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The HaBO Village Podcast

The Power of Tenacity in Business - With Guest, Ron Coury [Podcast]

Episode 175: Michael and Kathryn interview author and entrepreneur, Ron Coury, about his epic Las Vegas business journey of overcoming adversity and corruption. If you are facing challenges as a business owner and need some real-life practical advice, give this episode a listen.

portrait of the Redmans and Ron Coury

 

In This Episode You Will...

  • Discover how Ron started his first of many businesses in Las Vegas.

  • Find out why mindset is important when facing hardships and challenges in your life and business.

  • Get practical advice on how to hire and network well for long term success and business growth.

“Be willing to spend your money on the right things, and surround yourself with good people."

- Ron Coury

 

References:

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Michael:
             Hello, and welcome to the HaBO Village Podcast. I'm Michael Redman.


Kathryn:
             And I'm Kathryn Redman.


Michael:
             This is the podcast that we help you learn and grow to grow your business, so that you can avoid burnout, increase your fulfillment, and actually have a successful company. And today we have a really cool guest. This is going to be fun. My pre-conversation with him was really interesting. And I think we're going to have some fun times telling some stories today. Kathryn?


Kathryn:
             Yeah. All right. So we are happy to introduce Ron Curry. Ron is an author. He is the author of a book called Tenacity, which is going to be kind of our main topic today, which will be super fun. He self describes or describes as a legend in the Las Vegas community. I really want to learn about that. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He's been in Vegas since '73 following a couple of years of service in the US Marine Corps. He's been a casino dealer, because that's what you have to do in Las Vegas when you first arrive.


Kathryn:
             He's been a realtor, he's been a partner in restaurants and gaming bars, major graphics and glass companies, and several automobile dealerships throughout the Western U.S. Ron is currently a board member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation as well as several companies and charitable organizations. And if he's anything like us, he has a proud retinue of three children, five grandchildren, and remains active in business throughout Southern Nevada. So Ron, we are super excited to have you today. Welcome to the show.


Ron:
      Thank you so much. I'm honored to join you today.


Kathryn:
             Right on.


Michael:
             Okay. So there's so many different places we could start. So Ron, that's a lot of stuff in a list. That's a lot of accomplishments and a lot of life. Are you 102?


Ron:
      You know what, in a couple of weeks I'm going to be 70.


Michael:
             70.


Kathryn:
             Oh, congratulations.


Michael:
             And you look good for 70.


Kathryn:
             You do.


Ron:
      Thank you. Thank you. I don't know what I might have looked like without esophageal cancer attacking my body, but I survived it and I'm here 16 years later.


Kathryn:
             Wow.


Michael:
             Really? 16 years. That's fantastic. Did it change your voice at all, because I can't tell that anything happened. Did it affect your larynx or voice box?


Ron:
      It didn't affect my voice after a year of healing, but they took out half my stomach with the esophagus and it affected my capacity to eat. So I lost 40 pounds. The fairly muscular body I used to enjoy after the Marine Corps, I just don't look like the person my mind's eye wants to remember when I look in the mirror. My doctor tells me to be satisfied with just being here after overcoming an 8% chance of survival. So I don't want to sound like a complainer. I'm happy to be here telling my story.


Michael:
             So what caused you to write the book?


Ron:
      I had an attorney during one of the greater challenges in my business career that during the defense of ... in a criminal matter, during my personal defense, on a lunch break, we went to lunch during these hearings and the attorney said, "You know, Ron? We're going to get you through this. And when you prevail and prove that your attacker is actually the perpetrator and not the victim, this would make one hell of a movie or book." And it planted a seed in my mind. And then years later after selling various of the 20 businesses I started, I kind of wanted to know what I was going to do with the rest of my life.


Ron:
      And what Steve Stein commented once at one of my bars, Thirst Busters, I thought, I wonder if there's a book in me? So I met with a couple of book authors. They recommended a person to consult with. I met with him, put him on retainer, and I'm not a quick typer. So I said, "One of the challenges is I can tell my story, but I need someone to put it down on a screen and I'll do the editing, but it needs to start with someone who can do that." And ultimately it became a book, because I spent nine, four hour sessions with him and his co-writer and just went through my story from the early 1960s to today in Vegas, and from Brooklyn to Vegas. And they helped me make it a book.


Kathryn:
             Nice.


Michael:
             Nice. So let's go all the way back, because I remember us talking about, you went into the Marine Corps. You were in Brooklyn. That's where you grew up, correct?


Ron:
      Yeah. Born and raised in Brooklyn.


Michael:
             Okay. So you went into the Marine Corps. How did you end up in Vegas?


Ron:
      Well, one of the things that occurs when you enlist is you go in and take an aptitude test and a physical test. I was in good shape. So that wasn't a challenge or the Marine Corps wouldn't take you. But on the aptitude test, I scored very high. And as a result, if you scored in the top 10% of the test takers, you could select your boot camp location. And the Marine Corps has two boot camps, Paris Island, North Carolina and San Diego, California. So when I was given the opportunity to select where I would do my boot camp, I chose San Diego. Had never been on a jet.


Michael:
             Oh wow.


Ron:
      Loved California living from what I saw on TV. Big Beach Boys fan. So for a variety of reasons, I picked MCR, San Diego, did my bootcamp there. And then at the end of bootcamp, you do 90 days of advanced infantry training in Camp Pendleton, which is in Oceanside. And after that, based on how you get out of AIT in your ranking, in your grades, you get to select duty stations.


Ron:
      Now duty stations, as you would imagine, vary from class to class. At the time my class graduated, up went a list of 90 duty stations available around the world. I scored number one in my class and a buddy of mine from boot camp, Dan Hughes, scored number two and we envisioned being stationed together. He was from south Philly. I was from Brooklyn. We grew up in much the same way. So there was a synergy and there was a friendship that when we looked at the duty stations, I mean there was Spain, Japan, incredible divisions around the world.


Ron:
      And he said, "What do you think buddy?" I said, "Barstow." He said, "Barstow? But that's going to be the last two billets anyone's going to choose." And I said, "No, it's a two hour drive from Las Vegas, got three sets of aunts and uncles living there. We will work Monday to Friday in a typical job unless there's a major war assignment. And we'll go to Vegas on weekends and stay with my aunt. Home cooking, get out of the mess hall, and come back Sunday night and go to work Monday morning. And finish up our duty commitment that way. And if we like it, not go back to Philly and Brooklyn, maybe make Vegas home."


Ron:
      So I talked him into it. We did just that. We got the Barstow assignments. We visited Vegas on weekends. When we got out, we moved here. He went into screen printing, which was what he did in Philly, screen printing flags and signs. I went into dealing blackjack, roulette, ultimately Baccarat and craps also. Learned all the games. And when I went into the bar business, he joined me. And after doing multiple tavern locations, I suggested we take advantage of his skill as a screen printer and open a graphics company. With an SBA loan of $100,000, we started Suburban Graphics, printing the fronts of slot machines for casinos and manufacturers. Created a niche for ourselves and he was my partner in everything I did for the first seven businesses.


Michael:
             So was there much competition in that market when you went into it?


Ron:
      No, because there wasn't a market. You had to have a little vision. And if I may, a little tenacity to see that a market was forthcoming. There was no market because Bally Manufacturing made most of the slots pre-1970. They were based in Chicago and they moved the manufacturing plant to Vegas where Dan was working for Bally Distributing, which distributed Bally slot machines.


Michael:
             Oh, interesting.


Ron:
      He was their print shop manager. Well, IGT was formed by a guy named Si Red who was a salesman for Bally. Dan would go to lunch with him. He envisioned an interactive machine, which is nothing today, but people have to realize interactive videos, it didn't exist. So when Si envisioned virtual poker, the brains at Bally Manufacturing and Bally Distributing said, "Nobody wants to have to think and make decisions. When they play a machine, they want to put a nickel in, pull a handle and up sevens, all the real gambling is in the table games."


Ron:
      And if you think back in time and are old enough to remember, a casino was live table games in 90% of the casino floor with a periphery of traditional pull handle slot machines around the perimeter. Si Red envisioned a different gaming. And with the advent of video poker and the subsequent other interactive games, Bally said, "Look, you go do this interactive thing and agree for 10 years, you won't compete with us in slot machines. And we won't compete with you in this video poker thing you're talking about."


