Our Founder

Let us introduce you to our founder, Dr. Emol Fails, by sharing a few memories with you.

Always Learning, Always Teaching | by Steve Darnell, FMI

I was fortunate to have worked with Doc in his last few years of active duty. As a rookie, I assisted Doc on seminar and consulting assignments. Doc was a great influencer, but his unique talent was heavily augmented by meticulous preparation, even at the end of his career.

He was always learning and teaching. Doc kept a little plaque on his wall that said, "If you never do more than what you're paid for, you'll never get paid for more than what you do."

A "Simply Extraordinary" Man | by Jerry Jackson, FMI

I met Dr. Emol Fails in the spring of 1968. I had been employed about two days when he came into the office. He seemed old...or at least older than I expected. Ironically, he was younger by two years than I am today. This icon, this paragon, was also...ordinary. I'm not sure what I expected, but he wasn't it.

The first time I observed Doc in a seminar occurred soon after in Philadelphia. Again, he wasn't what I expected. He was no podium-thumping, fire-and-brimstone motivational speaker. He was just a normal guy.

Then I began to "get it." His very magic lay in his "ordinariness." Here was a college professor, a Ph.D. for Pete's sake, who was approachable, who connected with the ordinary working stiff. He took complex ideas and made them simple, understandable, even funny. He used his cigarettes for years as an attention-getting prop. Was he going to burn himself before he lit that cigarette, holding a burning match while he shared just one more thought with the group? Some cigarettes took two or three matches to finally ignite and not once did I see Doc burn himself.

Almost all of us in the company (five at the time!) emulated Emol: the pregnant pauses, the looking-down-over-our-glasses (even if we weren't wearing any), the matches and cigarettes (an occasional burned finger resulted from this stunt), and, of course, stealing his stories and trying to make them our own. It was probably pretty silly-looking for 20-somethings to be doing pale imitations of a 50-something. The world was young and so were we. We were going to live forever.

The years flew by with many miles of flying with Doc, making presentations with Doc (oh, how he must have gagged), making sales calls with Doc, doing consulting work with Doc. With amazing recall and application of Bible stories and mythology to business situations, Doc worked his "ordinary" magic mentoring me and all the other associates of that era. He always had time for a chat, a story, a tutorial. I never saw Doc lose his temper or belittle one of us for our (at times, I'm sure) incompetence.

A mentor, a fisherman, a pal, a keen thinker, a practical man, Doc was no ordinary person. He was simply extraordinary. He will always be a part of my life. I am honored to have known him, to have worked for him, and to have been his partner.

Memories of Dr. Fails | by Suzanne Smith, FMI

I knew Doc for 26 years. About 18 of those years, I was his secretary while he was working and after he retired. I think I enjoyed our relationship most of all during his early retirement years. He still maintained his office here and worked on selected projects. It gave me more time to spend with him and find out what a really special person he was. I was privileged to be a confidant and come to know some of the acts of kindness and generosity that he normally kept very private.

During those later years, while the company was rapidly growing, it gave me pleasure to be able to keep Doc apprised of the good things that were going on at "Fails."

I can honestly say that my life has been better because of his influence. The word "mentor" applies to him more than anyone I have ever known. He always had time for everyone. He was a kind, gentle, caring man. I miss him.

Zig Ziglar | Motivational speaker and author

I knew Dr. Fails for more than 30 years and spent two of those years on the road with him. I question whether anyone has been more dramatically impacted than I have by Doc.

In my corporate headquarters in Dallas, just outside my office, I have a wall of gratitude dedicated to 20 men and women who had a dramatic impact on my life, who helped me cross some chasms or helped me to bridge some gaps. Doc Fails had that kind of impact on me.

Let me tell you why Dr. Fails meant so much to me. You see, I was not a good student when I was in school. Actually, I was in the part of the class that made the top half possible, and that's putting it nicely. One of the things I did with Doc Fails was travel around the country doing seminars at Chambers of Commerce. And during the drives from one city to the next, Doc and I had a chance to do a lot of talking.

