 Hey, hi, how are you? How you doing my friend, California greets you. Oh, look at this be a little Texas hospitality Beverly Hills in Texas meet up for those of you don't know was named by Forbes as the Richest restaurateur in the world but near and dear to my heart you want a basketball team, which is probably the Probably the greatest accomplishment in my mind somebody could do for just a fun business goal owns 600 restaurants 60,000 employees. Yeah five casinos, but I have to say I love them all I love all the businesses and the hotels, but it's really great on in a basketball basketball team And you've got a good team this year. So question from your book Shut up and listen great title by the way You talked about knowing your numbers, right? So We now live in a world. I'm in the middle of it social media. Everybody's become an entrepreneur which in many ways is good and People want to think big they believe in the secret and all these big picture things like I'm gonna succeed But when I read your book, there's two things that stand out One is know your numbers meaning you got to have technical skill You have to pay attention to the business in your experience. You had a TV show. You've seen so many business owners What percentage of business owners know their number none? Really a lot all your successful ones and the unsuccessful ones don't know their numbers And I don't care how good your product is If you don't know your numbers and I can talk to somebody for a minute and a half and start quizzing you about your business And I can know real quick, you know, how much is your receivables? What's your payables? What is your cost of sales? What is your labor cost? And if they don't know those numbers, they're gonna go out of business unless they just happen to have a product That is just flying off the shelf everywhere. Yeah, because you have to know your numbers to be successful What do you think? I mean right now? It's all this in the news about big businesses Uber we work now as in the news. Do you think some of the issues they have is? Just not have enough common sense with the numbers like these company No, I think that Wall Street finally said, you know what just because your technology company and all you have is revenue And you don't have any profits. Okay, we're sick of it We're sick of all the dreams and you're just going out and buying revenue But not worrying about a bottom line right and for me because I was public for 17 years I took the company public one owned a hundred percent. I took it private owning a hundred percent But at some point I think Wall Street just smartened up and said wait anybody can create revenue I I could start right now because I understand business and go grow a company from four billion to ten billion You know in 24 months, but I but I have to worry about the profits along the way, right? Okay, right artificial growth. It was absolutely. I can grow anything But but Wall Street was allowing these companies not to make money for years and years and years and finally they said wait Time out here. Yeah, we want to see some earnings. Yeah Yeah, so do you think the other thing that you I was reading an article Not your book was a recent interview where you were talking about goes along with this About every ten it's been ten years since a recession. Yeah, do you think one of my mentors told me I said tie about every seven ten years something comes on. Do you think we're potentially cruising for a bruising here? Absolutely, and and and I've been saying this and you know all kind of interviews you know as I've been out talking about the book and What happens is and everybody wants to talk about the GNP and all the barometers of a recession It's really simple. Okay, we tend to over build everything in good times and we've been on a building spree Just look at LA Houston, New York. We've built so many apartments so many houses so many cars So many restaurant seats so much retail and what happens is the consumer finally gets full and we can't eat anymore And so what happens? You need a recession to let everything catch up again And so there's supply and demand for everything from TVs to cars to restaurants to Apartments to homes and that's where we are right now the consumer is full and that's why all of a sudden you saw the Manufacturing numbers slow down today, and that's as easy as I can put it. We're full right now. We're all fat But does someone listening in my experience? There's opportunities in Recessions there's opportunities and expansion contraction somebody listening doesn't necessarily have to be freaked out that there's no opportunity You're still gonna be opportunity, right? Let me tell you something you can go back and look at my history, okay? And Forbes has me right at five billion dollars today Mm-hmm, and I've made all the majority of my money in bad times, right because that's when you can be Opportunistic this is how I live you build your balance sheet and your liquidity in good times Okay, and then you don't acquire in good times You acquire in bad times and this is the time you eat the week because the week is going down right now Every single business that I see right now is trading at a lesser multiple Yep, and it's starting to have weaker earnings than they had two and three years ago Yeah, so this is the time and I can promise you this we'll come out of this recession And you can play this back in two or three years if we go in it and then we're out of it And I built my net worth Considerably yeah, because I'm gonna do some eating. I'm gonna get fat in the next couple of years So basically a lot of ways it's like contrarian get fat when everyone's getting skinny 100% Say skinny when everybody's getting fat 100% I have not done a lot of acquisitions in the last few years, but just in the last couple of weeks I've done two really I bought Del Frisco's okay I heard and I bought restaurants unlimited out of bankruptcy Okay, and my team right now is in another city right now today looking at another company That's about to fall that we're gonna try to be the stalking horse for on a bankruptcy procedure I think I read about that, you know put a stalking horse for restaurants unlimited But I'm trying to do it again because Because if we're in the deal people know that there's no financing issue and that we're gonna close the deal Yeah, if you do business with us they will close and because you have so many people kick tires and look at deals But but this is the beginning of it right now. Yeah, I'm I'm looking to eat some week right now In my business partner Alex are currently