Multi-Billionaire Cuts the B.S. and Explains How To Succeed | Tilman Fertitta on Impact Theory

I think you can see that I'm no smarter than anybody else in this room I just use certain little basic tools to be successful every day take the word no out of your vocabulary worry about your customer no spare customers use the ninety five five rule separate yourself from everybody else be the bull at whatever you do and I don't care if you're in the mailroom or if you're the person behind that camera that I'm gonna be better than anybody else with that camera and I'm gonna be the best mail carrier and the person who comes up and is the most organized and does it the most professional way you can be the bull at any position you're doing and it's just telling yourself I'm gonna do this better than anybody else [Music] everyone I hope you enjoyed this episode brought to you by our very good friends at audible everyone welcome to impact theory today's guest is an extraordinary entrepreneur who took himself from the owner of a single restaurant in Katy Texas to the world's richest restaurateur with six hundred restaurants in 36 states spread across more than 15 countries today his business empire encompasses not only such landmark restaurants as Mastro steakhouse rainforest cafe Morton's Dos Caminos and Bubba Gump shrimp company but also a wide variety of other industries including numerous hotels casinos aquariums and even the Houston Rockets MBA franchise he stands as one of the largest employers in the nation with a staggering 60,000 employees and his companies collectively serve over 150 million customers annually his outsize success places him at 153 on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans and he's received countless awards for his endeavors including Entrepreneur of the Year award from Ernst & Young and being inducted into the Texas business Hall of Fame as the second youngest inductee ever he is also an incredibly active philanthropist who currently serves as chairman of the board for the Houston Police Foundation the Houston's children charity and the Texas Heart Institute additionally he is the longest running chairman of the board of regents for the University of Houston so please help me in welcoming the bullish and charismatic star of CNBC's billion-dollar buyer the author of shut up and listen Tilman Fertitta welcome glad to be here Tom man it is good to have you dude your story is pure insanity what you have accomplished and built essentially from scratch is bordering on unparalleled it's it's really insane and I love some of the notions that you have that I think have helped you really build that give some background on keep punching you know it's it's funny and I guess when I first was really going in the 80s you hit that horrible recession and people talk about how did banks get so big because the government took a few of the big banks and said you're gonna take the good assets and we're gonna take all the bad assets and that's why you have banks that are too big to fail today because their roll up some bank after bank and in the late 80s were tough and I was getting going and and and you just realized when other people were filing bankruptcy you just gotta keep punching and punching and punching and and people don't realize how much you can take and and if you just keep punching and find a way to get out of the mess and you know what's funny this is a great story and I talked about it in the book I was doing business with like nine or ten banks and in the late 80s in Texas and it was really getting tough and to make payments or whatever starting to default on some by a few days every single bank that I did business with failed before I did is that not a crazy story and I know that's hard to believe but the FDIC would come in every Tuesday into Houston in in the late 80s and closed down four or five or six banks so over about a over about a six month period every single bank failed that I did business with and you had you would call us if so what do I do with these payments and there was such a bureaucracy I truly got a three four year reprieve well and and then in 1990 I remember somebody callin office and saying mister Fertitta we had these notes of yours we would like you to come in and talk to us but in that time I was able to go and and keep building my company and was able to pay him a hundred percent no interest though yeah that that's a nice touch now so in this notion of making sure that you keep punching and knowing how much of a shot you can take how do you stay focused when you're getting punched how do you weather that storm and have the clarity to move forward well you just got a key punching and just take care of your business and you just realize until they come and shut you down or lock the doors or you can't get product or whatever until you can't make a payroll you'd be surprised what you can take though and and you just keep punching and punching and believe it or not times you know get good and it goes back to what I once again preached when times are really bad we forget they're ever going to be good again and when times are really good we forget they're gonna be bad again and we need to always remember that so the paddle doesn't get you yeah tell people your your concept of the paddle well there's a paddle for everybody's ass we all know that and every day you just get up and I don't fear anything but I'll worry about everything and the day you stop worrying in good times the paddle will get your behind and and and so his greatest things are in life I know you're only a few steps or a few incidents away from something bad happen and you can never forget it did you have fear as a kid and you just got into enough business scuffles that you figured your way through things or have you always been buros I'm pretty fearless but I do worry about everything but you know once again