Dane Young – Head of Sales at Import Image Racing – is YEN’s member of the month. Learn about his career, and what keeps him in the industry in his interview with SEMA below.
SEMA: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Dane Young: The best advice I've ever received is to just never give up. I was in the Delta Chi fraternity in college, who’s philanthropy is the Jimmy V Foundation. His motto is, "Don't give up -- don't ever give up." If people who have it way worse off than I do can live by that mantra, I can too; and I can apply it to my everyday life.
SEMA: What keeps you in the industry?
DY: There are so many things that keep me tied to this amazing industry. I'm a total geek for turbochargers; I love machined billet aluminum and machined billet steel. I love fabrication and seeing how creative you can be in the process. Just seeing how large of an impact something so small can have on your car, like flex fuel, or how smart computer systems have become, is all freaking sweet!
SEMA: Where can you be found on a Saturday?
DY: On any Saturday, you can find me at home enjoying my time with my wife, working on my Evo, riding my dirt bike, hanging out with friends, or hitting up a kava bar. But, whenever any of these happens I always circle back to one of my many projects (2003 Evo 8, 47 CJ-2A, 83 CB1000 Custom, 2003 RM125, 2003 XR100, 2020 KX450, Tomos Targa or my 21 Tacoma). It's a viscous cycle.
SEMA: How do you prepare for an important meeting?
DY: The morning of the meeting, I usually just run through a few different scenarios in my head. I prepare a day or so before and kind of study it like notes when I was in college. That way it's in my head, it's repetitive and I can speak to it. I've found that no matter what it is, if you can speak to it, there won’t be any issues on the other end.
SEMA: If you could go to lunch with one industry leader, living or dead, who it would be?
DY: If I could go to lunch with anyone in this world (or outside this world), it'd probably be John Force. That man’s charisma is out of this world. I'm a total geek for Nitro cars, and to see what he has built/made for himself by doing what he loves over the years is absolutely inspiring. Another person I’d like to go to lunch with is Ricky Carmichael; he was my favorite motocross rider growing up. His nickname is the GOAT (greatest of all time), which is what I aspire to be for this industry.
Fill out a YEN member spotlight form to be eligible to be featured on YEN’s social media, SEMA eNews and YEN member updates.