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Business turns personal for Herb Vest,
(‘73 MBA Accounting) founder of HD Vest.
Rawls Exchange, Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech, Fall '04
* This article is reprinted by permission of Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech.
Herb Darwin Vest (MBA in
accounting, 1973), founder
of True LLC and HD Vest,
Inc., was dealt a hand that many
would have folded. However, in
typical Vest style, he transformed
seemingly useless cards into something
worth betting on. With revolutionary
thinking that seems to
give merit to his middle name, Vest
has transformed typical business
ideology into a profitable venture
once again.
With the success of his new
online compatibility-discovery firm,
one would assume that Herb D.
Vest’s hands could not be more full.
At age 59, he remains devoted to
revolutionary entrepreneurship and
is passionate about changing the
world for the better.
Understanding Vest, a man who
has never lost his Texas accent from
being raised in the West Texas town
of Borger becomes easier by
listening to him recount what he
has learned about himself.
“I was a poor student when I was
growing up,” Vest said. “But I
learned three important things: first,
I make a lot of mistakes; second, I
am stupid (a surprising statement
from a Mensa member); and third,
not everybody is going to like me.
“I am the president of the
mistake club. No one will ever
exceed the volume and the number
that I make. But, out of every one, I
take responsibility for it and then I
analyze it in-depth, I determine
what I did wrong, I don’t beat
myself up about it and I ask what I
can learn from what I did wrong. I
extract a learning experience, which
is much more valuable than the cost
of the mistake.”
Vest continued, “Being stupid
simply means that I have to go out
and find the smartest people to
work for me. It means I have to
motivate them and point them in
the right direction. It means I have
to go to the real boss, our
customers, and ask how I can help
them more. I have to go to the
competition and figure out how to
improve on what they are doing.
“Being stupid also means asking
“why” questions. People don’t like
hearing “why” questions. Like, why
are we doing something a certain
way? Galileo came up with the idea
that the Earth revolves around the
sun, not vice versa, and they placed
him under house arrest for daring
to utter a word against the common
conception. Sometimes I have to be
careful not to be that way.”
Managers are important; they must
be able to reorganize, rethink and
keep the direction of the firm on
track, but not to the point of intimidating
employees who might have
better ideas. Or as Vest put it, “Our
firm has organizational procedures,
flow charts and policies, and we
adhere to them. But they’re all done
in pencil (not ink), because every day
we may have to erase something
when one of our employees says,
‘You’re a bunch of dorks; this is the
way it should be done.’” Vest
chuckled and said, “I’d rather be rich
than just insist I’m right.”
The West Texas native, now living
in Dallas, entered the business
world with a public accounting firm
providing tax preparation and
advice in 1973. But before studying
for his undergraduate degree, he
chose to learn more about himself
and the world via two consecutive
tours of military duty with the U.S.
Army in Vietnam.
Those years proved to be invaluable
training for his business career,
but it was impossible for them not to
have an emotional impact, as well.
At age 25, he was responsible not
only for 50 lives, but for millions of
dollars worth of U.S. property.
Vest recalled, “I spent two years
in Vietnam as an infantry officer. I
lost men. I killed people in combat.
I suffered then, and now, from
survivor guilt, asking why did I live
and others have to die? I killed
people who were only trying to
fight for their country; (what they
were doing) is a good thing and not
deserving of death. I began to care
deep down about these people, and
I believe my compassion has served
me in great stead throughout my
business career.”
Now he hopes to someday soon
make a contribution back to the
military troops, rather than to the
military establishment, to the point
that now one of Vest’s dreams is to
create a USO Store, where everyday
people can buy care packages for
GIs. “Any profits would be given to
the USO,” he said.
Vest said that he finally “had his
fill” of the military and upon
completing a master’s degree in
taxation from Texas Tech University
in 1973, he began working with a
public accounting firm.
He started his own firm, HD Vest,
Inc., in 1983 “with determination,
baling wire, some chewing gum and
a big mouth. We almost went bankrupt
several times” and, more than
once, Vest credits his employees, not
himself, with keeping the firm
solvent and alive.
He took a major risk by fighting
the Texas Board of Accountancy and
American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants, feeling it was only right
for CPAs to receive commissions and
the right to provide financial planning
for their customers.
Herb Vest paved the way for tax
professionals to enter into the financial
planning arena but it wasn’t
easy. “The rules were designed to
protect status quo among big CPA
firms,” Vest said. “I felt smaller firms
had the obligation to do more than
tax returns; they should be able to
help clients achieve goals like
retiring with dignity and helping
their children go to college.”