Kathryn:
             Nice.


Ron:
      So that's the deal he made. He took a small company called Fortune Coin, started out. It ultimately went public, became IGT. And as a result of that, video poker became a reality. And Dan who was printing fronts for slots, found a worldwide market for gaming because Si Red told the world, we don't need to give Bally this exclusive, right? For machines. If you can come up with an idea in a computer chip, you can create a machine. There are people that'll build the cabinets, print the fronts and do all that. You just have to be able to come up with content.


Ron:
      Well, as a result, Dan said to me, one day, "Remember when you told me we should take advantage of my screen printing skills. And I told you, there's nobody to print machines for. Bally's does them all." And then when Si Red opened, he opened the print shop for IGT in Reno. And that was the market. But what he did was enlighten the world that you can come up with a machine and compete with the monster that was Bally and then dozens and then hundreds of people opened up manufacturing companies for machines, and they just subbed out the cabinets, the steel frames, the glasswork and suburban graphics was created and had customers around the world that used us to design and print their slot faces.


Kathryn:
             That's so cool.


Ron:
      That's the market came about.


Michael:
             Was that your first business?


Ron:
      No. We went into the Tavern business, which was my idea back in 1979 to get out of dealing. And I learned of a bar that was for sale. In that day, there was no video poker. So I hadn't done that yet. Every bar in town had a couple of pull handle slots in the corner that local Las Vegas didn't really play. The tourists played the machines.


Michael:
             Right, right, that makes sense.


Ron:
      But you needed to make money with selling drinks and having a, well pool tables and a fun social environment that people wanted to come to. And I thought I was in great shape. I wanted to do something as an entrepreneur, being a dealer all my life wasn't what I envisioned for me. And I went to Dan and said, "Hey, there's this bar that I've been stopping at on my way home after work." I was dealing from 7:00 PM to 3:00 AM at the Tropicana Hotel.


Michael:
             Wow.


Ron:
      And stopped there. And with a couple of buddies, have a couple of drinks before going home. And I pitched in on doing the suburban lounge acquisition with me. And he did. And we turned that one tavern venture into four properties, later to own our own property, build our own place. And as video poker came about and enhanced gaming licenses in surrounding jurisdictions became available, next to Las Vegas is a city called Henderson.


Ron:
      And in my book, I named it Opportunity Nevada. They didn't want to use the actual name for reasons of the corruption that I exposed. My literary attorney suggested changing some names, just so a restraining order didn't keep my book from hitting the presses for seven years. And he said, "You've got a great story. Tell it and change the names. No one's going to care. Anyone who lives in Vegas is going to know the town next to Vegas is Anderson. It's not Opportunity. So it doesn't really matter what we change. And your book comes out immediately without a challenge." Yeah.


Michael:
             Nice.


Ron:
      The corrupt council members and city attorney that I exposed and how I overcame their efforts to stop me from building a neighborhood casino, by setting me up with trumped up criminal charges, the book tells the story of overcoming adversity, being persistent, and how it pays off for you, if you don't give up and run.


Michael:
             Okay. So without giving away too much, but how did you get backed into a situation where you threatened them that much and they trumped up the charges?


Ron:
      Well, there was a waiter that worked me in the restaurant at one of my bars who we caught stealing. When we confronted him with the evidence, he immediately panicked. And I later learned with the help of a private investigator that he had warrants for himself out in California. He committed some crimes there, got arrested, made bail, and then skipped bail, moved to Vegas. And didn't want me to call the authorities when we caught him stealing, because he had warrants in California.


Ron:
      And he begged me, "Please don't call the cops. Let me just pay you back. You can fire me, whatever. Just don't call the cops." And I said, okay, "If we get paid back, we'll let's escort you out of the property. You'll be 86ed. We'll move on. You move on. Good luck to you." He goes home tells his dad. And I learned this, because when he turned the story around and said that I threatened him and that's why he confessed to a crime he didn't commit. He was afraid for his life. He created a bigger crime with his false accusation. And the city of Opportunity was coming from me anyway, because one of their council members had a competing graphics company. And I don't think I'm giving away too much, because the book tells a lot.


Kathryn:
             Yeah, yeah, no.


