Tenacity: Overcome Hurdles And Achieve One’s Dreams With Ron Coury

by | May 7, 2020 | Podcasts | 0 comments

GCM 100 | Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles

 

Life is not without difficulties. We have all experienced challenging times in our lives, which are especially most felt when we’re just about to come close with our goals. Someone whose life is an epitome of challenge and struggle is Ron Coury. Ron is a major business digger in Las Vegas and a former US Marine. In his book, Tenacity, he wrote about the importance of determination to overcome any and all unjust obstacles that may stand in the way of one’s dreams. In this episode, Ron takes us deep into his work and shares his story and message of overcoming. He talks about learning to overcome challenges and not take defeat in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversities. Bringing it all up to our mindset, Ron then recounts the times he has used his tenacity to become a niche finder and be creative in pursuing opportunities. Hear the incredible stories of Ron in this inspiring conversation.

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Tenacity: Overcome Hurdles And Achieve One’s Dreams With Ron Coury

How many of you have ever experienced some challenges and difficulties in starting your business? Maybe starting out on something new that you wanted to accomplish in your life, maybe you wanted to do something different, maybe it’s a relationship, whatever it is. We’ve all experienced some type of challenge and difficulties in our lives. The reason why I’m excited about this episode is because I have Ron Coury in the studio with me. He is a major business digger in the area of Las Vegas and he’s a former US Marine. He wrote the book Tenacity, which is a memoir that focuses on the determination necessary to overcome any and all unjust obstacles that may stand in the way of one’s dreams. Ron has started over twenty different businesses after getting out of the Marines and visiting the city of Las Vegas. He had little cash on hand when he started out on this journey. I’m excited to have him on the show so he can tell us about his story and his message of overcoming. Ron, welcome.

Thank you, Rodney. It’s a true pleasure to be here with you.

First of all, I want to say thank you for coming on to the show. After doing some research on you and reading up on you, it seems like your life has been the epitome of challenge and struggle. I want to start with the book Tenacity. What inspired you to write this memoir on Tenacity?

My life has been the ultimate roller coaster ride. I didn’t have my future planned when I got out of the Marine Corps. I visited Vegas in ‘72 and ‘73. It was a small town, nothing like what it is now. I was intrigued by it, so rather than go back to the city I left when I enlisted, which was Brooklyn, New York, I decided to give Las Vegas a try. I had a buddy that I met in the Marine Corps that was stationed with me. We moved to Las Vegas together, took a couple of jobs and worked a few years before going into our first business together, which was a local tavern. From that tavern, I parlayed it into twenty different businesses, not all taverns.

We grew to four taverns, but I got into a variety of different businesses. In one scenario, while developing a neighborhood casino, we encountered an obstacle that was a life game-changer and that’s the centerpiece around which I sold my car dealerships, my taverns, my limousine company, and my printing company. I thought I might tell my story and it might help to inspire and motivate people to overcome challenges and not take defeat, as if fighting City Hall was an unbeatable obstacle. My story describes what I encountered and how I overcame it.

How do we overcome? I know a lot of our followers, as you started out, how many of you ever had an obstacle or challenge that you’ve experienced in your life? Everyone has had an obstacle or challenge. Whenever you set out on a journey to accomplish something, whether it’s in business or success in general, you’re going to face some type of opposition. How do we overcome obstacles and challenges, in your opinion?

The method of overcoming the challenge you face will be defined by the specifics of what those challenges are. Click To Tweet

It’s a mindset, first of all. The method of overcoming the challenge you face will be defined by the specifics of what those challenges are. Having the mindset that you’re not going to give in, take a beating and go in another direction, that’s how you overcome challenges. Specifically, in my case, I opened what was my third neighborhood casino. When we caught a food server that worked in my dining room stealing from us, we had proof of it. He confessed when confronted with the proof. I had him right out of confession. He agreed to pay us back. We terminated him. When he exited the establishment, I had my general manager walk him out the front door. By coincidence, there were two police cars in the parking lot with their engines running. They were coming in for a lunch break. He thought we double-crossed him, that after we got a confession out of him, we were going to prosecute him.