It was a tough battle. His car was
repossessed. There were threats to
repossess his house. His wife handled
daily aggravation calls from creditors
while Vest recruited employees. He
transferred his stock to his mother’s
name so he would not lose it in a
bankruptcy. He lived like this for
years. But the tide did turn.
“During the last five years under
my leadership, revenue grew at 35
percent a year. We were profitable,
able to flip our capital every two to
three weeks. Every so often, I’d get
down. But I’d see the enthusiastic
looks on the faces of our company’s
employees, and I told myself, “I
cannot let them down.”
The obvious question: Why does
an entrepreneur who takes a financial
planning firm from an inauspicious
beginning to revenues of more
than $100 million a year decide to
sell that company and start an
online firm using scientific principals
to help people meet compatiblytested
strangers? Again, Vest
chuckles shortly, as though the
answer is incredibly obvious.
“Business is business,” he
explains; "It’s all the same. We use
the same business principals. In fact,
a great many people working with
me today were with me at HD Vest. I
look around at an officer’s meeting,
and I see people I worked with for
years. We’re still on the same page,
dedicated to helping the consumer.”
Vest, who founded True LLC in
2003, said, “I suppose the two really
important parts of life for many
people are still love and money. HD
Vest strived to make life better for
people financially, and I think we
accomplished that. Now our goal is
to do the same thing with love.”
True LLC may not be the only
online service, but according to Vest
it is the only one that complies with
the standards of the American
Psychological Institute. It is also the
only one that requires that all
members submit to a criminal background
check, and also requires
members to adhere to a stringent
code of ethics that even demands that
all photographs submitted must have
been taken in the past three years.
The experts Vest hired to serve
on his board range from Iiona
Jerabek, CEO and scientific director
of Plumeus Inc., an undisputed
leader in online psychological
testing; to William M. Rathburn, a
former Dallas chief of police, Los
Angeles deputy chief of police and
director of security for the 1996
Centennial Olympic Games in
Atlanta and 1984 Olympic Games.
True LLC also offers advice. Vest
pointed out, “Other services may
link you with someone and then say,
‘See ya. Have fun. Enjoy your life.’
We believe that once people get
together, that relationship needs to
be nurtured. Forty percent of our
customers are single parents, so we
have content addressing their needs.
We are developing an e-book that
speaks in detail about how to
nurture relationships.”
His military service provided
opportunities to travel and Vest has
since become a world traveler and
adventurer many times over. He
appears to concentrate on studying
varied cultures, but any biography
that includes tracking gorillas in
Zaire, shark diving in the Bahamas,
a white shark expedition to
Australia and an attempt to climb
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is that of an
adventurer, as well.
“. . .I also learned to love scuba
diving and exploring the sea. When I
am under the sea, I feel I am in God’s
aquarium; I love watching the fish.
Sharks have fascinated me for years.
They are beautiful animals, adept at
what they do; I enjoyed being able to
interact by feeding them.”
He is fascinated with both the sea
and space programs, as “both represent
huge unknowns to our species.
They provide so much opportunity
for things like underwater farming,
which could help eliminate hunger
and ignorance.”
Already an accomplished author
with books such as “Wealth: How to
Get It, How to Keep It”, he’s in the
process of writing another book,
this one called “Instructions to My
Officers.” It deals with the revolutionary
entrepreneur. “I emphasize
we have a social mission to accomplish.
Yes, profits are important. But
every day couples break up, children
are in broken homes,
distraught people commit suicide
and we have to address that social
mission to help.
“It may sound idealistic, but I do
believe that a caring entrepreneur,
with his lieutenants and his
employees, can change the world for
the better."
Vest made a rare return to West
Texas this past spring to lecture to
300 business students in the Rawls
College. He has wonderful memories
of his time at Tech. He said, “Texas
Tech was good to me and I feel
indebted to it. The professors were
erudite and articulate, and I am
forever grateful. I learned a great
deal. The people in Lubbock were
wonderful.”
In his lecture to the students, Vest
referred to a story he wrote called
“The Dealer,” in which he states that
“We all have been dealt abilities, and
we all have an obligation to better
the world. The dealer is our own
conscience. It is up to you to use
your ability to contribute to society.
Now close your eyes and envision
that you are on your deathbed and
ask yourself, have you lived?” 
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