Sitting in his office, my eyes wander as I wait for Bill Tidwell to get off the phone. Numerous frames hold pictures of family, friends, and even my familiar face. To my left, a mounted head of a boar is staring down at me. While startled for a second by the rough-textured fur, angry eyes, and small, but threatening tusks, I soon regain my composure as I listen to Bill Tidwell’s soft, yet slightly raspy voice. It’s a comforting sound. And then he laughs, a laugh that you’ve never heard before. All is better, now. It isn’t deep, as might be expected by his appearance: weathered skin, grey-white hair, and a constant five-o-clock shadow that is also grey-white. It is a giggle. A giggle that actually sounds like “he-he-he.” I can tell he is trying his best to end the call. Still patiently waiting, I start to reflect on his office and how well it represents his success. This place, where he spends most of his days, has fruitfulness oozing out of every artwork, every mounted animal head, every phone call, and every greeting he receives from his employees as they pass by his office. You would never guess that it all started with only seventy-five dollars to his name.
He finally says his goodbyes, and then gives me one of his big smiles that deepens his crow’s-feet and asks, “what else you got?” I sit for a minute in the oversized leather chair, and say nothing. I might not have reacted this way in any other situation, but there was good reason. I can assure you this. I wasn’t speaking to just any other businessman. I was speaking to my grandfather. I remember when I was little I would come into his office and sit in the same big leather chair. I never thought twice about how that chair got there, or how my grandfather ended up in this comfortable office with thousands of people working for him. I probably wasn’t supposed to think that way when I was six, but now I’m twenty-one and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life – I can’t help but think that way.
Bill Tidwell’s company, Cardell Cabinets, founded in San Antonio, Texas, is the result of risk-taking, hard work, and a passion for success. What it is not: the result of a college education. With only seventy-five dollars in his pocket, college was slightly out of the picture. He wouldn’t have asked for it any other way. “If I would have been able to go to college, I really truly believe I would not have taken a chance. I didn’t know what an entrepreneur was back then, but I did know that I was a different kind of person so I said hey, go for it, not knowing any better.” Entrepreneurship is still valued today, but now, a college degree is valued even higher. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. After Bill Tidwell started his own company, called Oakcliff Cabinets, with the help of a pastor who loaned him some tools, he failed to receive a payment of $2,400 from his first job. The customer sensed a young man trying to make something of himself, and consequently taught Bill Tidwell his first lesson. “This guy didn’t pay his bills, and then saw me coming – I was pretty naïve at that point.” This slight bump in the road didn’t slow him down. Today, he has the assets to prove it.
You can find one of these assets in Batesville, Texas. In this little Texas town 90 miles southwest of San Antonio, a beautiful 6,000 square foot house sits upon 1,953 acres of sprawling ranch land. The house’s design blends in perfectly with the Texas country, which is composed of vast amounts of trees and wildlife. You can’t find a home like this in the city. The hour and forty-five minutes it takes to get there from San Antonio is just a little long for a car trip, way too short to take his jet, so the helicopter does the job. While the jet won’t get Bill Tidwell to the ranch, it will take him to his condo in Las Vegas. It is a modest get-away that is about five miles from the infamous Strip - far enough away to enjoy some peace and quiet, but close enough to indulge in the excitement of Sin City.
To some, these luxuries may seem excessive, but Bill Tidwell uses his earnings in ways that benefit others as well. For years, he has been a Top 10 Buyer at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. During the two weeks the rodeo spends in the city, the San Antonio Livestock Exposition, Inc., also known as SALE, supports Texas youth by providing them a venue for competition and a market for their junior agricultural and livestock projects. The SALE Scholarship fund was created to encourage 4-H and FFA high school students to pursue agricultural careers in college. Today the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo benefits 4,600 college students and awards $8.1 million scholarships, grants, and endowments. As a Top 10 Buyer, he participates in an auction to purchase the livestock of young adults, who use the money towards college. “Most of these young kids are from the country and remind me of my childhood days. Being a Top 10 Buyer has nothing to do with ego, but has everything to do with God’s blessings.” Throughout our conversation, Bill Tidwell stresses his faith in God. He is a religious man and gives the big man upstairs all the credit for his fortunate life. His assets may seem superfluous, but his modesty and his love for giving back to the community are the real measures of his success.