you know the book and this is why Harper's asked me to write the book because of all my Tillman isms you got to know what you know and what you don't know and and I knew that I understood business now don't ask me to you know go win an Emmy I took guitar lessons for four years and I still struggle playing the guitar I can't draw a stick person very good but I knew that I understood business so I know what I know and I know how to do due diligence on a deal I don't worry about making a bad deal because I feel like that's what I know so no fear when it comes to that and how much of that is instinctive and how much of that have you had to teach yourself I think I definitely got the DNA gene and and understood business but at the same time I've been a sponge and I'll look and watch everything and pay attention and every day I get up I look for mistakes and what I can learn that day you don't ever think that you know it all because you don't and so every day still a learning process and you you can't ever get caught up with who you are because you're worth a few billion dollars and and you have an extremely large company and because like I said the day I I don't look in the back of my head that paddles gonna get my ass my father-in-law is a very successful self-made man came from a tiny ass village in Cyprus which I hadn't even heard of until I met his daughter and he gave me I think the best piece of business advice I've ever gotten and I still use it to this day which is to know more about any situation than anybody else in the room and that has served me really well I'm guessing given your reputation and how people say you can spot a light bulb out at 40,000 feet and all the things that people say about you that you tend to know more about any deal anything going on in your company than anybody else I want to know how how do you master it to that level well I mean I can't get into some details that people know that I don't know but but if you walk into my office for a meeting I don't care what department you're in I will pick a part whatever you have and and you better know your numbers when you walk in there with a spreadsheet or you better you have your ads right if you're the marketing person walking in but you also you you you know you know if people know what they're doing and and but it's my job to make sure and bring everybody up to another level and I think that's probably one of the greatest compliments I've ever gotten is that I'll take somebody good and make them better is that is that a conscious process for you like what are you doing is it just kicking people in the ass inspiring them all the example all the above I think I did you always know where you stand with me I have all my top VPS probably have been with me an average of 25 years my two assistants have been with me 27 and 26 years and everybody I'll tell you that is the hardest son-of-a-bitch in the world to work for but I would never work for anybody else what would you have to see in them to think it's worth the risk yeah I think one of the best things that I ever did was I will look at somebody's resume and I can say you know what you've never been with the right company and that's why you haven't excelled and and and you are that's why you're in here today and so many people choose the wrong company to go to work for and I look at people all the time when I look at your resume and say why did you go to work for this company I knew they were screwed up when you went to work for him okay and so some people just are not good at choosing the right company and also the person interviewing makes promises that never happen and I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that people make is choosing the wrong company to go to work for curiosity what to make something the wrong company to go to work for is it different by person or they're just certain things in a company people should look out for well do they really have good liquidity are they gonna be in business are they an acquisition target where all of a sudden that they are and you're gonna get bought and probably laid off you know everything is is are they and do they have a product that is going to be around for a long time so everything from liquidity to product acquisition target growth of where you're going to go everybody should always ask themselves if they want to grow and they just don't want to just whatever is is say where can I be in five years if I can't be at this position in five years then this isn't a good career path for me I think everything is career path hmm I'd love to talk about that so your career path is crazy and inspiring so how much of that was mapped out like when you had that single restaurant in Texas how big were you dreaming we already think in aquariums like how much of this is you're just going and you're taking a deal as it comes how much of it is you discovered as you went let's do it another way let's go back to 10 years old I walking around with my business my briefcase full of business there was no business in it but I want it to be a business guy but you really didn't know what it was by junior high I was buying candy and reselling it at school buy high school I was already trading on the stock market so let's take these one at a time so the candy sales who gave you that idea did you just understand if I can buy it for less and I sell it then I can make money that's just hey doing whatever it took to make money I always wanted to make money always had money even when I was a kid cuz I always worked whatever job I could find whether it was mowing somebody's yard or washing cars or selling lemonade to the construction workers it was just always about making money what made you good at selling that is a very particular skill you know I'm even today it's it's all about somebody said why are you so successful because I sell and even when you go out and you