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a day. We have just about 100
percent “happiness report.”
Obviously, Jerry’s dealerships
have been successful, and one of the
best aspects of that success to Don
is that it brings with it the ability to
help.
“By being successful you can
send your money well into the
community,” Don said. “You can give
to this charity and that charity, and
you can touch a lot of people’s lives
and help a lot of people. That’s what
we are good at. We have always
done it, and now we are able to do it
better. That’s what success does.”
Battling cancer —
the experience
Great Navigator
With more young people
struggling to make decisions about
what they want to be and do when
they grow up, Don’s life story serves
as a great life lesson.
“I see more and more people
confused,” Don said. “First, they
work because they need the money,
but it isn’t what they want to do. I
have also seen people come in here
because they need the job and the
money, but then they decided that it
was a pretty good deal.”
In the four decades of Don’s
career, the automotive industry has
weathered numerous changes, not all
were positive changes, but a lot of
them were.
“In ’78 we got our first computer,”
Don said. “Things have changed
more in the past five years than they
did the previous 35 years. It is like
we came out of the Stone Age.”
He predicts even more changes in
the next five years.
“I remember they were talking a
long time ago about that eventually
there will not even be a need for
dealerships because people will order
everything online.”
While the internet has had a
big impact on automotive sales,
customers tend to research cars on
the Internet, but the trouble with the
Internet is that there is no way for
a customer to know if a vehicle is
a good fit for them until they have
experienced the car. After they have
read about a vehicle on the Internet,
what then?
“They want to go to the dealership
to drive it,” Don said. “That is the
biggest change that I’ve seen, how
much that has taken over. We
still have cars on the lot because
customers have to touch them, feel
them, see them and drive them.”
Customers are better informed
now, thanks to the Internet but
automotive sales are still relationshipdriven.
“I need to make a good enough
impression that you will come back
for service and then come back and
buy your next car,” Don said. “We
have people that have been selling
cars here for over 30 years, and you
can just imagine how many cars
they have sold to different family
members and friends, not their own
family members, but family members
of our customers. It is all about the
relationship. It is kind of like a doctor
or a dentist; you go back to them
DECEMBER 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
As with everything else in his
life Don has taken his own unique
approach to battling cancer.
“What Glenda tells me [is] that
attitude is the basis for fighting it,”
Don said. “You cannot have an
attitude that you are going to stay
home because you are too weak to
work and end up going to bed and
you don’t get up, you just let yourself
go.
“I think that if you keep a positive
attitude about it, I don’t know if it
helps but that is how I get through it.
I see people every day that it looks
like they don’t, and that bothers me
because I’m still upbeat. I guess that a
part of it is that I haven’t gotten sick.
The chemo hasn’t made me sick.
“I did two doses of radiation and
that made me the sickest. I actually
didn’t come to work for two days
after the first dose. On the second
dose I was better prepared what to do
and what to expect. And now I am
planning out my week. Based on my
previous experience, I’m preparing
myself for what I know is going to
happen tomorrow. It is working out
so much better, and I feel better. I
had five straight good days last week.
I think it is attitude; I really do … that
and having a good oncologist.”
Don believes strongly that success
in business, and success in battling
cancer, have at least one thing in
common: it’s all about attitude and
relationships.
One relationship that has had a
profound impact on Don’s life is his
friendship and working relationship
with Jerry Durant.
“I wouldn’t have had the kind of
success that I’ve had without Don
Allen,” Jerry Durant said. “I couldn’t
have done this without Don Allen.”
Don received two big honors this
past fall. He received the James H.
Doss Award from the Weatherford
Chamber of Commerce.
Then, on Oct. 10, 2013, the
Weatherford College Foundation
announced the building now under
construction on its main campus
would be named the Don Allen
Health Science Building.
Jerry and Vickie Durant pledged
$400,000 designated to go toward
the construction of the Don Allen
Health Science Building.
The new 31,000-square-foot
building will house WC’s allied
health programs including nursing,
respiratory therapy, radio logic
technology, sonography and
phlebotomy. The building has a
completion date in May of 2014.
“Just the other day, we were
talking about how I’ve had two weeks
since I had won this James Doss
Award at the Chamber and that now
they named the Health and Science
Building after me,” Don said. “Jerry
thought he was so smart because
he snuck around and made that
donation. And then he said, ‘We are
going to name this building the Don
Allen Health and Science Building.’
I told him that is really good, and I
appreciated him for that. After we
went to the ground breaking and
after I won that award, I was sitting in
his office and I told him how much
I appreciated what he had done
these last couple of weeks. Glenda
and I were talking about how well
you have been taking care of me.
He (Jerry) said, ‘You took care of
me for a long time (Jerry Durant is a
cancer survivor) so I am just returning
the favor.’ That is my favorite Jerry
moment.”
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