OWR This is My Life Sept 7 1979

[O. Wayne Rollins "This Is My Life" September, 7 1979 (Audio Only)] [inaudible]. I'm hot. What have you got? [inaudible] you have a dress code? I don't look like that. [inaudible] [inaudible] By the way, you are being recorded, so careful with the audience. You're being recorded. [inaudible]. You're being recorded, Daddy. Hello there, my name is Henrick. [inaudible] in the morning. Hello there, I'm Manning. I don't have to get these hammer glasses to read this because it's personal enough that I didn't have it attached. So therefore, I'll have to kind of scan it as I go along. I'll have a little preamble that I wanted to go through. But first and number one is that I'm not saying, I'm not telling you this, [inaudible], groaning, or even deserving any sympathy, or any things you say, "Gee, I didn't know that or I've heard those stories about hard times before," or anything. What I'm trying to do is get values impressed in your mind, about the values of the company, and the values of the family, and the values of the trust. And I'll go back to the... Now if I went back to the beginning, I'd go back to further than this. But I think this is far enough to add any meaning or think up until that time, I guess pretty well. My life and manage life is about like anyone else growing up during that particular time. But when we were married, our average age... I'm giving the average here, so I'll do that. When we were married, our average age is 22 and our average bank account was 0. She had some money in the bank and I had some debt. So when we added them together, we come up with zero. And from that part... From then on, with this debt that I had from surgery, just before we were married, then our job was to pay off the debt and try to get enough money to build a house to where we could move out. And this was in the depth of the depression. And when I say the depth of the depression that meant over 50% of the people were unemployed. And I had got a part-time job working the roads, I got $0.10 an hour was paid. So with that, we've had one thing that's been consistent was that Grace made [inaudible] and I had the job, and we saved money. And there's never been a year in our life, since we've been married, that we haven't saved or our equity hasn't been more than it was a year before. And all the time, pretty [inaudible] to start with and we bought our first land and I thought about this land when we was down to looking at $22,500 acre land, the first land that I ever bought paid $10 an acre for about 40 acres. And on that land, we built us a house. And we have a little argument now that it had two rooms or one room. But in my mind now, since I'm telling the story, I'll tell it's one room. But the room and [inaudible], they just... It was a big long... I remember the dimensions. It's 12x24. And we had this one [inaudible] that we lived in it. And the reason I'm not telling you that I'm not [inaudible] many condolence or anything because we were happy. We were just as happy in the end as we are now. And maybe happy because I think you think you have [inaudible] for you at that particular time. So we built this house, and with all of the money, we paid out was the money for the shingles that went on the roof and for the [inaudible]. The rest of the money, we sawed the timber off the place and I did the cotton work, and that's the way we build it. And so we didn't have any money involved that we wound up for the house. Then as we went along, back in that first year along the latter part of the first year, we had our first baby, Brandon was born and of course we had one thing in common, Ricky, just what you think, we thought he is a pretty sneaky devil, just like you do. And then he... And he had the black hair and all and so you can relate to that. So then from Nana... Then on, we went down to work up, checking... I got a job and I've got... They paid me $10 a week for 55 hours. So from that $55... And we continued to save some money. Work and things were cheap, then we talk about the pressure, that everything was related, we didn't have anything but neither... They didn't have it, the people around us had it. So we related well, we didn't see all this part of people talk about what a hard time you had and so forth. Who was it that didn't see as having a hard time. But then he would come home, both of us got a job in Chattanooga. And we drove back and forth to work and mother kept Randall. And the first Christmas, I remember very well, I guess he must have been about two or three years old, we had a chance of buying a tricycle for $1.50 or loan for $3.50, and that was a big decision in our lives. So we took the $3.5 tricycle, we bought at [inaudible]. And we took that and we gave that to him for Christmas, and he got up and didn't pay a bit attention to the world but to the tricycle. And went over, same thing happened with Gary on one of his presents at first Christmas. He got the hammer and started [inaudible], he didn't like his tricycle, but we were disappointed. So from there, we... After we went to work in Chattanooga,? I worked full time and Grace worked part time. She just... She'd have to work some days and some days they didn't have enough work, but a lot of many people were working at that particular time. So then we decided to build a house in Chattanooga. And we built the house, many of you... I guess all of you [inaudible] and we built that house. During this time, before or even before this and during this time, Grace's mother was sick and of course dad was sick. So each weekend, we spent our weekend by coming out there and bringing them the groceries and taking the laundry to do the laundry, that was our weekend, but we enjoyed it, it was a trip up from Chattanooga, and we still had enough company and it was enjoyable, so it really wasn't a hardship. And I'm not... Again, I want to point out to you, I'm really not... I'm not one to point out the hardship, but I'm one to point out the seriousness of life and the thread it goes through because I wouldn't take anything for the life, I wouldn't change... If I had to do over, I wouldn't change anything about my life. So I don't have that. We don't have that problem. But we built a house and we thought it was great. The thing that we thought is great is first bathroom we ever had, and we had central heat, and bathroom, and running water, and it was just great. And we may have lived in the