Ron:
      No, and I'm not going to. But this Councilman had a competing graphics company and was going into the bar business against me in his own city. He had three locations on the drawing boards. So denying my license and trying to prevent me from prevailing against them in district court and ultimately, the Nevada State Supreme Court, the tactic was, let's just use our little small town police department, charge him with some crimes. He'll be fighting that off for two years. He'll never be able to develop and build this casino by the time I build mine. And once I'm open, he'll just walk away from the deal.


Ron:
      Problem was, I wasn't good at crying uncle and I already paid over $200,000 for this property I was going to build on. And I said to Dan, "I'm not giving up. Let's just fight these bastards." So we did. And we just went to war and through an undercover operation, we exposed some things about him and that city council and what was actually going on behind the scenes, because my investigator befriended my accuser. My accuser had no idea that this guy he coincidentally interacted with at a casino in a two hour drive away, was all an arranged setup.


Ron:
      And he became friends with Mike and during their friendship told Mike, "I've got this guy right where I want him. Once Henderson puts him away for what I've accused him of, I've got a civil suit against him. I will own everything he has. I'll be a multimillionaire. And this whole thing, my dad and I orchestrated." Well, he doesn't know he is telling his new best friend Mike, something that Mike's going to come and tell me and my attorneys. And we end up in an undercover operation, busting him on being a drug trafficer. I didn't know that was going to happen. I was just hoping-


Kathryn:
             Oh my goodness.


Ron:
      Mike would get a confession from him about him setting me up and we would take that to the authorities.


Kathryn:
             Wow.


Ron:
      Well, when we did, the authorities in that city were doing the bidding of the corrupt Councilman and they brought him in with the corrupt policeman that I identify in the book and he says, "Look, you're not going to be a good witness against this guy, Coury. So we're going to rehabilitate you. I've already talked to the people in California that are looking for you. You go in, pay a fine, you're going to walk right back out. And then you're going to come back with a clean record. And we're going to do away with this guy, Coury, as an applicant for a casino in Henderson."


Ron:
      So my accuser goes to Mike, his new best friend and says, "You're not going to believe this. I thought they were going to arrest me and extradite me to California. Ultimately they just want me to give them stuff on Coury and they're going to give me a pass and go after him." He said, "Am I lucky or what?"


Ron:
      Well, Mike reports that to our attorneys. And we said, "That's it. We're not going to show them anything we have. We brought them the warrants for him, thinking they'd arrest him. Instead, they rehabilitated him because the target was me."


Michael:
             Wow.


Ron:
      And I said, "Well, that's it. We're not going to tell the cops in Henderson anything." But I was good friends with the sheriff and undersheriff in Las Vegas. And even though my casino was in Henderson, I said, "We're going to take this to Vegas where I trust these guys." My good buddy, Eric Cooper was the undersheriff, fellow former Marine, on the Marine Corps Support Council with me, on my pistol shooting team, a regular customer at my Las Vegas based tavern. And when I went in and told him what they were trying to do to me, he said, "Well, we're going to give this to our narcotics division in Vegas. And we're going to do an undercover take down with this guy and just keep Henderson out of it." And the book goes into the detail of how that all played out.


Kathryn:
             My goodness.


Michael:
             Did you ever get discouraged or feel you were in over your head?


Ron:
      No. One of the things my book drives home, is that the Marine Corps instilled in me a failure is not an option mentality. So I just thought, I know I'm right. And the old adage, "Right will prevail and evil dominates when good men do nothing." And when Dan said to me, "Is this worth it, all the lawyers we're hiring. They said, if you plead to a misdemeanor, it'll all go away." I said, "I'm not doing it. Even if I'm guilty of a misdemeanor, I lose my gaming license." I had four Taverns. I had four locations here that even a misdemeanor plea, I'd have to forfeit my gaming license and [inaudible 00:21:11] my career. I said, "No, I'm not doing it. We're going to fight him all the way to the wall." And we did. We took the city to the state Supreme Court and prevailed.


Kathryn:
             That's amazing.


Michael:
             Wow.


Ron:
      And believe it or not with everything I just disclosed, I haven't given away 20% of what the book will entertain readers with.


Kathryn:
             Yeah. That's so fun. Wow. It's a Las Vegas version of Yellowstone or something.