He ran off into the desert behind the building and then created a story that as many wrongdoers will do, they will accuse their accusers. Instead of adhering to the deal he made with me to pay us back over time and go get a new job, he went to the police and said we forced the confession out of him by holding him against his will and beating him. He told an incredible story. At the time, I was in an outlying city to Las Vegas, which in my book Tenacity, I named Opportunity. Anybody from the area is going to know the names of the couple of cities that lie outside of Vegas.

I was in the middle of a lawsuit with that city for turning down my expanded gaming license. He found a welcomed corrupt city councilman and a corrupt police department that would take the opportunity to come after me on these bogus claims and create this whole nightmare scenario for me. Rather than let my future be determined by a small corrupt councilman and a jury, I put together a defense team that one would call the OJ Dream Team in Las Vegas. It’s a team of four attorneys and a private investigator.

The book Tenacity goes into great depth about the mental strains it puts on you when you’ve got a great reputation in a small town for many years and all of a sudden, you’re front-page news with these allegations against you. The book goes into how we demonstrated the resilience you talk about every day. We persevered to make a wrong a right and how we fought it, overcame it and defeated that city in the Supreme Court of Nevada and opened our neighborhood casino. It took many years and a lot of fighting.

Let’s talk about that because we’re diving into overcoming challenges and then there is overcoming what seemingly insurmountable challenges. Everyone has a little fight in them. That resilience and that fight run out over time. It depends on the size of the challenge. That’s what I want to get into. We face what seemingly insurmountable challenges and especially when it comes to overcoming injuries sometimes or maybe accomplishing a great big goal. Everyone has certain levels of success in their life, but it’s what level of success you are most comfortable with. What do you want the most? It’s getting over that level of challenge. Sometimes it can seem insurmountable to get to that place. What were some of the takeaways of being in this legal battle for years and the strain and the stress that it had on your reputation? How did you hang in there and overcome that? What were some of the takeaways that people could apply to accomplish or overcoming insurmountable challenges in their own lives?

Failure is not an option is a mentality that was instilled in me by the Marines when I was nineteen years old and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1972. If you believe that failure in your life will not be an option, then you find ways to overcome the hurdles that are put before you. In my case, I could have just counted on the legal system to prove I was right and hope for the best. Honestly, by the year this happened, which was 1989, 1990, I had opened nearly a half dozen businesses. I had a cherished honor of being a gaming licensee. The mere accusation of such a thing, being accused of kidnapping, holding him against his will, forcing him to confess to a crime he later says he didn’t commit, when I had the paper evidence. I was not willing to let my future be determined by a jury. We fought that tooth and nail.

GCM 100 | Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles

Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles: If you believe that failure in your life will not be an option, then you find ways to overcome the hurdles that are put before you.

 

We did a deep dive into my accuser’s background. I sent my private investigation team back to his hometown in California, learned about him and learned that this particular accuser of mine was wanted in this town in California for attempted auto theft, attacking a police officer and then skipping town. Believe it or not, when we brought a certified warrant to this corrupt councilman and this corrupt police detective, they were hell-bent on defeating me in my action to expand my gaming license. They cured his legal problems, his running on a warrant and told him, “You will only be a good witness against Ron Coury if you do what we tell you.” They rehabilitated him and all his legal problems to come up against me.

I had a city councilman, which none of your followers are going to want to be in that position when they open a business. To have a city councilman regulating their business that’s in a competing industry in their private enterprise. That’s what we faced. As a result, I authorized my private investigator to go undercover and befriend this guy and learn from his own mouth how he staged all this, how he planned to use the system to set me up, and then come after me in a later civil action. I was not prepared to let that happen and hope the twelve jurors would see the light. I’m not going to be a spoiler to my book, but we got creative and let the undercover operation develop a case that we reveal in the book. In Tenacity, we tell a story about how we overcame our obstacles and did not let the system walk all over me.

You mentioned something significant here with getting creative. A lot of times, I feel that when we are in seemingly insurmountable situations, the creativity goes out of the window. It seems like there’s no possible way that I can overcome this. I got a diagnosis from the doctor that says I’m going to live X amount of months or I have this terminal illness and there’s no cure for it or I have insurmountable debt in my income, there’s no way I can pay for this debt over a lifetime based on my income. That’s the reality. What you’re talking about here is being able to create an opportunity for a possibility to exist. I love that saying, “Create the opportunity of possibility.” What does that mean? Give us a little bit about how creativity made a difference for you. Your story is great. What can we pull out of this story that people can walk away with that can help them overcome their obstacles and challenges?

Here’s another example. This neighborhood gaming lounge that I described and what we encountered, that happened between the years 1989 and 1992. Here’s another example. In 1984, I decided to go into limousine business. I had two taverns situated on both sides of Las Vegas. I could operate a limousine service and dress the cars between runs at one of these locations, stock the ice bar, stock the refreshments, which my competitors did not have that convenience. They were all centrally located. I decided to open a limousine company that I named Presidential. I found that it was not welcomed. The existing limousine companies did not want a new competitor to come into the business.

Back in 1984, there were no cell phones. Life was not like it is now. Think about what it was like years ago. There were landlines. There were phone books. These guys are trying to intimidate me not to go into the limousine business. They left death threats on my home phone. There’s a whole chapter in Tenacity that describes what it was like when I wanted to open a limousine service. It talks about dealing with that adversity head-on. In my case, the death threats about blowing me up, and they vandalized one of my limousines. I mounted a mirror to the bottom of a broomstick and looked under my car for car bombs every morning because of the death threats that were on my home phone. Rather than say, “This isn’t worth it. I’m not going to do this,” pull the plug on the effort and go do something else, I chose to push back, work hard and don’t give in to adversity.

I continued the fight in the Public Service Commission and got Presidential licensed. I found who I thought was causing me these threats, scaring the heck out of my wife and family with these anonymous calls to my home phone. This was before there was a caller ID. People will hear these stories and think, “Technology, you would have known who that was. You could have sent the police to that person.” Back in 1984, that didn’t exist. You had to get down and dirty in the streets with your opponents. I figured out who I thought was causing this intimidation. I caught him one day alone in an elevator and imposed some persuasion on him that these threats had better stop or he might find the same nastiness in his own backyard. Sure enough, that was the guy because those death threats, those phone calls, immediately stopped. The vandalism to my cars immediately stopped. We let the system take its course. I ultimately got licensed and opened Presidential and years later, selling it to someone.

Don’t let the obstacles defeat you. Instead, find a way to overcome them. Click To Tweet

When you talk about how do you develop a way to push back? You have to first have the mentality that you’re prepared to push back. When you look at the scenario that you’re facing, you determine how you’re going to do it. That’s what some of the different obstacles that I faced are described in Tenacity. You need a scenario. You have to find a new way to push back and show some resilience and a failure to accept defeat. My various stories describe examples of doing that. That’s how I lived my life in Las Vegas.

You call yourself an observational entrepreneur or a niche finder. Why do you call yourself that?

I didn’t go to college, get a four-year degree, become a doctor or a lawyer. Hang a shingle and pursue that career for 45 years. Before the TV show Cheers even existed, I was a casino dealer in 1975 through 1979. I found a niche that I thought I could fill. In 1976, I thought I could be a better realtor. I dealt in the Tropicana hotel at night and I got a real estate license and sold real estate during the day. That was a niche. As this town was growing, I thought people were looking for homes and businesses. I could do that during the day while I dealt at night. I found the niche and I pursued it. I went to school and I became a realtor.

In 1979, a tavern opportunity became known to me and I thought, “I’m in good shape. I’m relatively intelligent. I’m good with numbers.” If I could find a way to buy this tavern, I would run a tavern where people could walk in and feel safe. A place where everybody knew your name, which was before the TV show Cheers was even envisioned. I bought a little tavern on the outskirts of town and ran a place with an iron fist, a friendly place, and people didn’t have to fight their way out. I ran a place where everybody knew your name. It became a great success. In 1986, I parlayed that into a second location. In 1989, I would envision a dream location that would have a full-blown gaming license, not just fifteen slot machines.

