Enterprise Rent-A-Car Founder

“Take care of your customers and employees first and profits will follow.”
Jack C. Taylor

Jack Taylor is a Missouri business legend that transformed the rental car industry. As a
matter of fact, when Taylor started out in the car business, the rental car industry barely
existed. The business practice was in its infancy, and he became a driving force behind
making it a vibrant industry. He started his career selling cars and ended up being one of the wealthiest billionaires in the world over the course of his life.

Early Years:

Jack Crawford Taylor was born on April 14, 1922 in St. Louis. He graduated from Clayton High School, then enrolled at Westminster College in Fulton. That was short-lived as he eventually transferred to Washington University closer to his home. He admits that he wasn’t a great student and didn’t really know what he wanted to do with his life at that point. It was also around that time that World War II was beginning to expand to the United States with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, so he enlisted in the Navy to serve his country.

His role with the Navy was full of responsibility and challenges. He flew Hellcat fighters from aircraft carriers to defend American freedom. One of those carriers was the USS Enterprise, which would later be the name of the company that would make him rich beyond his wildest imagination.

Rise to Fame:

Once Taylor was out of the military, he decided it was time to build a career. The combination of discipline and fearlessness he developed in the U.S. Armed Services proved to just what he needed to move ahead. He began selling cars in the St. Louis area, which eventually led him an opportunity at Lindburg Cadillac “leasing” vehicles, which was the forerunner to his domination of the rental car industry.

The car leasing business in St. Louis was still a new concept, but grew slowly though the
1950’s and early 60’s. Taylor would tell people that he didn’t “rent” cars. That was until he
realized it could be a lucrative business. Suddenly, in the mid 1960’s, there was enough
demand from insurance companies and people needing a spare car for a day that he realized it could really turn into something big. That’s about the time he decided to expand his reach and take his business model outside of the St. Louis area.

Show Me Success:

Many people are afraid of starting a business, but Taylor said that he lost that sort of fear
when bullets are whizzing past your plane.” Once again, his early experiences in the military prepared him well for the business world. When he expanded his company outside of his hometown, he decided to name the company, Enterprise, in honor of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier where he was stationed in the war.

There were other rental car companies already on the market, so Taylor decided to target a different type of customer. Nearly every car rental company focused on airports. But Taylor, though his experience leasing cars to people all over town, realized it was an untapped market in other cities. Enterprise turned its attention to people needing a car practically anywhere, thus the origination of the famous Enterprise Rent A Car tag line, “We’ll pick you up.”

Taylor, now joined with other family members, continued to grow the company at a steady rate. By the mid 2000’s Enterprise had become dominant, and how the clout to purchase competitors Alamo Rent A Car and National Rent A Car, bringing in billions of dollars a year in annual sales.

Jack Taylor died in 2016 at the age of 94. He had transformed an industry and made scores of people around him very wealthy. But his spirit of giving continued until the very end. He gave tens of millions of dollars to charities, primarily in the St. Louis area, to ensure a future for the cultural institutions that had impacted his life.

Extra! Extra!

• *In 2006, Jack Taylor and family were listed at the 14th wealthiest family in America with a net worth of nearly 14-billion dollars.
• *Taylor took a 50% pay cut at Lindburg Cadillac to partner in the car leasing business.
• *His business took off thanks to a court ruling requiring insurance companies to pay for car rentals after an accident.