in the in doing the same thing We've got a bid in at one of the biggest US retail brands all the retail is going so 100 we're in a bidding war right now So what are the things that I like what you're saying and as I read your story? It's a little bit contrary, which I like I mean I'm right to say you dropped out of college Yeah dropped out of college, which is a little contrary. I mean had a year to go But I started making too much damn money and you just say oh I'll go back I'll go back and and you know, of course, you know, you didn't need to go back and what's so funny is that? At the school that I was at that I dropped out of I've been the longest running chairman of the board of regents at the University of Houston right now really since the founder back in the 30s. They probably forgot you No, I think they know it but they know he's a pretty good good damn chairman And so you got so your contrary arounds your education your background you're a contrary on how you think of recessions You're also contrary and in most people go can't make you any money or restaurants, but I always tell people Anything humans consume at volume. There's money to be made whether it's steel or cars or rest You just have to be extra start smart on rest. That's why I'm happy to be talking to you because restaurant I was in the nightclub business with a restaurateur in Raleigh, North Carolina when I was real young and I saw it's a tough business gift to be sharp It is and there's nothing I'll just I tell this to everybody There's nothing more profitable than a profitable restaurant And there's nothing more unprofitable than an unprofitable restaurant And it's just do you hit that revenue number and do you have the lease right? Do you have your expenses right? Do you talk about in the book the least 100 percent? I mean you you people just make the same mistakes over and over again And and and I learned to always learn from my mistakes Yeah, and I'm a lot smarter today than I was 25 30 years ago That's I did a tweet. I said the main reason The only reason to be happy about getting older is if you're getting smarter That's the main advantage of eating you know, you know, I'll I'll say this is that let me grab a ball here you can We don't have to have a contest or anything to bounce it around a little bit Um, sorry you were saying You can take the the smartest guy there is or woman from your best university princeton harvard stanford And I don't care how smart they are. Okay. They don't have two things They don't have experience and they don't have history And and all out do them every time on experience in history And I don't care how smart kids think they are today They really are and they're probably smarter than us at that stage But they don't have history and they don't have experience and You can never make up for that. I don't care how smart you are One of my mentors Joel souten said you can't google experience. You cannot google experience You have to have that that is a really smart statement. He's a farmer and he has a lot of common I always say common sense is no longer common. I tell people, you know an entrepreneurial world What happens everything creates is opposite as people get more books smart or more academic smart It leaves a hole in the market for people of common sense Absolutely. So owning a basketball team Tell me about the feeling was this in the mind for a while like oh I look because you not the the neat thing that you did is not only Did you buy a basketball team, but you got one in your home city? You know, it's really interesting is that of the 90-something professional sports teams in america of your major sports there's probably only three four people that actually Own a hundred percent of their team in their hometown They might even be not be that many if you want to know the truth It's it's uh, you know, it's a lot bought in groups and things like that. Yeah, absolutely But then not in your hometown right and uh, you know when everybody else was trying to figure out to make the numbers work I went out and bought it. Yeah, and and because you could never make the numbers work Okay, but it's the greatest long-term asset also Yeah, because you've never sold a basketball team or football or baseball team for less than they were paying for the time before But but it's great. You know, I tried to buy the team 25 years earlier for 80 million dollars and I got beat out I don't in 25 years But you know how I look at things and this is where you got to be positive and that's what the whole book's about is if I wouldn't If I would have bought the basketball team Maybe I'm only worth a couple of billion today right because I would not have been growing my business Right, so everything happens for a reason and so here it is 25 years later. I'm worth five billion dollars I'm able to buy that team for two billion dollars. Yeah, so things work out. You got to look at it that way Do you think you maybe You would have worked a little bit less hard if you own the rockets early Well, maybe I would have just gotten consumed with the rockets right because because they'll consume you Okay, and and I would have worked to build sponsors and do all this But I don't think they would have been worth anymore Yeah, but but I was able to build my company and now I get to enjoy both I didn't have to sell my company to buy them You have to be careful to balance you've got all this other business and the rockets Just natural or want to just focus all day on that But this goes back to once again something I talk about I know what I know and I know what I don't know Right, okay, and so I really can't contribute at the rockets office every day Okay, because I'm I'm I'm not going to scout players. I'm not going to tell you who to pick Oh, sure could I have a little effect talking about the business side and sponsors and expenses and all that Sure, I might have a little bitty effect, but I still get up every day and go to my other office And I never use my office at the rockets because I just can't contribute enough to make a difference there I looked in the vegas odds you guys are top four or five contender Vegas wise to win a champion and absolutely and that's all you can do every year You know, let me give you an example all you can do is put together a great team And and and hope to be one of the top four or five teams to have a chance at a championship because after that it's luck Right. Okay. Look at the great laundry. Absolutely. Look at the great golden state warriors Okay, the greatest team ever in the last five years. How many championships did