Chat Room: C. Randy Massey

Name: C. Randy Massey
Age: 50
Married: Randy and his wife, Angela, have five children: Katie, 24; Kara, 21; Kimberly, 18; Callie and Connor, twins who are 15.
Occupation: Owner, Cherokee Millwright and Massey Electric

What was your first paying job?
"Skate guard -- the guy that blows the whistle at the Lakemont Skating Rink."

If you could do one impulsive thing, unrestricted by cost, what would it be?
"I would throw a Christmas party for every kid in the nine county area and show them how wonderful it is to be alive. I think Christmas is a great time to understand how wonderful it is to be alive. A lot of kids don’t get it anymore."

What task or activity have you still not gotten around to doing?
"I always wanted to go to the Napa Valley. I heard it’s beautiful and has great wineries and is a place where they’re glad you came."

What are you guilty of?
"Spoiling my children."

What is one thing you have always wanted to do but haven’t?
"I want to learn to fly."

Do you think there is life on other planets?
"Without a doubt. Statistically and mathematically the probability should be extremely high some form of replication would occur when you’re talking about billions and billions of stars and planets."

What is your favorite material possession?
"My 2003 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic."

What are you reading currently?
Randy is reading "Analysis of Changes in the 2007 Electrical Code" and Ernest Hemmingway’s "Moveable Feast."

Who has been the most influential person in the 20th century?
"Bill Gates. He changed the way we think and the way we do things. He has changed the way our children behave with development and use of his software. Hardware is important, but until you have software to circumvent the hardware, the hardware was useless. He led that front."

What was your most embarrassing moment?
"Getting paddled in third grade in front of the class."

What is one word others often use to describe you and why?
"I think it’s loyal. I have this funky philosophy that you just shouldn’t let anybody down. If they’re counting on you, you just shouldn’t let them down."

When you were 5 years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
"A cowboy. My grandfather had horses, and I had a pony. I had already decided I was going to ride my pony out West, and he and I were going to rope cows."

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
"My temper."

What is your passion?
"My children are my passion. There’s not one of them I wouldn’t die for and anything you would die for is your passion. They make me proud. No matter how bad something is going, one of them will call. It’s hard to have a bad day with the kids I’ve got. They’re just great."

What do you hate?
"I hate poor attitudes. We are blessed with life, but it is so short on this planet that I hate it when people waste it by having a bad attitude about anything. They are taking a piece of their life and totally wasting it."

What’s your favorite quote?
"The phrase everyone I work with hears from me is ‘Aim at nothing, and you’ll hit it every time. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.’ When any of my companies do work, it’s OK to make a fair profit, but if you get to be a hog, you’ll pay for it. If the customer feels like he hasn’t gotten the value for his dollar, he thinks you’ve been a hog, and he won’t use you again. It’s OK to be a pig and make a fair profit but the second you become a hog, the market will deal with you. Those are my two sayings in my office."

Rebels, Tornadoes, Mountaineers or Governors?
"Tornadoes." Massey graduated Alcoa High School in 1975.

If you could go back in time for a week, what time period or year would you visit?
"I would go back to Tombstone, Ariz., in 1850 to see Wild Bill Hickok, just to see what it was like."

What character in a book or movie would you most like to be?
"No question about it: Indiana Jones in the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ "

What is the best present you ever received?
"On one of my birthdays, my daughters gave me pictures of me with them when they were very young. Each daughter had me doing something with them. Those are probably the three most precious things anybody has ever given me. I look at them every day."

What is the best advice your mother ever gave you?
"Slow down."