Question for Sal

[RugerNurse]

What is it like to run a knife company? What’s your favorite aspect of it and least favorite aspect?

[JohnNYPD]

Have to a pretty sharp guy to run a knife company

[apollo]

I think both questions can be the same answer. Best thing is the fans the worst thing also the fans.

[Mk-211]

I think both questions can be the same answer. Best thing is the fans the worst thing also the fans.

This is the correct answer.

[JohnNYPD]

You have to be a pretty sharp guy to run a knife company

[sal]

Hi RugerNurse,

I'll have to think about that for a bit. Not a simple answer.

sal

[RustyIron]

C'mon, now. Don't be shy.
Knife Maker Quarterly did an article on what it's like to be knife maker: It's all about the fast cars, fast women, Cuban cigars, and expensive Champagne.

[GT99]

Have to a pretty sharp guy to run a knife company

yeah you do need to be to get an edge on the competition, thats why they are a cut above the rest

[wrdwrght]

Have to a pretty sharp guy to run a knife company

yeah you do need to be to get an edge on the competition, thats why they are a cut above the rest

[sal]

Hi RugrNurse,

Talkin' Story;

Thanks for the question. I’ve done some thinking about it, and I’ve decided to divide it up into three different sections: starting the company, running the company, and our semi retirement.

In starting the company, it was kind of an interesting thing because we really started with almost nothing. Gail and I had a bread delivery truck that we converted to a to a motor home that we were making payments on and an old Volkswagen that we used to store our equipment. We towed it behind the bread truck. There was really not a lot of money to go around, so we borrowed $250 to make it to our first show. And then we drove across the country from California to Boston to work that show. We were making our products in campgrounds and selling them in flee markets, County Fairs, and whatever show we could get into. The portable hand was one of the first things that we manufactured on the road. It really took a lot of effort. Gail and I were either building products, driving to the next location, working the location, and then back to building more products. We would sometimes work for several months at a time without a day off.

And so that’s a lot different than running a company, but we were running the company while we began to promote the company. Here I’m going to post a quote from Calvin Coolidge called "Persistence";

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

I thought I would throw that in because that’s really what it takes in the beginning.
Once we actually had a company going and we were shipping products and selling products and located in Golden Colorado back in 1978, we were still hard charging, but the responsibilities were different. We had employees to help finish the product and help sell the product. A lot of running the company was watching the finances and watching the bottom line. Also focusing on design and marketing so that we could get as much attention as we could. And as the company grew, a lot of responsibilities we handled ourselves like accounts payable and accounts receivable, we were able to get assistance which gave us more time to spend on promoting the company.

Again, working shows was the primary method before the internet. But any way you cut it, when you’re running a company, you’re really occupied and involved with the dynamics all the time. Even on days off you’re always thinking about this product or that marketing possibility, which we did for many years.

And now, Gail and I are semi-retired and so the dynamic again is different. We are looking at the overall business closely, trying to make sure everything is running smoothly, but Eric is running the company, so our responsibilities have changed.

I hope that answers your question. If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, we are pretty transparent in what we do.

sal

[Evil D]

Cliff Notes,

Sal and Gail are self made hustler badasses. You don't build a business out of a bread truck without being a badass, that's not an easy path.



Sal what ever happened to that bread truck?

[sal]

Hi David,

It ended up in a Wisconsin airport. Probably long gone now. We wish we could have retrieved it, but at the time we didn't have the time or funds. I guess the few pics we have and our memories will serve. "Life is but a memory".

sal

[WilliamMunny]

Sal, that's an awesome story. How did you ever convince Gail to get in a bread truck and travel the US selling a sharpener? Or did she convince you? I had a hard enough time convincing my wife to move to a nice house in a different state for my job. Takes a very strong and loving women to do that.

[sal]

Hi WilliamMunny,

When Gail and I got together, she was pretty young. But she was game and fearless, still is. Not only did she jump in with both feet, we had a two year old with us. She also trusted me and my wild ideas. Spyderco never would have happened if there was no Gail at my side through thick and thin.

sal

[JoviAl]

…Here I’m going to post a quote from Calvin Coolidge called "Persistence";

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

This quote really resonates with me

Working as an educator at a tier 1 Private Educational Institution (that’s what we’re referred to in the industry, not me egotistically blowing smoke up my own backside) I have noticed that the real difference that you receive for your ~S$50,000 per year in tuition fees is not how much smarter your child comes out the other end compared to state education, but rather that they understand that being super smart isn’t enough to truly excel - you need networking, self motivation, humility, grit and tenacity in abundance too. That quote would make a fitting start to every child (and adult’s day).

If ever you get bored of selling knives I reckon you’d do well publishing curated collections of quotes Sal

[sal]

Hi Al,

When we hire a new person to be part of the Spyderco crew, we give them an engraved plaque of "Desiderata".

sal

[Naperville]

@Sal, you caught lightning in a bottle. I think your life story should be mandated reading for business majors all across the USA.

[sal]

Hi Naperville,

Thanx, but our business "style" is somewhat unconventional by "Business 101" standards.

sal

[JoviAl]

Hi Al,

When we hire a new person to be part of the Spyderco crew, we give them an engraved plaque of "Desiderata".

sal

There’s a lot of good sense and humility in those lines. It reminds me a bit of Tecumseh’s ‘Live Your Life’ but geared more for comporting yourself in business.

@Naperville have you ever read or listened to Jim Collin’s ‘Good to Great’? If you have then you might want to gloss over the rest of this or it’ll be an exercise in sucking eggs . It’s basically a research project on businesses that fulfilled a rigorous set of criteria that identified them as ‘great’. The research team managed to identify out of tens of thousands of publicly listed companies over a few decades of sampling that only about 15 achieved their metric of Great. Within the book there is a chapter on Hedgehog Concepts that from the outside looking in I’d put money on Spyderco having refined their own. I also quietly reckon there might be more of what Collins refers to as Level 5 Leaders distributed throughout Spyderco’s employees at all levels than in your average company.

Being critical I don’t necessarily agree with all of Collin’s metrics of success (fiscal growth for growth’s sake being placed on a pedestal as the primary driver of a business for example), but their research findings are an interesting lens to look at things through.

Al

[Naperville]

Hi Naperville,

Thanx, but our business "style" is somewhat unconventional by "Business 101" standards.

sal

Thank you for responding to me.

I graduated from Iowa State University. Started as a Computer Engineering EE, and was shocked at how hard physics was. Before my GPA took a hit, I switched majors in my junior year to the College of Business and obtained a degree in Management, Management Information Systems.

Conventional texts and books that were required reading when I was at school accentuated the mundain all the way to CHAINSAW Al Dunlap. There is plenty of room for a serious study of your company. You should leave your mark. Many people vote with their dollars every day and end up pleased with a Spyderco product. I know, I'm here, so maybe I'm a little jaded, but Spyderco has to be in the top 3 in what they do in the knife industry and you have been a recognized global leader across the board.

Everything is unconventional until research proves there is a science to it.