they win in the last five years? Three three three and they lost two right, okay? So no matter how good you are It still takes some luck So my deal is with my team is we're going to set ourselves up to be one of the better teams every year And let's hope we get some luck and maybe I get some and maybe I don't yeah a few years ago I would say the Rockets potenti or one injury one one Chris Paul I mean that that let me ask you how do you this is in business question, but How do you deal with that? Does that just Are you the kind of person that sees Chris Paul get injured and there was a great chance you guys would have won And gone all the way and won the championship. How do you deal with those kind of emotional setback? Are you the kind of like Warren Buffett says think about it for three days Learn the lesson and then suppress it. Are you a suppressor or do they does it pop back? Do you have regrets like that? I don't I don't you know and I don't in business either because it's just you'll drive yourself crazy And I thank god I get another chance the next year and the next year and the next year But I mean have I thought about it and said gosh But that have been a story the first year on in the team you win the championship But you know you can't look back I'm so thankful to own the team and have another shot year after year after year Now I'll be really disappointed if before I close my eyes One day that I don't want a championship So that you know and you never know that could be the closest I get in the next 25 30 years I mean you don't know I mean a james harden only comes around so often You only get a chance to have a james harden and a chris paul on your team for so long You only have a chance to have a James harden and a russell westbrook on your team for so long So let's look let's go forward five six years from now If we don't win it and I sit there and I say this is james and russell's chance They're both 30 years old. They're both under contract with me for the next four years. Okay The houston rockets So where are they going to be four years from now? And where will I be four years from now that I will ever have an opportunity and they will ever have an opportunity Because I've signed chris for another. I mean I've signed clint for another four years. I've got eric garden for another three years Four years. I've got pj for a couple more years So This is the chance. This is the chance right now. You need to come to a game with me Be careful what you offer because I may I may show up. Absolutely. This is something that you want to do There's nothing like Going to a game with the owner and enjoying it and before the game seeing everybody and Sitting center court. You need to try it. It ain't a bad deal I will make a special trip. I'm trying to think what uh What game would be a good one? I don't want to take your best game because you got a better guess than me But we'll we'll have to figure that out for sure and I'm just I'm not just saying it It's something that you really should do. It's a great experience. I appreciate that um Changey topics completely. We're out the basketball court He hit a full court shot. No one it was off camera for a second, but uh When it comes to just pure mindset you talk about in the book something I think that's surprising that needs to be talked about more You basically say Don't be afraid but worry more because everything in the model world the zeitgeist is like Don't worry. Everything just works out. But you're there's quite a few business people Great business people. You're you know Forbes lists that say it's a paranoid who survive How do you balance that with having happiness but also worrying about I I have no fear Because I do my due diligence. Okay. Okay. So if I do a deal I deserve to get Kicked if it doesn't work because I did my due diligence I don't do make-believe performers always do a worst case Performer for myself and I know there's a paddle for your ass if you don't watch out. Yeah, I like that saying So so every day I get up. I have no fear of doing any deal but I also worry about everything and I worry about working that paddle get me right and so I better know my stuff every day, right So it's more of a matter of it's almost like You're not an optimist. You're not a pessimist. You're a realist. I'm a 100% and I think the I told somebody about this I think yesterday. I'm driving in the car. I don't and I said I don't think because I own something. It's worth more Okay, you know how everybody to go well my house was worth more my boat's worth more when they're trying to sell it Right. I'm a realist. It's only worth this. Oh, I know I sold Concept last year and he said, you know, you were right on it. Just that's all it was worth But nobody everybody thought it was worth more but that's truly all it was worth and I owned it and I sold it But but people have got to be a realist of what their talents are what their abilities are And and do your due diligence always Do you think we live in a narcissistic culture that thinks more and more and it's that we live in the selfie age The Kardashian age. Do you think people feel more entitled? There's definitely an entitlement that That is out there today. That was not out there before. Yeah Do you think it makes people poor or richer in the long run to be entitled? I mean, there's a case for having confidence and self-esteem. Well, where does it cross the line? Well, it's just kind of it's kind of like Well, I want to go to college, but I want you to pay for it. Okay. And so I can tell you And a lot of millennials Do support socialism, right? But those same millennials that want to be entitled that That want somebody to pay for their college It's capitalism that makes billionaires and millionaires right not socialism, right? Okay. Remember socialism We want everybody equal. Well, I don't want to be equal with everybody else. I don't want to be equal with you I don't want to be equal with them. I want to be able to separate myself from you Okay in a nice way, right not in a not in a mean way But but when I can't separate myself Then what's great about that? Okay, so we're gonna make everybody win the same amount of basketball games We're gonna make everybody make the same amount of money. Okay. That's the competitiveness that makes america great And so we want to take the greatest thing we have Is competitiveness and capitalism and take it away from our country. Yeah I want everybody to have an opportunity. We'll see 2020 is gonna be an interesting year here It's gonna be an interesting year, but but that's what made america