Roads To Success 4.1

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Wayne Huizenga, Jr.

I first met Wayne Huizenga, Jr. on an overcast morning in the Dolphin Stadium parking lot in Miami, Florida, in 2002.  The occasion was an event organized by Lift Up America, at the time a very new charitable organization committed to bringing hope to those in need.  The organization had arranged for sizable donations of food and toys that would be divided among several Miami area churches; the churches would then distribute the donations to needy families.  Several Miami Dolphins’ players were on hand to help unload the trucks, distribute the goods, and sign autographs.

This was one of Lift Up America’s first events and I had been enlisted to help coordinate and direct the media team tasked with documenting the proceedings.  I was preparing on-air copy with announcer Spencer Tillman when someone called out, “Here comes Wayne.”  A helicopter cut through the gray sky over the stadium and touched down in a barricaded space in an empty section of the parking lot.

Wayne, or “Junior” as he is often called by friends, energetically exited the aircraft, shook a few hands and then immediately stepped in front of the news cameras to answer questions presented by the press.  Once the questions had been answered Wayne climbed up on the tailgate of a nearby refrigerated truck and began helping offload large bags of frozen chicken provided by Tyson Foods.  I assumed he was doing the manual labor for the benefit of the press but I would later learn that Wayne Huizenga, Jr. has never been afraid to get his hands dirty or work up a sweat.

Somewhere in that busy morning Wayne, Jr. and I were introduced.  There was really no time to have a genuine conversation but in the brief minutes we did have he was sincerely friendly and genial.  He possesses the ability to make you feel as if you’ve met before, as if he’s reunited with a friend from somewhere in his past.  As Mark Davis, Executive Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale said in his on-camera interview for Wayne, Jr.’s episode of Secrets Of Success, “Wayne was obviously a people person.”

Two years would pass before I would meet Wayne Huizenga, Jr. again for his Secrets Of Success interview.  This time I spent two days with him and his lovely wife, Fonda.  They opened their Fort Lauderdale home to the Secrets Of Success television crew, and we were all made to feel like old friends who had come to visit.

In listening to Wayne, Jr. tell his story it became obvious that, over his lifetime, he has qualified for a number of different labels: jet setter, playboy, entrepreneur, successful businessman, family man, and financially wealthy among them.  Early in his Secrets Of Success interview Wayne, Jr. said, “People in business have often asked me why I think I’m successful, and I have to stop to quantify that.  Do they mean successful in terms of money or successful in terms of what I think success is?”

That statement hints strongly towards the label Wayne, Jr. most prefers and most identifies with.  First and foremost, above all the other things, he is a follower of Christ, a man of faith, and he knows with great certainty that his primary purpose is to serve God.

Wayne’s story is a near-perfect illustration that material wealth and a luxurious lifestyle is not the ultimate source of happiness, satisfaction, security or peace.  The story really begins with his father and is essential to understand who Wayne, Jr., is today.  So, stay tuned.

© 2012 Philip Kassel

Roads To Success 3.7

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Views Of Success

Six different men - their definitions of success are all different - and yet all the same.

Mark Manthei explained his perspective on success.  “My personal success is in having a wife I’ve been married to for almost twenty-five years.  I have four wonderful kids who have taken hold of the faith my wife and I share in Christ.  And I think we have a relationship with our God that will carry into eternity.  We have been blessed by God.  We’ve tried to operate our company on the principles put forth in the Bible and I think that anyone who operates based on those principles is going to be successful form a business point of view.”

“Having a personal relationship with this master designer, having a relationship where I understand why I am here and why I exist, I feel that this is what makes me successful,” explained Tim Manthei.  “It’s understanding why I’m here and then doing what I was created to do.”

“If I could share one thing with my counterparts around the world,” offered Ben.  “If I could help them find the success, the fulfillment, the purpose in life I’ve found in my personal relationship with Jesus – that’s the most amazing thing I could share.  I believe every one of us was designed by God for a purpose. If we can unlock and find that purpose we were designed for, and then be obedient to do it, we will be successful at whatever we do.”

