"TM: You have said that a business is not "sold," it is "transferred." Would you elaborate on that?
BM: A business is not a commodity, so you cannot begin to treat it as a commodity to sell it. Each business has a culture — it has people, it has an owner, it has so many dynamics about it including competitors and industry and to do a good job. We do a very elaborate study of the business identifying all of the, what I call, "good, bad, and ugly." We very carefully then package that up and we don't manipulate it; we don't hide anything back from those who would be looking at that business to make sure that they qualify, (that) they have the skills, the ability to effectively run that business and continue the success. So they are told, again, about the good, bad, and ugly. We look for a win-win solution.
TM: Kentucky's business tax climate is very complex; it can be contradictory. What's your assessment of the climate in Kentucky for buying or selling?
BM: We have very often clients who will indicate to us if they can move to Indiana or Tennessee overnight and without a whole lot of cost, they would do that, so that is an unfortunate by-product of our tax structure currently in Kentucky. However, business still goes on.
TM: The Supreme Court recently in the case Kuno v. Daimler Chrysler basically placed its stamp of approval on the tax incentive package as a tool of economic development. Have you found those sorts of packages useful in what you do?
BM: Unfortunately not. Smaller companies just don't benefit from a lot of the things that large companies do receive from local and state governments, and that's unfortunate. Many of us small business owners feel that's not necessarily fair — they have a larger voice; they have a lot more clout. So, even though government, local and national level, talks about helping the small business owner, unfortunately a lot of those benefits go to large companies that provide jobs. As we all know, however, when you look at smaller companies, the mainstay of jobs really is with small business.
TM: Let's talk about your background and how you came to the United States and to Kentucky.
BM: I have a very interesting past which I really cherish because it gives me the ability to think a little different, to see perspective, to take advantage of a lot of opportunities that we have in this country. I'll kind of go backwards. I've lived in Detroit most of my life, worked for tier-one companies which were very large multi-billion dollar companies who supplied to Ford, Chrysler, GM, and some of the other key manufacturers in automotive. My wife and I drove out to Kentucky back in '94, spent a weekend in Lexington and absolutely fell in love with it. It was an early October weekend and weather in Detroit at that time was cooling off and rainy, and Lexington just welcomed us with open arms and with its charm of rolling hills, the horses, the people. And the weather was just magnificent the whole weekend we were here. I've always talked about moving out of Detroit. I was not necessarily that fond of Detroit — of its being flat, very large city, the traffic. Very often, a lot of us run away from those kinds of conditions. So Kentucky was such a natural and it fits with my story of growing up in Poland.
As a child, (I) grew up on a small farm. The farms in Poland, like many European farms, were very small, very self-sufficient. My mom and dad raised a few cows, horses, chickens and ducks, and everything you could imagine — wheat and corn, beets, and many other things like that and that made growing up as a child a very beautiful setting. We, too, had some rolling hills in the area where I grew up.
It was a very charming environment, but at the same time life was difficult. I think we would be classified as poor but didn't know it. We didn't have electricity growing up. We didn't have all the luxuries that you would take for granted in the U.S. or many other well-developed countries — no shower, no running water, no gas, and yet life was simple but pleasant, but at the same time very demanding. As a child, probably as early as six or seven years old, you pitched in to the family farm, so you had a lot of responsibilities very early on, and we definitely didn't refer to it as child labor. For that I'm very grateful, because it taught me a great work ethic. It taught me a lot about myself, a lot of responsibilities that I think have helped me grow and develop as I worked in the tier one industry as well as my own business.
War broke out. My Dad (who) had by then married, tried to move to the United States. Obviously he was not a U.S. citizen, so it made that very difficult. As the communists continued to entrench their authority, it was very difficult to leave the country. Through many attempts, we finally were able to leave in '62 and were delighted. As a child I didn't know any better; I expected that we would have a farm here, but we moved to Detroit, large city, and it was a very interesting way of living than I was used to.
TM: That had to be a shock to go from a farm (in Poland) to Detroit.
BM: Oh, absolutely. Yes, it was a shock for me, but one that I later cherished for the fact that we have the opportunity to live in this country. And I was very grateful, maybe not at that time, to my parents — my mom is still alive, she's 82 — for the fact that they sacrificed so much to be able to bring us to a better place, to a better world.
TM: You speak beautiful American English now. Did you learn through the experience of immersion in the culture? Were you taught English? Or perhaps a combination of the two?
BM: I remember, growing up, a lot of the English we learned wasn't necessarily the proper English, because a lot of the people who lived (around us) were very connected to some ethnic group and they didn't necessarily speak the best of English. And also, at the same time, they had their own accent. So, you would find people who lived here who were Polish, third generation, who spoke with a Latin accent, and I think you'll probably sense a little bit of that in my accent as well.
TM: One of the current national debates is over whether or not English should be established as a national language or if, short of that, English should be regarded as a unifying, common language without the requirement that you must speak English. What's your take on that?
BM: That's a very interesting question, and I'm very vocal about that because, like many who came to this country in the past, I adapted to the American way. The American system is one that works so well, and we cannot start to destroy that by adapting other things including other languages. The fact that people virtually want to break down the walls to enter the U.S. — we have something that many countries don't have. I think we need to preserve and cherish that. We definitely want to teach other languages, but definitely English should be the language that should stay here and be used as the official language.
TM: Are there lessons from your experience that somehow you draw upon?
BM: Life under communism was not easy. For a child, I didn't know any better. If you belonged to the communist party, you were given special privileges. Otherwise if you spoke against the party in any quiet way, a farmer would find themselves taken to the city, virtually beaten up, and then they would wait for a few days until the swelling and the bruises would go down and then (you would) be released. You draw a lot of conclusions out of that. First of all, I think fear goes away when you've faced different things and you've heard different things like that and then you apply it to business. You do the best you can, and fear is not such a challenge as it would be otherwise. So, I think that's helped me along with a terrific work ethic that my parents advocated. I remember growing up, and there were four boys in the family — all of us were taught to clean, iron, dust, cook, and all the kind of things. That really helped me to become a business owner.
TM: Brian, a closing thought?
BM: When I'm on my death bed, I want to be able to look back and say yes, I had to make a living, but through that I was truly able to help people succeed, help people do the right thing and very often (talk) them out of making a mistake if they're acquiring a business or maybe impulsive business selling. That's what makes me get up every morning and be very passionate about what I do.
You can learn more about Brian Mazar's firm online at www.fortunebta.com.
"