First A Dream

Clayton, Jim, with Retherford, Bill

ISBN 10: 0972638903 / ISBN 13: 9780972638906

Published by FSB Press, Knoxville, TN, 2002

About this Item

xiv, 399, [3] pages. Appendix. Index. Signed on fep. James L. "Jim" Clayton, Sr. (born 1934) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He founded Clayton Homes in 1966 and built it into the United States' largest producer and seller of manufactured housing, a publicly traded company that was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2003 for $1.7 billion. While a student, Clayton started an informal business of fixing and reselling used cars,[1] establishing a used-car business in 1956. That business grew into a group of Knoxville-area automobile dealerships operated by Jim Clayton and his brother Joe; Jim Clayton sold his interest in the business to Joe in 1981. Clayton branched into the mobile home business in 1966. Clayton published an autobiography, First a Dream (FSB Press, in 2002, cowritten with Bill Retherford. Reportedly, the book motivated Warren Buffett to buy Clayton's company. This is a captivating "rags to riches" story, as a young boy discovers during the Depression that hard work and sheer perseverance are the keys to living his dreams. First A Dream is filled with practical, easy-to-understand, no-nonsense business lessons that the entrepreneur can apply to his or her own life -- describing the qualities an effective leader must possess, the key methods to inspiring team members, and the development of culture and values that are critical to the success of a small business as well as a multibillion dollar conglomerate.

Seller Inventory # 72797

Bibliographic Details

• Title: First A Dream
• Publisher: FSB Press, Knoxville, TN
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0972638903
• ISBN 13: 9780972638906
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Printing [Stated].
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

This is a captivating "rags to riches" story, as a young boy discovers during the Depression that hard work and sheer perseverance are the keys to living his dreams.

First A Dream is filled with practical, easy-to-understand, no-nonsense business lessons that the entrepreneur can apply to his or her own life -- describing the qualities an effective leader must possess, the key methods to inspiring team members, and the development of culture and values that are critical to the success of a small business as well as a multibillion dollar conglomerate.

About the Author

Jim Clayton is Founder and Chairman of Clayton Homes, Inc. a NYSE (CMH) company lauded by Wall Street. He reported nearly 30 consecutive years of increased profit, and founded the industry's premier financial institution, servicing $5 billion in manufactured home mortgages.

Retired as CEO after 43 years in 1999. Acquiring a small bank in 1993, he transformed it into an $800 million regional powerhouse before merging it with BB&T in 2000. In his hometown, he purchased First State Bank in 2002.

On the board of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Jim Clayton, a sharecropper's son, grew up on a tiny Tennessee cotton farm in a log cabin with no electricity or running water. From those humble beginnings, he would one day become a Great American Success Story, and a perennial member of the Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans.