Jordan's patience and business skills helped him succeed in industry and politics
Gant contrasts the business philosophies used by his father and Everett Jordan. Jordan seemed more committed to making profitable sales and popular products. The patience that helped him succeed as a business man also helped him relate to his constituency as a senator.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Roger Gant, July 17, 1987. Interview C-0127. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- BEN BULLA:
-
Let's discuss Everett Jordan as a person. Assume I don't know
him;describe him to me please.
- ROGER GANT:
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I'm sure that my impressions are not like anybody else's precisely and
reflect comparisons in contrast to my own upbringing. Everett, from a
business viewpoint believed in business success through smart selling,
contrasted to my father who of course recognized that you had to sell
your product at a profit, but my father
emphasized saving money in purchasing and in manufacturing efficiency
and that kind of thing. Everett realized that if you could sell your
product for more a pound that was an easier
route to bigger profits than trying to take a
pound out of the cost usually. And he recognized
that steady running; if you could get a customer
who could use good volume on a regular continuous basis, that you could
effect economies of manufacturing that you never could if you were
trying to switch products all the time. The philosophies under which
businesses grow vary with the business a great deal I think and Everett
Jordan's business was one of making commodity products which was
different from the business background that I had where practically
every thing made at Glen Raven was a specialty items. It was interesting
to see the two different paths of success succeed, and to see the way
Everett ran his business very successfully, but quite differently from
the way our business was always run. It was very interesting.
Everett Jordan had great patience, and I guess that's a sign of maturity,
I don't guess you are mature until you have patience. But after he got
into politics people would call him every free moment he had at home.
Somebody would be calling him on the telephone with sometimes big
important issues to discuss, but most of the time, fairly petty,
unimportant issues, and he never lost patience with them. Even those who
were real pests and habitual callers about one thing and another. He
never indicated any exasperation or impatience when he talked to them
either in person or on the phone. A lot of people would come to the
house to see him and interrupt him at lunch or supper or anytime of day,
which would have infuriated me, but he never lost his cool, never
indicated that it was disturbing him a bit, and felt it was a part of
his job as a representative in Washington to listen to
their problems and try to help solve them. He was always available for
any constituent who needed to get a social security check reissued or
sent to another address, or try to locate a service man in Germany, or
matters that should have been corrected through some other agency of the
government. If they came to him he was always happy to try to get the
constituents problems solved. Great patience.