"Yes," she said.
The paper had covered Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk's visit to South Africa. It seemed that Kirk, after weeks of waxing hopeful about the possibility of rubbing shoulders with Nelson Mandela, was not going to get to meet the legendary South African president after all. "I wish he would have called me," Cottrell mumbled. "I could have got him an invitation."
Comer had met Mandela on one of his many business trips, scouting the post-apartheid South African hair-care market. There's a way to accomplish things in South Africa, Comer explained. He has close friends who are close friends with high-ranking members of Mandela's political party, the African National Congress. Cottrell could have called his friends, who would have thrown a dinner party for their friends in the ANC. Mandela would have made an appearance out of respect for his comrades. That's how things are done in South Africa.
But Kirk left South Africa without ever laying eyes on his hero. He should have called Comer Cottrell.
Even Comer's detractors admit the man knows how to get things done. Sitting at his desk in his executive offices, the portly, aging businessman with thinning gray hair looks unassuming. But his sleepy eyes and grandfatherly voice conceal a razor-sharp intellect and an ability to influence others. He is kindly, alternately profane and endearing, and slightly gruff, but Comer Cottrell's power lies in how he makes you feel about yourself.
"I like his style," Al Lipscomb says. "I don't give a damn if you are in coveralls or a three-piece suit. Comer will treat you right if you allow him to. But now--let's face it--he's self-made, and he knows B.S. from Shinola."
The phone rings. It's a distributor of Cottrell's who's complaining about a young upstart whom he says is trying to steal his business.
"Look, let me tell you," Comer says. "You are one of the viable distributors left and have the most integrity, as I see it, in the industry. That company, they do all kinds of crap."
Before long, it's clear from Comer's side of the conversation that the industry is going through some serious problems. Comer reveals that he has hired a bankruptcy attorney full-time to protect Pro-Line's interests when distributors go out of business. He sympathizes with his pal on the phone, assuring him that his business isn't ruined; that he just has to roll with the punches and play it smart. "By being credible," he says, "you can always move in when they go.
"Times have changed," he tells his pal. And Comer for one is going to change with them. "There is a time when I just say, 'We have to collect our money and we have to get it or we can't ship.'"
With his friend the distributor only slightly mollified, Cottrell hangs up. The days of easy profits, like those of the ubiquitous jerry curl, have gone away.
Continued...
