employed five people (during good times) and two people – father and son – during tough times. It was his parents’ values, not their circumstances, that shaped Krach. His mother was “about the most enthusiastic person in the world,” says Krach. “What I learned from her is that people can deny your logic but they can’t deny your enthusiasm.” She was also a tough woman. She coached the boy’s ninth-grade wrestling team. And she didn’t blink when Krach’s father lost his job; she assured him that the whole family was behind him and she would go back to work; then, she rallied everyone to pitch in. Krach’s father was “the best leader I’ve ever known in my life. He certainly modeled one heck of a work ethic,” says Krach. After losing his job, the senior Krach started his own machine shop, Litco Industries, at the age of 40. Krach began working in the shop at age 12. The first summer, Krach took out the scrap metal. In the second summer he learned how to weld. The third sum- mer, paint. By the time he was 15, he could work all the machines.
But it wasn’t just work ethic Krach learned from his dad. Krach remembers one day when he was about 15 years old. The two of them were driving to the machine shop and Krach said, “Everyone just loves you, Dad. Why? What’s your secret?”
The elder Krach pulled into a parking lot, stopped the
car, turned to his son and said, “When you’re with the Pope, you pray. When you’re with a drunkard, you drink.
Everything between goes, but always be yourself. Any questions?” Krach says he has always carried that lesson with him: Respect others and make them comfortable around you but always maintain your integrity. While family played the most significant role in shap- ing his character, one of Krach’s most crucial life lessons came on the basketball court sometime around seventh grade. A solid player, Krach scored about four points ev- ery game – but teammate Frank Wilson was consistently scoring in the 20s and Krach couldn’t figure out how he was doing it. One day, the coach sat the team down to watch a game film and Krach decided he was just going to watch Frank Wilson to see what made him so good. “What I learned was that what he was great at – better than anybody – was moving when he didn’t have the ball. And that stuck in my mind – what you do when nobody’s looking is what matters most,” Krach says. “And I think that applies to life, to business. To me, the definition of luck is preparation meets opportunity. So, even if you’re giving a 15-minute talk, sometimes you prepare four hours for it. Prepare for meetings, follow-up – all that stuff when nobody’s looking. Frank Wilson was that kind of lucky – he was all about the preparation and that created opportunity for himself.”
THE ROAD TO DOCUSIGN Armed with a strong work ethic, solid personal values, and a genuine, magnetic personality, Krach went off to Purdue University with the goal of becoming an engi-
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