Meet Chris Miller | CEO of Godzilla Raceworks / ASE Master Mechanic

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Miller and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risk is a necessary evil in life, for lack of a better term. Risk is something that most people fear, to the point of paralysis. But you cannot live life to the fullest without risk, and you will never grow without taking risks. I think it is essential to experiencing human life to take risks, especially in business. That is not to say you should take every risk possible, but taking risks based off of educated analysis, and being decisive will get you far in life, and the same holds true in business. My entire business model has been risk after risk, and it has rewarded me every single time. I took the risk of leaving a stable career to make my own imprint on the world. For me, being the master of my own destiny is, and has been 100% worth any risk I have come across so far. I wouldn’t be where I am today without taking significant risks, and seeing them through to the end.

Risk is an essential part of growth, and I think people get stuck on the fear factor of taking risks, rather than focusing on the potential rewards. There are many people who take risks and don’t win, and that’s OK. You’re not learning if you don’t have failures in life. As a species, we need to learn to accept failure, and embrace it as a learning experience and move on. Taking risks is about perspective, life is 10% things that happen to you, and 90% how you react to it and move forward.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I knew at 12 years old that I wanted to work on cars for a living. The introduction scene in 2 Fast 2 Furious where they introduce Paul Walker and his Nissan Skyline GT-R did it in for me. After seeing that scene for the first time, I knew this is what I wanted. I, like so many others were inspired by “Brian O’Connor” from the Fast and the Furious universe to pursue our passion in the automotive customization industry. I went to trade school 2 weeks after high school, and I feel like every job I have gotten has been a huge blessing for me. My first boss found me working on my car in my driveway and offered to hire me as soon as I graduated. He hired me as a line mechanic, which he should’ve never done. I was no where near experienced enough, but he saw something in me that I didn’t see, and gave me a shot. There were plenty of times I made mistakes that should’ve gotten me fired, but they were very patient and willing to invest in me. From there, as they went under, I got hired on by the guy who effectively became my mentor, and drilled into me proper quality control, taking pride in my work, and making sure my work was done to near perfection. He also worked A LOT of bad habits out of me that I didn’t even know I had developed. I believe those habits came from my first job of having too much trust instilled in me, and more or less left to figure out things on my own.

I also learned a lot of the business admin side from him, and got to see the inner workings of a smaller independent business. I was there for around 5 years, and at that time, my girlfriend was becoming a full time student, so I needed to make a lot more money and fast, so I worked for the Toyota dealership for a while. Toyota sent me to all of their training classes at the Gulf States Toyota training center, which gave me even more perspective into making sure my process was as refined as possible, and even gave me a preview into a lot of the engineering side of things, and although initially I thought I was basically being forced to go to trade school again, I learned to really embrace and enjoy the Toyota training program, as I know for a fact it made me a far better, and much more effective technician. It was at this point that I reached a turning point in my career. Several management changes within the dealership structure, as well as the politics within slowly made me more and more disgruntled over time. Around this time, I was also becoming more mature financially, so I got my finances in order, and started pursuing other avenues. I applied for an engineering job at Toyota Motors North America, but a more senior technician from another dealer got the job. I was looking at becoming an instructor for a local technical college, but due to communication issues on their end, there were 2 scheduled interviews that got botched. That left me with a clear path, and that was committing to my “side-hustle” and making it a full time business. I quit the Toyota dealer for Christian Brothers with the intent on that being my last stop before my business was self sustaining. Although there were several attempts from management, and other people within that organization that tried to talk me out of it, I didn’t let the noise cloud my vision. I knew where I was going, and if anything, I used the naysayers as fuel to make sure I succeeded. At that point, failure was no longer an option. Some would look at that and say there’s a bit of vanity there, and maybe they’re right. But at the end of the day, you do what you have to do to keep yourself motivated, and keep your eye on the prize, which is fine by me.

Although there were a lot of adverse situations I was exposed to between the dealership circuit, and many other areas of my career, I don’t regret any decisions I made, and I always try to look at every situation objectively, and extract a lesson from all of it. If you’re not constantly learning something new, every single day, you’ve wasted a day. I think the lesson from this story, is take risks, don’t regret your decisions, keep moving forward, don’t give up, and don’t let anyone stand in your way. This is your life, take what is yours.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Luckily I am very blessed, and all of my best friends live within 30 minutes of me, but I can definitely say the 2 immediate things that stand out are Top Golf, and Dallas Karting Complex.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First and foremost my loving wife Courtney, who was very patient during the growing process. I wasn’t home in the evenings and the majority of weekends of 2018 because I was working hard to get this business sustainable as a full time venture. I worked full time during the day, and worked as many nights and weekends as I could to build this business. My Mom and Dad for helping me as much as they could along the way by donating fixtures, time, and equipment, as well as significant financial backing until we were self sustaining. All of my close friends who provide me with a rock solid support system and foundation for cultivating success, and just loving me unconditionally and always being there for me. Lastly, every single person within the Datsun/Nissan community who has spent their hard earned money with our business because they believe in us and our vision, as well as my thousands of local customers who support us and trust us with taking care of their automotive needs.

Website: godzillaraceworks.com

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Image Credits
Colby Phillips – Zeonphotos