raise billions of dollars in debt in your meeting with debt holders you're still selling yourself that's what it's all about you're not just selling the deal when I was public for 18 years okay and you're selling equity I did five follow-on offerings the most a restaurant company ever did when I was public and and you're selling yourself and and and you know you know your numbers you know your business and you make yourself that you know more than everybody else even if you don't so to dig beyond the sort of mythology of just the kid carrying the briefcase and oh this comes naturally at some point this becomes somewhat systematic so if you're gonna be a sponge have to put yourself in a position to be a sponge if to know who to listen to who to ignore how did you begin to formulate that and what does that process don't look like now well I knew how to make money and so at 21 I've sold bottom as I start building homes building shopping centers by the time I was 26 I built my first hotel by the time I was 25 I told myself I'll have my first jet at 35 and I did so I was an investor in a restaurant and then when the world collapsed in the late 80s you couldn't develop anything in Texas for the next 10 years that's when every SNL felt like I said every bank failed and I just started opening restaurants and did that between like 86 and 92 and then 93 I said well you know I'll just build restaurants because I understand this business but since you can't develop anymore and I'll take it public because that's when the whole big thing of restaurant chains going public did that for the next 17 years and then was an opportunist which always talked about is that my stock crashed with everybody else in oh wait no nine when I took it public I owned 100% in 93 you wake up you're worth a hundred million dollars I took it private a no.9 and you're worth five hundred million dollars was very successful bought it right and then you know I could really grow then because I didn't have the handcuffs of being a public company and when you think about the fundamentals of a business when you're going in to evaluate a deal or whatever what like key things do you look for well everything is occupancy cost term of lease do they own any real estate what are their margins I'm not real smart but I know how to do that okay I can analyze the numbers of any business and tell you what your margin should be or whatever because my production cost is this I have this many subscribers you should be doing this or that and I don't care what the business is so that's what I know how to do and so if I try to make the right deal and I do heavy due diligence and and then hopefully you can contribute ooh grow your net worth and if somebody wanted to get good at what you're good at what would you recommend they do you know I think you know if you know business or not and people ask me should I go get my MBA and you know what I usually tell them you know if you need to go get your MBA if you don't have it inside of you and you understand economics and finance and and and operations of business then you need to go get it I knew that I didn't need it it was just a god-given gift but also remember I didn't get a lot of those other gifts don't ask me to play that guitar don't ask me to sing you a song and don't ask me to draw you anything but but you've got to know your god-given gifts and everybody has it everybody in this room has it right here so do what you know was your god-given gift and find a way to use that as your path so when you think about somebody stepping into career and building something obviously there's an element of okay you need to figure out what you're good at what you're not good at do you believe that people can improve the things that they're not good at should they just entirely not think about that and partner with people that have a different skill set you've said do not partner with somebody that has the same so read the book you read the book absolutely but at the same time I've made myself you know understand IT information technology and if you talk to any CEO of any company they'll tell you that's the one department that you do not want to because no matter who you bring in everybody has their own way of doing it in and I've just still made myself understand technology even though I'm not a millennial I try to at least know a little bit about every single department even if I don't know it a lot and so walk me through you want to learn about IT what do you do you googling it or do you go sit down with the head of IT and say teach me everything no I just I want to I want to know everything I want to understand understand this you know you know malware how people are getting into all of our systems and hack enos and and I just process for learning though we're just sitting down and say you got to make me smarter on this you got it you got to help me through these steps because I don't get it don't go into too much minutiae because you'll lose me because I'm not that smart but you got to give me the steps of why this is happening or not happening and that's something that everybody should do you don't have to understand you know that I'm gonna go and be able to program something or or write something but but we should all if we're running a company understand some portion of it when I'm shooting billion dollar buy or I know what all these different people do and exactly what they're doing and how important you know each person is and and it's just trying to understand what you do and it makes you appreciate that person and how smart they aren't that job - and how important they are to your company all right let's say I'm one of your kids I want to take over the business one day what how are you going to help me absorb the business fundamentals is it just follow you around is it you're gonna have me a list of Tilman isms like what does that process