VIDEO: Billionaire Shares Secrets to Success at Ole Miss

From his humble beginnings in Galveston, Texas, restaurateur Tilman Fertitta has built a multi-billion dollar empire in the food and entertainment business.  At the Pavilion Friday, he stressed just how important networking can be when building your own business.
“There’s been lots of mistakes and trials and things that you do,” says celebrity businessman Fertitta, host of “Billion Dollar Buyer” on CNBC. “But the one that people have got to remember and kids struggle with this sometimes, you’re not the smartest person in the room.”
Fertitta suggests brains will only take you so far, that it’s experience that really matters, but he says you can be smart about where you get your experience.
“The biggest thing you want to do is choose the right company, and don’t get caught up with a company just because that’s one you’ve always heard about,” says Fertitta.
“Let somebody know when you interview…if I do everything that I’m supposed to do for the next five years, I want to know where I’m going to be.”
Some in the audience were glad to hear that Tilman’s success was more than luck, that he had a vision of where he wanted to be and took the steps he needed to get there.
“I kind of  know what I want to do when I get older in the field, but I have all these ideas and goals but I don’t know how to get those steps to that where I want to be,” says Mary Kelleher, an Ole Miss sophomore studying integrated marketing communications. 
“So hearing things that he has to say, how he got successful is going to be really cool.”
Fertitta hopes that students will recognize that anyone has the potential to be successful, but it is important to remember the road to success is not going to be easy.


Story contributed by Kyra Henderson and Kara Knapik.