Jim contributed this definition.  “I attribute success to having God’s blessing.  Having the ability to work together as a team, and part of teamwork is having the ability to put others needs ahead of your own.  I would say that the Christian mindset, thinking as a Christian the way Jesus Christ set it out works.  It works in life, it works in family, it works in your home, it works in everything you do.”

“I define success as doing what I’ve been designed to do,” Dan told us towards the end of taping the show.  “I feel personally that I fit into what I was designed to do.  Money is not the end goal.  Money is a means to an end.  If we don’t have the proper goal in mind money will destroy more than it will help.  People are designed to have a relationship with their designer.  The designer, which I believe is the God of the Bible, designed us specifically to have fellowship with him.  So, the purpose we have is to develop that fellowship with Him and help as many other people see that relationship as possible.”

Last but not least, Tom Manthei provided his view on the subject of success.  “Success and significance is not so much a material thing.  It’s not based on how much money you have or how many cars you have or how many material things you have.  Success to me and significance to me would be my ability to allow God to accomplish through me what His purpose is.  If God can accomplish through me what He has designed me to do, that is success, that is significant.”

Shortly after taping this collection of perspectives on success Ben Manthei added something of a footnote.  “There are times I feel we have an unfair advantage.  When we’re doing our work I feel like we have a higher purpose, a calling that gives us an advantage even in the workplace because we have a reason for doing what we do.”

© 2012 Philip Kassel

Roads To Success 3.6

Extended Family

The Mantheis common commitment comes from a faith that lays a foundation for both their business and personal lives.  They acquired it from their parents.

“One of the things that they [our parents] found is that they had to start with God,” Dan Manthei revealed.  “They had to start with His principles.”

“The principles of integrity and honesty are principles that are biblically based.  They come right out of the Bible,” Tom elaborated.  “The book of Proverbs talks a lot about integrity; it states that a good name is more valuable than silver and gold.  That’s a core belief of ours.  We’d rather have a good name than an extra paycheck.  Our name is very important to us in the community.  And in our industry our name is very important to us.  We work very hard at keeping a good name, and we do that through the principles of giving good service and being honest.”

“Do everything you say you’re going to do,” added Tim.  “It’s a really simple message but it’s a hard one.  But if you follow that principle then contracts are going to be kept.  Your relationships with your vendors are going to be a lot better because you do what you say you’re going to do.”

“God’s principles are opposite from man’s principles,” Dan expanded.  “Man has a tendency to want to gather, and get, and hold.  God’s principle says that if you give then you’ll get; love man and serve him.  In serving man there will be a return that comes back to you for that service.  We serve our customer.  In serving our customer we build up loyalty with that customer.  The customer comes to us when he has a need because he knows he will get the service back.”

“Recently we were awarded the largest job we’d ever had as a company,” Ben offered.  “We were not the low bidder nor were we the most qualified but they gave us the work.  Afterwards we asked them why they decided to give us the job.  They told us, ‘You guys have a reputation of doing what you say you’re going to do.’”

The Mantheis apply these principles to everyone in their company.  It’s a family operated business that treats employees as if they are part of the family.

“Our strongest asset in the company is our people,” Tom stated.  “We have a lot of other assets in our company; we have financial assets, we have good machinery, but our number one asset is our people.  So, we do our best to treat our people with dignity and respect.”

“The first people we hired thirty years ago are still working for us,” Jim illustrated.  “We have a pretty strong loyalty factor.  That’s because we treat people well, pay them a good wage and try to take care of their needs.  We have several people working for us who have worked for some of our competition.  One company is three times our size and they work employees an average of eighty to ninety hours a week.  When you work those kinds of hours you have no family life.  We have a fairly long waiting list of people wanting to come to work for us even though they may earn less money.  Our family is more important that chasing the dollar all over the state.”

Each member of the Manthei team makes sure their own families come before the business as well.  They all walk the talk.