Ron:
      And if you're listeners don't enjoy reading, I've got an audio book by actor from Donny Brasco, Michael Madson. They can buy the audio book on Amazon's audible version.


Kathryn:
             Nice.


Ron:
      And they can just listen to it in their car, on their phone, on their computer. And a little tidbit, it's not yet been officially released, going to release it in the next couple of weeks. I did a second, it's the same book, but a second [inaudible 00:22:05] with Superman's own Dean Kane.


Kathryn:
             Oh, nice.


Ron:
      [inaudible 00:22:12] spent a week in the studio with him. He recorded Tenacity. And we will soon be releasing that on audible.


Kathryn:
             Oh, that's fun.


Michael:
             Oh, that is fun. That's great. So you went all the way to the Supreme Court. When did the Supreme Court, what year was the Supreme Court decision for you?


Ron:
      That occurred in the mid to late '90s.


Michael:
             Okay. So after you got through that, what did business owner Roy look like, as what was business for you going forward?


Ron:
      Well, the Supreme Court ruling said that the city had treated me unlike any other applicant and their decisions were arbitrary and capricious. They were oppressive and restrictive and they remanded it back to district court for adjudication. So I went to the then Mayor who was a new Mayor, than the crew that I helped oust with ... I mean, I bought radio TV spots. I bought signage around there when election day came, to get rid of that Councilman and make a whole change in the structure of that city council. And we did.


Ron:
      So I went to the new Mayor, who knew from all the articles that were written about all this in the Henderson Home News and in the Las Vegas Review Journal. And I said to Mayor Jim Gibson, "The court gave an indication. I'm ready to go back to district court and do whatever the Supreme Court said. Or we could just settle this. Give me the damn license. What is the problem? Let me just operate more gaming. The place is built. I'm not applying to expand it. I'm not going to put a hotel next to it. I'm just going to put more gaming in the existing structure. This should have never gone this far."


Ron:
      And he said, Ron, "I agree with you." He said, "I don't agree with what my predecessors did. And now with this Supreme Court order, I can justify putting it out on an agenda and just putting an end to the litigation." And that's how we resolved it. I added gaming to my property. It wasn't worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars we paid to get that far, not immediately, but that enhanced license, I would either earn that money back in spades in years to come, or it gave me something much more marketable to sell.


Ron:
      That license enabled me without being a hotel, which is the current law, but it enabled me to put in live gaming if I wanted, many more machines. And you really saw an evolution of the tavern business after Si invented video poker, where taverns were no longer making money selling food and drink. They were gaming parlors. And I thought about it. And I thought, if I put all this enhanced gaming in during the years of litigation that occurred, other places got the very gaming I was fighting for.


Ron:
      All they did was apply and the city gave it to them. There were two places within 2,000 feet of me that had it. So my opportunity to be the only place with it for a year or two was passed. So I thought my value was in selling this enhanced license, not operating it, maybe not generating the revenue I envisioned I would generate. And then I didn't have nothing to sell.


Ron:
      So selling the concept and the ability to grow in gaming became the way to recover my losses and make a profit, and just get onto another project. If anything, my life showed with opening taverns, a limousine service, a car wash, all the different businesses I got into, just take the money and go do something else. If that city, it was a prior state council, but if they didn't want me there, I'll go do business in Vegas where I've already proven I can make pretty good money.


Ron:
      So we did, we found a buyer, we sold it, got a great price for it, with that new license that we had yet to implement. And got a premium for the value of the business. And a year or two later after they operated it successfully, they came and offered me the opportunity to sell them the real estate, which we did at a great profit.


Michael:
             Nice. Oh, that's slick. I like that.


Kathryn:
             Wow.


Ron:
      Thank you.


Kathryn:
             What a great story.


Ron:
      Thank you.


Kathryn:
             Okay. So this is a very different episode, obviously from our normal, let's talk about business and life. But I'm wondering if you are thinking about a small business owner, who's maybe got a hundred employees or less, and what are the top three things you would say to them, in terms of what it takes to be successful? Obviously, tenacity being the lead in that. But what would you say to a small business owner who's struggling? Who's feeling like the obstacles are too much and we're just not sure how to take the next step? What would you tell them?


