The founder of QB Fabrication & Welding writes about the importance
of persistence and adaptability.
I was born in Rach Gia, a small city in Vietnam’s Kien Giang province, which is located on the Eastern coast of the Gulf of Thailand. My parents owned a large supermarket that sold everything from groceries to essential household goods, and it was a very popular market when I was growing up. When I was 17, I loved doing mechanical work and could spend all day in a shop. I asked my dad to invest in opening a machine and auto shop, and I got the business started by fixing engines for John Deere tractors and repairing fishing boats.
The Vietnam War ended and we lost. After the fall of Saigon, I decided it was time to escape Vietnam and take my family to America. I was 26 years old at that time; I had a wife and two young kids. We escaped by boat and arrived in Thailand before we got sponsored to come to the U.S.
I found a two-bedroom apartment to rent in Camas, Wash., near the paper mill. I remember the economy was not great, and not knowing English, I had to take any job just to get by. My first job was as a janitor at the Red Lion Hotel and fortunately, the evening job allowed me to go to school during the daytime at Clark College so I could learn English and welding.
Once I got my degree, I started working at Oregon Iron Works as a welder with the ability to make some decent money to support my family. Things were finally feeling a little more stable, and we were able to save money to buy a house in Vancouver five years later.
For a while, I had wanted to start my own business like what I had in Vietnam. I had a shop and was confident that I could fabricate any work, but I needed money. I talked to my wife about starting my own business and, fortunately, she was supportive, but we ended up taking out a home-equity loan because the bank wouldn’t give me a loan just for $10,000.
But we made it happen by buying portable welding equipment. I had my brother-in-law help pave the backyard. Finally, we were open for business. We opened in 1987; I had no employees but myself, and the shop was 20 by 40 feet only. I found my first customer, Christensen Yachts, by walking into the store and telling him I was looking for work. A guy named Allen introduced me to the engineering department and got me on the bid. I supplied aluminum and stainless tanks as well as the mounting engine — a small project I made for $30,000. After that, I got subcontracted work from Oregon Iron Works and felt the business was slowly growing.
There were challenging times. One year right before Christmas, a contractor did not pay me for a large job and just took off. I had to tell my wife there was no money to buy gifts for the kids. I felt like we had lost everything and I had let my family down.
To clear my mind, I went out for a drive on I-84 and saw the transmission towers standing tall throughout the freeway, and wondered who owned them and who I needed to contact. “Man, I would love to build this,” I said to myself.
My friend told me that Bonneville Power Administration was the agency responsible for the transmission towers and that they owned all of them in the Pacific Northwest. I reached out to BPA, asking if there were any jobs or emergency work I could do, and the contract specialist would always kindly reject me but said she would let me know.
One day she did. I got a call from BPA for an emergency job that needed to be done by the next day — building a bracket for the substation — and asked if I could do it. I could not turn the opportunity down and told her yes right away.
I spent the whole night working on it, galvanized it and directly handed it to the contract specialist.
“So how did it go? Did you make any money?” she asked me.
“No ma’am. I lost money, but at least you have the part here,” I said to her.
“OK, Ben,” she said. “I’ll call you next time when there is an emergency job and will let you know.”
Since that day, the contract specialist has reached out to me on emergency jobs. In 1995 I remember I went out to Umatilla on a $300,000 contract to refurbish parts of the Umatilla Fish Hatchery. I was surprised that I ended up getting an award for the project as it was the biggest project QB Fabrication & Welding had received.
When I look back over the span of 36 years in this business, I learned that being persistent is key and that challenges will always be on the horizon.
It’s a matter of finding alternative solutions and adapting to the landscape of the industry’s needs. To this day still, QB Fabrication & Welding does not have a sales or marketing department. I believe word of mouth is still powerful — even in today’s age of social media and technology. I’m just old-fashioned and barely know how to use Facebook.
Today QB Fabrication is in a five-acre, 180,000-square-foot facility in Clackamas. We employ 28 people and are still hiring. We still make transmission towers, but we also manufacture substation components for customers all over the West Coast, from Canada to the city of San Francisco.
I don’t intend to retire anytime soon, but I am taking more time to care for my health. To be honest, I enjoy being at the shop. The kids are taking care of the business, and I am transitioning from president to chairman. When I look back on my career, I am most proud of the trust and relationships I have built with BPA and many of my other customers helping to provide cleaner energy to power communities. The value and tradition of QB Fabrication & Welding has been instilled such that we are committed to delivering on time and providing quality services and products to the public made here in Oregon. This was my American dream, and I believe it still exists today.
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