Member of the month: John Camara
Spotlight date: January, 2013
John Camara, Camara Auto Service, Inc., Tulare, CA
In his own words:
“I became inspired to get involved in automotive repair from always being curious as to how toys and other objects worked. When my personal objects would eventually break I would naturally try to fix them. When I entered high school I enrolled in auto shop classes and eventually an opportunity came along for me to work part time at a full service station assisting in the repairs. That began my automotive repair career.
In 1972 the owner of the facility I grew to manage unfortunately experienced serious medical complications and he could no longer work full time and looked for a buyer to take over his business. At that time I decided this would be my opportunity to own my own repair shop. I then was able to start my own business on January 01, 1973.
From the very first ASCCA meeting I attended in my chapter we sat at a round table with five shop owners and tried to help one of the shop owners solve a problem with a car they were working on. At that point I knew I wanted to belong. Afterwards, staying in ASCCA was easy, there is a quote I believe is from Henry Ford and says “If you want to be successful surround yourself with successful people.” That is what I have done in ASCCA.
To my fellow shop owners who are new in ASCCA the first thing that I would recommend is to ATTEND a meeting, PARTICIPATE in a chapter or the state meetings and don’t be afraid to speak up and ask questions; everyone there is your friend.”