Ron:
      Sure. I've found that some of the most important things are to not take the easy way out and don't pinch pennies at the beginning when usually your funds are critically short. And be willing to spend the money on the right things. Surround yourself with good people. Now, how do you find good people? A lot of people don't do it. I do. After some of the experiences I had, if I put someone to work now, I have them sign off on giving me your social and date of birth and I'm going to run a full criminal and civil background check on you.


Ron:
      And if someone's not willing to let me do that, I don't even want to pursue whether or not to hire them. Now this is not for every position, but this is for key positions and for a couple of hundred dollars, my private investigator does a background check and I learn everything from their high school days to today. And it doesn't mean if you ever did anything wrong, you're not going to do business with me. You could have made some mistakes when you were younger and I believe in second chances, but I want to know all the facts.


Ron:
      So the due diligence is the point I'm making to you, as important criteria, spend money on doing the background check, confront the issue. Don't be embarrassed to say, "Well, I'm not going to say, I think you might have done something wrong or I don't want to offend you and you storm out of my office." Tell them, "Look, I'm not just going to employ you. Working for someone is a relationship. I'm willing to tell you anything you want to know about me. And I need to know all about you. So let me do this background check. And if everything comes back, okay, or you can answer any questions I may have, we'll continue to dialogue."


Ron:
      But a lot of new entrepreneurs will think, "Well, I'm not going to spend $300 on a background check. I'll just call their references." Well, their references are only what they told you to go ask and a background check, you find out things they didn't tell you. Yeah. And even to the point of I invested in a company that purchases mobile home lots and mini storages around the country. And I started out with a hundred thousand dollars investment.


Ron:
      But before I started, I said, "You're the managing partner with your wife. I want to do a background check on you and your CFO." And he said, "I don't have a problem with that." Nor did his wife. But his CFO said, "I'm not releasing social to these guys." And my guy said, "Well, why not?" He said, "It's nobody's business." Well, he fired the CFO, came back to me and said, "I'm going to get a new CFO, if you have anyone you want to recommend, I'll consider them. But my wife and I will do the background check. And I'd like you to invest with our opportunity."


Ron:
      I grew that a hundred thousand dollars investment to a 6.7 million commitment with him where I'm at today, as a result of the way he dealt with it. Now, when he first pitched me, he was buying a piece of industrial property I owned. That's how we met each other. And he's a guy that came in, said he was going to do something and did it. And while that may sound simple, if I meet someone that says they're going to do something and they actually do it, I have a lot of respect for him. So here's a guy that thought he was going to raise a little bit of money, open or buy a mini storage. And I started out at hundred grand.


Ron:
      He had no idea that one day we would own parks across the country together, along with many other investors. But I would invest nearly $7 million with him. It's worked out very well, but it started out with that background check. Had he told me, "No," he wouldn't have me and I wouldn't have him. So to your future, want to be entrepreneurs, dot the I's, cross the T's, have the uncomfortable conversations with the people you hire, because those are the people you're going to surround yourself with. Not only a good CPA, a good in-house CFO, but your employees. Find out more about them, make good choices at the beginning, because those are the foundational stones of what you hope to build into a major enterprise someday.


Michael:
             I like that. You know what stands out to me as we're talking about that, A, we can be, it's amazing how much we can pinch pennies. We can, as the old saying goes, "Step over dollars to pick up dimes."


Ron:
      Yeah.


Michael:
             And then on top of that, that stands out was that comment of, if somebody says they're going to do something and they actually do it, that says a lot to their capacity, their character. And in business, it's not you're lying when you say, "I'm going to take this piece of land and develop it." But it ain't that ... it's not as easy as everybody's got a dream. Getting it done is actually a pretty impressive thing when you can accomplish that.


Ron:
      Yeah. Or come back to me and say, "I know I told you I was going to do this, but here's what happened. So we're going to have to shift course a little bit." I could respect that. You don't have to do what you said you're going to do, but don't let me catch you lying where you just don't do it and you don't say anything about. And I find out in other ways you misled me.


Michael:
             Yeah, no, I like that a lot. The issue of trust is a deep line all the way through your stories and all through your advice, because as we're running businesses, trust is absolutely one of the most, if not the most important characteristics, because we are surrounding ourselves with these people. We are doing business with people that if we can't trust them, well, everything goes sideways as your story so eloquently tells.