this this is this is a really great question that you just asked because I've had people say to me why don't you let your kids work for me for a wall instead of just working for you and then other people think you should put them in one department and let them learn that department and and and you know what upset and I really think I'm doing it right and we'll see only time will tell there's so many departments you're talking about a four billion dollar revenue company what 60,000 employees and 700 million in eva'dur that does everything from you know I have 25 biologists that work for me at aquarium so everything from aquariums to amusement parks to five casinos to restaurants to an NBA basketball team okay just everything you can think of I'm teaching them to make decisions because that's really what it's all about is learn how to make decisions see how I make decisions every day about everything rather it's a little decision or a big decision and they've been doing that with me and they say they're pretty smart we don't know that we could run this without you so it's kind of interesting because it's just it's them sitting in meetings and seeing how I make decisions is the best thing I can do for them instead of learning one little department so if you were going to teach us a few key business principles what are what are some of the core principles of business that you really like if you knew if I died without my kids understanding these three to five things like what would those three to five things be know your numbers no matter what business you're looking at always know your numbers number two realize that that we're not successful if that consumer does not come to us whether they're eating in your restaurants where they're playing in your casino and and and whether if you don't have a good product on that basketball court the fans are not going to come and buy those tickets the sponsors aren't going to come and therefore you're not going to have the money to pay for those good players next year you're not gonna go to pay russell westbrook and james horan each forty million dollars a year you've got to always remember we're only as good as that's taking care of that consumer one of the things I teach everybody and especially my kids don't assume anything i people think if somebody walks in and gives you an answer that it's the right answer and and and even when I tell somebody to do something I don't assume they went and did it all I ask him a week later did you do that that I asked you to do because that was really important to me oh my gosh I didn't do that and I think that's the biggest mistake people make is don't assume that everything's running right don't assume anything do you see parallels between the game that you play in business and sports is that why there is a passion for you on both sides 100% operate by the 95/5 rule 95% of everything we do in business if we're doing anything it was right so look for the 5% didn't find the 5% this is so powerful and reading it in the book I was like okay here we go so how do you spot the 5% how do you know what 5% matters how do you prioritize how you attack that 5% okay well let me just say this okay I walked into this studio okay and and I've done a lot of interviews and and as soon as I walk in your your people greet you they introduce what you know this you come up here here's your some snacks there's even a a camera light so if they're doing your makeup up there it's a perfect lighting you I could tell this guy has his act together this this guy I'm having a hard time finding his 5% because they're doing everything right and I'm not just saying that but you know everything I'm saying is true that you have somebody meet us outside we're not walking around lost and and you so I hadn't found the five percent here I'm sure before the show's over I will but but it's there for sure I think you're right everybody but I judged you and your operation the second I walked in and it's no different if I'm pulling up to a retail store or a hotel or a restaurant or whatever and before I get to the front door I'm pulling up in that parking lot there's a parking lot in pretty good shape or they're weeds out there or they're cigarette butts in the parking lot or they're lights burn out the front doors got a bunch of smudges on it I haven't even walked in yet and I can tell you this said in a crisp operation I can tell you everything how the operations gonna be inside before I ever walked in the front door because if they're not taking care of the outside the inside is not gonna be good and that's the same parallel that I used for the basketball team we had a great year again we won the most games we've ever won in a two year period and my first two years of ownership but I sat down with the general manager and in the head coach and my top basketball people and said alright we did 95 percent of everything right but we didn't beat Golden State again so let's what do we need to do how do we improve that 5% and we kicked it around and and and that's when we decided that maybe there's an opportunity to be a little more athletic and getting a great transition player who can speed the game up and make us a better team like a russell westbrook and so that was the 5% we were looking for changing out a few coaching positions changing out a few other players you're never gonna be great if you don't look for the 5% yeah as you were talking I thought ok I'm beginning to get a very clear picture of what makes you work so remember that I don't believe and it's not that I don't believe that some people come with sort of hardwired gifts it's that I don't find it very helpful so if you're if the sum total of your story is that you're either born with it or you're not why read the book write so it comes down to there is an element of this stuff that can be taught and hearing you talk the part that