kings, knights, noblemen, and serfs. The power and a self-empowered attitude of the kings developed to an almost surreal level.  You had to be a member of the in-group to get capital to start and grow your business, to purchase real estate, or to get any recognition for your accomplishments when good things happened or to keep your name out of the paper when bad things happened. My father, Joe Lair, once went to the bank to borrow money to buy some adjoining property. He thought was a good value; but the next thing he knew the bank vice president, Ernest Times, had bought it out from under him. The self appointed power brokers included politicians, bank presidents, and the newspaper publisher. The community was virtually self-sufficient and its isolation inherently created the kingdom for the pseudo rulers. The arrival of technology started a new paradigm. The first phase of technology came as a Trojan horse disguised as a Wal-Mart store.  Wal-Mart’s second store opened in Harrison in 1964. It was their first store outside their immediate home area of Rogers and Bentonville, Arkansas. The Harrison market, in effect, proved the Wal-Mart business model that turned into one of the biggest success stories of the twentieth century. My wife’s Aunt Grace McCutcheon became the Harrison stores first employee. With the stock options, Aunt Grace was a wealthy woman when she died. For those who thought Wal-Mart would be just another failed discount store, Sam Walton quickly proved that”it’s the technology, stupid!” Technology provided a just-in-time inventory management control system that allowed product demands to be monitored and sold directly to the serfs at much lower prices than the local alternatives. The stealth economic war was won before the local power brokers could return fire. Money and the power that goes with it began leaving the community. People were voting for the change in status quo with their pocketbooks. It was a much more significant local vote then any of those taken at the ballot box. Wal-Mart along with the technological advances that allowed overnight delivery of products via UPS and FedEx were the facilitators that created the environment for those major changes. In order for the community to survive there had to be a new order of business. The ruling powers, disguised as local leaders, were soon to exist only in their own minds. Today’s world was passing them by.

Today information flows to anywhere in the world in fractions of seconds. Resources are now independent of location. High-tech has no bounds. You have to think globally, but still treat customers as if they live next door. Even Bangalore, India is now a major player in information technology and software development.  Our local newspaper publisher wrote, for many years, about e-commerce being a risky business. His economic philosophy focuses on supporting local businesses so the sales tax can be collected in order to maintain local services and schools. Never mentioning that most of his advertising dollars come from those same local retailers he is protecting. Also never giving the other side of the picture. Many businesses with employees located in Harrison sell and support products and services sold nationally and internationally.  Their livelihood depends on people in other locations not buying locally. Today much of the disposable income spent in Harrison comes from the huge amount of income and revenues generated from businesses doing business outside the Harrison area. Duncan Industries, parking meter division, was located in Harrison. If your city has parking meters, the odds are good that you had Duncan meters. I have seen their meters around the San Martin Plaza in Buenos Aires, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and Coconut Grove in Miami; but you won’t find a single one around the streets of Harrison. Sounds a little like the VISA commercial taking a shot at American Express. The reason – so the downtown retail stores could compete with the mall and Wal-Mart. How much more state income taxes, with a portion being returned for local use, are collected from people and businesses with national and global revenue? We are in a new paradigm! What a paradox! Can small towns realize the global opportunities that are only clicks away on their computers?

With apologies to New Yorker’s, if you can make a technology company successful in rural America you can make it anywhere. The Ozarks is not an ideal place to pursue your million. The purpose of this book is to give my story and observations– As well as what it’s going to take for rural America to survive and prosper in the Information Age. Small towns need to make technology their new best friends. My story is to detail the problems with the hope of educating small town leaders on what they must do to survive and prosper.

How to get and keep key people in remote locations

How to operate with limited capitalization

How to survive foreclosure

How to survive tax audits

How to fight bad press

How to work with the media

How to fight government and win

How to focus on the right product

How to sell and market from and to remote locations

How to provide customer care

How to grow your company

How to persevere

How to exit successfully

How to start again.

Lessons I learned from family, family businesses, the CIA, big oil companies, and in running my own technology business in rural America. At the time I left the acquisition company, my Cable TV subscriber management software was installed in nearly 50 countries, three times more than the nearest competitor. Businesses in small rural communities have always pushed the idea of buying locally and patronizing the locally owned businesses. My business went from having 100% of my customers locally based to 0%. My company’s success was built around my clients not buying locally. One of the many paradoxes faced in growing a business.

My brother Gene was four years older than me.  From the beginning he had many more entrepreneurial traits. He learned to repair TVs, restore automobiles, learned photography including darkroom development, real estate business and even became a commercial pilot. Self taught for the most part. Everything he did was with the intention of maximizing his moneymaking capabilities from sales to profits. Early on he allocated his time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth. I did all the “grunt” works at the service station and TV & appliance business from fixing tire flats to installing television antennas. I didn’t look at anything as to how I could make the most money. I was more interested in academics, sports, and was a political idealist.

 We lived totally different lives. My intention is to give my brother’s story in his own words, as much as possible.