Charles Koch Relentless Goals: Being a Billionaire, Death Threats, and Giving Back

Source: Wichita Eagle

Apparently, the Wichita Eagle gave me an early Christmas present with this recent profile of Charles Koch. In 1998, Bob Cox of the Wichita Eagle did an in depth profile similar to this one.  The Koch family seems like one interesting family with David, Charles, and Bill. This profile shed light on who Charles Koch really is.

In the article it discusses how Charles Koch gets his hair cut from his wife (even though he is worth $31 billion and historical net worth 1984-2012 here) because he doesn't have time to go to the barber. Koch also use to be an avid skier until his knees gave out and has had both knees replaced and his right shoulder. This was after years of playing tennis, squash, golf, and polo.  These days he works out for an hour and a half doing weighting lifting, Pilates, and aerobics and follows a strict diet. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999. Koch is very competitive. When he played tennis with his friends and wife he hit the ball so hard that it hit the woman in the lip causing his wife Liz to curse him out.

His wife Liz has been at his side for their 44 years of marriage (which seems rare these days). She claims she is only one in the relationship that let her hair grow out.What is funny though is that when Liz first met Charles he wore a strip shirt and madras (picnic shorts). Liz also put up with Charles having books all over their apartment when they were first married when Charles was teaching himself about different subjects (economics, psychology, history) in the 1960's that Liz didn't even have a closet for her clothes. Even brother David Koch admits Charles reads "like a demon".

Charles was also competitive in the business world as well. Right before he joined his father’s company it had $70 million in annual revenue in 1960. In 2012, this number increased to $116 billion. Koch is a hard working man who is always working. His father Fred yelled at him when he was trying to save money for estate taxes (estate taxes have to be paid 9 months after death which makes it hard if your assets are all tied up in company stock). Charles bought two trucker companies (instead of one) and his father was furious with him. I personally think Koch is a workaholic however I think one of the side effects is becoming a billionaire. He also doesn’t like wasting time as he listens to audio books in his car because why waste 10 minutes of time. He doesn’t seem to work for money.  Charles Koch wakes up every morning to do what he loves doing: running a business. He doesn’t plan to retire and probably will work until he dies.

Growing up in the Koch family wasn’t easy either. The tennis gene must of rubbed off on his son Chase Koch because he appeared in Sports Illustrated under “Faces in the Crowd” in 1996 for a stellar tennis record. Just three years earlier Chase hit and killed someone in an accident. People make mistakes no question and growing up with Charles Koch probably wasn't easy as at 13 years old Chase had to go out and do work on the cattle feedlot in western Kansas. Charles said he thought his son believed he would have a full time job and be able to go out with his friends as night in Kansas. Chase worked 12 to 13 hour days 7 days a week as well. Charles when he first started work at Koch worked 7 days a week too. Charles preached family values and economics to his kids. Every Sunday afternoon Charles would teach his kids about economics. Chase would go to sleep while daughter Elizabeth would act interested. Chase who is not 35 now Vice President of Koch Agronomics Services. Elizabeth graduated from Princeton in 1999 is 36 years old with a degree in English literature and an MFA from Syracuse in 2011 and now works at Black Balloon Publishing in New York. The Koch kids seem to be good people or done anything crazy that has got in the press.

What truly is crazy is that the Koch family gets hundreds of death threats from wackos all the time. Not only this but Koch Industries has received cyber threats, bomb threats, and employees have also been threatened to. The family has a result has to hire security guards around the clock to protect themselves (tax increase I would point out). This seems pretty crazy for guys that just want to spread the good word of liberty, limited government, and prosperity. Speaking of prosperity Charles points out that "even those who live in poverty, have more money and opportunity for jobs if they live in a free-market economy rather than one controlled by dictators".

I consider Charles Koch to be a great American. Greatly expanding a business his father started into a $115 billion per year is not easy. In addition to creating jobs, improving the economic condition of his own 60,000 employees he is trying to spread the message that free markets actually do improve the life of everyone (even  poor people). I personally don't think Charles Koch is motivated by money. He is motivated to do the right thing by explaining not only how he was successful but how other people can be successful. In addition to all of this, he and his brother David have given $46 million to local Kansas charities and $1 billion in the last 12 years to various causes. If after reading this you don't have any respect for Mr. Koch you probably don't have any decency.