Junk to Gold: Lessons I Learned
A Story about the Building of Copart by Founder Willis Johnson
Junk to Gold is a story about finding success without sacrificing your dedication to other commitments.
Copart was founded in 1982 by visionary Willis J. Johnson, having started its activities with a single establishment located in California. Today it has more than 200 locations around the world (United States, Canada, Germany, England, Spain, Middle East, and right here in Brazil!).
Follow Copart founder, Willis Johnson, on his remarkable journey from his humble roots at a single establishment in California, to becoming Chairman of the Board at a global multi-billion-dollar business. Even at the pinnacle of success, Willis remained grounded in his family-first values. His stories will inspire and provoke the entrepreneur in everyone to start building their dream. At Copart, we continue to operate with Willis’ entrepreneurial spirit and values and strive to offer the best in service to our customers in Brazil and all over the world.
Copart's mission is to create value and opportunity through vehicle auctions and exchange.
Copart's vision is to provide an unmatched experience... every day and everywhere... driven by our people, process and technology.
About Our Founder
Willis Johnson was born in Clinton, OK where he grew up learning about business from his father, an entrepreneur who dabbled in everything from dairy farming to running restaurants and building houses. Willis inherited that entrepreneurial spirit and would go on to found Copart in 1982 with just one auction location. He currently lives in Franklin, TN with his wife Joyce but remains Chairman of the Board of Copart. When he's not focused on family or work, he enjoys classic cars and black Angus cattle.
Thoughts from Willis
"When I look back, I think my success is partly due to the lessons my father taught me and partly due to God's hand guiding me along the way. I also think a good portion of it has to do with the fact it never occurred to me that what I was doing may not work. I never thought I couldn't do it. Some may call it confidence. Some may even think that kind of blind optimism comes from ignorance. But I just never let the possibility of failure enter my mind. And I think when you can leap into something whole heartedly like that you can do amazing things because you don't have fear holding you back." – Willis Johnson
Excerpt from Junk to Gold
From Chapter 4: Lessons I Learned Building a Dream
"As sales and inventory grew, I needed a bigger building to display all the parts and to continue to grow. Just like my dad, I turned to the paper for a solution. I saw a metal building for sale in West Sacramento, a fabricated four-thousand-square-foot building that had been put up to serve as a Seventh Day Adventist Church. The congregation had decided they didn't want a metal building for their place of worship, so they listed it for sale at $5,000 with the condition that the buyer would have to take it down and move it to his or her own property.
I thought it was a pretty good deal, a cheap way to get a new building. So Curtis, Joyce, and I and the kids went to disassemble it--me and Curtis doing the heavy work while Joyce and the kids took the hundreds of screws and washers that came from the building (worth 5 cents apiece) and put them into buckets so we could reconstruct it in the wrecking yard."
What Others are Saying
"Willis Johnson’s story is truly powerful and inspirational. He is a model of leadership in business."
— Adiel Avelar, Copart Brazil President
"How [Willis] thinks and his capacity to be decisive is why Copart has grown from one junk yard to a $4.5 billion international high-tech inspired auction company."
— Tom Smith, Investor, Prescott
"Not only did Willis live the American Dream; through Copart, he enabled others to live it also… including me."