great Is it a guy like me can start out with one restaurant? Yeah, I I don't think you were born successful. Okay. I was born to a single mom. My dad was in prison when I was born Okay, okay. So so so do you want to move to a society that people like me and you and these people here can't succeed? No, because I think it actually hurts everybody. It does. It does. I love the competitiveness. Yeah Great honor here to have toman fratida here. We're talking about his book. Shut up and listen I just read it this week. It's it's a good book What I like about the book is you say a lot of things That aren't generic cliches a lot of business books now are generic cliches If you don't know toman, he Was named by forbs as the richest Restaurant tour in the world 5 billion net worth owns the houston rockets Owns mortons 600 restaurants 60,000 employees Casinos aquariums Even a boardwalk. I saw yeah, was that right? Yeah in houston I had the number one tourist attraction the keema boardwalk over three million visitors a year And anything in the entertainment field, you know the five golden nugget casinos and you know, even here We're shooting this in la and it's everything from Mastros to martins to catch which is Yeah, it's great to in a city like la have a couple of the busiest restaurants in mastros and catch And I used to have the rainforest out at disney, but they're building a hotel where the rainforest was but I still have the big Bubba gump out there on the stand I'm gonna ask you I gotta have to hear bubble gump Is like one of the greatest themed restaurants in america every time I see it. I'm like I have to eat there Whose idea was that but believe it or not a couple of people came and took a A idea from my joe's crab shack And then went to paramount and said hey can we license bubble gump? Yeah, and it's just a joe's crab shack that became a bubble gump and So I bought it out because I didn't like that they took a lot of my ideas and You know paramount's got a big deal and you know, who's really got a good deal is uh, Who's the director from uh, bubble? Yes. It's america's and and and who's the actor? What's his name? Hank they make a bunch of money off a bubble gump. You'd be so every every shrimp They get a small royalty You know, believe it or not when they cut their deal for that show they took a huge back side Really and and and They are making a ton of money off a bubble gump shrimp company A bunch of money and you got to give them credit. They didn't take the money up front They took it on the back side and they're doing very well off a bubble gump Let me ask you this because I'm a very very junior Dealmaker compared to you right? I like you're doing quite well But you've got the numbers to back it. Let me add what is I often say What do they not teach us in school? There's many things and one of the simple things is Sales people skills reading people you mentioned due diligence just dealmaking overall wealth Comes from dealmaking knowing how to spot an opportunity value it and then put the terms together You talk about this some in the book What makes you a good dealmaker? Well, I think that This is the problem with college and is that they teach you the theoretical side of everything For the person that's working for you But it doesn't teach you to be the ceo the practical side and the young entrepreneur Whether you're trying to go up the corporate ladder or you are doing you're on and it's just the simple things of And these are some of my great tilmanisms from the book and my harper collins came to me and asked me to write this book was Know your numbers. Okay. You've got to know your numbers There are no spare customers. We're all in a consumer business People watching this podcast for you or me serving casino customers, restaurant customers, hotel customers There are no spare customers. We're all after the same consumer to the 95 five rule that 95 percent of everything is right So look for the five percent that's wrong to the uh, take the word no out of your damn vocabulary Why does everybody say no in the hospitality business? It's a it's 1102 And I've called down to order breakfast because I was on a business call and they say I'm sorry, sir We don't serve breakfast anymore. That's fine. I don't want an eggs Benedict. I don't want a spanish omelet I don't want a waffle Just throw a couple of eggs and a skillet scramble them and send them up with one of those pieces of bacon that you've got Cooked for that club sandwich. No, sir. We don't serve breakfast anymore Well, you're going to throw a chicken piece of chicken or a hamburger in that skillet for that Chicken salad or that hamburger. Just throw me a couple of eggs. They're sitting right there in that refrigerator. I'm sorry, sir We don't serve breakfast anymore. Why do we feel like we have to say no? Yeah, okay So I try to live by because I know I'm after that customer. There are no spare customers that consumer We don't tell our customer no Okay, and especially in LA a lot of these super chef driven restaurants There's a restaurant in town that that will only serve a steak medium rare And I'm not going to say who it is. I'm not ever going to go after a competitor But you're going to tell me how to order your steak. Yeah, and that's part of the society today is we're not worried about hospitality anymore Or service anymore a lot of the most expensive hotels now are these minimalistic hotels Where they don't have any service. They don't have anything But I'm paying more for a room there than a five-star hotel The most expensive hotels now are not your five-star hotels They're minimalistic hotels that can't even get two-star. Yeah, what happened to service and hospitality? Yeah But you've proven because I I was talking to when we're outside It's like you pulled off restaurants because one of the the business adages you hear is there's no money in restaurants And what you're saying is By having these things that you call till is it tilmanism, right? They give you an edge and that adds up to five billion dollars, right? And I'd go after the masses and not the classes. Yeah, and and So do you mean you you like mass appeal problem with the masses? I'm going after the masses, okay? Because this is a selling that I tell my people all the time And I don't even know that it's in this book now that I think about it's good We've got exclusive content on the show and honestly every honestly all the interviews I've done in the last couple of weeks I haven't used one of the most famous tilmanisms of them all and that's you make it with the masses and you spend it with the classes