© 2012 Philip Kassel

Roads To Succes 3.5

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A Business Of Principles

Each of the Manthei brothers may be intensely independent but they all share a common commitment.  It’s commitment from a faith that lays the foundation for both their business and personal lives.  They acquired it from their parents.

“There are principles we do business by that we think are very important,” explained Tom Manthei.  “These principles are based on many of the teachings we’ve found in the Bible.  Teamwork is one example.  Teamwork is a concept that we’ve found allows common people to accomplish uncommon goals.  You can take a group of average guys – they don’t have to be really talented, just average – but if they work together in a team and they contribute their strong point and cover the other person’s weak point they can accomplish uncommon goals.”

In spite of the different personalities that make up the Manthei family, and even in light of the occasional differences of opinion or outright conflict, the mutual respect these six men have for one another is clearly apparent.  Beyond respect there is evident an appreciation for individual skills and talents.

“Tom is a very good leader and very good at bringing all the team members together,” Mark Manthei described his cousin.  “He gets everybody on the same page and pulling in the same direction.”

And Tom had this to say about Mark.  “Mark has a lot of analytical ability.  He can think through the scenario of numbers, how a project fits together and how it makes sense from a business point of view.”

“Ben connects with people and does a great job with marketing,” Tim told the Secrets Of Success camera.

Ben described Jim Manthei.  “Jim is the marine type of worker because we give him the most difficult jobs that nobody wants to do and he gets the job done.  He brings a tremendous creative energy to every project.”

“Dan’s strong points are in the technical areas,” Tom said of this brother.  “He’s very good at bringing ideas to life.  He’s very good at building, the mechanical aspects of projects, engineering and designing.  A lot of the machinery that we have in our veneer mill has been designed and built by my brother, Dan.”

“Tim is a real entrepreneurial sort of guy,” explained Mark.  “He comes up with entrepreneurial business ideas and is good at presenting those to the group.”

It might be tempting to believe that the Mantheis were just performing sibling public relations duties because a television camera was pointing at them.  The truth, though, is that the sincerity in their observations is one of the foundations the success of their business is based upon.

“As we’re all strong willed we all know how to fight hard for the idea we bring to the table, but we’re committed in the group to kick around these ideas,” offered Ben.  “And by the time we’re done tweaking these ideas based on everybody’s input we usually come out with the right decision.”

Tom offered this view, once again emphasizing the concept of teamwork.  “When everyone learns to contribute their strong point and cover the other person’s weak point, that’s the key to success.  Human nature is just the opposite.  We tend to pick on the other person’s weak point and while we’re doing it forget our own strong points.  Covering another guy’s weak point is not ignoring it.  It’s identifying it, and then purposefully covering for it.  If he does the same thing for you, then as a whole most of the weak points disappear.  All the bases get covered.  Teamwork enables all the bases to be covered.”

“When we come out of a meeting, it’s rare that any one person’s gotten everything he wants,” Ben added.  “But whatever the final decision we all get behind it because we know the decision we made together is better than a decision one of us might have made as an individual.  We end up with a better end product.  The Bible has a proverb, 24:6, that says, ‘Victory depends on having many counselors.’”

“It makes the company as a whole stronger,” Tom expanded.  “There’s another verse, in Ecclesiastes.  It says, ‘Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.’”

© 2012 Philip Kassel

Roads To Success 3.4

Beyond The Mill

The Manthei brothers, cousins and uncles successfully rebuilt the veneer mill started by Ted and Ernie Manthei.  Conflict existed during that process and, as might be expected, it still exists in the company today.

“We fight regularly,” Tom admitted during his interview.  “Fighting isn’t a bad thing.  What keeps us together is everyone in our group knows and is committed to the fact that we need each other.  We don’t necessarily always think alike.  We don’t always have the same idea on how we’d do something ourselves.  But what we do know is that we need each other and there is a commitment to the team concept.”

“We are as different as night and day,” Ben contributed.  “But to work as a team we’ve developed a deep respect for one another because we see what each of us add to the team.”

