How to make a billion dollars: Advice from business legend Phil Ruffin
Phil Ruffin took a bit of a victory lap on Thursday.
His businesses are doing great. His buddy, Donald Trump, was just elected president. And, on Thursday, the colorful 81-year-old billionaire and Wichita legend was at Wichita State University to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the local commercial real estate chapter.
Hobbled by a broken hip he got from stepping on one of his children’s toys in the middle of the night, he recounted for the assembled agents and brokers some highlights of how he achieved his phenomenal success.
Born in Texas, Ruffin grew up in Wichita. While going to North High School, he worked – unpaid – for his father at Spur Market. After graduation, he worked for a few years at W.T. Grant Co. in Texas.
He discovered something critical about himself and called his father for advice: “I don’t like working for somebody else – and I don’t like working for you,” he said.
His father suggested he buy a small store then for sale for $5,000 or $6,000. Ruffin said he was there for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
The key, he said, was that Wichita had just passed some blue laws mandating stores closing on Sunday, but his store was exempt because it was so small. Sundays were great for business.
He opened a second store, and then another. Eventually, his Town & Country chain reached 83 convenience stores.
A key to success, he said, was when an oil company wanted to put pumps at his store in Blackwell, Okla. That did terrifically, he said, so he put them in his other stores.
He parlayed that into other deals: a dairy, oil wells, manufacturers, hotels, millions of square feet of real estate.
Because his businesses generate lots of cash, and because he has an eye for buying bargains when others are in trouble, he’s been able to build up his fortune.
In 1997, he heard that the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas was for sale. As he talked Thursday, he started drawing on a white board. Putting down a 20 here, with an arrow to another circle with a 50 in it. And by that, he meant millions of dollars.
In 2007, he got a call from some investors from New York. They wanted to buy the Frontier. It wasn’t for sale, he told them.
“Would it be for sale for $1.2 billion?” they asked.
Ruffin was stunned, but after years of making deals, he stayed cool.
“So I said, ‘I’m really looking for $1.3 billion,’ ” he said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
He eventually negotiated the sale at $1.24 billion and immediately started losing some of it in the stock market plunge.
He said that stopped him from being just a passive investor. He hired a money manager and went back to doing real estate.
In 2009, he bought the troubled Treasure Island Casino with the proceeds.
He has since bought a number of prominent buildings in Wichita, such as the Bank of America building, and owns some real estate in Delano. He said he foresees much more development on both the east and west banks of downtown Wichita.
Ruffin described Trump as a doer, a hard worker who doesn’t sleep.
“He’ll be a great president,” he said.
His advice on how others can make a billion dollars? Sprinkled throughout his talk were a few pieces of wisdom: seller financing is good; triple net leasing is preferable; keep cash for buying when others panic; if you have a hotel, try to attach a casino to it.
When asked directly to boil it down: “Work hard,” he said.
When pressed, he added: “Be able to take risks.”
Dan Voorhis: 316-268-6577, @danvoorhis
This story was originally published December 15, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "How to make a billion dollars: Advice from business legend Phil Ruffin."