Okay, okay, but even master rows and catches as even though that they are Expensive restaurants, and they're a lot of fun and they're a great entertainment value. They're still for the masses We do hundreds of covers a night in those restaurants. Yeah, do you think now that with this approach Um, is it guiding you you're going golden nugget casinos You just you're working on two acquisitions now The the rockets is obviously something even there where it's for the masses Everybody's watching. Believe me. And you know what and it's no different than a hotel or casino or a restaurant You better put a damn good product out there on that court Or you know what you're going to look up there in those seats and i'm not going to have any butts in them No different than a casino or a hotel or a restaurant So you've got to always work to keep a good product on the court You've got to always do that to take care of your sponsors And I go, you know at the end of the year last year The same thing I use in all my businesses the 95 5 rule 95 percent of everything is right look for the 5 percent that's wrong and I sat there and sat down with the head coach and And the basketball ops people and I said what can we do to make us better? Let's we're 95 right, okay? We won more games in the last two years than in the history of the franchise What's that 5 percent? We need and we decided we needed a little more athleticism Okay, we need it a little we got that in russia west for a boy. Here's a guy that The the greatest fast break transition player in the history of the game Tremendous athlete to speed the game up for us a little bit and transition and and uh So I think that we got that 5 percent So let's see if we can put that chemistry together Together and go out on that court and get it done So what do you say to somebody who's watching this? I have all different levels of entrepreneurs watching What do you say to somebody who goes? That's great. That's his story But he got lucky because there's a lot of people nowadays that say success is luck What's your rebuttal to that or thoughts? You know, I have no problem in the world if we I don't want to have to do it again, but I truly do believe this that you always have a little luck. Okay Absolutely, but you also put yourself in the position To meet that luck. Okay I got out there and met people that I know have given me advice or helped me along the way or who believed in me But also did something to put myself in that position and do I'm Very humble in the sense of I'm very thankful of everything and I can tell you honestly I've outworked everybody my team has outworked everybody and I do believe this and I know this is a cliche You can start all over again and the same people are going to end up with the money Yeah, I hate to say that so you feel that way. I really do feel that way Yeah, but now do I feel that oh somebody was a tech entrepreneur and was working on an app And and and some other bigger tech company came along and bought it and they made 50 million dollars I do think that's luck, but once again They set themselves up for that luck even though they didn't have a good product Because they developed it and they found somebody that was a greater fool to buy it from yeah, okay So they they were lucky, but they weren't lucky because they put themselves in a position still, right? Yeah My grandpa used to say once is luck twice a skill You've done it 600 times you started with one restaurant. You've got 600 restaurants probably a good chance at it's not luck No, once is luck twice the skill 600 times is mastery and I evaluate guys a lot and I know some smart people And I won't go by names, but they're one hit wonders right and I've watched them Hit it big and then their next 10 things They were not successful in so they really just kind of maybe got a little lucky in that one hit But but I try to think and I'm not saying there's not a panel for my ass, but I've been successful in restaurants casinos I've made a billion dollars In equity in the restaurant business and I've done it in the gaming business and basically started with one both times Yeah, I want to make a billion in the in the houston rockets But I'm going to have to hold on to it for a few years But I think in time yeah the rockets I'll have an equity a billion in equity in that the rock I paid 2.2. I think you're going to look up in 10 or 15 years And the rockets will be worth 3.2. So then I would have made a billion dollars in three different industries And uh, so so so then you're not a one hit wonder anymore. Yeah, well two industries as hard three is You got the trifecta. Well, you got a but you know, I've got to make it happen I've got to keep building my ebita and keep finding sponsors and keep putting butts in those seats And hopefully I'll do it in another industry, you know What would be the next one? Well, I haven't built a hotel company that there's a true billion in equity in either But you never know. I mean you just what do you think of the hotel business? Donald trump that's kind of the one thing he did that's still around. Are you a Hotel fan the industry in general? It's a tough industry because of the maintenance capex to keep them fresh and good But but real estate if you buy it cheap and you You you you sell it high. It's a good business, but it's a very cyclical business So you you don't want to get in it at the top and You know, I'm I'm now that I'm sitting here thinking about it all my hotels You know, I'm maybe only a few buying right and selling high or just keeping that in a good time Or not far from being worth a billion dollars. Yeah, so that hopefully I'll get there. I hope I hope that's the sport of business The business is a sport and a competitiveness just like basketball football baseball or anything And it's the competitiveness when I was 21 years old. I won my first Cadillac selling shackley vitamins I told myself I wanted to own my first jet at 35 and And did you pull it off 100 percent 100 percent and then when I was in my 20s You know, I've said when that Forbes 400 came out. I said I want to be on that list one day So you got to set yourself goals and try to set yourself apart I talk about that in the book is that anybody can set themselves apart You can be the best sound guy. You can be the best camera man You can do certain things and study your field and then you get a break because you were such a good camera man Or you're the best sound guy that you got recommended to go on this set and then this set And then all of a sudden in hollywood, you're known as the best sound guy You can