To Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller business isn't difficult.
"Business is simple. Consistently deliver a quality product at a fair price. I really believe that," Miller told about 60 people during a session of Utah's Greatest Entrepreneurs Lecture Series. Miller said a former boss once told him that "the complexity lies in getting to the simplicity."During the question-and-answer period, aspiring entrepreneurs picked Miller's brain for the secret to his success. The answer was always the same. "Business is simple," he repeated more than once.
"There is no secret. There is no magic. There is no substitute for hard work," Miller said.
Now we're getting somewhere. People can really sink they're teeth into hard work.
But the Miller philosophy adds a twist to hard work.
"The harder you work, the luckier you get," he said.
Judging by what the 47-year-old Miller has accomplished, he's simply made himself the luckiest hard worker in Utah. In addition to owning the Jazz, Miller owns the Salt Lake Golden Eagles hockey team, 15 automobile dealerships and a life insurance company.
And, Miller pulled off the seemingly impossible by getting the financial backing to build the $90 million Delta Center, a new basketball and hockey arena for his teams. The arena is scheduled to open in October. Miller calls it a "testament to human will. It should not be there."
You'd expect someone who has accumulated all that would have followed a carefully plotted course. Not so, says Miller.
"Basically, I'm very seat-of-the-pants. And I'm very serious about that," he said.
He began his business odyssey in 1963 as a jobber in a Salt Lake City auto parts store. He knew nothing about auto parts but persuaded the shop's owner to take him on. Miller learned the business rapidly by observing co-workers and putting in 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
As Miller ascended the ladder from parts manager to general manager to owner, his 14-hour days sometimes stretched to 18- and 20-hour days.
Looking back, Miller said, he would have spent more time with his family. But he said had he not put in the long hours, he probably wouldn't be where he is today.
Miller decided early in his career to become the "best Toyota parts manager in the world." That desire turned into an obsession, he said. It's burned within him ever since.
"It's no fun being mediocre," Miller said.
A flashy dresser Miller is not. Golf shirts and slacks are the limit. He still wears the $22.50 wedding ring he received from wife Gail in 1965. You won't find a Rolex around his wrist. A trusty $150 Seiko will do.
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Miller's primer for would-be entrepreneurs
According to Larry Miller, an entrepreneur is someone who understands:
1. hard work.
2. risk and reward.
3. supply and demand.
4. how to get a feel for a marketplace.
5. overcoming fear of failure.
6. principles of goal setting.
7. having a vision of a project and being willing to go forward with it even when no one else shares the vision.
8. that it can be lonely at the top but goes there anyway.
9. freedom.
10. the place he lives and works should be better when he left then when he came because he was there.