Adopted to Entrepreneur: My interview with a man who is invested in 30 restaurants

“It was the best thing that ever happened in my life, she gave me up for adoption.”

David Watson is financially invested in 30 Sonic restaurants. He’s a local church leader, a husband, and father of two. Here is the transcript of our interview:

Note: Minor editing was done to the transcript to make it reader friendly. The interview itself can be viewed on Youtube.

Q: Could you share with me a little about your upbringing and how you came to where you are now?

Okay, as far as may family goes, I have such a colorful background in my family. My biological parents were not married. My mom was married, got pregnant with another guy whose name was R- C-, and her husband found out about it, kicked her out. She had two other kids with her [at the time]. My biological father found out about it, and told her he didn’t want anything to do with it, and he split the scene. And so there she was, on the streets with two children, and no husband, and no boyfriend. So she went to Las Vegas — because in the 50s and 60s that’s what you did — and she got a job as a cocktail waitress. And while she was in Vegas, she decided to give me up for adoption — which was the right thing to do because she couldn’t handle me and the two kids she had, and I respect her for it and love her for it. It was the best thing that ever happened in my life, she gave me up for adoption.

My father, biological father, came back and apologized to her, said that he loved her, and felt horrible that he left her, and married her. So my dad came back and married her after I was gone. So I actually have two, full brothers that I never even knew I had until I was 35 years old, when I found them. So that’s a funny story.

The guy that adopted me, his name was Dale Watson (that’s how I got my last name), Dale Watson couldn’t have children. He adopted me, and two other children, all from three different families. He adopted me, and then he and his wife divorced. I was about 7 or 8 when they divorced, and back in those days in the 60s, the child always went with the mother, it wasn’t even a question for a court. So I went with my mom, she remarried 3 more times, my adopted mom did. It was horrible, and that’s where I block out all my childhood memories of all my step-fathers and half-brothers and sisters.

My dad that adopted me remarried, her name was J-, he marries her and she had four kids. He marries her and goes after me, and the judge let them have me. So me and my brother, T-, we ended up with my adopted father. His new wife had four kids, so there were 6 of us total. It was not pleasant. It was crazy because it was his children vs her children. Anyway, I ended up loving that family and those step-brothers and sisters of mine. One of them, my sister, ended up taking the Watson name and ended up joining the church, and we’re very close. I talked with her yesterday. So it’s been interesting.

When I was 35 and had enough money, I hired a private investigator to find my biological parents. And that’s when I found out about my two brothers who I never knew I had. And I found out that my father had passed away when he was 40, and he died from drinking too much alcohol. And I found out that his last job in his life was a restaurant manager, and when I was 35, I managed Sonic restaurants. And so I thought was kinda weird, that my biological father had the same ketchup in his veins that I did. So I really enjoyed finding my natural family. My mother’s full blooded German, my father’s full blooded English , and now I have cousins in Germany and England that I love visiting. And we’ve come close to some of the cousins, aunts, and uncles out there. So it’s been a really cool experience.

A couple of funny things in that whole situation are I own all these fast food restaurants, and I love the food business, and I love to eat, and I love food, and when I found out I had two brothers, one of them younger than me, I found out he was managing 13 restuarnts in Puerto Rico. So [it’s] strange that we all love the restaurant business. Now my brother K- owns 7 Sonics in Florida and my other brother own 6 Sonics in Nashville. That’s been a cool experience.

In total total I have 8 parents and 35 brothers and sisters. There’s a lot of negative, a lot of bad things, but I block those out and I just think about the good, and the good experiences in what I gained from that, and how I did not ever want a divorce. I did not want to have a broken family. And I think that’s helped me a lot. [It’s helped me] keep my sweetheart of now 38 years [of marriage]. I think that’s been very healthy.

We have a daughter who’s now 36. She’s one of the joys of my life, I love her. She has 5 kids and does really, really well. We had her right after we got married, and then we couldn’t have kids again. We tried everything. We really wanted a big family, so I adopted a son because was adopted, and I wanted to pay it back. I had mentioned before I had a brother whose name was T-. He passed away when I was teenager, so I named my son that I adopted after my brother who died. So I have an adopted son T-, who I feel like is my own, and I have my daughter D- who is such a joy. I was with her this morning. That’s kind of it. As far as religion goes, my German mother was Catholic and my father didn’t practice any religion. My father who adopted me was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s a really cool story, but I don’t want to take too much time. He adopted me, but he also had 10 other kids that he almost adopted, and he ended up sending them to members of the church. So all 10 of those kids ended up in the church through adoption, which is a really cool thing.