Ron:
      It shows itself in a lot of other ways, too. There's a guy who was very wealthy from other investments he'd made. He came to town and at a time when video gaming was exploding, he opened a company to compete in that business of creating machines and selling them to casinos. He came to me at Suburban Graphics to do designs for the fronts of his machines. And we tried to do a good job for him, did a good job for him. And his company became very successful, went public. Low and behold, some years later I'm looking to buy a new tavern site and open it. It had a unique grandfathered license for more than the traditional 15 slot machine limit, [inaudible 00:33:39] a hotel, which is now the required minimum 300 rooms in Park County to have more than [inaudible 00:33:44] slots. So that's a hundred million dollar commitment minimum, if not a billion, depending on the quality of the rooms.


Ron:
      But I had a chance to build a 35 slot tavern in the city of Las Vegas and needed to raise money. So I went to him and after having done business with him at Suburban, he knew we were also in a tavern business. Dan ran Suburban Graphics, as was his forte. I ran our taverns, but our desks were next to each other in the same room at Suburban Graphics. So when Stan Fulton came to my office to talk about this tavern I wanted to build, I said, "I need to borrow $200,000 to close on the dirt. And if I own the dirt free and clear, the bank will loan me the money to build the one level, small 35 machine tavern restaurant." And he said, "You know what, I don't make it a practice to loan money, because I want to have a piece of a place, to guarantee my machines will go in there."


Ron:
      And I said, "Well, Stan, I've got an ongoing relationship with this other slot company. But if we do this deal, my next planned property is not committed to them. And if I ever make change away from them, that I can legally not have a contractual obligation to offer them my new site, I will give it to you." And he said, "When I loaned you that money to buy that dirt, you shook my hand and you made every payment on the balance like clockwork to repay me that 200 grand." He said, "And you treated me right when you had Suburban Graphics. You guys said you'd do a unique design. You'd get the glass printed by a deadline. I had these machines built, where am I going to deliver a machine to a gaming property when the three pieces of glass in the front of it, you're looking at wires and circuit boards?" The glass is a very small integral part of a machine, but without it, it looks horrible.


Ron:
      You need those colors, those designs, those chameleons or [inaudible 00:35:46] or whatever the theme of the machine is, rocking sevens. He said, "You and Dan have always done everything you said you were going to do. And you made every payment on time." He said, "I really respect that." And we made a deal. So that just has more value than young starting entrepreneurs can imagine, that you make a commitment, you keep your word or you confront the elephant in the room and go in and say, "I know I said this, but here's what happened. So here's my plan. I'm not going to be able to do what I said, but I want you to hear it from me and hear how I'm going to resolve it." And people will forever respect you for doing that, as evidenced by me building an entire neighborhood casino as a result of keeping my word to them on designing some machines for them.


Kathryn:
             That's cool.


Ron:
      Years before


Michael:
             I like it.


Kathryn:
             Good.


Michael:
             Well, I think that brings us in then. We're hitting the landing strip. Thank you Ron, for your time. And thank you for sharing the stories. You're a great storyteller and folks, if you're interested, this book has got more and more stories in it. Check out the book Tenacity by Ron Coury.


Kathryn:
             Yep, and we'll call-


Ron:
      It is on Amazon, but also the website for the book is very additionally informative. RonCouryauthor.com and that's spelled C-O-U-R-Y. RonCouryauthor.com.


Michael:
             And we will put the link to that on the show page on our website for this episode. Ron, thank you so much for taking some time with us today. We really appreciate it.


Ron:
      It was great getting to know you guys better. Great meeting you Kathryn.


Kathryn:
             You too.


Ron:
      And thank you for giving me this opportunity.


Kathryn:
             Absolutely. It was a fun conversation. And we hope listeners, that you enjoyed that and are curious about the deeper workings of the underbelly.


Michael:
             So thank you-


Kathryn:
             Of Opportunity, Nevada.


Michael:
             So thanks for listening and joining with us today. I'm Michael Redman.


Kathryn:
             And I'm Kathryn Redman.


Michael:
             It's the HaBO Village podcast. Have a great week.


Kathryn:
             Bye, bye.


Ron:
      Bye.