That’s what the location I described earlier is about. In each of these scenarios, like the limousine company, there were limo companies in town but nobody operated a quality stretched limo service. There was one company with six stretch limos. Even though their ad says that their cars had bars, when the car came to you, it was just a wood structure, it had nothing on it. I envisioned a stretched company with tuxedo drivers. In my case, when the car came to you, it had ice in the ice chest and water, coke and 7Up on the bar. You would place your order for a car, tell the dispatcher if you wanted Canadian Club or Dewar’s Scotch. The driver would pick that up on the way to pick you up and you would reimburse him one-on-one. That’s a simple way.

I overcame the obstacle of having a liquor license for my limo company. I didn’t sell liquor. The driver would use his own money, pick up what you wanted to have on your bar and it would be there when he picked you up. You would reimburse him one-on-one. Getting creative, finding solutions to problems, finding a niche that you thought you could operate a business in a better way than what’s being done is why I turned myself in Tenacity as an observational entrepreneur. I found a niche for a business. I opened that business and try to operate it better than what’s being done.

GCM 100 | Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles

Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles: Don’t think that you cannot do something just because you don’t have the money or someone more powerful than you like tells you “you can’t”.

 

In 1984, I opened the graphics company to print the fronts of slot machines for manufacturers of machines. My business partner, who was a Marine, Dan Hughes, was his area of expertise. We found a niche. The book describes going into that business. When gaming operators would create machine ideas but they needed a good confidential print company that they could share their idea with, and you would protect their proprietary interest and print their slot fronts and their real strips, and they could release their machines at the annual gaming show. These are all niches that were businesses that didn’t exist, that we identified and pursued. That’s why I call myself a niche finder if I had to describe myself with a career. All these different businesses didn’t exist before we started them.

How did you get into that? It’s one thing to start a business, focus on that business, build that business, but then here you are, you went off and you got into twenty other businesses and you started with no bankroll. What got the ball rolling with you in starting all of these businesses?

The book describes in much greater detail than I will in this brief interview. I was a casino dealer at night. I was a realtor by day. I had a pit boss that asked me to find a bar for him. His daughter was a bartender somewhere and he thought he’d buy a bar, she could run it. He’d have an investment. That got me out looking for bars. I located one location for him. He wanted to be on another side of town but I liked what I found. I didn’t have the extra money. The money I was making as a dealer and a realtor were just supporting my lifestyle. I was starting a family. I needed to find the money to make that bar mine.

I was selling a duplex investment property for one of my fellow dealers. In that scenario, he was netting the $35,000 that the guy that on this tavern location wanted as a down payment, by being gutsy, creative and just willing to ask. I went to the guy that I sold the duplex for and I said, “Jose, I want to buy this bar. You’re netting $35,000 from this duplex I sold for you. What are you going to do with this money?” He said, “I’m going to stick it in the bank.” I said, “The bank will pay you 6%, I’ll pay you 12%. Would you loan me the $35,000?” He said, “I will do that. I’ve been watching you all these years. We’ve been dealing together. Every day we get our twenty-minute break every 40 minutes, you’re down here reading books. You took your real estate license. You’re trying to learn about business. I’ve got faith in you. I am going to loan you this money and I know you’re going to make something out of it.”

I ran down to that bar, bought that bar with the $35,000 down. The seller carried a paper on the balance. I opened that bar on a wing and a prayer. A little bit of pocket change that Dan and I had, he was my partner in that first bar. I jumped into that bar business, having never owned a bar before and ran it by running a place that was friendly, clean and makes people feel welcome. That little place, this is before there was video poker. This is before there was true gaming revenue, you just had to run a bar selling drinks. A couple of years later, I borrowed the money to put a kitchen in that bar because I noticed I was losing customers that wanted to go eat and they’d walk out and say, “We’ll be back. We’re going to go grab a bite to eat.” Most of them didn’t come back.

