Home Depot co-founder, Ken Langone (left) with Dr. Edward Lopez after his talk at the Distinguished speakers series, Oct. 22, 2018. Photo by Jillian Kassor.
Ken Langone, business icon and co-founder of Home Depot, shared his entrepreneurial experience with over 200 members of WCU’s staff, students and local community members through stories, tips and his novel I Love Capitalism! An American Story.
Lagone’s talk on Oct. 22 was part of the University Distinguished Speaker Series and co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise and the Division of Academic Affairs, supports the provision of varied and well-rounded educational programs. The Distinguished Speaker Series was designed to expose different views from high profile men and women in education, arts, music, politics and more. The Center provides economics research and education.
The audience was from all over the region – Cullowhee, Sylva, Waynesville and other towns in Western North Carolina. Donna Coennen, an event attendee from Franklin, said she was very impressed that WCU had such a well-known entrepreneur.
Although Ken Langone was born into a family of little money, he grew up to become an entrepreneur, philanthropist, television commentator and co-founder of Home Depot. He now finds himself to be worth an astonishing $3.4 billion and according to Forbes is among the richest people (#207) in the world. Langone, a grandson of Italian immigrants, dug ditches for the Long Island Expressway before he went to Bucknell University to study economics. He made a name for himself on Wall Street and later invested in Home Depot with Arthur Blank and Bernard Marcus in 1978, generating a massive amount of income.
His book I love Capitalism! An American story is a memoir where he tells the story of his unlikely rise and controversial career. It’s also a passionate defense of the American Dream. As he said in an interview for CBS This Morning he wrote the book after 2016 when he saw many young people supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The director of the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise, Dr. Edward Lopez, asked Langone to advise the students about his secret to success. Langone went on to explain the importance of loving what you do. Langone said the minute a person finds they are dragging themselves to work that it is time to move on.
The keys to a successful business as Langone puts it is to be quick to speak for and protect the customers.
“Never sell the customer more than they want or more than they need,” said Langone adding that when someone is selling products to a consumer who does not need them is stealing. Workers must be honest and neighborly with customers. “That’s how you build trust. Good will.”
The audience learned a lot during the two hour event. For Larry Trout, business entrepreneur, the most beneficial advice was how to treat the customers.
Lopez asked how one makes judgement calls that may or may not drastically change the course of the business’s life to which Langone said that he never made these choices with thoughts of anything, but the importance of his own moral compass.
“There is only one thing that matters in terms of judgement and that’s reputation. You’re going to make mistakes, don’t let them be mistakes of integrity or character. Any other mistakes you will recover from. People grow from failure,” said Langone.
The discussion was not only informative, but it was also passionate and had many laughing points. Above all, Langone stressed how important the consumer is because without them there is no company.
“The key to any company is, and always will be, the people of our nation,” said Langone.
