Business co-founder, president speaks at USU Thursday
Tom Dorsey, president and co-founder of Dorsey, Wright and Associates, shared stories of tribulation with students at Utah State University when he spoke at the Taggart Student Center Ballroom on Thursday.
Dorsey said fortunately, one of his professors made him love education. The professor helped him figure out his affinity with mathematics and statistics.
One of Dorsey’s favorite moments was when he learned the principles of supply and demand. He just wanted to go into the supermarket and tell everyone, he said.
“I know what’s going on, I understand this,” Dorsey said.
After graduation, Dorsey said he sent his résumé to the Merrill Lynch Company. The branch manager turned him down. Dorsey kept calling him for the next two months to try to get the job.
“Don’t give up. I was on the verge of getting a restraining order filed against me and I landed the job for $900 a month.
“Now, I’m ready to do financial surgery. God help you,” Dorsey said.
“In 1973 [when Dorsey started at Merrill Lynch], most of the investing public lost most their assets so they did not want to work with stock brokers,” Dorsey said. “I decided that to make it I would have to become an expert at something, so I became an expert in the options business.”
“The best ways [to] maintain devotion to excellence are integrity, being technologically sound and bringing value to the table,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey said people should always do something different from their competitors.
Dorsey created Dorsey, Wright and Associates, in 1987. His corporation has only 12 employees, he said. Despite this small number of employees the company has gained a nationwide reputation in the stock market.
“My dad was an army officer so we moved around all the time. I attended 16 different schools before I graduated,” Dorsey said.
“Since I moved so much I kept getting behind,” Dorsey said. “Eventually, my parents only cared if I got A’s in conduct.”
“My dad didn’t graduate college until he was 47,” he said.
For 10 years Dorsey said his dad was either at work, sitting on a straight back chair or at night school.
Dorsey said his dad always encouraged him by saying, “It is a cinch by inch, and it is hard by the yard.”