Seeing someone flourish in business usually reflects they are truly happy in their occupation and makes you realize the ultimate fulfillment beyond family compatibility is to passionately enjoy what you do for gainful employment.
As you travel the road of life you often encounter overachievers and noteworthy producers. They embrace the work ethic as a gratifying endearment. They consider business an opportunity to identify with the American dream – salt-of-theearth types who, for generations, have made America great.
I have a friend with a home in Bogart, just 10 miles west of Athens. His business address is Hernando, Mississippi, however, and when there is a reason for him to go there, he simply goes out to Ben Epps Field in Athens, cranks up his Piper JetProp and flies himself to the Magnolia State where his company remanufactures aircraft container loaders. The sprawling complex of FedEx, the shipping giant, is located 25 miles from Chris’ building and has been a customer of his for years.
When a FedEx package arrives at your doorstep, it may well have been loaded onto one of Chris’s efficient container loaders before transferring to one of 650 FedEx planes that deliver daily an average of 6.21-million packages around the world. That is a lot of packages that require considerable handling, which means the entire operation, like the NFL draft, is always on the clock.
We probably would not be telling this story if it hadn’t been for a Sunday afternoon ritual back in the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee in the early 1970s. At the mere mention of that time in his life, Chris will bring pause to the conversation and speak reverently about his parents and preach aloud what is on his heart. “My late parents, Betty and Gerald Davis, were devout Southern Baptists who taught me to work hard and treat others as you would want to be treated. I owe my success to them,” he always says.
As the conversation moves forward, Chris smiles widely at the memory of his parents and it becomes prolonged when he recalls how they would, on those Sunday afternoons, drop him off at Peachtree DeKalb Airport where he wandered about all the parked planes, pining for the day when he would be able to fly solo. His passion took root back then and has never waned.
Friends find it interesting, though, that Chris is afraid of heights. Not the wild blue yonder, of course, but five feet up on a step ladder. He won’t clean his gutters and he once wouldn’t walk across the Sidney Lanier Bridge, which spans the Brunswick River.
But ever the gentleman, Chris has been known to fly a hundred miles out of his way so the turbulence will not make his passenger uncomfortable. He will never fly when the weather is questionable.
Upon graduating in 1973 from Georgia Southern with a degree in business finance, Chris’ passion to fly became more deeply entrenched. Meanwhile, his parental training in treating people right became his mantra in business. He meets someone and an instant friendship is born.
Among those friendships was a man named Bob Brooks who once worked for World War I fighter ace and later chairman of Eastern Air Lines Eddie Rickenbacker. “Mr. Brooks told me that Mr. Rickenbacker would often go into the lobby at Eastern and personally thank all the salesman for doing business with his airline. I have never forgotten that. Mr. Brooks taught me the ground support equipment business. I wouldn’t be where I am today without his influence.”
With the help of the late banker, Bill Hopper (“Bill understood what it took to make a small business work.”), Chris founded Rolling, Conveying and Lifting Components (RCL) in 1988. With his FedEx and other connections and friendships, he has since enjoyed an enterprising business for more than three decades.
Just don’t ask him to climb a step ladder.