Phil Ruffin
Phil Ruffin has shared his sad tale of having to repossess a monkey before, but it’s worth repeating in relation to how it affected his lifelong career.
“That was a low point in my life,” the billionaire businessman said of working for a department store that happened to sell monkeys.
“I had to go pick the damn thing up,” Ruffin told The Eagle in 2003. “That’s as low as you can get, repossessing monkeys. Kids were hanging all over me. ‘Don’t take the monkey!’ Terrible. And it bit me on top of everything else.”
The experience taught Ruffin to take his father’s advice and work for himself, so he bought a convenience store on Pawnee in 1958.
“I worked hard,” said Ruffin, 80. “I opened the store and closed the store.”
And he liked it, hardships and all. Ruffin said he learned that you have to “get focused on a business and stay with it.”
He hasn’t lost that focus. He’s expanded it to a multitude of businesses that are his hobbies, too.
“It’s not like work to me,” Ruffin said. “I can’t imagine playing golf or watching TV. I just can’t do that.”
Ruffin said he likes the challenge of business deals.
“Every day there’s a problem, and you have to fix it.”
There’s always a new deal, too.
“Well, we’re looking at some deals right now.”
That’s all Ruffin wants to say about that, though.
“I’ve got to go to work.”
He doesn’t plan to leave for long either.
“I will die at my desk.”
Reach Carrie Rengers at 316-268-6340 or crengers@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @CarrieRengers.
Phil Ruffin
Age: 80
Place of employment: Ruffin Cos., which includes oil, real estate, manufacturing and hotels
Title: Owner
First job: W.T. Grant Co. department store in Houston
Best business advice he ever received: “That I should be on my own with my own business.”
Best business advice he ever gave: “Get in business for yourself.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Phil Ruffin."