His unmistakable humility stems from his childhood. Bill Tidwell was born in 1936 and raised in a small town at the foot of the Kiamichi Mountains, called Honobia, Oklahoma, 200 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. He grew up as the youngest of seven children. Not only was he surrounded by a lively group of brothers and sisters, but he was also engulfed by the beautiful scenery of the surrounding terrain. It was plentiful with trees, spring-fed creeks, and miles of rich farmland. “It was nature mostly, that is what the country is all about.” Thinking back to their living situation he said, “it was typical country living: we had an old house with wood stoves, no electricity, and no running water indoors. I helped my mother with chores. I cut wood, I cut the weeds, planted the garden, and carried water.”
His endless chores were sure to mold a responsible, hard-working man, but tragedy built his character even more. Trying to hold back the rush of emotions, he began telling me about the point in his life that, although he doesn’t remember, still affects him to this day. “My father died of an appendicitis attack when I was only 16 months old. He was 45. My mother raised all seven of us on her own and the story goes that she never even dated another man. My father had received a pension of $60 a month for catching malaria during WWI. That was our income. That was what we lived off of. My mother made it work. She was a wonderful mom.”
Though Bill Tidwell grew up without the guidance of a father, his mother played both roles as best she could. She gave them the best childhood possible, a stepping-stone definitive of one’s future life. “I met my first wife, Peggy Burleson, when I was 14 and she was 12. We married after I graduated from high school and while she was a Senior.” What got Bill Tidwell out of Oklahoma and to a place with a more promising future was Peggy and her mother’s rocky relationship. “With all the bickering between the two women”, Bill Tidwell said, “we had to move to save our marriage.” In 1958, a year after they married, they headed south to Dallas, where Peggy had family. This is when Bill Tidwell’s gradual climb to success kicked off. “Finding work was hard and it took me six weeks to find a job.” His first job was at Evans cabinet company. “I thought to myself, if he [his boss] can do it, I could do it.” In 1965 at the age of 29, he started Oakcliff Cabinets, where he had at most 30 people working for him. Without the generous pastor who loaned him the tools, he would have never had the resources.
Then in 1977, given a rare opportunity, Bill Tidwell took over the dream that Carlos De Llano of San Antonio wasn’t ready to live. Carlos had started Cardell Cabinetry, but lacked the resources to stay in business. “I saw good labor and a good climate in San Antonio. I went for it. I even kept the same name – it sounded catchy.” Never afraid to face a new risk, Bill Tidwell moved south, again. His entrepreneurial ways paid off. In 2006, Cardell’s high point, it was a $322 million company and employed almost 4,000 people. This was a big leap from his small, Dallas cabinet business. His success was and still is a substantial feat for a country boy, who jumped into the business world with seventy-five dollars.
That small sum of money didn’t hold Bill Tidwell back, it didn’t discourage him, and it didn’t define him as an individual. He knew he was worth more than seventy-five dollars. Others knew it too. He proved to his customers that his work was deserving of their money. A job done by Cardell was worth the investment. Up until 2006, Cardell concentrated mostly on new houses, but with the decline in the economy, Bill Tidwell and Cardell had to adapt, just as he did in 1965. Although now only able to claim a $100 million annual revenue, once again, Bill Tidwell is not discouraged. His goal is to increase that to $200 million, while also expanding Cardell’s concentration from new houses to include retail. He is struggling with the rest of the world in these hard economic times, and is at an even greater disadvantage because his work depends on the demands of the housing market, a sector that is in the most trouble due to the current recession. But Bill Tidwell’s determination has the power to overcome almost any undesirable situation that arrives in front of him. It is one thing to say you are hopeful, it is another to sound hopeful. It is not only the words coming out of his mouth, but the sound of those words. Bill Tidwell is the voice of a hopeful future.