They got comfortable in the place they went to eat. I decided we needed to put a small kitchen in and we did that. We parlayed that one bar into a second bar the same way with the seller carry paper. As far as the graphics company, we got an SBA loan for $100,000. We found a small place to lease. We opened the graphics company with that SBA loan and opened it with Dan and me pulling squeegees over slot machine glass and two artists. We opened it with four people and that small loan. Within a couple of years, we were selling $12 million a year in gaming glass around the country and then ultimately, around the world as gaming manufacturers started popping up. It wasn’t just in the United States as gaming started to grow, not just Atlantic City but all around the world.

If you have a dream, go for it and get creative. Click To Tweet

What do you feel contributed to that level of success? That’s like a boom. You go from this small business, $100,000 loan into $12 million in sales and revenue. What made the difference there? What was the game-changer?

Dan and I met in the Marines. We learned there. Failure is not an option. When we took on a challenge, whether it was one of these new taverns, whether it was a corrupt city councilman, and you’ve heard the saying, “You can’t fight City Hall.” We were literally fighting City Hall. This corrupt councilman, who was in a competing graphics company, who wanted to open three gaming parlors of his own, who wanted to deny us the ability to get the expanded gaming license. He used this thief that we caught against me to try to frame me and put me in prison for 50 years.

It’s not letting those obstacles defeat you. Instead, finding a way to overcome those obstacles, whether it was the limo company, finding the money for the second bar, finding the money for the graphics company, getting creative with the limousine company and using my other businesses to support it and set myself apart from the other companies and say, “We offer you a stock bar. We are that different. We might be a couple of dollars more per hour but our chauffeurs are tuxedoed. Our bars were stocked. Call Presidential the next time if you’re looking for a limo company.”

We got that company off the ground and grew it in the number of cars to where we could sell it for a nice profit. We bought a piece of land and that’s where we developed this new gaming property. Not knowing when we bought the land from selling Presidential that we were going to have this obstacle with the corrupt city councilman and corrupt detective, but we found a way to overcome that as well. We parlayed that first tavern into over a half a dozen businesses, not limited to taverns and kept running them, putting good managers in their place and then looking for the next challenge to overcome and open up a new business.

Did you have any business background when you started out doing this?

Not really. My business background was silly and simple. I was a kid in Brooklyn, New York. My dad bought me a shoeshine box because I went to a little Catholic School and I had to shine my shoes every morning. I took that shoeshine box when I was twelve years old down to the subway stop before school. I sold shoe shines for $0.10 a shine. That’s not really going into business but it is. I got such a kick at earning my own money. I would shine shoes for an hour before school and make a few dollars. I got a kick out of that. It instilled in me a desire to be in business for myself someday.

GCM 100 | Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles

Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles: Early detection, being in good physical condition, and finding the right team are definitely the ingredients to succeeding and overcoming cancer.

 

As my book describes, I was on a table one day at the Tropicana hotel and I was thinking about getting into a business, where if the day came that I was unable to go to work and earn money, how would I pay my bills? How would I make a car payment and a house payment? In my case, my family has a history of cancer. I described but always knowing that cancer would find me, it wasn’t a matter of if but when. I always wanted to get into something that could support me if I was sick and couldn’t go to work for a couple of months. Lo and behold, after opening over a dozen businesses, at the age of 53, there’s a chapter about me being in great shape at 53 years old.

In the year 2005, I got diagnosed with esophageal cancer, only an 8% chance of survival. It describes how I learned about it and what I did about it. Here we are in 2020, and I’m still around. I had a drastic surgery, took 40 pounds off me, but survived it. Now I find myself with a new career being an author. I wrote a book. It took two years to write it. I’ve spent the last few months learning a new business. How do you market a book? I’m working on a deal with a film company in New York to turn Tenacity into a movie.

What do you say to someone who’s reading the struggles and the stories that you overcome to get to where you are right now? What would you say to them?