house there and worked several years down the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher. And from there, we went up to... I went up to... I got the job at Hercules. In the meantime, I went up and tried the [inaudible] thing we bought [inaudible]. And I went and tried to buy a $15 breakfast room suite, huge breakfast room suite from Hatfield and Keith. I remember where it was, it's a drop on Main Street. And I couldn't buy it. They didn't sell it to me. And I went back and I said, "I paid everybody I've ever owed, I can't understand it." But he said, "You don't have a credit." And I said "What do you mean I don't have any credit?" He said, "Well, you never have bought anything, so we checked your record and we couldn't find you. So we can't sell it to you because you don't have any credit reference." And he didn't sell it to me. We've got the money then, I went home and we got the money and I brought it back and bought it. But he wouldn't sell it to me on time 'cause didn't have any credit, so I learned a lesson there. And that is to establish credit whether or not you plan on using it but you better get credit established when you do need. As we moved on then and from there, we bought, I guess after that, we had enough money saved up and we bought two [inaudible] and we bought a farm up at Cherokee and [inaudible]. And after leaving Standard-Coosa-Thatcher, going to work with TNT. And while I was working with TNT, that's when Gary was born. And while I was out watching the [inaudible], while I was out waiting for him to be born, this fellow, good salesman sold me an insurance policy. His wife was in the same room and he sold me an insurance policy, which we carried it, you remember, we [inaudible] just a few years back. So I remember the occasion there and had this old man Ricky, that was the boss and he didn't want anybody that will ever be up off anything, he just didn't see any reason for it, but he did agree to let me off the next day Gary was born as I remember about 6 o'clock in the morning and I did stay off that day following his birth. And but we continued to save money each year. In 1948, we applied for the radio station in Georgetown. And it was someone that we've been lending money to make his payroll up there. He repaid us by filing on the same frequency, so we had that tied up in courts for a while. And in the meantime, we filed in Radford, Virginia. And Radford, Virginia, 1949 was granted the first thing of Rollins Incorporate. First operation we had in 1949, we built it in 1950, built it on there, on my birthday, on May 5, 1950. And that was our first operation in Rollins Inc. And therefore, I remember very well the first day that we did $100 gross. We got it up to... We did $100 and I thought that was just great to do that much business. Then we bought the station to [inaudible] for $31,500. And total amount of capital we put in, when we built Radford, I put up $12,500 and John put up $12,500, so we had $25,000 to start the company. Let me ask you. Did you start with John originally from the very beginning, you were his partner? Yeah, John put up... John did never have anything to do with the operation, but John had a chapter to [inaudible]. In 1950, we built the station, 1951, we built Georgetown, 1952 we bought [inaudible], 1954 we bought WNJR and we also bought the land in... - You left that out. - What? [inaudible]. That's right. That's right. - '53. - '53. That's right. And then we built the station, we bought the land in North Carolina and... No, bought the land in Florida in 1955, that's when we bought the land down there. And then as we started on the TV, I don't want anyone to think that I think or have ever thought that it was a one-person business. Randall came into the business I believe, I don't have it down, Randall, but I believe it was in 1954... That's when I was born. Is that right? 1954. And then Gary came into the business and the big part of the contributions has certainly been made by them or a great part of it [inaudible]. We started a TV station after that, we bought the land in North Carolina, we bought the outdoor, we sold the stock, 1960 was when Rollins went public. And I'll tell you how little I knew when we went public, you children know probably more about it than I knew and I was up for that play. I didn't know that they stopped brokerage houses and it didn't take companies if they weren't a certain sized. I thought... When [inaudible] started to look, one, I hadn't had any experience, never been up, first time going down the Wall Street. And I go down and I've heard the Lehman Brothers as being one of the biggest ones. And I thought they must be one of the best ones. So I go down to number one William Street, that's where Lehman was to see them about taking Rollins, which at that time was doing $7 million gross. And I didn't know that the Lehman Brothers didn't have anything under $100 million. But I [inaudible] and I've often wondered since then if they saw me through curiosity or didn't have anything else to do that day or just why they ever saw me in the first place. And they did, they went up and invited me up to lunch, and I guess it must have been it was a rainy day, and that must been the reason all the partners were there, and they had a bunch of partners. And we had lunch at the table about this size and they asked me to tell, while I was having lunch, to tell them about the company and what I wanted, and I said, well, we told them about the company and how it was going along, and we want to sell stuff. And this fellow said to me, one of the partners, and he says, "How big do you think the company can be?" And I said, I thought of my real [inaudible] now, I just wanted to tell him, I said, "I think it can do $100 million [inaudible]." And he says, "Well, we'd be interested in $100 million, I didn't know that $100 million was our limit, if that's what he's doing." He said, "Well, we'd be interested in the company doing that." And I said "It wouldn't take us while before we, you know, get up there." And so the... Make a long story short, he agreed that he'd take the company public even though that small based on the fact and he told me later that he is the person who brought [inaudible] out and they were very small when we brought them out and they grew and he just thought he'd take a chance. But anyway, he did. To bring us out, we went public at that time. And of course the next big step was when we