If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.

“If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” this quote was from the only true legend that I have ever met. As a person who have had the opportunity to meet sports heroes, leaders of industry, astronauts. governors, congressmen, senators, and even two presidents some may think of them as legends and they may even think of themselves as legends in their own time, they were not on par with this man. The man who gave us that quote was a legend to all that had met him, wanted to meet him or seen John Wayne portray him. His name was Red Adair.

At Rogers-O'Brian in Houston a salesman would make the initial sales call and then be paired with a project manager. Finishing up a couple of projects I had enough time to oversee a couple of local projects. One of the projects assigned was a office and warehouse for the Red Adair Wild Well Control Company.

Stepping into his office for the first time was total fascination. The only thing I knew about Red Adair was from an occasional newspaper articles and the 1968 John Wayne movie, “The Hell Fighters.” The lobby was full of awards in glass encasement's and pictures on the walls. The conference room was even more impressive, it had pictures in poster size of well fires that they had put out.

It wasn't until the third meeting with company officials that I had actually met him. He was so laid back and really genuine that at first I didn't know who he was because no one introduced him. The salesman that was with me was answering his questions directed toward this new man in the meeting no matter who asked them. I was answering the questions directed to me to who ever ask them and to the man I was first told was in charge of the project.

Around thirty minutes into the meeting the man who no one introduced asked everyone to step out except the man in charge of the project and me. After the door closed he turns around and said he was Red Adair and promptly replied that I knew, even though I didn't until that moment.

My senses was telling me that things were not going well in the meeting. Mr. Adair confirmed this when he asked me about the used car salesman I was with. You see, Kenny Hofman looked like and sounded like Herb Tarlek from 'WKRP in Cincinnati,' complete with the green, yellow and blue plaid suit, yellow shirt and blue and yellow striped tie.

After explaining to him how the company was setup. That any pricing for this project had to come through me and it was a firing offense for any salesman give out any numbers or estimates without a project manager signing off. I think this assured him that I would be his go to man, and not Kenny.

The project was an eighty thousand square foot warehouse with a twenty thousand square foot two story office building. Nothing in particular to note about it, you see these any where you go. I think the office building was built for future use or resale value. All we finished in the office building was the elevator, rest rooms and the perimeter walls. The warehouse was to store the company's fire fighting equipment and well head inventory.

Being twenty seven or twenty eight at the time I was amazed at the amount of men who flock around him. We went to lunch a couple of times and seeing all these men with the alligator skinned cowboy boots and the Rolex watches come up just to say hi. They all wanted to be like him and I've to say I changed my preference of boots to bull hides like his.

Red Adair was seventy seven when President George H.W. Bush called on him to put out the oil well fires in Kuwait. He put together a coalition of companies that were owned by former employees like Boots and Coots International Well Control. The experts were saying it would take three to five years to put out all the fires. When I heard that Red Adair was on the job I made a bet that he would have them out in less than a year. It took nine months, I felt bad about taking their money because it was a sure thing in my mind.

I have found his quote “If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur” to be true in many cases. The times I was hurt in construction it was because I hired amateurs and not true professionals. It happened in Morrow and it happened at Splash Mountain. This is one lesson I vowed never to repeat.