do things to separate yourself from everybody else by just working a little harder I have a shirt that I wear. I put a quote on it. Be so good. They can't ignore you 100 percent You know people go being ignored. I'm like nope 100 percent charlie monger who I like reading him He says uh Warren Buffett's business partner. He said the world's not yet Um a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people meaning in general But not always the people who deserve it He said the best way to get what you want is to deserve what you want for you to get the jet You had to deserve it. It just didn't come it didn't but but but but but I knew that I wanted it And so I was going to work as hard and I said, you know what? I got to go even though I'm making a bunch of money and my dad told me after five restaurants And I had five successful restaurants. I was making a couple of million dollars I'm in the late 80s early 90s and he's saying Why would you want any more? You're in your late 20s and you're making a couple of million dollars a year Well, I wanted that jet. Well, I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna be able to pay for a jet that cost to operate a million dollars a year Wouldn't take in half of my income So I had to just keep going and keep going and and having some failures along the way and because they're not all successful And uh, but you just keep punching what do you use mini goals like that? Like the jet I need to make more so I can pay the fuel like do you use a little like Jordan? Michael Jordan would read the paper if he wanted to play the next he was hoping John stark said something like I'm gonna shut him down He needed these micro goals and then they played his best game ever. Well, are you like that? Yeah, I mean absolutely, you know, and I've gotten to know Michael as a fellow owner And a wonderful human being and just it's what he's done with his brand and name And you know all these other basketball players, uh, you know after their career some of them still stay in the limelight somewhat But Nike shoes still out sell anybody else's and it's the great LeBron James is The greatest brand there is it's amazing that the Michael Jordan still out sells And he hadn't played basketball in what 20 years 25 years So it's it's it's just the competitors the fight the keep punching don't give up And and that's what I've always done and even today Um, and honestly when I've got the Rockets, I really thought I that's it. I've kind of accomplished everything I want to accomplish and But already there's something else you want to do. I'm doing steps to go to the next step. Yeah, but it's a sport That's what I do. I mean Why would you always want a bigger boat? You want a bigger plane? You want another sports team? You know, you just keep punching What do you say to people because I nowadays I get people following me that are very kind of zen and and you know, like The absence of desire is the way to happiness, but you seem happy. Do you think that there's different Approaches to happiness like do you feel your path even though you're saying like I'm they call it I think a hedonic treadmill like you're kind of like, okay, I got the jet. No, I want this Do you think there's anything wrong with that or does that make you not at all? Absolutely. There's nothing wrong with but also I have no problem with the person who First off, I respect everybody for the talent that God gave them and everybody has a different talent. Okay You guys do something I can't do. Okay. I have the respect for the Hispanic guy that can take the engine apart of a car And putting put it back together and go in there and I just sit there and like god, you are so smart The guy that could just be painting this house and he's able to cut that perfect line up there between the two colors I just look at that guy and say how in the world are you so talented? How did how did you get that? You were just born with it and that guy's just as smart as me I was just given a god-given gift of understand finances and economics and In business just knowing how to go out and sell myself to be able to borrow the money and do things But I have just as much respect for everybody else the poet the author the Whatever, you know, god gave us a talent find out what he gave you and use that And it's not about money. Okay an academia teaching a great professor who loves to get up and teach Is is a wonderful person and you know what? I know I have lots of toys, but you give me a good color tv a good comfortable bed in a cool room I'm pretty happy I know if you're from houston, you're like I need a cool room And we all and you know what and we all love to go we all love to go out and eat great food because we can But let's be honest, okay My last birthday I sat at home and watched netflix and ate me some pop eyes fried chicken and gained two and a half pounds Okay, but what's better than some spicy pop eyes and some red beans and rice in a great role Okay, but yet instead we usually go out to a fancy restaurant But when you really get back to what we really enjoy and need it in a lot Yeah, that's really what we usually enjoy even more. Yeah, I agree in my life Sometimes I think it's like with big houses I have a farm and I have a little log house 2000 square feet Sometimes I go there and I'm just like it's almost like your brain settles down You know from so I totally could see where you need that balance. No, absolutely. You do. Let me ask you this question Two questions that that I try to ask anybody who's hyper successful like you one Best day of your life or one of the greatest days of your life What was it and how did you feel? And does that be the you know what comes to the mind is like one of the great days of your life? Well, you know Your the day your kids are born is always a great day Um for one another day is I remember, you know taking my company public and all of a sudden you wake up And you only had 12 restaurants that were making, you know, 10 million dollars eight million dollars I don't even think that But but because of the growth and what we do with companies which we were talking about up there You wake up and you have stock worth a hundred million dollars Um that the day that I knew that I bought the houston rockets. That was a pretty darn happy day You know, how do you feel on those days? Do you go out and celebrate and you get quiet and just contemplate? I've never been one to celebrate, you know, just like I'll open a big restaurant and I don't need a fancy opening Who we're doing that for people to give them a bunch of free food and then why