Q+A: TILMAN FERTITTA:

Fertitta talks business, his new book and a Las Vegas NBA team

Tilman Fertitta, chairman, CEO, and owner of Landry’s, Inc. and owner of NBA’s Houston Rockets, poses during a book signing event at the Golden Nugget Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Fertitta”s book is “Shut Up and Listen!: Hard Business Truths That Will Help You Succeed.”

Tilman Fertitta can lay claim to a number of titles—billionaire, casino and restaurant mogul, TV personality and pro sports team owner.

And as of September 17, the Houston native can add the title of author to that list.

Tilman Fertitta Book Signing

Tilman Fertitta, chairman, CEO, and owner of Landry's, Inc. and owner of NBA's Houston Rockets, autographs books and poses for photos during a book signing event at the Golden Nugget Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. Fertitta''s book is Launch slideshow »

Fertitta spoke to Vegas Inc over the phone about his book, Shut Up and Listen!,his Downtown Las Vegas casino, the Golden Nugget and the possibility of Las Vegas being home to an NBA franchise of its own.

Tell us about your book.

HarperCollins approached me about 18 months ago and said, “Hey, Tilman, we see you on all these business shows and these sports shows, and we read all these magazine articles about you. Why don’t you write a book?” They wanted me to write a book about how I did it and what my philosophies are to be successful.

We started scribbling and it ended up being really fun. It’s a good book. We’re on the USA Today bestseller list, so it’s been great.

Not to give anything from the book away, but can you give us a couple of business pointers?

First, you have to know your numbers. I don’t care how great your product is; if you don’t know the numbers that make your business operate, you’re going to fail. Second, there are no spare customers. You have to treat every customer like they’re your only customer. Every business is competitive, so I don’t care what business you’re in, you have to take care of that customer or they will go somewhere else.

From an operational standpoint, there’s the 95/5 rule. You have to pay attention to the details. You have to look for the 5% that’s wrong, even though 95% of everything is right. You need to know what you know and know what you don’t know. Everybody thinks they know more than they do, and the best thing you can do is surround yourself with people who know what you don’t know.

What’s happening at the Golden Nugget these days?

We’re always changing things. We’re in the

process of adding a Saltgrass Steak House and a Chick-fil-A. We’re not losing any restaurants; we’ll still have Grotto and Claim Jumper, but we’re adding two new restaurants.

Las Vegas continues to grow and change. What’s your overview of this market and this city as a whole?

I think it’s great. It’s good that we haven’t been building thousands of hotel rooms. I don’t think we need to build more for a while so we don’t start renting rooms too cheap. The smartest thing we can do is not add rooms but continue to add conference centers and other entertainment venues and great restaurants to help bring people to Las Vegas.

Certainly folks in Houston are excited about the upcoming NBA season and excited about what the Rockets could accomplish. Do you think Las Vegas could soon be home to an NBA team of its own?

I’m sure the NBA is looking at it. It could happen one day. All I know is that I haven’t heard that it isn’t going to happen. I just haven’t been a part of it.

As an NBA owner, what are your thoughts on the Las Vegas market?

I think it’s a great sports market. I know the [Golden Knights] have done unbelievably well, and I think the Raiders are going to do unbelievably well. Las Vegas is one of America’s great cities.

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This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.

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