Flexjet’s chairman was dwelling along with his dad and mom—then he borrowed $500 from his dad to assist purchase an organization, and have become a billionaire

“I worked for [airline] Northwest Orient for a brief period of time. I get furloughed. Unemployed, back living with my parents,” Ricci advised the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview when reminiscing on how he made his first $1 million.

But, as an alternative of falling by the wayside, he noticed a golden alternative. Ricci took a contract pilot job at Professional Flight Crews, and one of many corporations he flew for was personal aviation firm Corporate Wings. The budding businessman was intrigued when its homeowners put the enterprise up on the market at $27,500 in 1981—and jumped on the chance to purchase it. 

Ricci scraped collectively a $27,000 mortgage, however nonetheless got here up $500 quick. So he picked up the cellphone and known as his father for the remaining—and that decision would launch his profession in entrepreneurship.

By the early Nineteen Nineties, his firm was pulling in $3 million a yr. Ricci took Corporate Wings to new heights, actually, flying artists like Barbara Streisand and Elton John on tour jets. But the true large break got here when an Arkansas governor working for president wanted a aircraft for a little bit over a yr. That political hopeful wound up turning into the forty second president of the United States: Bill Clinton. 

“I said, ‘The governor of Arkansas is not going to need a plane for 13 months. This guy has no chance of becoming president.’ And then I flew him to the inauguration,” Ricci recalled.

From humble beginnings to a billionaire way of life with $800,000 holidays and a $2.5 million watch assortment

Corporate Wings was simply the opening act in Ricci’s four-decade streak of enterprise triumphs. 

In 1990, he launched Inertial Airline Services and Flight Options—with Flight Options pulling in $100 million in simply its first three months. Sensing the goldmine he’d constructed, Ricci bought Inertial Airline Services for $10 million: his first actual style of “significant wealth.” Flight Options ultimately merged with aerospace protection large Raytheon, which purchased him out on what he later described as one of many “worst days” of his life. But setbacks by no means stick: he went on to discovered Directional Aviation Capital (DAC), investing in aviation corporations and scoring a large win when DAC acquired Flexjet, raking in a jaw-dropping $3.8 billion in income final yr.

From the common-or-garden son of a authorities employee in “a very, very poor family,” Ricci’s relentless drive in aviation catapulted him to billionaire standing.

Now, the aviation boss says his entire life is sort of a trip—and when requested how a lot he splurges on precise getaways, it’s a determine that’s jaw-dropping to most. Ricci spends six weeks in Italy along with his household, dropping between $750,000 to $800,000 for the lavish journey. 

“I have way too many homes, and I spend way too much on travel,” Ricci mentioned within the WSJ interview. “It might sound like a big number, but it more has to do with just the fact that if I’m going to go somewhere, I want to enjoy it. I want it to be the best experience it could be.”

The billionaire revealed he often shells out on large ideas for employees at his trip spots, giving $1,000 upfront to restaurant employees when visiting for the primary time. At the resorts he frequents, he’ll drop “10 times that” in the beginning so staffers know what “level of expectation” he has. Ricci all the time desires his journeys to be the very best expertise attainable. 

The Flexjet chairman additionally likes to have a good time success with fantastic watches, just like Tom Brady and Mark Zuckerberg. Any time one thing “important happens” in his life, he’ll shell out on one other one. To date, he’s racked up a $2.5 million assortment of round 40 watches—with the most costly single buy setting him again $150,000.

“The first company I sold, I bought myself a watch. And so over the years, it’s not so much that I love watches, but I associate a watch with a memory of something financial when we have a success.”

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