Третье поколение семьи Сирек продолжает управлять дилерским центром Smith Motors в Вапетоном, сохраняя традиции доверия и лояльности

Joel Sirek doesn't remember the exact moment he decided cars would be his life. There wasn't one. ADVERTISEMENT There was just growing up around Smith Motors, watching, listening and eventually realizing that this was simply what his family did. "I don't know if I realized anything," Sirek said. "I just knew when I graduated from high school that I had to do something." That something turned out to be the family business his father, Stan Sirek, built into a Wahpeton institution — one that now spans three generations, has kept the same name since before a Sirek ever owned it and still operates on a handshake philosophy that hasn't changed much since the late 1970s. Stan Sirek didn't set out to own Smith Motors. He worked for Chevrolet Motor Division, and the dealership was simply one of his accounts. Over time, he got to know Bryce Smith, the dealership's owner, well enough that a professional relationship turned into something more. "Bryce asked him if he'd ever be interested," Joel said. Bryce had no sons or family members interested in taking over the business, so he made Stan an offer: Come run the place, and when the time came to retire, maybe take it over for good. Stan started as general manager, working for Bryce for several years before the two worked out a transition of ownership. By the late 1970s, Stan Sirek was the dealer. ADVERTISEMENT The name never changed. "It had a well-established name," Joel said. "We didn't feel the desire was there to change it." The way the business was run stayed largely the same, too, Joel said — the relationships with employees, the way customers were treated and the community involvement. What has changed, he said, mostly came from forces outside the family's control: shifting corporate requirements, evolving technology and the broader auto industry itself. Joel grew up surrounded by Smith Motors employees, many of whom have since retired or passed away. He credits them, along with his father, for shaping how he learned the business. "I was fortunate enough to be surrounded with a lot of good people that I could learn from," he said. After high school, Joel worked his way through different departments rather than stepping straight into a leadership role, learning directly from his father’s longtime managers along the way. ADVERTISEMENT He said his father taught him plenty directly, but just as much came secondhand, watching how Stan's longtime managers treated customers and each other. "God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason," Joel said, repeating one of his father's favorite sayings. "You're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk." Stan also had a particular way of handling mistakes, one Joel has tried to carry forward with his own employees. "He never got very upset when an employee made a mistake," Joel said. "His rationale was just: learn from the mistake and try not to make the same mistake again." Smith Motors has had very little employee turnover over the decades, with several workers logging 40 years or more with the dealership. Joel said that loyalty cuts both ways in a small town like Wahpeton, where job opportunities are limited compared with larger cities. That’s good for keeping people close, but it can become a challenge if a spouse can’t find local work and the family moves away. Still, families who buy cars from Smith Motors tend to keep coming back, generation after generation, often working with the same salespeople they've known for years. ADVERTISEMENT "I think, in rural America, we buy from people that we respect and trust," Joel said. Today, Joel runs Smith Motors alongside his brother, Jason, with Joel’s son, Parker, now about 10 years into his career in the business — the third generation of Sireks to carry it forward. Parker took a different path to get there. He went to college and earned a degree, something Joel good-naturedly jokes about. But when the opportunity came to join the family business in Wahpeton, Parker took it, drawn in part to the small-town life he’d grown up in. "He likes rural America," Joel said. "He likes a small-town setting." Joel said he never pushed the business on his son. The door was simply open. "We told him he could have an opportunity here, but he didn't have to like it," Joel said. "He was capable of doing something different if it didn't work out." ADVERTISEMENT Parker, by his father's account, has done well with it. Asked what he hopes the next generation carries forward, Joel doesn't hesitate. "Continue it on," he said. "Put the customers and the employees above" everything else, just as his father always did. Stan doesn’t run Smith Motors day-to-day anymore. Joel calls it a transition rather than a retirement, but his father still shows up almost every day, still buys used vehicles and still serves as a sounding board when his sons need a second opinion. "He's done something right," Joel said. "When you're looking for an answer, he'll give you an opinion. It doesn't mean he's always going to be right, but over the years, he's been right more than he hasn't." When asked what Stan would say if he walked through the doors of Smith Motors today, Joel didn't hesitate. "He still does," he said. ADVERTISEMENT For Joel, that continuity — the same values, the same loyal customers and employees, three generations later — is what makes the story worth telling. "It's rewarding," he said, simply, "to continue something your family started."