sounds so interesting to me that I think can be taught is you've really high standards and more importantly than that you have high standards that when you look at where it's going wrong it doesn't damage your sense of self-esteem so you're willing to look at it you're willing to what I call staring Naked Lee at your inadequacies you don't walk into a restaurant to clap for yourself you walk into a restaurant to figure out the going wrong not saying that is bad you're just saying that if we want to and this is my favorite concept of yours separate ourselves from everybody else easiest thing to do it's the easiest thing to do and I tell everybody that no matter what your job is is that you can go to work every day and separate yourself from anybody else and it's no different than the sound guy on this set if you pick up you know what this sound guy is really really good and he's worried about this and he's worried about that then all of a sudden you tell somebody you need a good sound guy this and then they end up on this person because of a recommendation all of a sudden this guy is known as the best sound guy in LA because he's paying attention or she's paying attention to details that the other sound people don't know you know what I hear an ambulance out there let's cut it you know just the little little little bitty things and I just think that it's easy to separate yourself from anybody else no matter what your position is if if you go to work for a company and you don't go up the corporate ladder it's your fault it's nobody else's you either with the wrong company where there's no upward mobility or you should separate yourself because I know one thing if you work for me I'm paying attention nothing goes unnoticed okay and I tell people that all the time if you want to separate yourself it's easy to do because somebody above you is gonna notice that your peers are gonna notice it it is easy to separate yourself from anybody else yeah that that notion to me is one of the most critical things that anybody in a company can do and I love what you're saying about personal responsibility it's on you man if you're not even if like you said it's just that there you're in the wrong company you're in the wrong company and so if you want to get somewhere where you can move you either have to go somewhere else or get your skill set of line if somebody comes to you and is like I want to improve I get that it is specific to that case but are there general things that somebody can do is there is it start with shut up and listen is that the Tillman isms is it getting those things ingrained in your Soler's or something else that give somebody the the mental framework with which to propel themselves forward you know I think that you can pick up from from talking to me that that I'm not on a different level okay these are pretty simple basic tools and so nobody out there is listening to him and saying God Dorn he's just he's just using words and he's just so much smarter than me so I'm not going to become worth five billion dollars that book is okay he's just naturally smarter than me I think you can see that I'm no smarter than anybody else in this room I just use certain little basic tools to be successful every day take the word know out of your vocabulary worry about your customer know spare customers use the ninety five five rule separate yourself from everybody else be the bull at whatever you do and on and on and on we know what you're good at know what you're not good at I want to go back to the bowl thing so certainly I understand it when it comes down to an acquisition being bullish basically when there's blood in the street that's when there's real opportunity like I get all of that now give it to me like I'm a young kid I'm trying to come up through the mailroom whatever like how does one embody the ball is it about confidence is it about audaciousness like what is that thing whatever position you're at you want to be the bull and I don't care if you're in the mailroom or if you're the person behind that camera that I'm gonna be better than anybody else with that camera and I'm gonna be the best mail carrier and the person who comes up and is the most organized and does it the most professional way you can be the bull at any position you're doing and it's just telling yourself I'm gonna do this better than anybody else I don't care what the job is I don't care what you do you be the bull at what you do what drives you is it setting goals is it the conquest is it you know somebody that that's an all-weather winner there's something pushing them now as I support it's just the sport of this is what I do every day and people said why why do you do this and I just said because what would I do I mean if I can't come to the office and solve problems and fight with everybody and and conquests and you know conquer then then what am I gonna do with myself and we'll sit home and die I mean that's what I enjoy doing this is my basketball this is my game that I play this is my pickup Monopoly game whatever you want to call it okay this is I love going to the office and and and leading people and and trying to conquer something that's what I enjoy doing it's sport so when you were it's so interesting because you once said that you know when I had my first restaurant and I was finally being successful and I think you were making like three or four million dollars a year and you dad was like why do you keep putting this all at risk and you said that's basically how I think of myself now like you may think that I've gotten big but to me this is like nothing compared to where I want to go how do you dream big and how concrete are those dreams like do you maybe you're not willing to say out loud but do you already know like this is my next acquisition and this is where I'm headed and this is how I get the NFL team and totally that's you're