The late Larry H. Miller presided over a multimillion-dollar financial empire that included automotive dealerships in several states, an entertainment and sports arena, a television station, and the Utah Jazz, a National Basketball Association franchise team. His formal education consisted of high school and about ten weeks of college, and he said it never mattered to his business that he didn’t do well in subjects like trigonometry and geometry.

“All I need to worry about is two and two. It’s simply adding and subtracting numbers,” he said. When he wanted to know more about something, he asked questions and did research. “It’s very simple: the only stupid question is an unasked question. If something interests me and I don’t know about it, I learn about it.” 

Though he wasn’t entirely comfortable wearing the mantle of millionaire, Miller believed he understood why he was so successful. 

First, he learned that business is simple. “It is simply a function of having quality goods and/or services consistently delivered at a fair price.” He said the message in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations is as applicable today as it was two centuries ago: “Supply and demand works.” 

It’s an approach that kept him from becoming overwhelmed. “I take things one day at a time. It’s one phone call, one experience, and one negotiation at a time.” 

Second, he found a niche for his business interests, particularly the auto dealerships, that suited his style and abilities. 

Third, he was not afraid to fail. “I lost my fear of failure a long time ago,” he said. “I learned that I was going to fail on some things, but that wasn’t catastrophic. Failure is not the end of the world.” He also learned to capitalize on the positives. “Successes give confidence, and strength leads to strength.” 

In Miller’s opinion, the biggest challenge a growing business faces is managing growth. “I believe that a high percentage of business failures-probably as much as 80 percent-are not a result of lack of effort, or a bad product or service, but rather the result of outgrowing one’s capital base and/or the ability to manage growth. Today’s business world is dynamic, and when growth comes, it often comes very suddenly.” 

Miller said there is no substitute for hard work, but it needs to be smart work. “It’s easy to confuse motion and progress. Progress always needs motion, but motion isn’t always progress.” 

His solution? He repeated: Keep things simple. Don’t get caught up in sophisticated or complex trappings. Pay attention to the basics. “I don’t have to look at many numbers to know what’s going on in any given store, whether or not we own it. Every department has two or three key numbers that tell the story. Focus on the simple things and then let yourself get more sophisticated. You can’t lose sight of the core issues; if you do, you’ll forget what made you great.”