Rebuilding the company from the ashes served to strengthen the family—although some of the older family members eventually left the partnership to pursue their own interests.  Their departure created openings for the other brothers who, at the time the partnership was originally formed, were too young to participate.  Those who remained have expanded the company considerably beyond the original veneer mill.

“Six of us are left in the business,” Tom explained.  “The core businesses are the veneer mill, we have three mobile home parks in the Palm Springs area, and we have a construction company.  And then we do a variety of land developments and different investments.”

“As a team through the years we’ve developed eight different businesses and combined we do approximately $50 million in sales a year,” Ben elaborated.

At this point in the original Secrets Of Success show we cut to something of a “who’s who” in the Manthei organization, beginning with Tim Manthei.  “I’m the director of the Manthei west coast operations.  I came out and started to build some RV spaces and it ended up being an RV and mobile home resort business.  We have about sixteen-hundred spaces now.”

Next up was Mark Manthei.  “I’m the president of the Manthei Development Corporation.  My responsibilities are the general, overall management of the company.  This company is really composed of three basic departments: the aggregate division, the Ready Mix division and then our contract division.”

“My role with the company is to develop the systems and the equipment in the plant so we stay as efficient as possible,” offered Dan Manthei.  “We want to make it as easy for the employee as possible, run as much veneer through the plant as possible, and get the most wood out of each log as possible.”

“I’m the President of Redi-Rock International,” Ben Manthei explained.  “And we are presently marketing one of the new products we just developed which is a large retaining wall system that looks like natural, cultured rock.”

Jim Manthei was next in the lineup.  “I am the vice president of Manthei Development and I’m in charge of all the heavy construction.  I’ve been with the company ever since it started and through that I’ve developed the heavy construction end of the business as far as working in the field.”

And last but not least, Tom Manthei.  “I’m president of Manthei Incorporated and we make single-ply, fancy face quality veneers here.  We use maple, ash, cherry, walnut and some of the more exotic woods.  Our products are used primarily in the cabinet industry.”

The Manthei Corporation is clearly comprised of a group of strong, independent personalities, each with their own way of doing things, each with a unique approach to creativity and problem solving.  So, how do these businessmen manage to overcome their differences?  Stay tuned.

© 2012 Philip Kassel

Roads To Success 3.3

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Starting From Scratch

Ted and Ernie Manthei worked hard to build their veneer business, enjoying growth and success in a partnership of over twenty years.  But in late 1967 their veneer mill caught fire and burned to the ground.  The tragedy made a lasting impression on all the brothers.

“I jumped in my car and ran down there just in time to see the roof cave in on the place,” said Mark Manthei, President of Manthei Development.  “It was an emotional, dramatic time because I think all of us had a strong identification with the veneer mill.  My dad and my uncle both had a really strong work ethic and they had raised us with that same ethic.  And we all spent time working in that plant.”

Jim Manthei, now Senior Vice President of Manthei Development Corporation began earning his title as a young boy.  “I had worked in the mill since I was about seven or eight with my dad.  And when I was about ten two of my brothers and I bought a little sawmill.  We set it up out behind the veneer mill.”

“That was actually our own little business that we were running,” Mark added.  “And of course it burned along with everything else.”

“I remember very well when it happened and I thought this is going to change my life,” said Tim Manthei, President of Sky Valley Parks.  “Oh, no.  This is an awful thing.”

But once again Ted and Ernie found a way to turn a “negative” into something positive.

“They were both about at retirement age and decided they didn’t have the energy to rebuild the mill,” Ben Manthei told the camera.  “So they came to our generation and said if you guys would like to continue with the business we will help you rebuild but you’ll have to run it from there.”

It would be a daunting challenge but Tom Manthei remembers that all the brothers and cousins wanted to take it on.  “At that time ten of us started into the business,” he explained.  “It was eight brothers plus two uncles.”

Rebuilding the mill from the ground up turned out to be a formidable challenge.

