Mike Milken
Michael Milken is a name you probably know well. He revolutionized the bond business in the 1980s and is currently building the Center for the American Dream in Washington, DC. Mike is a dear friend of mine, who embraces the value of selling to the masses.
“Tilman understands what the business is but also understands the consumer. A lot of people offer products that the consumer might not want, but they think consumers want. Tilman has the ability to see the world through other people’s eyes. A lot of people only see the world through their own eyes, and as a result, they don’t always get an accurate picture of the world.
“When Tilman acquired the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, he knew he had to define a broader customer, a broader market. What was in place was too targeted. He did the same thing in Atlantic City and Biloxi, Mississippi—defining the market for what it is, not what it was. And since Tilman bought those, they’ve never looked back. It’s a matter of understanding what the customer wants.
“You also see it on his Billion Dollar Buyer show. He’s very blunt. He just tells the people the truth, that certain ideas just won’t work. Viewers might think he’s just bursting other people’s bubbles, but one of the most important things you can ever do is to let a person know up front that what they’re trying to do is going to be very, very, very difficult. Don’t risk losing your family savings on an idea that just won’t work.
“What Tilman provides on the show is honesty, insightfulness, and a world of wisdom—not just for the person who wants to be in that business and sell to him but for the person who’s thinking about going into business. He’s very symbolic of the American Dream.”
Scott Kelly
Scott Kelly is a retired astronaut and author of the bestselling book Endurance: My Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, which details a year he spent in outer space. (Talk about knowing about the 5 percent that makes things amazing!) He was with me one time when I identified the 5 percent in a particular business:
“Tilman and I were having a drink. The bartender—a very professional bartender who obviously took his work very seriously—hand poured the vodka into our glasses without bothering to measure with a shot glass. He gave us our drinks, and we both took a sip.
“‘How much vodka is in that?’ Tilman asked suspiciously. The bartender replied that it was exactly two ounces. At Tilman’s request, he poured some vodka into a glass without measuring it.
“‘Get a shot glass,’ Tilman suggested. The bartender did so and poured the vodka into the shot glass. It was just a bit short of a full shot—the two ounces the bartender was so confident he had been serving.
“How Tilman knew that the bartender wasn’t pouring a full shot, I have no idea, but that’s one of the reasons for his success. Literally no detail is too small for him.”
Rich Handler
My friend Rich Handler, CEO of the Wall Street–based Jefferies Group, knows the value of friendship. Rich and I first met during a time when capital was exceedingly difficult to come by. It helped cement a friendship that has lasted to this day.
“We met in the depth of a financial crisis—there was basically no functional capital environment. We figured a way to backstop a deal. But, we also developed a very personal bond. With Tilman, business and life are very much intertwined. Since we were able to help him, he’s repaid us with extreme loyalty.”
Rich adds that people who see business as wholly separate from personal relationships can miss out on an exceedingly powerful business tool:
“People who are transactional in nature can’t see that. If you’re Tilman’s friend—in business or in life—you’ll find that he’s an incredibly loyal person. That works out for him, and it works out for the friend.”
Dave Jacquin
Dave Jacquin is the founder of North Point Advisors. North Point is one of the leading consumer mergers and acquisitions firms in the United States. I’ve worked with them extensively over the years. When it comes to hunger, Dave is often at a loss to explain why I keep going the way I go.
“To me, Tilman is like Michael Jordan. If I were him and I had his money, I can’t tell you how done I would be. But he’s never done. He always bets on himself and delivers. He creates value across the board. And he makes it pay off.”
But Dave also recognizes the example a hungry leader sets for those around him. He sees a simple but powerful formula: be hungry and make sure those around you are hungry as well.
“Tilman is the hardest-working guy I know. He really leads by example. You can’t be on his team if you can’t keep up.”
But some things are far more important than a rigorous work regimen, Dave adds:
“I had open heart surgery about a year ago. I wake up, and there’s Tilman sitting at the end of my bed.”
Al Lewis
A bull is also eager to find common ground with everyone, understanding that positive relationships with others are a critical component of success, now and in the future. In fact, some of the most valuable friendships are built with people who at one time were anything but friendly.
Some fifteen years back, I acquired the financially strapped Denver Aquarium. At that same time, I had some disagreements with the city regarding taxes on the property, and one day, while doing an earnings conference call when Landry’s was a public company, I threatened to bulldoze the building if the city didn’t lower the property taxes. I said it for drama, just to make a point.
That’s when Al Lewis entered my world—with both elbows flying.