I had very low self-esteem then. As I said, I didn't do very well in school, and I really didn't think I could learn. That was kind of the escape hatch I always used: "I'm just not smart enough."

So as Dr. Fails and I traveled, we got to know each other. And one day Dr. Fails said to me as we were traveling, "You know Zig, I've listened to you and watched you and worked with you and I believe if your IQ were evaluated, it would be somewhere in the 120-140 range." Well, I can't begin to tell you how much that meant to me. All of a sudden the struggler, this individual who had so many difficulties in life (me) was being told by a man whom I loved and respected with all my heart — saying to me, "You have something special; you are an intelligent human being. You know how to use the gifts God gave you." That meant so much to me. It gave me the lift I needed at that time, and I did become a good student.

The way Dr. Fails encouraged me was so incredible. He was a great hope builder and encourager. When you think about it, hope is the great activator. Without hope, the young person who doesn't think he will pass won't study. Hope is the great activator of all change. And when I think of Dr. Fails, I always think about the fact that he was such a great encourager.

One of the greatest gifts in life and the one most of us place at the top of our list is happiness. But there is a lot of difference between happiness and pleasure. Others can give you pleasure, but you are never really happy unless you are doing things for others. One reason there was such joy and happiness in Doc Fails' life is that he was always encouraging and building and helping other people, putting them first.

Dr. Fails was such a remarkable man, a marvelous husband and father, a wonderful citizen, a wonderful member of the Kingdom of God, and, let me simply say again, I cannot tell you how honored I was when I received the call inviting me to participate in honoring a man who meant so much to me and is loved by so many.

Legacy

Emol A. Fails, Ph.D., founder of FMI, the nation's largest specialized management services firm serving the construction industry, died on July 31, 1996, at his home in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Dr. Fails, affectionately referred to as "Doc," began his formal education at Southwestern College in Weatherford, Oklahoma. He counted as one of his finest experiences teaching grades 1-8 in a one-room school near Wantanga, Oklahoma. He was once the principal of a rural school in Willow, Oklahoma.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942-1946, during which time he moved to Raleigh and set up a school of diesel engineering on the campus of North Carolina State University for the Navy. Dr. Fails was a professor of economics for NC State University and received his M.A. and then Ph.D. from George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. Always interested in adult education, his doctoral thesis explored the contributions that could be made to adult education on a community level. Throughout the 1960s, he wrote numerous articles and conducted a WUNC-TV program, giving lectures on the field of management.

The 1960s marked the true evolution of Dr. Fails' legacy. By 1968 he had built FMI, a consulting entity that would serve the construction industry on an international basis. During the 1970s, FMI grew in two different, yet complementary, directions. The educational component brought a variety of programs, seminars, and workshops to tens of thousands of contractor participants each year, while the consulting component enabled the consultants working with Dr. Fails to provide individualized services to a select number of clients each year on an in-depth basis. Dr. Fails' personal focus in corporate consulting included business continuity, management succession, planning, marketing, and selling. He also developed costing and pricing systems that continue to help make contractors more profitable.

Dr. Fails was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the National Heating and Air Conditioning Association, the Merit Award for Marketing Integrity from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), and the Spirit of Independence Award, also from ACCA. In March 1981, Dr. Fails was honored at a retirement dinner in Washington, D.C., where he received an award of special merit from the National Associated General Contractors for his years of contribution to the construction industry. He served on the Boards of Directors of Christians in Action, Wake Technical Community College, and FMI.

Dr. Emol A. Fails will be remembered as a motivator, a dreamer, a philosopher, a listener, an educator, and an astute businessman; as wise, tolerant, innovative, diplomatic, patient, kind, loving, positive and patriotic, as well as an avid gardener and fisherman. He made an enduring contribution to the construction industry and to all the people he taught and touched. Dr. Fails will be sorely missed.