The following is an original production of WTCI.

I do think that, you know, risk is very much a part of being successful and if you're not willing to risk failure, you certainly are not going to be successful.

You may have a modicum of success, but look, I encourage risk and you know, I think that taking those risk on the front end to have some experiences that you can learn from is very important.

How has this big thinking qualities pension for taking chances impacted his life and the lives of people around the country?

Find out this week on the A-list As I sit down with United State Senator Bob Corker.

Bob Corkers name is synonymous with success, starting at a very young age.

His hard work, dedication and bold vision would later afford him a wealth of opportunities to make an impact through public service.

Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Bob moved with his family to Chattanooga when he was just 11 years old.

It was then that his passion for the city and its people was born.

Nearly 40 years later, he would be elected mayor and his leadership would help breathe new life into the city with an immense revitalization of its downtown.

His accomplishments, while mayor of Chattanooga, would eventually help ease his transition into the world of Washington politics, where he now serves as a United States senator.

Extensive as his resume may be, Bob Corker's path to success did not come easily.

Working in construction, fresh out of college, his commitment to hard work and his passion for helping others were the tools that helped him begin his journey.

As the story goes, you were 25 years old, had nothing but $8,000 and a pickup truck before you started your first business.

Is that accurate?

Yeah, but you know nothing.

But I mean, the fact is that, you know, my parents had great parents.

I was able to get an education and.

And I knew what I wanted.

I worked for a great company here in town prior to that called EMJ Corporation Now.

I learned how to build a building when I was like 23 years old.

And by the time I was 25, I had saved $8,000 in bonuses that that you were paid by building projects on time and under budget.

And so you look at that.

I don't look at that as a hardship.

I look at that as, you know, I had 8000 bucks, you know, to go on business and and and fortunately knew what I wanted to do.

And, you know, I also that the other lucky thing was I started doing really, really small projects.

Sometimes you can go in business and end up doing things bigger than you should be doing in the very beginning.

But, you know, I did a string of crystal drive in Windows and and which was also based here in town, and they actually paid me on time, you know, And so I was able to build up some working capital and built my first shopping center in 1981.

And Cleveland, Tennessee, and obviously ended up building many, many more after that.

I think so many people want to take the easy route and the beginning and not apply themselves to actually mastering something.

I know that when I learned how to build a building on my own.

In other words, if you could give me a set of drawings and a telephone that I could, you know, build a shopping center, I knew once I learned that, that I was always going to be able to be, quote, independent, meaning that I knew how to do something that was valuable.

Was there ever a time where you thought you weren't going to succeed?

Yes.

You know, back in when I was 37 years old, I sold my first company was called then Core Corp..

I sold it April 40th excuse me, April 4th, 1990 at 2:40 p.m..

I remember exactly when the final paper was, and I love the company.

I love the people there.

But in 1990, if you remember, we had a real estate recession, tremendous real estate recession.

I had just finished building something called Market to down at six and market six and brought it off a block wide.

And I was scared to death.

I mean, we had a lenders became very concerned about real estate.

I became very concerned.

I had to wake up every day for a year and a half and smile and act like nothing was wrong.

Because if you ever give an indication that you're concerned, I assure you the bankers become very concerned.

So, yes, during that period of time, I actually, you know, learned more about myself during that year and a half than all the years of then core growing at 80% a year.

But what happened was I just dove in deeper and actually learned the office building business and as you know, went on to buy a couple of companies that owned a lot of office buildings.

And had it not been for that experience of really wondering whether I was going to make it or not, I mean, literally, like laying in bed at night, just unable to sleep, you know, calculating your net worth in your mind, hoping that I never missed a payment and I paid everybody on time.

But it was a year and a half of great cost and patience.

So, yes, the answer is in 1990, I was very concerned about that.

You know, the aquarium had not yet been built and I wanted to be part of through the private sector.

I wanted to be part of the the you know, the renovation, the reinvigoration of our downtown area.

And so I took this on and candidly probably didn't know enough about it at the time.

I learned a lot during that process, but I was very concerned about making it.

Fortunately, Bob's future would end up being brighter than he could have ever anticipated before Selling Bencor in 1990, the company was operating in 18 states and had skyrocketed his career in business.

But it wasn't long after that.