are we doing this? I don't I don't need a party to make myself feel better. You know It's it's almost better to have the people that you are around that helped you accomplish what you accomplished Are you an extrovert or introvert? I'm a huge extrovert in one way and then an introvert in another way You know, I'm a great people person. I'll talk to anybody who comes up I'll take a picture with anybody and because I it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice Yeah, but at the same time I have a really small small inner group that I'll go out to dinner with Yeah, a really small group. Do you find that as you've gotten more successful wealthier? That you go back to those friends that you had before because you can trust them more Or you keep expanding your friends your friends, and you know, believe it or not I'm I'm this is kind of funny and crazy, but I'm not friends with anybody from the past Really and and and it's I don't know if it's because every time I was around them They wanted to sell me something or can you buy this or would you buy insurance from me? Or I've got this product and they just finally got intimidated by me and stayed away from me But but I met two people along the way four people along the way That have just been great friends and I say in business you got to make your friends your friends and You know some of my best friends are a guy out here in north point Who is the number one m&a company from consumer businesses that I told him to jump off the cliff a few years ago And leave of an investment banking firm and he went out on his own He's worth a couple hundred million the CEO of jeffree's rich handler And the astronauts Mark Kelly the one married to gabby giffords who's running for us senate and his brother scott kelly who spent a year in space That's kind of my inner group that I and a guy that's out in the deal that is one of my executives That's that's kind of my small group of people that I hang with and it'll go out of town with and So you almost designed yourself. I I'd have my own little small little world and I just it's just the way it is. You know, it's just the way it is I just don't hang with that many people not that I don't trust them right But I just you know when you have the free time these are the people that you want to go You know, so that so the best days of your life the social circle What about the worst day you can think of where? You almost gave up you thought about giving up. How'd you get there? How'd you feel? Well, I I kept punching I can remember in the late 80s when the world had fallen apart and and It was just tough and you know, it was tough and you just keep punching and you realized you made it You know, you talk about luck and I talk about this in the book Back in the 80s and everybody wonders how did these banks get so big today that they have trillions and assets It's because all the other banks failed and they were failing too But some had to survive and so the u.s. Government would come in and say We're going to peel off these bad assets, but we can't let this bank fail with all these deposits Right and and you're just going to get bigger. Yeah Well In the 80s when the world was falling apart and I was falling apart I had banks at like eight or nine. I had loans at like eight or nine different banks Huh and I talk about this in the book and I don't tell a lot of stories Yeah, because that's another book. This was just more the tilman isms and the little things I did But not stories and the art of the deal Every single bank that I did business with failed before I did Huh now think about that. Okay, you have these bank loans you get the little thing to make your payments every month or every quarter And things are really getting tough and you're starting to fall behind And the fdic comes in every Tuesday into texas And they start shutting down the banks And in a matter of six months every single bank that I did business with Shut down, huh? And you don't you can call the government and you call them. Where do you make your Nobody knows the bureaucracy. You don't have to pay. You don't have to pay So I get I get this is the god's honest fruit. I get a four-year reprieve Wow and in that time you can't borrow a dollar Buildings in texas or or just shut down during the middle of construction And I get a four-year reprieve. So in that time Remember I'm a developer and I buy my partners out of the restaurant business In 86th and I start building restaurants. Okay, so over the next four years I scrounge together I used credit cards everything and I open up a restaurant in dallas and in san Antonio and keema galveston Um Lafayette and and I build these restaurants And I'm all of a sudden up making a couple of million a year and the fdac calls me I think it was the resolution trust was the was the What they set up the government the government sets up these things and and they want you to pay back And they call me and they say mr. Partito. You've come up I wasn't big enough for him to come at me immediately. Remember that and and and they call me and say We have these loans. We need a meeting and over the next six months I negotiated had I had started making good money with these restaurants And I was able to pay back the same full two million dollars They waived all the interest and you know what the guy told me who had my account You're the only person That has able to pay back a hundred percent Isn't that an amazing story and you want to know the next side of the story? Okay I didn't do this because I couldn't fill out the disclosures and And say how well you're doing but you can't lie because you have to tell them you're making a bunch of money today I signed that settlement wrote them out at the check of two million dollars And I had already put a deposit down on my Jet my first jet. I was 35 and closed on my jet the next day Wow, but I couldn't close the jet while I was still negotiating with him So you did it right the next day. I was because I knew we were settling and so I timed them You do one and then the other the next day. Yeah, I read the fdic got out last at the banks How many people get the out last the banks not many US governments about the only one that I'll last the bank What was the first jet a citation jet and then I went from a citation jet to another Bigger citation jet an s2 and then a citation five and then a falcon. Yeah Matter of fact boon pick into just died. I bought one of his I bought a falcon from him And then from a falcon to a challenger And now I have to fly around the two g5s You got two g5. Yeah, does one follow you