00:17:57 · Kenn Ricci
[00:17:57] S1: You talked about my upbringing with my parents a little bit. My dad was a government employee and I went to a Jesuit high school, St. Ignatius, and they sent, at the time in the 70s, they sent 30 people to Notre Dame. They moved them right from there to Notre Dame. And I loved it. I wanted to go there. And I was, I got admitted and then I'm going up for a visit. And I grew up in a, you know, houses have two by fours, our heads one by twos. So I could hear my parents, I'm an only child, and I could hear my parents talking the night before I'm going to Notre Dame and they say, you have to tell him we shouldn't let him go. Because what if he goes up there and he likes it and then he wants to go and we tell him we can't afford to send him. My mom was saying, I wouldn't let him go. And my dad would go, Let him go. Maybe he doesn't like it. And then he comes back and says, I don't want to go anyhow. And then we don't have to have the subject. But I knew going up for that class visit that didn't matter how much I liked it. I knew it was coming when I came home and said whether I wanted to go or not. So I was inclined not to go and put my parents in a bad position. When I get there, I ask them on campus, is there a, is there financial aid available? Like, well, missed the deadline. This is March, but the Vietnam war, this is 1974. The Vietnam war was still very ripe, very raw. And people did not like the military. And so they said, if you're willing to go into ROTC, they're always short of the candidates. They never fulfilling their quota. So for some reason, don't ask me why, I decided I wanted to be a Navy pilot. Maybe I like the double breasted suits, whatever. So I go down to the ROTC Building and there's no cell phones. And I'm looking through the glass window. I'm trying to read upside down on the phone what number to call on Monday morning to tell them they had a new naval aviator.
00:19:37 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[00:19:37] S0: Why'd you pick aviation? You had never flown a plane or anything? [00:19:39] S1: No, had go in the military. [00:19:40] S0: So you did? [00:19:41] S1: I know I had out to sea. I figured if I got to go into the military, flying looks like a lot of fun to do. I'm copying the number down and somebody taps me on the shoulder and they said, can I help you? And I said, yes, sir, I'm an incoming freshman at Notre Dame and I would like to join the Navy because I want to fly. And he said, You've been admitted to Notre Dame? I said, Yes. He goes, I'm shocked because they usually admit smarter people than that. He said, The Navy has ships and the Air Force has planes. I'm Colonel Muller. I'm head of the Air Force detachment and I'm enrolled in the Air Force. And I never heard, I never knew how my parents reacted, but I came home. Because then they'll pay for school. Yeah, yeah. I don't know that I've ever told this story. Was the first time I learned how to defraud the government. It was. I'm a freshman at Notre Dame. I'm enrolled. I've got my hat, got my uniform. And the sergeant who administered that said, Now, I know you're a plead here, but here's how you get a $100 a month stipend for general expenses. He goes, but there's other income. He goes, here's what you do. You go to the bookstore, you buy all brand new books. You bring me the receipt. I'll reimburse you for the new books. You take them back to the bookstore and then you buy the used books. So like my first interaction with the military is I was taught like how to take advantage of the US government.
00:19:41 · Kenn Ricci, David Senra
[00:19:41] S1: I know I had out to sea. I figured if I got to go into the military, flying looks like a lot of fun to do. I'm copying the number down and somebody taps me on the shoulder and they said, can I help you? And I said, yes, sir, I'm an incoming freshman at Notre Dame and I would like to join the Navy because I want to fly. And he said, You've been admitted to Notre Dame? I said, Yes. He goes, I'm shocked because they usually admit smarter people than that. He said, The Navy has ships and the Air Force has planes. I'm Colonel Muller. I'm head of the Air Force detachment and I'm enrolled in the Air Force. And I never heard, I never knew how my parents reacted, but I came home. Because then they'll pay for school. Yeah, yeah. I don't know that I've ever told this story. Was the first time I learned how to defraud the government. It was. I'm a freshman at Notre Dame. I'm enrolled. I've got my hat, got my uniform. And the sergeant who administered that said, Now, I know you're a plead here, but here's how you get a $100 a month stipend for general expenses. He goes, but there's other income. He goes, here's what you do. You go to the bookstore, you buy all brand new books. You bring me the receipt. I'll reimburse you for the new books. You take them back to the bookstore and then you buy the used books. So like my first interaction with the military is I was taught like how to take advantage of the US government. [00:20:57] S0: Do you take time off from Notre Dame to learn how to fly?