Bob began feeling the need to give back and soon would have an opportunity that would unknowingly begin his transition into public service.

Now that when you were, I think about 32, you went on a mission trip to Haiti that had a pretty significant impact on your life.

Well, you share a little about that trip with me.

I might have been in my late twenties.

I can't remember exactly, but I was living up at Cameron Hill, which is where the Blue Cross headquarters are.

And I knew that I was going to be successful.

Our company by that time was operating in multiple states, and I remember just being up on a on a dark gray day, sitting up there and just wanting to do something that wasn't about me or my company.

And I read in my church bulletin that they were looking for somebody who knew something about construction to lead this mission trip.

So I called the church office immediately and asked if I could go and and did.

And it did have a huge impact on me.

I, I don't know that I'd ever been around people who had so little who spirit was so generous.

And it was hugely touching to me.

It really caused me to want to be able to do something like that on a more continual basis with a company that was growing at 80% a year, I couldn't be, you know, traveling around doing things like this.

And so I came back and started working on Reed and Mitchell Streets on the weekends here in Chattanooga.

They're a group of folks who met down at the old YMCA.

And then we'd go out and work in the neighborhood, and we did everything from just cleaning up elderly people yards to doing home repairs to.

We eventually built a dental clinic down there, but it was there that I thought I saw that we had so many Chattanooga Inns that didn't have decent housing.

And finally, one day I walked home with a couple of young boys that had kind of been helping us, and they were going to the same high school.

I'd gone to city high school and the home they were living in.

I promise you, most Chad Nagin's would not want their pets living in a home like this.

It was just unbelievably terrible and their family situation was terrible.

And, you know, that led me to become involved in creating Chattanooga neighborhood Enterprise that moved me that experience into in many ways into public service because of then government order asked me to serve on a low income housing task force in Nashville and began looking at public policy.

I had to start talking about Chattanooga neighborhood and enterprises in public, something that I was unaccustomed to doing.

And and here I am in the United States Senate.

So do you think that was really the start of it?

I'm so fascinated by that transition and how gradual it was or how, you know, how purposeful it was going from private sector to public servant.

Well, it was absolutely not purposeful, but it was seeking purpose that brought me In other words, I didn't do it thinking, oh, gosh, this would be a great way to run for public office.

It just happened.

You know, It did.

You know, I got out there on an issue and got exposed to public policy.

We ended up I ended up, you know, meeting senators and congressional members because we were talking about, you know, we were advocating making sure that housing was available to lower income citizens.

And and, you know, it just kind of happened at one point, I think I finally woke up one day and said and I was kind of embarrassed, just to be candid, that I would even think about running for public office.

I didn't really you know, that wasn't something we talked about in our family.

And I'd always loved business and construction so much.

But I remember waking up and thinking, you know, gosh, I might like to to run for public office and see if I can make a difference in that arena.

And then I shared that with Elizabeth, and I didn't get a very good reception.

If you know, the truth.

And again, it was almost embarrassing to hear me say that, talking about it internally in my office, it was like I felt lesser of a person to even think about running for public office again, just because I had been so, you know, involved in business and civic activities here.

His penchant for bold thinking and taking risks, what eventually lead him to become Tennessee's commissioner of finance, the mayor of its fourth largest city and now a United States senator.

But that's not to say that his transition into the political arena was without setbacks.

In 1994, Bob took his first leap into the world of national politics by running for the Senate.

He lost the primary to eventual winner Bill Frist.

But putting himself into the national spotlight as a political candidate for the first time was a hugely impactful experience.

How hard was it losing that race in 94?

Oh, you know, I mean, look, I it wasn't that bad if you don't know the truth.

I mean, we put a lot of effort into and I hated it for the supporters and the people who did that.

So you really are disappointed for all the people who did so much to help you be successful and and you weren't.

But, you know, it wasn't that bad.

I actually was.

I learned a lot during that campaign.

I learned a lot about our state.

I learned a lot about myself.

And as you always do and I experience, you know, one of the things I think people forget about running for public office, you're really out there and everything you say is scrutinized by the public and and the issues are taken with what you say and you just learn a lot.

It's really it's a much an unbelievably maturing experience.

And you know, what I learned, especially in the second race where I ran for the Senate in 2016, I've been mayor of the city.

