There is no finish line
The motto that adorns one of Arthur Blank's favorite T-shirts helps define his legacies left and those yet to be uncovered
Michael J. Pallerino
January 1, 2007
Two decades before Donald Trump uttered the words that launched a million television dreams, Arthur Blank lived the nightmare. The well-documented tale of upper-level-executive-fired-even-though-he-had-done-good is the story the world most remembers of the former The Home Depot co-founder and Atlanta icon. Here's your refresher: Handy Dan executives give Blank and co-worker Bernie Marcus their walking papers even though the chain of home improvement stores they oversee posted more than $150 million in sales. Mapping out their recovery strategy on a napkin at their favorite coffee shop, The Home Depot was born – basically creating the do-it-yourself market and elevating Blank and Marcus to the top of the entrepreneurial fairy tale list.
If only the Arthur Blank story ended there. With Home Depot still firmly fixed in the sights of Wall Street analysts, the Blank story continues to move headlong in other directions. The co-king of the do-it-yourself wonderland he created with The Home Depot is many things these days: loving husband, doting father, retired billionaire, multiple football team owner and philanthropist. And like the mantra that adorns his favorite T-shirt, Blank firmly believes that “ There is no finish line. ” “ [The saying] reminds me that we can always improve, always do better, ” he says. “ I think if you lose that perspective or lose your desire to keep pushing the envelope, any success you’ve enjoyed to that point will almost certainly slip away. ”
Blank's philosophy was crafted in a childhood that taught him the importance of family, the power of resiliency and the promise of success through hard work. Blank credits his parents with giving him a strong drive to succeed. Growing up in Queens, N.Y., Max and Molly Blank taught the young boy and his brother, Michael, that they should always put people first, lead through service and give back to others – lessons he would adapt and adopt throughout his business and personal life.
“ My mother still tells me that everything we strive to do in life is a gift, ” Blank says. “ It's our responsibility to share that gift, and to give back what we can to the world. She also taught me a lot about resilience and how to be tough through adversity. [She would always say] ‘ Turn lemons into lemonade.’ ”
One of the hardest things he had to overcome growing up was the loss of his father, who died suddenly when he was 15. “ I’ve always wondered how it is that my mother, who was a very young woman at the time, was able to survive that devastating loss, ” he recalls. “ But she did. She not only survived, she ultimately turned her life into a wonderful model of success. With no experience, she took over my father's pharmaceutical company and she did a very good job. She turned a small fledgling business into a successful company that she ultimately sold to a large retail conglomerate. She gave me my first lesson in entrepreneurship – being driven and incredibly resilient under stressful circumstances. ”
Leaving legacies
Arthur Blank is a tough man to track down these days. When he's not sifting his way through the day-to-day responsibilities of his latest passion – owner and CEO of his hometown Atlanta Falcons, which he purchased from the Smith family in 2002 – he's focused on enhancing education, preserving greenspace, promoting the arts and helping children through The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, which he formed in 1995 as a way to give back to the communities where the Blank family has roots, including Atlanta, Maricopa County, Ariz. and Beaufort County, S.C. It also supports two affiliated funds: the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation and the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch Fund in Montana.
The Foundation's mission is straightforward: to promote positive change in people's lives and to build and enhance the communities in which they live. With an emphasis on supporting innovative endeavors leading to better circumstances for low-income youth and their families, the Foundation identifies critical issues that resonate with its trustees, establishes goals and supports them through grants and related activities.
“ I feel extremely blessed that I had the opportunity to build a dream at Home Depot, ” Blank says. “ And I’m gratified that along the way, we made our customers’ dreams come true, created meaningful professional opportunities for our associates and generated significant wealth for our shareholders. My greatest satisfaction today is in perpetuating that success even after my retirement from Home Depot. In more modern terms – now I get to ‘pay it forward.’ Today, the people we help through the Foundation are my ‘shareholders.’ My family and I are well taken care of. Now we can help others – who might not otherwise have the opportunity – build their dreams. ”
As the Falcons (he also owns the Arena Football League's Georgia Force) and the Foundation occupy the majority of Blank's time these days, he is cognizant of the mystique Home Depot still has in the Atlanta business community. He contends that the venture was never about the money, but more about the meaning. From the start, the business plan was based on values – something Blank believes should stand as its legacy.
“ WE CAN ALWAYS IMPROVE, ALWAYS DO BETTER. I THINK IF YOU LOSE THAT PERSPECTIVE OR LOSE YOUR DESIRE TO KEEP PUSHING THE ENVELOPE, ANY SUCCESS YOU’VE ENJOYED TO THAT POINT WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY SLIP AWAY. ”
“ I honestly believe it was our values-based approach to business that set us apart from the competition and created a bond with our customers, ” he says. “ There was always a special feeling about shopping with us. Our customers felt Home Depot was a lot more ‘Home’ than ‘Depot.’ That happened because we stuck to a core set of values, which included listening, then responding to customers and focusing on relationships rather than transactions; treating associates with respect and personal care; and becoming part of the fabric of the communities we served. To Bernie and me, American capitalism wasn’t just about money. It was about serving customers, associates and shareholders with a strict sense of ethics, integrity and values. That was the heart of the company. That's our legacy. ”
Legacies aside, Arthur Blank knows that you don’t build a billion dollar empire from the ground up on principle and philosophy alone. He knows that people are key. Blank is quick to give a shout out to the thousands of associates who helped make the vision a reality. “ Any entrepreneur can have an idea, but at the end of the day, you need other people to make it happen, ” he explains. “ At Home Depot, it was other people who made it happen – hundreds of thousands of associates who, over the years, bought into our vision and made it a reality. ”
As his parents taught him, he found that by putting people first you could get the most – and best – from every angle. “ It's about them, not you, ” he adds. “ It's about respect for the individual. It's about valuing skills and diversity – in body and in mind. And it's about looking at people as an investment, not an expense. If you do those things, the rest will follow. ”
Looking toward the future
If you head down to the Georgia Dome on any given football Sunday, you’re likely to see Arthur Blank proudly overseeing the franchise he helped pump life back into several years ago. And as proud as he is of his football teams, he knows that they are only as good as the fans who don the team colors.
In taking the same business and people approach to the Falcons and Force as he did at Home Depot, Blank continues to see results both on and off the field. “ I think Atlanta is a first-rate sports community, and will only continue to get better so long as local teams stay committed to winning – on and off the field, ” he says. “ My job is to be a good steward for our fans. The way I see it, the teams are public assets. Fans are the real owners and I’m the custodian, entrusted by them to build an exciting, competitive team that is a point of pride for the city and the state of Georgia. Anything less is a violation of their trust. ”
From his vantage point, Blank sees a city that continues to grow. In his eyes, the real question is whether it can continue to maintain its quality of life. “ We certainly have that potential, but it won’t be easy, ” he acknowledges. “ Among other things, we’re challenged to improve our educational system, build a more vibrant arts community, encourage better transportation alternatives, add more greenspace and parks and reach out to the neediest of our fellow citizens. To me, these are crucial to our future. Without them, we can’t fulfill the city's potential. We need to work hard to foster a culture where more people understand the urgency of these issues and become active in addressing them. ”
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