A business columnist for the Denver Post, he let me have it with both barrels. He labeled me a “big carp” and a mercenary “seafood cowboy.” He urged me, in words probably watered down by the time they reached the pages of the newspaper, to go home to Texas and stay there.
A year later, The Aquarium reopened, the beneficiary of a $20 million infusion to improve the facility and add other attractive features, such as a full-service restaurant.
And, never one to hold a grudge, I invited the saber-keyboarded Mr. Lewis to join us at the opening—which, to his credit, he attended.
Things can certainly change in a year. Calling me the man who he believed “saved” The Aquarium, he wrote a follow-up column. Having spent some time with me at the opening, Lewis wrote, “We got along so well that I wanted to give him a pucker little fish kiss.”
What happened? I recognized that he had a job to do and, for his part, he knew I had to do mine.
“You’re not mad I called you a carp?” he asked at one point in the evening.
“You get paid to write interesting things,” I replied, confessing that I knew full well the kind of “drama” my spat with the taxing authorities would kick up. “I knew I would get drama out of it when I said it, and you knew you would get drama out of it when you wrote it. You and I are a lot alike.”
Some years later, Al and I met again; this time he was working as the business editor for the Houston Chronicle. That was followed by another column in which he wrote the following: “If someone is poking fun at you or challenging you, they obviously care. Who knows, they may turn out to be helpful in the end.”
And by this time Al had changed from calling me “carp” and “shark” to “angelfish.”
You may not have much in common with many of the people with whom you have to deal, but it’s always a good idea to find as much common ground as possible. Try to walk around in their shoes a bit. That’s because friends can be one of the most valuable advantages to building a successful business. An enemy rarely is.
Abraham Lincoln himself knew that. Once admonished for being too kind to his enemies, he supposedly said he would “destroy” them.
By making them his friends.
Mark Kelly
Several years back, you might recall that Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle (Gabby) Giffords was shot in an attempted assassination. Gabby is married to my good friend, astronaut Mark Kelly (Scott’s brother). I immediately went to work making arrangements to get Mark and his family to Arizona.
While the plane was in the air, I was watching CNN. All of a sudden it was reported that Gabby had died. Mark had said that Gabby was stable and in surgery with a head injury. Since none of her other vital organs were impacted by the shooting, it made no sense to me that she could have died. Since I knew Mark would be watching the news story from the plane, I immediately contacted him and told him I was 100 percent sure she was still alive.
But, just as important, my gut told me that all those news reports were wrong. And Mark appreciated my ability to see that.
“Tilman said he knew Gabby was still alive, and he was right. You see that same sort of decisiveness and intuition in other parts of his life. He also has an uncanny ability to see the world through the eyes of others, understanding and anticipating what people want.”
Renu Khator
Change has been the name of the game at the University of Houston under the leadership of Chancellor Renu Khator. During her tenure, UH has experienced record-breaking research funding, enrollment, and academic excellence. And I’ve been fortunate to be involved as chairman of the university’s board of regents for the past five years. Chancellor Khator and I both are firm believers in the power of change for the better.
“With Tilman’s last five years as chairman of the board of regents, we have seen a difference in the university that we have never seen before. Tilman is the ideal leader for a public institution. He asks very precise questions, and he always gives you direction. His vision is so big, so powerful, so bold. He offers up ideas that none of us ever thought of.”
One example is the university’s decision to break ground in 2018 for a satellite campus in Katy, Texas, despite the fact that the community had no existing higher education facilities.
“Tilman said, ‘I know where people are going to be living ten and twenty years from now.’ He knows how essential it is to bring the product to the people.”
I felt it was essential to expand the scope of the university’s programs to address locations that are going to experience significant population growth—again, the idea of serving the masses.
Likewise with the university’s football program, long viewed as a stepping-stone for jobs at bigger, more visible programs. Working with Chancellor Khator, we’ve implemented a new buyout program designed to build mutual loyalty between the university and promising new hires.
“Tilman said, ‘Let’s change the business model, so there’s a real commitment between the university and coaches.’
“He’s increased the efficiency of everything that we do, including board of regents meetings. People come prepared for those meetings now, which is not always the case in a public institution.
“If I have to define one quality about Tilman, it’s his compassion. Once we had a student who tried to commit suicide. Tilman texted me every four hours asking how the student was doing. His heart really connects with the students because he knows people are not just numbers.
“The way Tilman thinks from a business standpoint has put the University of Houston on a completely different trajectory.”