00:20:57 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[00:20:57] S0: Do you take time off from Notre Dame to learn how to fly? [00:20:59] S1: No, no, you learn it concurrent. You, one day a week, and this was the tough one. One day a week, have to stay in uniform. And believe me, at that time, you know, that Vietnam War era, that was not an easy task because people did not like the military at all at that time. So, you know, you have all these courses around the air force. In the summer, you go to whatever your summer program was, your summer school and so on. And then, so that's where I learned to fly. [00:21:26] S0: So what kind of planes do you fly the first time? [00:21:28] S1: Oh, you're flying. You know, Cessna 152, Cessna 172. [00:21:32] S0: They're not putting you in [00:21:33] S1: like the F-sixteen. No, that comes after grade. No. No. In fact, you know, when you graduate, what happens, then you go to general flight training, which is done like in T, at that time was done in T-37s and T-38s. And then you get assigned, you know, it's a year and a half before you get control of a jet in the air force. There's the primary training, then there's the training you go into. [00:21:52] S0: Okay. So you mentioned, hey, I'm an inch wide, but I'm a mile deep. All my businesses focus on the, this, we've mentioned Buffett and Munger. I don't know if you said it on the show or if we were talking before, but like we've mentioned, both mentioned Buffett and Munger a bunch of times. And their whole thing is like, know your circle of competence and just stay inside that circle. So that sounds like what you did. Your first
00:21:52 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[00:21:52] S0: Okay. So you mentioned, hey, I'm an inch wide, but I'm a mile deep. All my businesses focus on the, this, we've mentioned Buffett and Munger. I don't know if you said it on the show or if we were talking before, but like we've mentioned, both mentioned Buffett and Munger a bunch of times. And their whole thing is like, know your circle of competence and just stay inside that circle. So that sounds like what you did. Your first [00:22:08] S1: I always say my portfolio of investments is unbelievably diversified. It's cash and airplanes. That's my diversification strategy. So what's the first [00:22:17] S0: business you do in aviation? [00:22:20] S1: So first of all, I don't think of myself as a businessman. In fact, I'll often say there's two people that are very successful in business. One is a person that just gets business. They could run a yogurt store. They could run a steel manufacturing plant. They just get business. They understand how they're connected. They see market strategy and business is just very clear to them. And the other ones that are just passionate about what they do. You're passionate about your podcast. You're successful in business because this is what you love to do. I'm successful because I love to fly and I learned everything airplane, right? That's what put me here. But I didn't, I never had a goal to become wealthy or to build a business. [00:22:57] S0: That's the accidental wealthy part, you're- Sure,
00:22:57 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[00:22:57] S0: That's the accidental wealthy part, you're- Sure, [00:22:59] S1: of course. In many ways, right? Accidentally that I even formed a business. Accidentally that, you know, that when I go into private aviation, there's only 5,000 jets in the world. And today there's 35,000 jets. So part of [00:23:13] S0: my luck- Wait, wait, wait. Say that part again. [00:23:15] S1: Yeah. [00:23:15] S0: When you started- So what are [00:23:17] S1: your years? 1985, figure about the- [00:23:18] S0: There's only 5,000 jets? [00:23:19] S1: 5,000 jets in the world. And today there's 35,000 private jets in the world. So part of my luck was just to be when this industry grew up. I entered an industry because I could have been an airline pilot. I could have gone into, I could have stayed in the military, but I was attracted to private aviation. It was more free to me. It was more spontaneous. It was more interesting. The people you would meet, there's no cockpit door. I could have conversations with passengers and learn from them. So who knew in 1985 that private aviation would be this unbelievable growth industry in the next forty years? I didn't know that. So that's part of it. But what I'm really doing is flying. I leave the military. I become a cargo pilot, flying air freight. Then I go to Northwest Orient. I'm at Northwest Orient in a very brief period of time. They have a furlough, so I lose my job. [00:24:09] S0: So wait, Northwest Orient doesn't exist anymore? No. It's a- was an airline.