exactly right this is this is steps to get to the next level now if I don't pull any of that off have I reached that point in life where I'm happy yeah I don't feel like after I bought the Houston Rockets and once again I you know who gets to own a hundred percent of their team in their hometown there's probably not of all the major 100 sports teams there's probably not five so I feel very fortunate do it so if nothing else has accomplished do I feel pretty good I feel okay I really do I really do and I think that you know the good Lord and and and all the people that helped me accomplish it but but what you just said is happening I'm taking the next steps right now to get to the next level because always that's my sport let's go play pick-up basketball let's go to the office and play business and that's what I do every day I go to the office and play business I have weekends if I'm not on vacation or on the boat somewhere whatever and I'm sitting at home and it's Labor Day or Memorial Day and I don't have plans I'm going nuts I'm gonna go to the office I'm gonna attack if people want to engage with you they want to learn more about what you're doing where would they find you you know what follow me on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter and read shut up and listen and all the people that work for me will tell you that have read the book that is Tillman talking that is that is him it it would captured him perfectly and like I said I've never been the smartest guy in the room never professed to be but I will out thank you I will outwork you I will out motivate you and and I will teach you how to lead really fast talk to me about the notion of out working people I can tell you we've worn down many of people and deals when we just say let's just keep going the greatest time to negotiate a deal is Friday and thinking that everybody's gonna leave at five or six o'clock in the evening and so I always try to set up the negotiation for all you people and I plan on doing an acquisition from in the future because we'll go right through the weekend and they want to go home and so we just keep plowing through at 3:00 in the morning 4:00 in the morning we will outwork your ass yeah one of the greatest strategies in life in my opinion I'm totally with you on that one what is the impact you want to have on the world you always want to do the right thing you want to be remembered that you were very successful but you did it fairly and squarely all out you know I will I have take pride and out negotiating your ass okay and and you just want to lead this world that everybody said god that was a difficult son of a gun but he always did the right thing it's pretty good all right guys the Tillman isms alone are worth the price of admission I highly recommend the book it is a lot of fun if you were paying attention the way he's talking you will definitely when you read the book realize that that is definitely his voice and captures his spirit and somebody that can start with a single restaurant and build what he's built today if you have any interest in doing something extraordinary in your life regardless by the way of whether you want to be an entrepreneur or not I think a lot of the rules apply to just knowing more about something out working people knowing what you want big audacious goals all of that stuff being the bull it will pay off well in your life if you haven't already be sure to subscribe until next time my friends be a legendary take care gentlemen thank you my friend that was one for everyone I wanted to take a second to give a shout out to our longtime friends at audible I know you've heard me talk about them a thousand times before but that's because I literally live inaudible it is how I do virtually all of my listening and that's because with audible you can get pretty much any audio book in any genre and listen to it anywhere you are so whether you're at home at the gym on your commute whatever audible is hands-down the most convenient way for me to learn and I think that is true for a lot of people so start listening with an audible membership today and to get started you're gonna get a 30 day free trial you'll receive your first audio book for free and to free audible originals just go to well dot-com / impact theory or text impact theory - 500 500 when you start I recommend checking out David Goggins book can't hurt me it is one of my recent favorites in fact it's one of my all-time favorites absolutely love that audiobook and what he did as a part of the read of that is really extraordinary it's very different I highly encourage you to check it out so if you want to get more reading done this year I urge you guys to do it with audible it's just a phenomenal way to do the reps get amazing information so go to audible.com forward slash impact theory today and start your free trial right now that's audible.com slash I am PA see tthe o ry or you can text impact theory to five hundred five hundred give it a try alright guys enjoy and be legendary I learned this Sullivan cyclopædia store to dorm early 20s is be prepared in life for a lot of rejection because if you're prepared for a lot of rejection it comes you don't get turned off you don't get disappointed like well I'm not gonna do this anymore no one thinks it's a good idea

Channel: Tom Bilyeu

Views: 778,422

Rating: 4.8763509 out of 5

Keywords: Tom Bilyeu, Impact Theory, ImpactTheory, TomBilyeu, Inside Quest, InsideQuest, Tom Bilyou, Theory Impact, motivation, inspiration, talk show, interview, motivational speech, Tilman Fertitta, IT, Houston Rockets, Houston, Billion Dollar Buyer, Shut Up and Listen, restaurant, billionaire, be the bull, keep punching, business, success, wrong company, business plan, God-given, fearless, talent, outwork, competition

Id: TgJvwVtENsg

Length: 35min 27sec (2127 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2019