The trail to success isn’t at all times a simple, uphill climb—even probably the most achieved leaders, like Mike Bloomberg and Mark Cuban, have been knocked down earlier than making it large time. The identical is true for Kenn Ricci, a serial American aviation businessman and chairman of personal jet firm Flexjet. After being placed on depart from his first pilot job out of the Air Pressure, he turned a sticky scenario right into a billion-dollar fortune.
“I worked for [airline] Northwest Orient for a brief period of time. I get furloughed. Unemployed, back living with my parents,” Ricci instructed the Wall Avenue Journal in a latest interview when reminiscing on how he made his first $1 million.
However, as a substitute of dropping by the wayside, he noticed a golden alternative. Ricci took a contract pilot job at Skilled Flight Crews, and one of many corporations he flew for was personal aviation firm Company Wings. The budding businessman was intrigued when its house owners put the enterprise up on the market at $27,500 in 1981—and jumped on the chance to purchase it.
Ricci scraped collectively a $27,000 mortgage, however nonetheless got here up $500 quick. So he picked up the telephone and known as his father for the remaining—and that decision would launch his profession in entrepreneurship.
By the early Nineteen Nineties, his firm was pulling in $3 million a 12 months. Ricci took Company Wings to new heights, actually, flying artists like Barbara Streisand and Elton John on tour jets. However the actual large break got here when an Arkansas governor operating for president wanted a airplane for somewhat over a 12 months. That political hopeful wound up turning into the forty second president of the USA: Invoice Clinton.
“I said, ‘The governor of Arkansas is not going to need a plane for 13 months. This guy has no chance of becoming president.’ And then I flew him to the inauguration,” Ricci recalled.
From humble beginnings to a billionaire life-style with $800,000 holidays and a $2.5 million watch assortment
Company Wings was simply the opening act in Ricci’s four-decade streak of enterprise triumphs.
In 1990, he launched Inertial Airline Providers and Flight Choices—with Flight Choices pulling in $100 million in simply its first three months. Sensing the goldmine he’d constructed, Ricci offered Inertial Airline Providers for $10 million: his first actual style of “significant wealth.” Flight Choices ultimately merged with aerospace protection large Raytheon, which purchased him out on what he later described as one of many “worst days” of his life. However setbacks by no means stick: he went on to discovered Directional Aviation Capital (DAC), investing in aviation corporations and scoring an enormous win when DAC acquired Flexjet, raking in a jaw-dropping $3.8 billion in income final 12 months.
From the standard son of a authorities employee in “a very, very poor family,” Ricci’s relentless drive in aviation catapulted him to billionaire standing.
Now, the aviation boss says his entire life is sort of a trip—and when requested how a lot he splurges on precise getaways, it’s a determine that’s jaw-dropping to most. Ricci spends six weeks in Italy together with his household, dropping between $750,000 to $800,000 for the lavish journey.
“I have way too many homes, and I spend way too much on travel,” Ricci mentioned within the WSJ interview. “It might sound like a big number, but it more has to do with just the fact that if I’m going to go somewhere, I want to enjoy it. I want it to be the best experience it could be.”
The billionaire revealed he often shells out on large ideas for employees at his trip spots, giving $1,000 upfront to restaurant employees when visiting for the primary time. On the motels he frequents, he’ll drop “10 times that” at the beginning so staffers know what “level of expectation” he has. Ricci at all times desires his journeys to be the very best expertise doable.
The Flexjet chairman additionally likes to rejoice success with high-quality watches, just like Tom Brady and Mark Zuckerberg. Any time one thing “important happens” in his life, he’ll shell out on one other one. So far, he’s racked up a $2.5 million assortment of round 40 watches—with the costliest single buy setting him again $150,000.
“The first company I sold, I bought myself a watch. And so over the years, it’s not so much that I love watches, but I associate a watch with a memory of something financial when we have a success.”
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