Leadership Series
Playing Through, the biography of Tom Devlin, founder of Rent-A-Center, is co-authored by Randy Scholfield, an editorial writer and columnist for The Wichita Eagle. The Wichita Eagle published excerpts Playing Through.
In this excerpt, Devlin describes a 1957 business deal, when he was 10 years old, that surely gave a hint of things to come:
Elvis' "Loving You" movie had just come out. Paramount sent Dad a huge box of Elvis Presley promotional pictures that he was supposed to distribute to the theaters. Looking at the glossies, I had this great idea: if I could stand in front of the theater before a movie, I just knew I could sell these photos for 25 cents apiece. Dad said that if the theater would let me do it then it was fine with him.
I'm not shy. So I took a picture and marched over to the theater, where I talked to the manager, a friend of my father's named Charles Harvey Smith. He was an intimidating guy, an ex-Marine. I showed him a glossy of Elvis and said I would sell them to his customers for 25 cents each. Then I laid down my terms: "for every picture sold, you get 10 cents, and I get 15 cents."
It was an offer he couldn't refuse. On the opening day of the movie, I sold the entire box. I don't remember how much I made, but it seemed like I sold a thousand pictures. Not bad for my first day in business.
In 1973, Devlin was Talley's vice president of operations, but he had reservations about the company's business model:
The next day I spoke again with Ernie (Talley). I said "I don't want to hire a new manager or assistant manager every time I turn around. I'll never be able to work less than 60 hours a week and not have to travel six days a week unless you change your business plan."
Ernie made it clear that wasn't going to happen. Something inside me just clicked: I had made a decision. "You know what," I said. "I think I'll go start my own business and prove to you that market I'm talking about is there. I am going to give you my 30-day notice.
Ernie raised his eyebrows. "You don't have to give me your 30-day notice," he said. "You can leave right now."
And that was that!