Through Strong Faith

Chairman Access LLC

“I was the youngest of two boys and two girls,” recalls Perdue. “Our parents taught us the value of hard work at a young age. My first job was working for my brother at five years old helping him with his paper route on Sundays.” And, what a hard worker he was – he’d collect Coke bottles for 2 cents each, deliver three newspapers, sack groceries and sell Christmas cards and magazine subscriptions door-to-door.

Perdue graduated from the University of Memphis in Tennessee and soon landed a sales job. In 1968, national legislation was passed which had a dramatic effect on the telecommunications industry based on The Carter Phone decision. It demanded AT&T open up their network to the competition. Prior to the legislation, AT&T controlled over 85 percent of the market and was the world's largest corporation with over a million employees. That year, a small Jackson, Tennessee firm, Teleci, Inc., hired Perdue as its first salesperson to go head to head with AT&T in selling telephone systems. “In my own little way, I was a little David vs. Goliath," Perdue says. "We got our first sale, even though our brochure was written in Japanese to our ad agency, and we later expanded rapidly into the hotel and motel industry.”

Perdue ventured out in 1972 and started Telecommunications Company of America (TSA) with $10,000, a partner and a few investors. "We had a huge deal with a major bank for the first Centrex system in the nation," he said. "A $500,000 deal, and they put down $250,000 – incredible. Our main competitor told the bank the system wouldn’t work and they would not connect us. I got down on my knees and asked God for help. I’m just a little guy here, 30 years old going up against AT&T. We eventually got it installed. It worked just fine – hallelujah. More big contracts came in which put us in the clover. Later, we sold our business to Northern Telecom, and I became president of their systems division.”

In 1979, Perdue founded American Telecommunications Systems (ATS) which included a Systems Division and a Remarketing Division. Over the years he built up new ATS companies, including Financial Services, Inc., Telephone & Data Systems, Inc., Long Distance Network, Inc., Mobile Communications, Inc., and Network Communications, Inc.

In 1984, due to antitrust laws, AT&T was broken up into eight regional companies. “For us to fight them in the courts and win was truly a David and Goliath proposition and we won,” Perdue remembers with relish.

“America is truly the land of opportunity. Where else can you go and not have two nickels and turn around and own your own multimillion-dollar business, competing against the biggest company in the world?

“The advice that I do give to people is to commit it to the Lord in prayer, read the Bible, look for direction, ask Him where you need to head with your life, and then put together the skill set needed.”

Perdue is also very active in his community, having served in dozens of leadership capacities. His greatest honor was when he was made Chairman of the Deacons at Bellevue Baptist Church, one of America’s largest churches with over 26,000 members.

David Perdue is living proof the little guy still stands a chance. Over the horizon and into the new millennium, Perdue just might slay a new Goliath. “I would sum it all up by saying, just trust in the Lord.”