bought Orkin for $62.4 million. At that time, we were only doing $13 million gross in the company, that's how large the company was and we bought the company for $32.4 million, $32,400,000 cash and we had to borrow that amount of money. And I guess if I knew and known then what I know now is that's how I'm getting smarter sometimes, [inaudible], if I'd know then what I know now I've never had enough nerve to ask a person to lend me that much money with that little approach. But anyway, they did and it worked out well for the company lent us the money, in fact, they own a million shares of stock or close to million shares of stock still in Rollins. And we paid them for their equity, and Orkin, we paid them $20 million above paying them back the debt. And we have the debt paid, I believe, is below $20 million now, isn't it? $17 million. That's $17 million, so we paid them, [inaudible]. After that, of course, we bought Rollins Services, then Dwoskin, and Kara Fabric, and Patterson, and [inaudible]. And I... And this part I'm proud of and what I want to tell you before I tell you this that the greatest asset that I feel that Grace and I have are sitting at the table. I think certainly means more to us than the dollars and cents. But if we had not given away any stock or any assets and had not rearranged for our estate purposes, we have not [inaudible], that's not the reason, but those reasons are the reasons now we would have $7 million shares of Rollins stuff, $10 million in stocks and bonds, $800,000 shares of Intermedics, 35,000 acres of land and we are in a company that makes $200,000 a day profit, $20 [inaudible] profit. And we're very proud of that. But I'm saying all of that to say this that you have, each one of you have a much greater responsibility than we get because your custodians over a lot more and a lot more is expected of. See, there wasn't a whole lot expected of us. So when we started out, we were married, what do you expect two people there living in one room house and no money or no nothing? So it wasn't a whole lot of... Well, whichever way we went, there weren't a whole lot of people, you know, thought... They thought, "Well, you know, we can live down like the [inaudible] and no one would ever thought anything about it." But you have the responsibility, you know, got much greater responsibility as you look to the future of what you do with the things that you have than we had [inaudible] the things we had. I think you're discharged enough responsibility. I think... I don't think there's any doubt that Gary and Randall recognize that responsibility now [inaudible] smaller children are too young. But it is your responsibility. It's your responsibility as far as 11,000 employees. It's a responsibility right now. You hear the rumor every day, are you doing the sale or not sale, did you do this or you do something else, it's a responsibility. So I want to impress on that, that how you handle it is your responsibility, it comes a lot, a lot to be determined by. I guess I'd like to be able to read the future Rollins have to know what each person's responsibility will be and how they will discharge that responsibility. I have faith in the fact that I believe you will. And I believe you will discharge your responsibility and I don't believe in your talent. I think if you take them out and let them multiple and as I see, I see the things that we had being much larger in the years to come. And if you hand down this deal, this candle down to, or I guess in the Olympics, the torch, to the next generation, that you will have it in better shape than we have it now. And I just... I wanted to get the message over and I also want to get the message over and you see us frown and you do when we think you're wasting money and I know you'd know this too [inaudible] far. I know you've noticed that. You continue with the background we have while we work. And you'll do the same thing, I'll guarantee to you as your children come, as you see them, you'll cross the same bridge that we did with ours, I can see it coming right along, I can see it right now, as they reach a certain state, you have the same problems and the same thing that we had. And you'll also get more conservative as time goes on. And you'd think, "Well, I don't want to see this and I don't wanted them to see and do this with his money and this with his money." It will happen to you as it happened to us. And I think when you have the background and seeing the [inaudible] and see what your responsibility is. And it is serious, and it's serious for this reason, it takes a whole lot, it's a whole lot harder job to live up with success in discharging the responsibilities of being successful. And it is to live just a mediocre life that tells you not much expected of that person and he doesn't have to do much to satisfy the world. But as you come along in the degrees of success, the more you have to do in order to discharge the responsibilities that's placed upon you, and you can't get around it. You're there, and you have to take that responsibility. I'm proud that... We're both proud actually. And we all read the other day that the greatest thing the person has to pay at 65, the biggest job they had to do was raise your grandchildren. So that I guess is our job now. Thank you. I guess it's time for dinner. That's the end of the meeting unless anyone else has any... I want to say the same thing and I guess Randall said maybe in the last meeting or maybe it was Gary. But the responsibilities are awesome for these children that are sitting here at this table, but also they're better because we have such a high standard of behavior shown to us by granddad and nanny, how they lived their life. Gary and I have said many times over, can't we hopefully... We act like they do when we've been married 12 years or so forth. And the same thing I think applies to business. When you have an example like that, it's so much easier to set your goals and aim in one direction because of the high example that you all have given us. [inaudible]. [inaudible]. Richard, Richard, the speech from last night that let him off the hook. I'll promise you [inaudible] all the speeches. I'll make you [inaudible]. [inaudible]. Why don't they [inaudible]? Ethan's eating powder. I have to put it back. - Your daddy? - Yeah. All right, [inaudible]. Good girl. Don't forget to bring that article. [inaudible]. Don't you lock him [inaudible]? [inaudible].