There are three universal truths when it comes to success. Two of those are that it takes hard work and hustle to become successful at anything.
The third universal truth – especially when you are talking about entrepreneurship–is that all real success stories have humble beginnings.
We’ve heard the stories of how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computers in a tiny garage in the mid1970s, or how Mark Zuckerberg and a few of his college buddies created Facebook in the early 2000s before most could legally drink.
Thus, humility, hustle, and hard work all seem to coalesce in this recipe called success.
Entrepreneur Joaquin Spamer, the founder and president of Commodities Integrated Logistics (CIL), can tell you all about the recipe for success because he has practiced it for more than 30 years after launching his successful enterprise in the Rio Grande Valley.
Although he was just 29 when he started CIL, most don’t know that Spamer had been hustling and putting in the hard work since he was in college.
He was a student at the University of Texas Pan-American in the early 80s when he and one of his good friends saw a recruiter for a California-based metal build manufacturer looking for ambitious young people who wanted to start a business.
“There was a company from California that was looking for a local representative, so they came to the school, and my friend and I got involved with the company,” Spamer said. “It wasn’t called a franchise, but it was basically a franchise.”
Spamer borrowed $2,500 from his father to start the franchise to sell pre-fabricated metal buildings marketed to farmers or small to mid-sized businesses. The Valley was fertile ground in those days, and Spamer seized the opportunity.
“We didn’t have computers, so when we sat down with a customer, we had to draw out what they needed,” he said.
He and his friend would send off the orders by fax to the headquarters in California, who would then ship the metal supplies to the customer to be assembled.
“We started quoting those buildings left and right [for our clients],” he said. “A year later, we were able to sell a metal building to a company in Hidalgo.”
They signed the $330,000 contract for the building. Spamer and his partner asked for a 10% down payment and received $33,000.
“We didn’t have a bank account to deposit the money,” he said. “The only thing we had was the letterhead from the company and the business cards, so we had to spend a couple of weeks basically putting the business together. We were able to start building warehouses.”
All it took was one sale to motivate Spamer and his partner before they followed up with six more contracts before the first warehouse was completed.
Spamer was making money, and since he was still living at home with his parents, he had no personal expenses.
This allowed Spamer and his partner to use that revenue to invest in their own company, and in 1987, they built their warehouse, a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in Hidalgo on land they’d purchased from the city’s mayor at the time.
“I ended up having a warehouse when I was 27-years old, so that is kind of unique,” he said.
In 1992, Spamer founded Commodities Integrated Logistics (CIL) in McAllen. Two years later, the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Spamer recalls how things in the Valley began to change after the treaty was signed.
“There was nothing out here, and then the treaty was signed. Reynosa grew from 250,000 people to 1.2 million in 10 years,” he said. “McAllen grew tremendously; all the Rio Grande Valley grew. All of what we now call “RioPlex” grew very fast. We were in the right place at the right time with the right products, and we just took advantage of that.”
Over the last 32 years, CIL has expanded from a 22,000-square-foot facility to 1.2 million square feet in several locations throughout the Valley, with trade partners worldwide.
Of course, Spamer explains that none of this would have happened without the lessons he learned from his father.
“My father was a general contractor in Mexico City. He had a pretty big company and built thermal electrical plants,” he said. “He taught me hard work. I wanted to work as hard as my dad. He was always working, and I wanted to do the same. I follow his lead.”
Spamer’s vision of the Valley is one of growth and prosperity as more and more businesses follow the lead of SpaceX and move their operations to the Valley.
While many companies are likely U.S.-based, others could relocate to the region from countries such as Mexico, Germany, or China.
RioPlex, Spamer believes, is the epicenter of explosive future growth in Texas, specifically among what he calls tier two and tier three companies.
“There’s going to be a lot of growth in the Rio Grande Valley. We are betting on it,” he said. “There will be a lot of new companies and a lot of manufacturing moving to the area. The growth will be huge.”
