Sheldon Adelson's Top 10 Rules For Success

They were satisfied with the status quo, and I'm never satisfied with the status quo. Any generalist businessman could set up any kind of business at all.

Every project starts out with a dream. This is a vision. This is a dream.

I couldn't be a liar. I was born to— in an underprivileged way.

People are entitled to make mistakes. Nobody's perfect.

If you think you're smart, there's always somebody smarter than you.

We've spent $9 or $10 or $11 billion, but Who's counting? Fear. Fear doesn't factor.

Until I was 32, I thought I couldn't hold down a job.

He's an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He's the chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. As of June 2015, he had an estimated fortune of $28 billion. He's Sheldon Adelson, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

I've been working, I've been in business for 69 years. Since I was 12. And every time, well, after the first dozen or so businesses, I realized that the only way to get ahead was to do things different, differently than the way it was being done. And then I came to learn, which I finally learned at my ripe young age, that if you do things differently, Success will follow you like your shadow. And you can't get rid of it. So that's what I did. So people doubted me because people just didn't do what I would do. It's a matter of finding out what it is that an industry does and identifying the opportunity as to how to do it differently. And then being enough of a risk taker to actually do it differently. So people doubted me because nobody thought of doing it the way that I did, and nobody had the— they didn't have the— they were satisfied with the status quo, and I'm never satisfied with the status quo. My fundamental belief as an entrepreneur, that if I were to make carpets, I don't have to be an expert in making carpets or suits. I need to know how to run a business. I'm a business generalist. And I— in every business is what I call the product area. So if I hire the people that know how to make carpets, then I could run that business just like any other generalist business. Or the same thing about suits. I get other people to find—

the same principles apply. And what are those principles?

The principles are fundamentally— think of it as a matrix. So you have a sheet of paper with a bunch of holes in it, and below each hole you're supposed to put it on something, and it helps all the dots to connect. Any generalist businessman could set up any kind of business at all.

Okay, but you know, to the eye it's going to look as authentic as it looks here. I'm going to see what the eye is going to see. To the eye it's going to look very authentic.

That's what I want to see, what the eye is going to see.

This is our challenge, and this is our commitment.

I don't say it can't be done. I say I'm worried, okay? You're not worried.

Okay, okay, good.

It's being done.

This is Las Vegas.

This is it. No, no. This is the Strip. This is the Campanile Bell Tower. Here's the Doge's Palace, and here's the library building.

Sheldon, but this is real Venice.

I thought we were in Las Vegas.

No, you're dreaming.

This is real Venice.

Maybe I am.

This is the real Venice. Yes, but it's the same. We have all the buildings.

In your dream, it will be the same, right?

I'm making a $2.5 billion bet on that thinking, and I believe it'll work. I'm quite confident that it's gonna be a winner. I mean, there is no equivocation in my mind whatsoever. None. Because I could feel it. See, I thought you were just dreaming.

I didn't know.

Of course I'm dreaming. Every project starts out with a dream. This is a vision. This is a dream.

I don't know, I'm outspoken because I could never make a— I couldn't be a liar. I can only tell the truth. I would be a very bad liar.

My father told me—

my father never left me with anything material, but he left me the richest, as rich as I could be, with values. And he always told me, "Never lie about anything. You've got to be honest, because if you lie about one thing, the second time somebody's going to ask you, you're going to make up a lie to cover that first lie." And then pretty soon you've got a whole chain of lies and then you're completely exposed. Adversity is sometimes the mother of invention. You know, when you have to have something, necessity is the mother of invention. And when there's an adverse condition or series of conditions in a particular industry, you have to find the solution. In my case, I always found I was born in an underprivileged way. I couldn't get into the mainstream of business where I was born and raised in Boston because my family didn't come over in the Mayflower. My family— I was the first generation American in my family, and people who are in businesses, the bankers, the old businessmen, they didn't allow people like me in. And I couldn't get in, so I figured a way that I had to do something different than the way everybody else did.

These columns are done wrong, and these columns that they hand that I saw that are up, they have to be taken down and redone. Everybody knew that there was a certain level of aging, and anybody who thinks that that is a level of aging and weathering is simply blind. So now you gotta make sure that you redo that piece, and I'm not gonna accept any compromises whatsoever. I don't wanna demoralize any of the people that are working on the job, say, "Hey, you did a lousy job." I want 'em all to feel as though they did a very good job. Listen, people are entitled to make mistakes. Nobody's perfect. All the time. Displeased with the columns, he summons his team of architects to dissect the problem. Leeway went through this a dozen times, that at the inside had to be absolutely unequivocally weathered and aged. So we have to provide the weathering and the aging immediately, you know, when we install it. You were the one, I am told, that said make it smooth.