And, you know, we worked with people of every background to hopefully make some good things happen in the community and I think did wake up and throw people in every play.

I mean, we got a lot done during that four year period and and there would be people like, you know, Republicans, Democrats, independents, libertarians, you name it.

They were all folks that we worked with.

But the name but you put your name on the ballot as a Republican and lifelong friends and people that you've worked with on civic causes that were maybe was the most important thing that ever was accomplished for them as it relates to a civic endeavor.

I remember one specific instance, which I won't name, but I just it stunned you.

You put out by your name and all of a sudden, you know, people that you've known for a long, long time are against you.

So, you know, it's a maturing experience, especially to to run for the United States Senate and and see how people react.

And and just of the fact that, look, it ends up being a more partizan atmosphere than than we have fortunately here locally as it relates to local kinds of efforts.

Now and I know you were you were pretty and still are focused on bi partizan politics and you talk about how it's gotten involved with personal.

How personal has politics become for you?

Oh, you know, people get up and say things and sometimes it kind of shocks you.

But but look, it's that's what you sign up for.

I mean, the fact is that people are concerned about the future right now and rightly so.

And and, you know, when you go through these periods of time of of angst, people express themselves sometimes in ways that you might not expect.

But I don't I don't really take it personally.

I mean, I've gotten after you've gone through a camp, I take some things personally, okay.

And, you know, some things can still shock you even.

But look, I've gotten my uniform dirty on most every play as it relates to the big issues in Washington.

And and still I'm throwing myself, myself into those.

And I think that's what people elected me to do.

And and I look at take 60 votes in the Senate to make anything happen.

There are 47 Republican votes right now and not all of them vote together.

Right.

So you have to seek out people that you have common ground with to make anything happen.

I didn't run to sit around up there for six years and and quote, be a United States senator.

I wanted to make a difference.

And to make a difference, you know, you have to find common ground.

That doesn't mean you compromise your principles.

Hopefully no one would compromise their principles.

It means, though, finding common ground.

So there are a number of issues, especially this huge indebtedness that we have.

We have to really focus on how we do bringing people together to solve this huge issue, which will be devastating if we as a country don't show the courage.

Now, I'm not talking about courage.

Five years from now, but I think we have two or three years to address this issue or I think the international markets really are going to penalize us.

And then you get into a spiral that's very difficult to overcome.

I came here to solve our country's problems.

I look at these young people in front of me.

I don't think they have any idea what our here responsible for irresponsibility is doing to them.

And we talk about future generations.

But I think all of us know.

Thank you very much.

I think all of us know that we're actually at a point now that we've been so irresponsible that it's not just going to affect future generations, it's getting ready to affect effect.

So there's a lot of turmoil in this world.

How do you find those allies on the Hill, though?

And not to be cynical, but how do you know that the people you think are your friends are really going to be there.

You know, and to go back to you don't know that I've I've, uh, you know, I've learned a lot about that.

I think that at the end of the day, you know, you cannot be I mean, there's there's no reason to be naive about it.

I mean, the fact is people end up getting pressures from back home.

The White House sometimes can play a role and in causing people to shift their opinions.

But I think unless you seek it, you know, we have these committee meetings and you're sitting across the dais from members of the other party, and you can tell by the questions they ask, you can tell by the way they interview the witnesses that we have coming in on particular topics.

You can tell whether you have common ground or not.

So I think you can just tell.

And so you and I may be an ally on an issue today, maybe having to do with our financial system.

And you and I may be in total disagreement on something that coming out of Foreign Relations Committee on a different issue.

So what I mean I mean, I don't think you know, it's not quite the way people think.

I mean, it's not that, hey, if I work with you on the issue, we got to work on every issue.

You just find people again on particular issues where there's common ground.

I think.

I mean, it's a naturally intelligent thing to do.

You know, most business people don't want to spend, you know, months and months and months working on something to get to know.

Right.

To get to the answer, no.

I mean, when you're negotiating, you want to get to yes.

And so you go into a negotiation hoping to get the.

Yes.

You don't want to waste months getting to know sometimes, unfortunately, you get to know.

But in the process, maybe the piece of legislation is better and you still made a contribution.

So if you make it sound so logical, if you make it sound so theoretically easy, at least on some issues, to be able to find some sort of bipartisan agreement, what's the problem?

