Jeff Clark Interview (#3)

Jeff Clark was my dad’s best friend when my parents got married, and Jeff has been a part of my family ever since. I have always known he was a very successful man, but was super interested to find out what he thought about education and how to climb your way up to the top.

Jeff started by telling me that he went to two different community college in Arizona after he graduated high school. He started out at Phoenix College and then transferred to Mesa Community College. He said that he had enough hours to earn a degree in criminal justice, but never followed through to obtain it. After he left college he became a policeman for quite a good part of his life. It wasn’t until the late 90’s that he decided he wanted to do something more with his life, and ended up making millions. In 1998 he took what knowledge he had of construction and started his own housing company. It took a little while to get off the ground, but after it got rolling it never stopped. It only took a few months to realize that he absolutely loved what he was doing, and loved the money that began to roll in. He now has a large home construction company based in Arizona and lives life extremely comfortably.

What I found most interesting about this interview was when Clark started talking about his attitude toward education. I think Clark is a little biased because he has seen how far he has come in life with almost no schooling, but I also think that some of what he says makes pretty good sense. Clark believes that except in a few cases where a degree is necessary, such as a lawyer or a doctor, college is a waste of time. He said that the people who control the makes and media try to make young people think that to get a good job, you need a college education. The sad truth that these people find out later is that there are few jobs to be found, with or without a college degree. He thinks the whole idea of college and student loans is the biggest waste of money. His advice- “If you know what you want to do….DO IT. You don’t need a degree to back you up. If you have the ambition, nothing can stop you.” I thought this was a very different perspective than most people I have talked to. I think it is crazy that  he has made so much money and never really went to college, but I respect his hard work and his ambition to get the money that he dreamed of.  

Landon Cope Interview (#2)

I met Landon through one of my classmates in the BYU BUS M490R class the first week of school. My classmate told me that one of his brothers had a friend, Landon Cope, who had just received his masters from BYU and was starting his own small companies. I was interested in meeting him because I liked that he was so fresh out of school, and could help me realize where I need to be right now as a sophomore.

Landon Cope went to Brigham Young University and got his degree in Information Systems. He graduated, started working for four years, and decided he wanted to go back to BYU and get his masters in Business Administration. After he received his masters, he decided he wanted to being starting his own small companies.

Landon first started with a company he called Remotenerd.com. This company had the ability to virtually take over other computers to help fix the computer problems. He said he feels this company could have taken off and gone somewhere exciting, but that he got bored with it too quick and put it to rest. That’s when he decided that he wanted to start working with mobile software and creating cell phone apps. Right now he is working on two apps that are learning applications that focus on learning for children. 

Landon told me that if he could go back and start college all over again, he would not get his degree in Information Systems. He said that this was too easy, and doesn’t feel that it is a super practical degree for him to have. He didn’t realize until after undergraduate school that he wanted to be an entrepreneur, so had he known this he probably would have got his degree in accounting or technical engineering. He said that he decided he wanted to be an entrepreneur after he quit working for Adobe because he realized he doesn’t do well under authority. He said if he had any advice it would be to figure out exactly what you want to do before you get through college. You can’t graduate and realize that that isn’t what you want to do, or that you degree isn’t going to get you anywhere. I completely agree with him and hope that by the end of the year I will know exactly the direction I want my schooling to take me in.

Gerald Gerard Interview (#1)

In 2004 I met Gerald Gerard who was an extremely successful business man that also ran a tight ship at home with twelve children. I wanted Brother Gerard to be the first person I interviewed while his family was in Utah this week, because I have always looked up to him so much.

Brother Gerard told me that he went to Gonzaga University with a plan to go into the field of Sociology. He ended up graduating with a major in sociology, and decided he wanted to go to law school at Loyola in Los Angeles. After he graduated he decided he didn’t want to practice law, and he became a leasing agent for HSW Investments, Inc., headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. He eventually moved back to California and became responsible for all business operations and activities related to the leasing and management of over thirty retail centers within Southern California’s Inland Empire. In 2004 he moved to Arizona and became a managing member of Glenwood Development Company LLC.

I really enjoyed talking to Gerard and hearing his background that brought him to where he is now. He told me that if he could give me any advice, he would tell me to seek out successful people in a few fields of interest and find out the details of what they really do so you know what to expect. I thought this was a smart idea and extremely helpful, especially since I don’t know exactly what I want to do yet. I loved catching up with him and hearing, for the first time, how he became the successful man that he is today.