Don’t think that you cannot do something just because you don’t have the money or because someone more powerful than you like a city council tells you, “You can’t do that. We’re not going to approve that.” If you have a dream, go for it. Go for it, get creative. Find the ways to make it happen. A lot of realtors might have delivered those proceeds for that investment property to their clients and never even considered asking them a loan on the money, thinking, “They’ll never do that.” If you have the mentality of go for it and don’t let failure be an option, you might be surprised by what you might be able to accomplish.

In addition to your authorship, what’s next for you? Is it just writing books? You got the movie that you’re working on. Are there coaching opportunities? Are you getting into this business to help people or tell your story? What’s next for you?

Writing a book was my way of creating a legacy. I would like my kids to know what it took to have the privileges that they grew up with. I would like them to see what I went through to make that happen and to motivate and inspire them. Since I sold my interest in seven-car dealerships, my taverns and my other businesses, I wrote the book. I did get involved with a new business with Andre Agassi called Square Panda. It’s an educational tool that teaches children from 2 to 8 years old how to read and spell in a unique way. We are investors in that company. We are board members of that company. We’re launching it in China and the United States simultaneously. That’s what’s next for me, as a board member, helping to make that happen. I’m on the board of a local furniture company called Walker Furniture, which is a family-owned business that I have an affinity for. I was friends with their dad many years ago. I’m helping them and advising them to grow with new locations in the community.

Don't let failure be an option, you might be surprised by what you might be able to accomplish. Click To Tweet

I’m on the board of a couple of charities, The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation and a new charity called Wounded Blue that is going to help wounded police officers that live in jurisdictions that are small and so under-budgeted, they can’t take care of them. These wounded officers that were hurt on the job need help taking care of their daily finances. That’s what’s in my future is giving back to the community by serving on the boards of a couple of charities and doing a couple of businesses like I’m doing as a board member, rather than having the energy I had in my 40s and 50s and starting a business and working twelve hours a day, I’m going about it as a board member.

Given the struggles and the obstacles that you’ve overcome and all the success that you’ve had in your lifetime, what are 1 or 2 things that you feel were game-changers to you that you’re thankful for and that you’ve taken away from that experience?

I’ve been blessed with good partners and an incredible circle of friends. I’ve been lucky in picking good support people. My book thanks people that worked for me, such as my office manager and my CFO that helped make these things possible. You can’t do it all. You need good support people that watch your back when you’re off doing the next challenge. It names those people and thank them. I’ve had great business partners in the form of the car dealership business, Don Tamburro. I parlayed one Hyundai dealership into multiple Hyundai, Kia, Chevrolet and Cadillac dealerships on the West Coast. Dan Hughes, my Marine Corps buddy, a great partner in the tavern, limousine and printing business. Tom Boeckle and Andre Agassi are partners in Square Panda. Having great partners and great support people are ways to succeed.

I appreciate that because as a business owner myself, I understand the importance of networking and building relationships. More importantly, collaboration is the key to success. If you want to succeed in business, you have to collaborate. It sounds like you were doing a lot of that unconsciously. Back even in 1984, collaboration was a major key to success and it still is now, even more so. How can people connect with you? If they wanted to find out more about you, where can they buy your book? How can they connect with you?

There is a website that was created to promote the book Tenacity, it is RonCouryAuthor.com. Through that website, they can see more about the book. There is a quick link to Amazon if they want to purchase it. There’s also a quick link to the audiobook if there are followers that like to only do audible books. I used an actor named Michael Madsen to record my audiobook, which sets me apart from most books. He was in Reservoir Dogs, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill. He is a famous A-list actor. He came to town when I hired him for a week and spent a week in a recording studio. That website also gives them an opportunity to look at over 100 photographs in the gallery that I’ve posted that describe my life history. Going to the website or using a contact link there, if they want to email me directly, I’m happy to talk to anybody and try to help them pursue their dreams.

We certainly appreciate that. You talked about briefly your bout with cancer. It’s not even about, it’s more so, your victory. What were some of the key elements that helped you overcome cancer?