My father, Mr. Watson, who adopted and raised me, he taught me how to work. My father was a great example to me. He was a hard, hard worker, very honest, and a man of his word. Back then you didn’t need legal documents like you do today because [when] he shook your hand, he had a deal with you. I saw him do many business deals by just the shake of a hand, and he never went back on it. I learned a lot from him. I also learned from my father Dale Watkins, and this is a famous saying of mine, and it’s been recorded several times, “ you cannot swim across the lake with all the gold on your back.” So you can’t expect, especially in my business, the restaurant business, you can’t expect to take all the profit to the bank and not share it with all those who are getting food out the door, and that are doing the work, and [with] the partners and investors. I really believe strongly that’s the key to all my success — that I’ve been able to share so much with so many people. And that’s kind of one of my philosophies, if you took anything from this interview, it’s that you can’t be greedy, and you have to share, especially with those who are doing the work. That’s the key to my success.

Q: You had mentioned you had 8 parents and 35 brothers and sisters, and your father was a great example as far as work goes. It sounds like you are very optimistic now. Were you optimistic then?

Not really. I was a hard worker. I started working my father managed restaurants. he managed a restaurant Called Herman’s Drive-in in Oaklahoma. And when I was 9 hears old I worked for him. I made 35 cents an hour. I loved to work. And then my father got into the Sonic business, and I loved to work at Sonic as a teenager. So I liked to work. I worked, worked, worked, worked. And it was a big deal to me to work and to save money and to have money because my family life wasn’t the best, but my father, who I loved, was at work. And if my father was at work, and if I could be near him, I loved to be there, but I also love stuff. I love fast cars. When I was 17 years old, I paid cash for a brand new Camaro Z-28 at 17 years old. It was $6000 which was a lot of money back then in 1977. And I had saved it up and I just love to work hard. So I think that helped my attitude about a lot of things because I just liked to work and dig in and save money, but then when I went on a mission for my church, that’s when everything changed on my attitude, that’s where optimism really came in. I served for my church in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which is about 95% Catholic, so the work was really hard. So the only way I could succeed there in teaching French and teaching Catholic people, was to be positive. And I had a companion his name was T- T- that taught me the importance of being positive, and the joy that can come from that. And ever since then, I really adopted this concept of attitude and how important it is to be positive.

My wife and I — she’s so cute — she’ll say, you can’t go golfing, there’s a 50% chance of rain. But I will say, there’s a 50% chance it’s not going to rain, I’m going golfing. So I always just try to look at the brighside. In business deals, or if I have a Sonic that’s not doing well, or some things going awry, I just try and look at the positive and think that it’s gonna be alright. I don’t know, I just adopted that, and I love that, but I also believe my faith helps me to stay positive as well knowing that there’s a great outlook of the future and eternity. That really helps me a lot.

Q: Is that how you face most of your challenges, through optimism and positivity?

I can’t think of any other way to do that.

Q: It sounds like you’ve always been experienced with money, work, etc. How do you get better at handling money?

D: I have a lot of philosophies on that, and I don’t even know where to begin because there’s so many books written on that. There’s three things that come to my mind. The first is a budget. You cannot succeed if you do not put a budget together. You have to know how much you have coming in, how much you have going out, how much you’re going to save. The second that comes to mind is saving, making sure you don’t spend everything that you make. I learned a valuable lesson. I was in my early 30’s and a guy, who still helps me today, he physically grabbed my arm and put it behind my back and pulled on it, so it was hurting a little bit, and he said, you need to give me a $100 a month and let me invest it for you. (He was one of those financial planners, he did stocks, and mutual funds and stuff.) And I said okay I’ll give you a $100 dollars a month, because I kept putting all my money back in Sonic, back in Sonic. So I kept putting in a $100, and then I realized that that was a little wimpy, so I kept putting in $500 a month. And then, that’s $6000 a year, I was making 20% on that $6000, so now it’s $7200! And I’m like,woah, that’s pretty cool! So then I kept putting more in and more and more and more. So investing, saving, a budget, and then Financial Peace. That guy Dave Ramsey, he’s so good. He’s got it figured out. And anybody that’s just beginning, or a newly wed, or just getting out of college, Financial Peace is inspired. Do you know anything about Financial Peace, Elijah?

