Billionaire Jimmy John Riotau says certain qualities separate the most successful business owners from the rest.
In that vein, the 61-year-old founder and former chairman of the Jimmy John’s sandwich chain said he doesn’t believe in work-life balance in a TikTok video posted Oct. 9 by The Hard Knocks School.
“Work-life balance[for entrepreneurs]is the biggest bullish thing ever created,” he said. “There’s no such thing as work-life balance. When you squeeze the lemonade out of a horse, you have to squeeze it really, really hard… There’s no such thing when you’re creating something from nothing.”
Riotau speaks from experience. Despite graduating second-to-last in his high school class, he built a billion-dollar brand, he said. He started his first sandwich shop in Charleston, Illinois, in 1983 with a $25,000 loan from his father when he was 19 years old, and has grown the business carefully and tenaciously for the past 36 years, he said on the American Optimist podcast in October 2024.
For example, during his first 10 years in business, Riotaud only opened stores that he operated, all 10 of which were in Illinois, he said. Based on that foundation, we eventually expanded our franchise to additional stores across the country. Jimmy John’s currently has more than 2,600 stores in 45 states.
In September 2016, Liotteau sold a majority stake in his company (65% of the business) to Atlanta-based private equity firm Rourke Capital Group at a valuation of “approximately $3.5 billion,” he said in a TikTok video. Roark resigned as chairman in October 2019 after Inspire Brands, owned by Roark, acquired the remaining shares in Jimmy John’s for an undisclosed amount.
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Like any business, the sandwich chain’s growth path wasn’t linear or simple, Riotaud noted. For example, in 2002, 70 of Jimmy John’s 200 stores were struggling to make a profit.
His answer: Teach franchise owners a lesson in work ethics, he said. “I said, ‘If you’re going to be in the sandwich business, this is 24/7. If you’re going to be in the cow business, you need to feed the cows on Sunday. You need to feed the cows on Christmas Day,'” Riotaud said.
“I started telling people the truth about business,” he continued. “If you’re going to do this, you better be prepared to be a grinder.”
According to Forbes, Mr. Riotaud currently has an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion.
Other highly successful entrepreneurs have built their businesses with a similar mindset. Bill Gates didn’t believe in vacations or weekends in the early days of Microsoft, and Elon Musk was known to sometimes sleep in the office and work all night. Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang works “from the moment I wake up in the morning until the moment I go to bed,” he said in a May 2024 interview with Stripe CEO Patrick Collision.
Some people now choose to sleep more and improve their time management. Gates told students at Northern Arizona University’s commencement ceremony in May 2023 that he regrets his workaholic lifestyle.
“Don’t wait as long as I did to learn this lesson,” Gates said. “Take time to nurture your relationships. To celebrate your successes and recover from your losses. Rest when you need to. Make it easier on those around you when you need it.”
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