GCM 100 | Tenacity To Overcome Hurdles

Tenacity: A Vegas Businessman Survives Brooklyn, the Marines, Corruption and Cancer to Achieve the American Dream: A True Life Story

The Marine Corps put me in great shape physically. After the Marine Corps, I continued to work out six days a week. It was necessary to defeat actors in the bar that got out of line. It was necessary to be in good shape to fight some of the obstacles I encountered in the limousine business. Being in good shape and catching cancer early helps you overcome a surgery that has only an 8% survival. It’s an old saying. It’s on TV commercials, “Early detection helps prevent cancer from killing you.” In my case, I did catch it early. I went for a thorough physical every year. I had a doctor that a good friend of mine, the Undersheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Eric Cooper, introduced me to in the ‘80s, Dr. Jim Murray, in Santa Barbara. He put me through a three-day physical every year and that’s how we caught this cancer early, finding the right team for what you have. In my case, Dr. Tom DeMeester at USC hospital. They operated on esophageal cancers. Early detection, being in good physical condition, and finding the right team are definitely the ingredients to succeeding and overcoming cancer.

When we talk about overcoming challenges, it’s more directly to what you do after the situation has happened. When the challenge shows up, this is what you do. You got to have the mindset. There’s also, having the mindset before the challenge has come. That’s the preventive mindset. I appreciate you talking about going to get checked earlier. Obviously, you didn’t know that you had cancer until you went and got checked. Being in a place where you’re doing preventive maintenance, you’re taking yourself in to get checked out. That can apply in your business, health and relationship. It’s good to check-in. It’s good to have a mindset of, “Let’s see where we are. Let’s assess the situation. Let’s not wait for the challenge and obstacle to show up in a way that gets our attention. Let’s find out what’s going on here. What’s the status of our health? What’s the status of our business?” That requires taking a step back and that’s a game-changer mentality all in of itself. We don’t do that. Sometimes we wait. We don’t get that wake-up call until there’s an obstacle and there’s a challenge.

You are speaking the truth because when I was 53, I felt like Superman. I was running five miles a day out in the desert, 110 degrees. I ran non-stop. I was in great shape. I had no reason to think anything was wrong with me. I still diligently went for an annual physical just in case. Even the surgeon said, “I can’t believe Dr. Murray found this tumor so early. Usually, people come to me when they’re spitting blood.” You don’t always wait until you have symptoms. If you go get a good physical every year, you can pre-empt this thing and catch it early. If I had waited until I was symptomatic, I’d have been gone in six months. That’s the honest to God truth. You’re exactly right. Even though you feel like Superman, go ahead and check out what’s going on inside your body because something could be growing and you may not be showing it yet. Catching it early is a way to beat it.

What’s a fun fact about you, Ron?

I like to think I don’t take life too seriously. I will run around with the guys I grew up within New York when they would come to town. We’ll act like a bunch of kids even though I might have 500 employees. You need to take time to be serious and take time to have fun. Don’t be afraid to laugh. Let it all hang down. Sometimes act like a kid because that’s healthy for you.

As a business owner to a business owner, life can get stressful, life can be demanding. I find that in all of these demands and requirements to take care of this, to make sure that it’s okay to run the business, to be the leader. You have to take time for yourself to take a step back. Focus on you for a second. Focus on what makes you happy. Focus on having fun. It’s decompressing and you have to do that. If you don’t, I find that you’re not able to be the leader, do all those things that are demanding and run the business as optimally as you can because you haven’t taken the time to do the fun things that you’re talking about. It’s such a necessary staple in being a successful entrepreneur.

