I had been in business for years by the time I got a driver's license (age 14 in those days) but in 1964, I expanded my horizons. I had just finished four years in the Air Force and started an electronics research and development company.
I quickly enrolled in the University of Texas to figure out how to run it.
For the next few years, I worked long hours at the new company, part time teaching so I could eat, and sandwiched in both day and night classes at the university. I graduated with honors and have since headed businesses of my own in domestic and international trade, travel, land development and construction.
In 1984, I started Global Concepts, a company dedicated to helping develop the free market system in Russia and Eastern Europe. I taught fundamental business and management concepts to eager East European entrepreneurs; helped form several international joint ventures; and represented some American firms doing business in the USSR and a few foreign firms trading with the United States.
The goal then, was as it remains today: to create win/win relationships that are profitable and are socially and environmentally positive. I'm still trying to do that.
Lou Smith
