We don t want that. what does the inability to admit mistakes tell you? they don t have humility or probably integrity. that s impossible. if you try to do anything, you make mistakes. that s how you learn. don t you want all the hot shot mbas from harvard and elsewhere? we find we do better from community colleges, rural colleges. like our, after i was president of koch industries, our next presidents were one didn t graduate from college. went a couple of years to, let s see, murray stating ary culture college. went for a couple years. another from texas a&m. another one university of tulsa. and the current president is from a state college. how come? because we believe they have value for long-term success. we re not in it to make a quick
Boston trying to get me to come back and work for the company. i kept turning him down. finally, he called me and said, son, my health is not good. i don t have that long to live. either you come back to run the company or i m going to have to sell it. and we have a separate company called koch engineering, which makes process equipment. and it has sales of like $2 million and it is break even. it s a mess. you can come back and run it and i ll let you run it any way you want. the only thing you need to get my permission for is to sell it. and i said, hey, this sounds better. i m actually going to run it. i came back. he lived longer than he thought. he lived six years. that was 1961 when i came back and he lived until 1967. and he was a treat to work with. tell us about the first piece of advice your dad gave you when you took over as ceo.
We don t want that. what does the inability to admit mistakes tell you? they don t have humility or probably integrity. that s impossible. if you try to do anything, you make mistakes. that s how you learn. don t you want all the hot shot mbas from harvard and elsewhere? we find we do better from community colleges, rural colleges. like our, after i was president of koch industries, our next presidents were one didn t graduate from college. went a couple of years to, let s see, murray stating ary culture college. went for a couple years. another from texas a&m. another one university of tulsa. and the current president is from a state college. how come? because we believe they have value for long-term success. we re not in it to make a quick
Buck. we re in it to maximize value over time. at koch industries, even you get evaluated, is that true? that s true. how does that work? that works great. i learn a lot. aren t you afraid of a bruised ego? no. here s the thing. i think all of us need this attitude. do you want to have your feelings hurt a little bit because you ve got some negative feedback? or do you want to continue down the disastrous track you re on and have a huge disaster. talk about a bruised ego. it may ruin your career. you read about this in the book, in business and in child rearing, you say we see too much of that today, explain that. well, i apply this, my same philosophy, in all aspect of life. and applied it in raising our children.
Buck. we re in it to maximize value over time. at koch industries, even you get evaluated, is that true? that s true. how does that work? that works great. i learn a lot. aren t you afraid of a bruised ego? no. here s the thing. i think all of us need this attitude. do you want to have your feelings hurt a little bit because you ve got some negative feedback? or do you want to continue down the disastrous track you re on and have a huge disaster. talk about a bruised ego. it may ruin your career. you read about this in the book, in business and in child rearing, you say we see too much of that today, explain that. well, i apply this, my same philosophy, in all aspect of life. and applied it in raising our children.