Tom clearly described what the new beginning was like.  “None of us really knew how to rebuild a veneer mill.  We didn’t know a lot about how to do business.  Most of us were very young at the time.  So, it was a time of tremendous turmoil and conflict, and learning how to build a physical plant on one hand, and how to work with each other on the other hand.  There was a lot of physical and emotional struggle going on while we tried to figure out how to put all these elements together.”

“It was a very difficult time,” remembered Dan Manthei, Senior Vice President of Manthei, Inc.  “It was probably much more difficult for the older generation than for the younger generation.  We were a bunch of young kids coming in and telling our uncles, our elders how to do things, and they did not accept that very well.”

“Whenever you have a problem in life, it’s also an opportunity God that has given you,” observed Mark.  “I think when you look at it that way, this was an opportunity to rebuild the plant with all new equipment, and all new systems, and with all new ways of doing things.  We did have a little bit of a struggle with some of the guys who had worked in the plant their entire lives because they wanted to rebuild it just as it had been.  And some of us younger guys were thinking we should build a plant a whole lot better than the old one.”

With a mutual desire to work through all the issues of reconstructing the family business, and with unwavering persistence, the Mantheis felt their way through those early years to eventually build a viable, thriving business.  The conflicts they encountered along the way and the methods devised to solve those conflicts would play an important role in shaping their future business.

© 2012 Philip Kassel

 

Roads To Succes 2.3

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Short On Strawberry Crates

My first interview in the family lineup was with Tom Manthei, President of the Manthei Corporation since 1979.  We spoke in the company boardroom located in an upper level of the veneer plant.  The large window behind Tom’s chair overlooked the main floor of the plant.  Tom is an amiable guy, and like his other family members, proud of his family heritage.

“It really began with our fathers, Ted and Ernie Manthei,” Tom began.  “They were brothers who happened to meet two girls who were sisters.  So, the two brothers married the two sisters.  They were dirt poor when they started out, doing any kind of work they could find to get by.  After awhile they formed a partnership growing beans.  With a lot of hard work the bean farming became successful.”

Ben Manthei, President of Redi-Rock International, added to Tom’s narrative.  “Ted and Ernie eventually left the bean-growing business and began raising strawberries,” he explained.  “And God began to bless them in such a way where they couldn’t even buy enough boxes to package all the berries they were producing.”

The shortage of packaging for their product, quite unexpected, would eventually lead Ted and Ernie in a surprising direction.

“They decided that making their own berry boxes was the way to go,” Ben continued.  So, they went looking for and eventually found equipment they thought would do that,” Ben continued.

“They bought a piece of equipment, a type of lathe,” Tom elaborated.  “But after Ted and Ernie got the lathe home, they discovered they couldn’t use it to make crates; it was the wrong kind of machinery.  So it just sat for a while in a barn and they continued buying their crates.”

The equipment sat in storage for almost two years.  It was business as usual for Ted and Ernie during that period until their story took a turn that many would describe as just plain old good luck.  The Mantheis would probably describe their fathers stumbling across a man named Mr. Metzelburg as divine intervention.  Mr. Metzelburg sold veneer for a living and he recognized the lathe the brothers had purchased.

“He told them they had purchased some of the best veneer equipment in the industry,” Tom explained.  “Metzelburg also had a friend in Wisconsin, a man named Simon, who was a retired veneer lathe operator.  He had Simon come to Petoskey and in about a half-hour Simon had the machine adjusted, and had beautiful veneer flowing off it.  So Metzelburg told them that if they could keep turning out runs like that he’d buy all the veneer they could make.”

“They set up the equipment and started running the veneer mill.  That was back in the mid to late forties,” Tom related.

Ted and Ernie Manthei put their veneer machinery to good use, and their business quickly grew.

“My dad was a visionary and he had always had a lot of ideas,” Tom explained.  “My uncle, Ernie, was more of a manager type so he could put wheels on the visions my dad came up with.  As a team they worked well together.”

The old machinery generated enough money for the brothers to equip the veneer mill with newer, more modern machinery.  The business continued to grow and the brothers ran it for more than twenty years.  They might have operated the mill even longer if it was not for an unexpected tragedy. 

© 2012 Philip Kassel