Furrow: “They may kill you, but they won’t eat you!”

Sam Furrow speaks Wednesday at the Knoxville Chamber.

Sam Furrow speaks Wednesday at the Knoxville Chamber.

In 1988, Knoxville auctioneer-car dealer Sam Furrow was awakened by a call from a banker. “Mr. Furrow, your dealership is out of trust to us for about $2 million,” the man said. Furrow sat up and shouted, “It can’t be!”

How could that happen to a car dealership that made more than $700,000 in nine months of that year, Furrow wondered.

“The Ford-Mercedes Benz dealership in Georgia that was the best deal I ever made had been a nightmare I could never have dreamed — but would experience for months and years to come,” Furrow recalls.

Furrow was the first speaker Wednesday afternoon in the Knoxville Chamber‘s new “Storytellers” speakers series.

What Furrow did was go down to Georgia and auction off 600 cars to pay the bank. “You can’t earn your way out of a financial hole like that,” he said. “You have to sell your way out.”

The experience, he said, shook him to the core. “I experienced a hit I never thought possible,” he said.  It made him re-think the way he did business. “I had been an ‘investor’ until then,” he said. “But then I got INTO the car business instead of getting out of it.” He became a hands-on manager from then on. “It made me a better businessman, stockholder and communicator,” he said.

Now he wants to help others who have similar experiences. So he’s written a little book: “Hits Happen: Big Sam’s 35 Rules for Managing and Recovering from Financial and Personal Catastrophes.”

He says “hits” happen to everyone. They might be financial hits, such as his, or they may be health-related or relationship hits. In any case, he says his rules apply. Here are some of them:

  • When you face a crisis, act quickly. “If you’ve got to eat it, it tastes better fresh than it does stale!”
  • “If you get hit, you are going to need a captain — and you are the captain. ” Nobody else can make decisions for you in a crisis.
  • Stay optimistic. “Anger will be directed at yourself,” he said. “You will be on an emotional roller coaster. But the ultimate comfort is that there is only so much anybody can do to you. They may kill you, but they won’t eat you.”
  • Be honest with yourself and others. But tell only those people who need to know about the crisis. Furrow said these include “your spouse, your banker, your lawyer, your CPA, your 18-year-old kid, but not your 2-year-old kid.”
  • Share information with close supporters and your mentor. In Furrow’s case, that was Knoxville businessman Jim Haslam, who also happened to sit on the board of the bank Furrow did business with. “You gotta involve the right people,” Furrow said. “If I hadn’t shared my problem with Haslam, he couldn’t have helped me.”
  • Seek professional help from experts.
  • Take responsibility. “To err is human,” Furrow said. “But to blame it on someone else is more human.”
  • Remember what Furrow calls the lifeguard rule. “They keep giving you artificial respiration as long as they think you have a chance of living. Bankers are the same way. So don’t look broke. Don’t act broke.”
  • Use damage control. “Keep the damage to as small an area as possible. Don’t let it bleed over to other areas of your life, like your marriage.”
  • Use what he calls the Las Vegas rule and don’t totally change your career or your life. “In Las Vegas, you win it back at the game you lost it at,” Furrow said. “Don’t change games. Don’t jump from table to table. Winners in Vegas stay at the same table.” He said it takes five years to really learn a new profession.
  • Be bold, such as he was when he sold 600 cars at one time. “Take the extra chemo,” he advised. “The meek may inherit the earth, but they won’t inherit the mineral rights!”
  • He advised the audience to follow the 4-H rule, which he said is, “Don’t fall in love with your show cow.” Don’t fall in love with an asset, he explained, and be sure and figure out what your real assets are.
  • In a crisis, cash is king. “Start accruing cash as soon as you know you are hit.”
  • Whether you are dealing with bankers or hospitals or doctors, try to deal with the highest level person possible. “Go to the decision maker,” he said. “Go as high as you can. If you get an Indian, you’ve got an Indian. But if you get a chief, you’ve got a whole tribe.”
  • Keep in mind the Wall Street rule, he said. “Wall Street has a six-month memory. People forget. People don’t care. You may carry that hit with you forever, but other people forget relatively quickly.”

Furrow said he will make his book available through the Knoxville Chamber. Thoughts?

Chamber President and CEO Mike Edwards, left, chats with Jim Holleman after Furrow's talk Wednesday.

Chamber President and CEO Mike Edwards, left, chats with Jim Holleman after Furrow's talk Wednesday.

Linda Evans and Chamber Board Chairman Mike Strickland

Linda Evans and Chamber Board Chairman Mike Strickland

Will Kidd and Sharon Miller Pryse

Will Kidd and Sharon Miller Pryse

Will Pugh, left, and David Martin

Will Pugh, left, and David Martin

Sam Furrow answers questions following his talk.

Sam Furrow answers questions following his talk.

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7 Responses to Furrow: “They may kill you, but they won’t eat you!”

  1. Annette Winston, on May 20th, 2010 at 10:43 am said:

    Sam Furrow’s character is the best lesson anyone could have taken away this morning. Sam’s experience taught him what I often heard bankers say, “If you take care of your company, your company will take care of you.” Getting in there and being hands on got him the result he wanted. Course, it doesn’t hurt to be brilliant either.

  2. S Clark, on May 21st, 2010 at 2:58 am said:

    Wrote my story (for Monday’s Shopper) and then checked yours. Dammit.

    Not only did you publish first, but you wrote it better.

    My picture is better, though. — s.

  3. Cynthia Moxley, on May 21st, 2010 at 3:30 am said:

    Sandra, you are cracking me up! I’m sure my story’s not better. And I look forward to seeing your picture — you had a better seat!

  4. S Clark, on May 21st, 2010 at 10:59 am said:

    That’s because I got there on time! — s.

  5. Cynthia Moxley, on May 23rd, 2010 at 4:48 pm said:

    Ha! Fair enough!

  6. Aveery Maples, on January 31st, 2014 at 10:01 pm said:

    I would love to get a copy of the book Sam Furrow has written. I have contacted the Knoxville Chamber and they do not know anything about the book or how I might obtain a copy.

    Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you!

  7. Cynthia Moxley, on February 1st, 2014 at 6:18 pm said:

    Ms. or Mr. Maples: I would suggest contacting Furrow Auction Company here in Knoxville.They should have the book or be able to put you in touch with Sam.

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