Why?

Why is government not working as efficiently as this seems to make it feel like it could be?

Unfortunately, there is an atmosphere in Washington that as soon as this election's over, you're focused on the next and then the agenda of what is brought up, unfortunately, on the Senate floor and many times is driven by, you know, which is going to make which party you know, look better, look worse.

I mean, I hate to say it, you know, what's good for the country a lot of times is sort of way down on the list of why something is even coming up on the Senate floor.

So even if you have people who you may have common ground with on an issue, you may never have the opportunity because of the the way the bills end up coming up on the floor or getting discussed in committee.

The atmosphere within which you're working can sometimes make that difficult.

But that doesn't mean that you don't wake up every single day and still put out that effort.

You know, one of the things about, you know, I had to ask myself, after spending a year on financial regulation and at the end of the day, I felt like that politics overcame substance and I had to come home.

And this was a serious discussion that our staff had and that I had with friends.

You know, is this really worth a grown man's time to care about our country, to care about these issues, and yet work in an environment where so often politics overcome substance?

And I finally decided that I know of no place, that I have the opportunity and the great privilege to weigh in on issues that are important to you, important to your viewers, like I can in the United States Senate.

And even though there's this atmosphere that is is especially right now there to divide people, to keep people apart, that still doesn't mean that I'm going to wake up every day and try to master the topics that I spend most of my time on and try to find common ground with somebody else to make sure that we try to get that good policies in place.

And so that's what I do.

It's frustrating, I can assure you.

It's very unlike waking up at a business and deciding you're going to build a project in Chattanooga, Tennessee, or some other place.

But I think it's something that is important.

And I do think it's worth of romance time.

From construction laborer to businessman to politician.

Bob Corker's career has garnered much success.

His passion for public service and his commitment to effecting change have impacted the lives of countless citizens across the United States.

And with his journey in the world of public service still ongoing, the future holds endless possibilities.

But through it all, Bob Corker has remained humble and appreciative of the opportunities he has been given.

Do you ever go to sleep thinking, Wow, I wish I was still mayor of Chattanooga?

You know, I don't think it's very healthy to look back and say, I wish you know, we were back then.

I have I have at least three times a week when I was mayor of the city.

Would go to the microphone and be emotionally overwhelmed because of something we were working on and the ability to see that it actually touched somebody in a real way.

And I certainly miss that warmth.

I miss that that feeling.

In many ways, I would say that what I'm doing right now is in some ways more public service because I don't get that feeling okay.

It's instead, it's a rough and tumble, raucous, raucous role that, you know, the issues are important, but you don't get that warmth and feedback because you're so disconnected from the very people that you know you're not You don't have that same relationship.

So I will always look at my time as mayor.

I can't imagine this being not the case.

I will always look at it as the greatest, greatest opportunity to really be whole and to to to work with people in such a real way.

But I carry with me that to the Senate and my other duties, I don't look back and say, I wish I was there, but I will tell you, it sure was great and what a privilege and what a great city.

And it sure was a great time.

And I know it's hard, too, but do you ever think about if you hadn't taken that jump into politics, what you would be doing now?

I don't think about that much.

I mean, I still feel like I'm 58 years old.

And, you know, the voters of this state may decide that I'm going to be back in business at age 60.

Right.

I'm up in two years.

That's a pretty volatile time.

So I don't always look and say, look, whatever happens in life, you know, I may end up being back in business again.

I'm glad to have had that.

I think the way that I was able to be in business first, to have been able to be a civic leader and to actually pursue the nonprofit issues of Chattanooga neighborhood enterprise and other kinds of things, to have had that experience.

I think my evolution into politics and the public service has been appropriate for me.

And if the voters of the state decide that I need to return to that, I think I'll figure out some meaningful way of being involved in the private sector.

Again, at this moment, I do plan to I hope to be able to use the things that I've learned in all of those experiences the private sector, the civic side, being mayor, being commissioner of finance, and my four years in the Senate so far, I hope to use those in a really unique way to helped to help cause our country to continue to be to exhibit that American exceptionalism that we've been able to exhibit.

Well, I can say we're glad you got over your embarrassment because you've served our city and our country well.

And we appreciate it.

And we appreciate you being on the show.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.