Alabama business builder, Dan Dubose, shares some amazing insights on building a business, defying death, and finding that miraculous work-life balance on Episode 122. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app – Apple, Spotify, even YouTube!
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5:59 – we’re not going to pass you to go to high school unless you agree to go to trade school.
11:59 – my life sucks, I’ve got all the symptoms, I should probably try some of the samples I’ve got in the back seat
14:16 – I thought someone was messing with me
21:37 – big paradigm shift…metal fabrication is an art
26:23 – well, that’s what the people want
34:10 – I don’t go halfway on anything, ever
37:18 – are you willing to give up everything, because everything means everything.
46:26 – Here you go, this is how you fix it!
57:41 – the Dothan double-wide strip club
1:02:02 – lit me up like a Christmas tree and separated my soul from my body
1:08:59 – one way or another I’ll be involved in off-road
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:46.990] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we have Dan Dubose. Am I pronouncing that right? Dan?
[00:01:54.730] – Dan Dubose
Dabous.
[00:01:55.580] – Big Rich Klein
Dabos. Okay, Dan Dabos. It depends on what part of the country you’re from or how your parents said it. It can be said ten different ways when it comes to the D and something else. There we are. Hey, Dan. He was the founder of Bluetorch Fabworks and now he is running Motobilt and another company. We’re going to get into all that. Dan and I have been friends for actually quite a while and a lot of people out there know Dan. So, Dan, thank you for coming on board and spending some time with us.
[00:02:32.670] – Dan Dubose
Yeah, man, absolutely. Thanks for having me on.
[00:02:36.010] – Big Rich Klein
So, real easy question to start off with, where were you born and raised?
[00:02:42.010] – Dan Dubose
I was born and raised in southern Alabama in a little town called Dothan. And it seems like we put Dothan on the map in the off road industry with Bluetorch Fabworks back in the day. And I’ve tried to move away a few times throughout my life, but I always end up back in this area.
[00:02:58.960] – Big Rich Klein
That’s pretty cool. It is a small town I’ve visited before under Bluetorch when you guys were like in your first or second building and I was really impressed with the city and the whole atmosphere and everything. Is it still small townish or have you made it grow too big?
[00:03:19.630] – Dan Dubose
Dothan has been growing quite a bit. I’d say it’s a little bit different than when you were here. More population there’s a lot more development and things like that happening. So, good little town.
[00:03:32.470] – Big Rich Klein
That’s not a bad thing. So what was growing up for you, like in Dothan, man?
[00:03:39.770] – Dan Dubose
I grew up in a neighborhood called Ford Country. Wasn’t like the poor neighborhood, it wasn’t the rich neighborhood. It was just kind of the average American neighborhood. Kids out riding bikes till, I don’t know, the hours of the night. Yeah, hop on your bicycle. And I even go many miles away during the day and didn’t have anyone wondering where I was or worried about if somebody was going to get me. It was a safe environment, right? Made a lot of friends and had a great time.
[00:04:19.330] – Big Rich Klein
And was school something that was easy or you just didn’t care, or what was it like?
[00:04:27.010] – Dan Dubose
School for me, I was bored and just got to the point where I didn’t care. So I started skipping school and actually failed a grade from not going, so that didn’t turn out too good. So if you got somebody young in school and listening, don’t skip school.
[00:04:47.050] – Big Rich Klein
Right? Because no matter what you try to do, they’re going to get you back in it.
[00:04:53.110] – Dan Dubose
Yeah, I was in the third grade, I used to ride BMX, race BMX, stuff like that. And I was practicing like, gate starts on my driveway and ended up going through a plate glass window in our backyard garage and cut my throat. Pretty much just about killed me. I was in the hospital for close to three months. They told my parents I probably wasn’t going to live, things like that, but made it through that. Continued to ride bikes, got into skateboards, doing crazy stuff after that, still. But school, I guess was second. Two other things I had going on. I guess that’s where, like the learning the fabrication skills and things like that came in. There were a lot of times I just get school, stayed at home and worked in the backyard garage, building things.
[00:05:47.470] – Big Rich Klein
Right. And did you try to in school when you were there? Did you try to especially later on, I don’t know if you guys had shop classes or anything, but did you take any of that kind of stuff?
[00:05:59.110] – Dan Dubose
Like 8th grade? I had the guidance counselor tell me, well, we’re not going to let you pass and go to high school unless you agree to go to trade school. And I was like, okay. So we ended up taking electrical trades, of all things, and learning to wirehouses and do commercial wiring and things like that. I got pretty good at it, and I mentioned failing me and getting in trouble for skipping. It’s kind of a bad thing. Kind of got kicked out of school and ended up working for a local company, wiring houses with no GED and no high school diploma for probably close to a year. I was looking around at people I worked with, things like that, thinking, man, I’m better than this, I’m smarter than this, I’m screwing up. So I think the man that owned the company kind of caught the vibe that I had that I wanted to go back to school. Well, he laid me off at Christmas and I looked across the desk from him. He was kind of worried what I was going to say. I was, I thanked him. I was like, thank you, and immediately went back, got my high school diploma, got back in high school and did that through a private school and immediately went to college after that. READ MORE
