How His 80-Year-Old Family Business Beat The 97% Failure Rate

2025-10-09

97% of all family businesses are destined to fail by the fourth generation. It's a brutal statistic that has wiped out countless legacies.So how has Perkins Motors, an 80-year-old car dealership, defied the odds to become a Colorado institution?In this deep-dive conversation, fourth-generation owner David Perkins reveals the raw, unfiltered story of surviving multiple near-disasters, from a sudden death with no succession plan to a transition he calls the "poster child for how NOT to do it." David breaks down the playbook he used to navigate the collapse of traditional marketing, fend off giant corporate competitors, and find a secret advantage in the biggest economic crisis of our...

97% of all family businesses are destined to fail by the fourth generation. It's a brutal statistic that has wiped out countless legacies.

So how has Perkins Motors, an 80-year-old car dealership, defied the odds to become a Colorado institution?

In this deep-dive conversation, fourth-generation owner David Perkins reveals the raw, unfiltered story of surviving multiple near-disasters, from a sudden death with no succession plan to a transition he calls the "poster child for how NOT to do it." David breaks down the playbook he used to navigate the collapse of traditional marketing, fend off giant corporate competitors, and find a secret advantage in the biggest economic crisis of our lifetime.

This isn't just a story about selling cars—it's a masterclass in resilience, succession planning, and building a business that can truly last for a century.

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