{"id":31810,"date":"2018-05-04T11:07:14","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T03:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=31810"},"modified":"2018-05-25T16:48:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T08:48:21","slug":"how-magic-johnson-became-a-successful-businessman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2018\/05\/04\/how-magic-johnson-became-a-successful-businessman\/","title":{"rendered":"How Magic Johnson became a successful businessman"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr., a basketball\u00a0superstar\u2014now retired<\/strong>\u2014has morphed into a successful businessman, thanks to hard work and determination.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cBasketball was a tremendous platform for me to start my brand, to understand winning, and be a competitor,” says Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr., CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises. PHOTO BY MELBA BERNAD<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking at Oracle NetSuite\u2019s SuiteWorld 2018<\/a> in Las Vegas, Johnson attributes much of his success to a willingness to work hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball was a tremendous platform for me to start my brand, to understand winning, and be a competitor,\u201d he told thousands of spellbound delegates.<\/p>\n

After retiring from the National Basketball Association in 1991, Johnson says he needed to start his own business but lacked the knowledge. The key, he said, was getting mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cold-called 20 CEOs and asked them to lunch, and I was able to pick their brains. I knew from basketball that preparation was key; I\u2019m focused and I\u2019m driven and I\u2019m one of the most disciplined people you will ever meet. So when I was picking their brains to start a business, I discovered self-evaluation is key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson says that he started off by leveraging on the spending power of African Americans who spend a trillion dollars a year. His first venture, after putting up Magic Johnson Enterprises, was investing in movie theaters. \u201cOur first movie theater ended up topping revenue for its opening weekend and was one of the highest grossing in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Be open to change your business<\/b><\/p>\n

Next CEO Johnson entered into a 10-year deal to deliver Starbucks stores across the U.S., particularly urban centers where African Americans lived.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, no way will minorities pay $3 for a cup of coffee! I thought they were wrong, but we had to do things a little differently. We don\u2019t know what scones are, so I had to take scones out of my Starbucks and replace them with pumpkin pies and peach cobblers. And I got rid of the Andrea Boccelli from the playlist and in my Starbucks you hear Earth, Wind and Fire.<\/em> Why? Because you have to know your customer, and you have to over-deliver to your customers. My customers didn\u2019t want classical music and scones!\u201d<\/p>\n

In just six years, Johnson built 125 Starbucks stores. \u201cWe were making so much money and we had already fulfilled and exceeded our contract, so they came to me and said, you\u2019ve already exceeded the deal, you could sell \u2013 so what do you think I did? I sold!\u201d says Johnson, who used to own the Lakers at the same time. He sold that, too, and bought the Dodgers for over $2 billion dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said we were crazy. But what they didn\u2019t know was that a TV deal was coming up, which was $9 billion and the 300 acres of land the Dodgers own is worth $3 billion, so the land alone was worth more.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Dodgers were struggling at that time. \u201cWe had to find out what was wrong. We changed the fan experience. We put money into the stadium and now we\u2019re number one in attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cracking the millennial market<\/b><\/p>\n

When it came to raising the attendance at Dodgers games, it wasn\u2019t only about understanding customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing you\u2019ve got to realize is that the customer now is a different customer to before,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cThey want it now, they want it fast and if they don\u2019t get what they want they\u2019re going to somebody else. Well, we found out that the millennials that come to the games don\u2019t actually come for the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want the experience of meeting their friends and hanging out. The game is secondary. So we built a pavilion so they can just stand and socialize. And guess what? They buy an incredible amount of drinks while they\u2019re at it. We\u2019ve got that revenue coming in like crazy from these young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnow your customer and over-deliver to get the retention you\u2019re looking for.\u00a0The secret sauce for me is to see what is wanted \u2013 what is missing \u2013 and deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson also acquired a Disney Land contract. \u201cYou haven\u2019t made it big if you don\u2019t have a Disney contract.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maintaining resilience despite challenges<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite the successes of his business ventures, Johnson said he also ran into some stumbling blocks, but he maintained his resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started out in business they held me being a basketball player against me. I was funding everything with my own money,\u201d Johnson explains. \u201cI thought, how am I going to get the growth and sustainability? And I spoke to one of my mentors and she said, you\u2019re doing it wrong \u2013 you need to use other people\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, 10 banks turned me down \u2013 I had a track record of success with the movie theaters, the Starbucks, but they turned me down. They turned me down five years in a row, then the sixth year, they said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hire smart people<\/b><\/p>\n

Employees are also key to a business, says Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep a lot of young people around me, because my old way of thinking sometimes gets in the way of success. I had to be open to listen to the young people who work for me. Hire people that are smarter than you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning from your mistakes is also crucial. \u201cEverything I do I want to win. I want to win for me, for my partners, and for my community. But if I mess up, there\u2019s two things: learn and change,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

The basketball legend then concludes with another important tip: \u00a0\u201cWhen someone doesn\u2019t believe in you or your business you have to keep going. If I felt sorry for myself, I wouldn\u2019t be here.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr., a basketball\u00a0superstar\u2014now retired\u2014has morphed into a successful businessman, thanks to hard work and determination. Speaking at Oracle NetSuite\u2019s SuiteWorld 2018 in Las Vegas, Johnson attributes much of his success to a willingness to work hard. \u201cBasketball was a tremendous platform for me to start my brand, to understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,22],"tags":[5994,5995,135,5286,4350,1030],"class_list":["post-31810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-spotlight","tag-business-success","tag-magic-johnson","tag-netsuite","tag-oracle-netsuite","tag-suiteworld","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}