You don't have to inherit money to make money. You have to have a dream and be willing to chase it. Click To Tweet

You have to create those scenarios. They’re not going to find you. For example, I described the guys I grew up with from five years old that we’re still friends. I’ve got seven of them coming to Vegas. They’re all staying at the Bellagio and we’re going to hang out every day by the pool and act like a bunch of teenagers. When I talk about creating this scenario, I flew back to New York once, didn’t tell any of them but one guy that I was coming. I spent three hours in a makeup chair, being made up to look differently and then prank them. When they were all getting together for dinner, I was at an adjoining table, they didn’t know it was me and I was the biggest pain in the butt you could imagine, annoying them with different things I would create. I hired two actors to sit with me. I was a pain in the butt for over an hour before I revealed myself. We laughed until we cried when they realized that that old man with the beard and the moles on his face, that was spitting and coughing and such a pain to the waiter was their friend, Ron, for many years. You got to create these scenarios. They don’t just happen.

Thank you for coming on the show. I appreciate you spending time with me, sharing your story, and being vulnerable to share the things that have gone on in your life and the lessons that you’ve learned from them. In all that we go through, a lot of times, we go through problems and it’s like, “I’m going through this. Woe is me.” I found that you don’t go through problems for you, you go through problems and challenges for others. At least that’s the mindset or perspective you can have on the things that you go through. What you learn and what you experienced, you can share with someone else, and that’s harvesting the good out of a situation. Whenever I’m in a situation or find myself going to a challenge, I’m always thinking, “What do I need to get out of this? What can I get out of this? What can I share with someone that would allow them to go through maybe the situation easier or maybe avoided it all? You tell me all the sides of that because you’ve been there. I don’t have to touch it for myself.”

Writing the book Tenacity is not only to tell my kids what I went through. I have had people that read it that have contacted me by email and have said, “This was an adventure.” They felt like they were sitting right next to me in the courtroom as the charges were being read against me. The adventure that your followers will experience by listening to or reading the book, they will not only find it to be an interesting and exciting adventure of what happened in a true story. They would be motivated and inspired to pursue their own goals by developing their own level of tenacity. They would realize that some things they may think are unachievable, maybe they need to pursue that dream as I did. You don’t have to have a big bankroll. You don’t have to inherit money to make money. You have to have a dream and be willing to chase it. This book, Tenacity, will motivate and inspire your followers to do something for themselves while also entertaining them.

What is the game-changer message of the day you would like to leave with us, Ron?

The three words, go for it, will change the game for your people. When they do go for it, they will undoubtedly encounter hurdles and obstacles. Have it in their head. They don’t have to join the Marines to get it. They have to start developing a failure is not an option mentality. As they pursue their dreams, don’t think that an obstacle is a game-changer, consider it a challenge. Think about the excitement of how you’re going to overcome it. Once you do overcome it, whether you go through it, over it or around it, when you get on the other side, you are going to feel like, “I did it.” You’re going to be looking for the next challenge, instead of being afraid that it’s going to come.

Failure is not an option. Success is the only option. Isn’t that a mentality? Ron, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you and learning your story and all that you are about. I wish you continued success. If there’s any way that we can support you, please let us know. Thank you again for coming on the show.

You’re welcome, Rodney. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you. You’re a terrific interviewer. I’ve enjoyed this and let your people know I am approachable. If someone wants to pick my brain, go to my website, email me and I will answer every email that I get.

There you have it. A lot of times we have to take up those offers and those opportunities when they’re given to us. You never know what can come out of those things. Many things have happened to me in my life from people offering to help and I’m saying, “Yes, I need help. What do you have? How can you help?” Many things have come that have allowed me to experience the success that I’ve experienced in life. I advise you and I encourage you, please take Ron up on his offer. Email him and check him out. Find out if he could be a value to you and what you are up to making your dream come true. Thank you, Ron. As always, peace and love. Thank you for following and until next time, keep the game-changing mentality going.

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About Ron Coury

GCM 100 | Tenacity To Overcome HurdlesBorn and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Ron Coury arrived in Las Vegas in 1973, following two years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps. Ron has been a casino dealer and a realtor, as well as a partner in restaurants and gaming bars, major graphics and glass companies, and several automobile dealerships throughout the western United States.

He is currently a board member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation, as well as several companies and charitable organizations. He has three children and five grandchildren and remains active in business and community service endeavors throughout Southern Nevada.

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