Me: I know a little bit, I know there’s 7 steps. One of them is getting out of debt, another one is having a thousand dollar emergency fund.

Yeah, and using envelopes. So when you get your pay, you put it in envelopes, and those envelops have something written on them. This one’s for movies, this one’s for eating out. The envelopes just teach you how to do a budget and a spreadsheet.

There’s another book you need to read. Reach Dad, Poor Dad. Don’t work for money, let money work for you. Right? So, when I put $6000 in the stock market and turned it into $7200, what happened? My money was working for me while I was on the golf course. I happen to own restaurants that are open while I’m on this interview speaking with you. Somebody’s selling hamburgers, and I’m making money. However, I need to clarify this, Doctors, Nurses, Psychiatrists, Pharmacists, all these people are so important in the world and in our economy. I am a strong believer in entrepreneurship, but we need people who actually go and do factory jobs. We need firemen and policemen. It’s not for everyone, but for me, I like my money working for me, and not necessarily me work for money.

Q: How can a young person start investing?

A hundred dollars a month. If I had your arm right now, I would twist it. You can save a $100 a month, anybody can. If you can’t, then go deliver pizzas two nights a month and you’ll have a $100 a month that you can save. Just start saving. Get that $1000 rainy day money in the bank, in the savings. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, time after time after time, you’ll never get ahead. So that’s the key. If that means you drive an old clunker of a car instead of a nice Audi, then you need to downgrade. If that means you drive for Uber at nights, or deliver pizzas, or work at Sonic to make extra money. That’s another thing that I have a big issue with is I struggle with people who work 40 hours a week. You know there’s 80 more you can work. You can work up to 120 hours a week and sleep the rest of the time. I just think that 40 hours just isn’t enough. So if someone works 40 hours and lives paycheck to paycheck, they should find another job where they can work 20 more hours and make another $300 or $400 a week, which is $1200 a month, and if you invest in $1200 a month, then in a few years, you end up with $150,00o in savings. And then all of a sudden you buy a house, and then you’re renting it out, and then you’re getting rental income, and then you buy another something, another business. The sky’s the limit. We are so blessed to live in this country where we are afforded these opportunities. I hope that helps.

Q: Maybe I’m crossing into different territory [note: I meant to say dangerous], but I know there’s a lot of people who don’t like the idea of working 120 hours a week or maybe they don’t like the idea of being a CEO or boss or something like that. What do you say to them?

I think if you can work 40 hours a week, and save money every week, more power to you. God Bless you. Especially if you can make really good money for 40 [hours a week] and you can put money in savings, I think that’s wonderful. And like I said, I try to make myself very clear. I’m an entrepreneur, and I don’t think that’s for everyone because I remember when I borrowed my first $1,000,000. It’s hard to sleep at night knowing you owe the bank a $1,000,000. And when you turn the lights on at Sonic, if no one comes in, you’re out of luck by a $1,000,000. So it’s not for everyone, entrepeneurship, owning a company, it’s not for everyone. And if somebody has a 40 hour-a-week job, and they make really good money, and they can put money in savings, and buy a house, and provide for their family, then I think that’s wonderful.

What I learned:

There are the obvious things I learned, like how he overcame many challenges, or how much a Camaro cost back then (One website listed the same car for $23,000), but one thing I picked up on was that despite his money, it seemed like what he cared for most was his family. On the outside, it may seem obvious that he cares of his family, having a wife, 2 children, 8 parents, and 35 siblings. However, his home life was difficult for him growing up. Difficult home situations may sometimes push people towards bitterness and resentment. There was not even a hint of bitterness or resentment in his voice. Quite the contrary. During the interview, he got excited in talking about his family. He frequently used the words “love” and “joy” in describing his family relationships. I’m hard pressed to assume that his positive feelings for his family came as a result of his financial success, and I assume that if he lost his wealth today, he would still remain positive because he would still have his family.

Questions I wished I asked

• How did you teach your children about money?
• You attribute a lot of your success to positivity. Is that something you try to teach your employees? If so, how do you go about teaching that to them?

What are some questions you wish I should have asked him?