At 75, Jabs no couch potato.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Small Biz - Jake Jabs American Furniture Warehouse

SOMEHOW IT'S FITTING: THE SAME YEAR JAKE JABS' American Furniture Warehouse celebrates 30 years in business, more restrictive bankruptcy guidelines have been signed into law.

Fitting, because if there's one thing the plain-talking Jabs detests, it's bankruptcy as a business strategy--bankruptcy as an escape hatch to debts owed.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In 75 colorful years, Jabs has competed in rodeos atop bucking broncos, served in the military, toured as a country-western musician and, of course, built one of the largest independent furniture outlets in the country--and one of the largest private companies in Colorado.

But the flamboyant showmanship that Jabs has displayed in his TV ads for the past 30 years belies the fact that he has adhered to simple principals laid down by his parents, Russian immigrant sharecroppers in Montana, who showed their eight children the satisfaction that came from working hard together, and taught them to look warily upon indebtedness.

Twice in his retailing career, bankruptcy looked like the best solution to financial woes for Jabs. In the 1970s he liquidated his furniture at Mediterranean Galleries in Denver to pay off creditors rather than declare bankruptcy. And in 1985, he again eschewed bankruptcy, instead closing five of his nine American Furniture Warehouse stores and selling merchandise for cost--50 percent off--until he could pay the bank $1 million he owed.

He hasn't borrowed from a bank since, and American Furniture Warehouse has grown back to a 10-store empire projected to generate revenues of $350 million this year.

"I think bankruptcy laws should go away," says Jabs, who still puts in 60 hours a week and wears running shoes to work. "You see it in the furniture business. You know, one bankrupt guy buys out another bankrupt guy, and all of a sudden it's huge dollars and they're ripping off the creditor and suppliers with big money, which hurts everybody.

"People should be held accountable for not making real-world decisions, like Qwest and those guys are doing--just playing games with the numbers," Jabs continues. "Make 'em step up to the plate and liquidate or sell out."

Jabs no doubt was influenced by his father, who grew up in Poland, was drafted into the Russian Red Army and worked as an interpreter for the Russians until he made his way to the U.S. after World War I. Jabs himself had no choice but to pursue a livelihood away from his family's farm in Montana because there wasn't room for...