with the assistance? No, no, no believe you know just You just need to we're a one g5 family right now because one's broken and it is not easy I'm just kidding. I like that. It's a tough life. I like do you have I'm very thankful. I mean I am I'm being sarcastic, but but I'm very thankful. I mean life is good Life is good and and I'm very humble about it and I thank the good lord every day So one of the things in the book that We kind of touched on here. Let me see if I can find it I wanted to go back to you. I opened right to it the 95 five rule So there's two parts of it. I wanted to understand it. So my understand correct me if I'm wrong Most people are pretty good at things. It's this last 5% that you suck at It's kind of like the weakest link in the in a chain You're only as strong as the weakest link and then on the next chapter you talk about But focus on you got to leverage your strengths. That's another one So how do you balance focusing on your weakest part but while also so let's say for example For me I'll give you an example. I think My weakest point in the past was I have so many Kind of ideas in my mind that I forget to focus sometimes, right? So maybe that's my 5% I need to get better But my strength is also that I'm broad right reach a lot of people So what would be your advice to me like how do I balance my Weakness but still focus on my strength. Well, you've you've become successful because you do 95% of everything right And everybody that is successful every business out there. They're doing 95% right But the ones that really make it go figure out the details in the 5% And and I always know that I have to keep pushing and driving everybody to get that 5% And and let's just look at it in a simple way You know I can drive up to and I'm just going to use a restaurant or a retail store or just as an example I was talking to walmart They're saturday morning meeting a couple of saturdays ago and I just and somebody asked me about the 95 5 rule I said, let me just give you an example Okay, you're the general manager of a walmart and you drive up to your store that morning And you look in the parking lot and you see as their bottles left out there or cigarette butts And you go up to the front door and you look or all the lights on is the sign right Is there dead weeds around the flower beds around the front door all the baskets in there Or you go to the front door and there's smudges on the the the glass and you this it looked real clean out there Or is there spilt drinks and everything? Well I hadn't even walked in the store and me personally or that general manager I can judge the general manager of that store I can tell you if that's a well-run store and I can pull up to any of my restaurants or anybody's retail store And tell you before ever walked in the door if that's a good operator or not Yeah, okay And if they're not a good operator on the outside, why in the hell should I think they're going to be a good operator on the inside? Yeah, so just think about when you're driving around and you're looking at somebody's business Yeah, and it'll tell you a lot about them. That's the five percent from just a visual standpoint But you know, you're five percent Maybe i'm not quite focused because i'm trying to go in too many directions So it's just you working with yourself and saying I have got to follow through on this or i'm not going to get it done And I can't lose because all of us guys that are successful We have 80d, right? Okay. That is why we're successful. You think you have 80d. Do I think it? I know it Now when I was in school, I think my teachers thought I had other bigger problems because we didn't Focus on it then but I realized I have it because I think all my kids have it It's just something that you'd be shocked at how many of us have I think I heard your daughter laugh out there when I said Do you have 80d and And but most successful people do for some reason and because that's our brains that they're working in a complicated way And that we're trying to always go do something else So I have to stop myself and say I can't go on to this next deal or this next project Well, I've followed through And made sure that I've done everything here to make sure I'm successful So it's kind of pinching myself and saying step back and catch yourself or you're going to have a bad deal here. Yeah That discipline Well, good. Where's the best place to get the book amazon amazon or walmart online or Warns and noble any of the bookstores the hutsons all over the airports It's everywhere, but you just order it online a lot if you don't have to leave the house Yeah, do it whatever you want. I'll put a link tylo pes.com slash tilman And I'll read I'll read calm that then I think shoot you to everywhere else. I believe yeah Go to tylo pes.com slash t i l m a n and it'll redirect you to the right place to get the book More information. I'm glad you're going kind of I know you've been behind the scenes Making money, you know, there's a lot of people it speak less do more you've been doing that and I'm glad know now that you're getting out and kind of sharing the message because People need to hear this common sense is no longer common sense in life. Yeah a lot of your book is just like it's common sense There's nothing that somebody's going to say well, he's just much smarter than me because i'm not the smartest guy in the room But there's little things that i did but your riches got in the room So you win on most rooms almost all most rooms I am very but but it's okay And I love to be in a room with somebody richer than me because i'm going to learn something rather It's from somebody in this room or some other room. So next time I see you We're going to be at a basketball game in houston, texas. I'm going to definitely take you up on that Let me ask you as bonus questions 30 seconds if you had To this is your last day on earth you're going to space with elon musk And you want to leave your family and humanity Like two three sentences. What do you say? Well The greatest thing the greatest tillman isms in just a couple sentences Always be happy with what you have because there's always somebody who has less Yeah, always be happy. Yeah Thank you. Thank you. This was great Go check out the book shut up and listen Tai Lopez dot com slash tillman will redirect you to his website and amazon grab the book It is a good book. I read it Over breakfast and a good thing is it gets right to the point So those of you have a hard time reading long long books. It's an easy one. It's an easy read. It's it's dense So that's good. So thank you