I—

Is that a fair statement?

I said yes, make it—

we picked the smooth. But it's wrong without any question. You cannot make it smooth. I'm not sitting here to criticize you or to chop your head off. I'm simply trying to get to the bottom of it so that we don't experience the same issue again.

No, I'm not a bully.

I resent that.

I'm not a bully.

If I raise my voice, it's only in frustration. I'm emotional. I think I would describe it as passionate in my beliefs.

He walks in, goes right up to the piece, and this is the kind of piece that is going to be seen from 20 to 30 feet away, and he's going right up to the very edge of it, you know, with a magnifying glass, and we're just like, oh my God. And he's pointing out things to us that he thought just was not acceptable or that were incorrect, as it would be, you know. And so he, he just said, Well, give me a paintbrush. And starts taking off his jacket. And I'll show— you know, I can show you what to do. And we're all like—

hey, you hear me?

Instead of telling somebody else, you go do it. Like in the military, they would— the captain, the general would stand in the back and they'd say, well, go, everybody charge.

I don't do it that way.

I say, follow me. And I see that the shadows are going in the right direction. Sheldon's back to review the painting. And I see that the shadows truly reflect the shape of the leaves where they didn't before. For instance, over here, these shadows— these shadows were over here. Listen, I know absolutely nothing about painting, but I want to ask you a question. Was I right?

You were. There were certain things that had to occur that you had said that, you know, we're so close in creating the piece that when a new eye comes in, you see different things. So it was—

there's an old expression, sometimes people are too close to the forest to see the trees.

Yeah.

And I wasn't close to the first.

So we have your approval?

Yes, you very definitely have my approval.

Very enthusiastic.

Now how about these pieces?

We were very poor, and my father put money— he was a cab driver when he could get a job. He only had a 6th grade education in Lithuania, not where he came from, not here in the United States. Couldn't speak English when he got here. But he left me with this belief that we were poor. And one day I asked him why he was putting the money into that charity box. He explained the whole thing to me and made me promise that I would do it every day of my life. And as I told you, I didn't keep the promise per se, but I did keep the promise in spirit. And I asked him why he did that. 'Cause we were poor as well. After he explained to me he does it for the poor people. He said, "No matter who or what you are, there is always somebody or some— there's always someone more than you are. If you're poor, there's somebody more poor than you are. If you think you're smart, there's always somebody smarter than you." And I kept that value with me till today. My parents are gone, may they rest in peace, for 25 years. 27 years now. And, but I kept that value. So philanthropy is not, it's partly responsibility, but I see philanthropy not necessarily or solely as a responsibility. I see it as an honor. So to support the community is both a responsibility and an honor. So being part of the community is what you are, and therefore you have the responsibility and you feel the honor of participating and supporting the community.

Irritates me a little bit is how people look only at the short term. When my friend Steve once said, I don't want to be judged on a quarter-to-a-quarter basis. I mean, this is a long-term investment, and you can't judge They're getting down to, they're talking about win in MOP per day for the last week. Pretty soon they're gonna talk about MOP win or loss per hour.

Right.

Then they'll have a reader board up and they'll show how much is win or loss per minute. So this is all ridiculous. You know, you're in business for— The long term. For the long term. We've spent $9 or $10 or $11 billion, but who's counting, in Macau, and we're under construction with another property, and I've asked for permission to do yet another one, non-gaming, without tables. I think that I didn't invest that kind of money just so that I could have the next week or two weeks. I invested that money over the long term.

So where does fear factor in?

Fear? Fear doesn't factor in.

No?

No such thing as fear. Not to an entrepreneur. Concern? Yes. Fear? No.

You weren't frightened?

No. Really?

Got a Bible?

You didn't think I could lose the whole shootin' match here?

No.

What motivates you to keep working as hard as you still are? You know, that's an interesting question. A lot of people don't seem to get it. It goes back to the time when I discovered that I was something called an entrepreneur. Until I was 32, I thought I could hold down a job. I gave a talk at Babson College, a business school in Boston, to something called the Entrepreneurial Exchange. And I asked the people— there were about 300 kids in the audience— and I said, "How many of you think you're entrepreneurs?" And everybody raised their hand. And then I asked them, I said, "How many of you are in are in the entrepreneur business or want to be in the entrepreneur business for money? Nobody has ever guessed how many people raised their hand. Too many people to guess here, so I'll tell you: one. That is the answer to the question. What is the reason why people want to be entrepreneurial? My answer is the sense of achievement, to accomplish something. It's not the money. Now, I'm not going to send the money back.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Yoel asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Sheldon Adelson's top 10 rules hit you the hardest, had the biggest impact. Leave it in the comments and I'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.