• Shut Up and Listen!

  • Hard Business Truths that Will Help You Succeed
  • By: Tilman Fertitta, Jim Gray
  • Narrated by: Tilman Fertitta
  • Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,746 ratings)

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Shut Up and Listen!  By  cover art

Shut Up and Listen!

By: Tilman Fertitta,Jim Gray
Narrated by: Tilman Fertitta
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Publisher's summary

Shut Up and Listen! is a true leadership roadmap to the summit of career success and satisfaction, featuring concise principles for entrepreneurs and business leaders at any level.

Tilman Fertitta, also known as the Billion Dollar Buyer, started his hospitality empire thirty years ago with just one restaurant. Over the years, he’s stayed true to the principles that helped him build the largest single-shareholder company in America, with over $4 billion in revenue, including hundreds of restaurants (Landry’s Seafood, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Morton’s Steakhouse, Mastro’s, Rainforest Café, and over forty more restaurant concepts) and five Golden Nugget Casinos. He’s also sole owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. This book shares the key insights that made it all possible.

In Shut Up and Listen!, Fertitta shares straight-talk “Tilmanisms” around six key action items that any entrepreneur can adopt today:

  • Be the Bull
  • No Spare Customers
  • Change, Change, Change
  • Know Your Numbers
  • Follow the 95/5 Rule
  • Take No Out of Your Vocabulary

For aspiring entrepreneurs or people in business, this guide will help you take your company to the next level. When you put this book down, you’ll know what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong to operate your business, and if you’re just getting started, it will help set you up for success.

A groundbreaking, no-holds-barred book, Shut Up and Listen! offers practical, hard-earned wisdom from one of the most successful business owners in the world.

©2019 Tilman Fertitta (P)2019 HarperCollins Leadership

Critic reviews

'You will want to reread and review Tilman's timeless lessons for business owners over and over again.'—TOM BRADY, six-time Super Bowl Champion, four-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time NFL MVP

'Tilman's swag comes through loud and clear on every page, telling you what you need to do to be successful.'—JAMES HARDEN, NBA Houston Rockets Superstar and MVP

'Tilman offers up compelling lessons on how to build and run a business. If you want to rocket your business to new heights, this is the book for you.'—SCOTT KELLY, Capt. US Navy Retired, former NASA astronaut

What listeners say about Shut Up and Listen!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

This is truth!

Lived it and loved it. This tells you exactly where you are headed! Be wise and if you are just starting out its a must read. It served me as a confirmation in a hectic family owed business.

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Tilman Didn't Follow His own 95/5 Rule

The content of this book is much like a lite college class or a "Some Things You Should Think About" Business Seminar. The content is not bad but it does come across narcissistic and simple. I am a Fertitta fan. I enjoy watching Billion Dollar Buyer. Not going to recommend this book. My greatest gripe is the audible quality. Sounds like he's talking in a bucket. If he would have followed his own 95/5 rule, he would have brought in a few acoustic panels to wash out the talking in a tiny bathroom sound.

This book audio feels rushed and not well edited. Many chapters have a low buzz or white noise sound. This can be clearly heard in his basic pauses and transitions. I don't have any issues with his content. It's simply the audio of the book that has left me dissatisfied.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Inspiring!

Great book with valuable information. Now it's time for me to go and build my empire.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Truth Spoken

I work for a growing restaurant and this is exactly what i needed to hear to confirm we are growing in the right direction. Truth spoken and I'm listening!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome Tilman

Too many hiccups in the recording, doesn’t flow. I personally expected more, felt like he was under pressure to write a book in few hours

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Solid advise. Not as in-depth as I would have hoped

Solid advise. Not as in-depth as I would have hoped

Tilman is a genius!! Or should I say ‘a stable genius’!!

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Shut Up and Listen- a no BS business book

I read a lot of business books. Most I find these days are rehashed from the classics.

Nothing new.

Tilman delivers the truth about business and how to succeed. It’s the same message my father in law and mentor told me as we struggled through a large development some years back. Shane- failure isn’t not an option. Get it out of your head. Never ever give up (yes- we have heard this before- but Tilman gives you strategies to work through the tough times)

Get the book. It’s well worth your time

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great tips!

Great experiences to apply in my own business! Thanks for writing this book and sharing what you've learned!

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I would work for this man just to hear his stories

Great listen (and great read, I bought both formats). No BS business owner who tells it like it is. Will likely listen to it again.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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I would highly recommend this book!

very simple practical and easy to understand.
this book will encourage you and give you some of the principles you can apply to your business
love it A++++

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  • Aaron
  • 09-21-19

Genuine lessons from the mouth of a self-made billionaire

With all the rubbish out there from wannabes claiming how they make £100k and if you buy their course you can do that too...yeah right.

This is a really refreshing and incredibly rare opportunity to get really useful teachings from a billionaire. Not just as a well prepared book but he has given up time that few would to read the book himself in his own honest way.

I had just thrown in the towel on a business 2 years down the line after a serious issue where we’ve had to take a company to court to claim back £40,000. Tiny to some but it was my life savings.

I think he’s given me the boost I needed to realise there is still more to be done and not give up.

Unless you’re Warren Buffet or Richard Brandon et al, you’re not qualified to ignore what he has to say.

Stop listening to the small timers with their quirky gimmicks and give this a listen.

Thank you.

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  • Gary Myers
  • 10-20-21

Very enjoyable!

Really enjoyed this book. Very entertaining. Read well by the author. Lots of practical advice for businesses.

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  • Remy
  • 07-20-20

Easy read. I love his no BS attitude.

Really enjoyed this book especially as a budding entrepreneur who’s hoping to go into the same line of business as Tillman.

I agree with him that we are all in one way associated with hospitality irrespective of our fields of work. If there was one take away which I highly agree with is

It is nice to be important but more important to be nice.

I particularly like the story of him saying he went in his own bins at one of his restaurants to pick out cutlery that had been thrown by one of his employees.

This is a story of a man determined to always challenge himself and never settled for just enough.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 12-29-19

A great listen

A no nonsense no frills account of how he made a success of his business life. With the voice of Tilman Fertitta adding authenticity to the narration in his distinct straight to the point no nonsense way, made this audio book a real joy as well as an education.

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  • J. Davis
  • 10-06-23

Good sound advice, to the point.

A good reminder of when things are going well a d encouragement when perhaps not.

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  • R
  • 02-02-23

my kind of leader

no nonsense advice.

i loved it. if people are struggling Tilman is your guy as long as you can be honest with yourself

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  • Anonymous User
  • 10-12-22

fantastic !!!!

fantastic !!!! excellent if work in hospitality you will be your best friend for ones SHUT UP AND LISENT

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 12-15-21

Inspiring, Motivational and Simple!!

Excellent to listen to, delivers a simple message, I believe I've listened to this at the right time as I'm just starting to hire staff in a growing business and I think Tilman Fertitta has a great stance on leading people, I'll be listening to it all over again very shortly 👍

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  • Anonymous User
  • 03-16-21

this is spot on!

i love this book. I have read it 5 times and I will read it 5 more times I can guarante that

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  • Moosa
  • 01-02-21

Simple but key messages from Tilman

Enjoyed listening to audio book, the key messages from Tilman are very basic yet really impactful when you relate them to business and life. Highly recommend it to those starting up a new business. Well structured and supported with many examples.

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  • Giuseppe
  • 01-14-20

Strong and straight to the point

Tilman Fertitta is a real business Man. I found that within this book there are lots of golden nuggets especially for people who want to start their own business.
His approach to hospitality and any other business is clear and simple to apply. Loved it.

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  • John Nassif
  • 11-09-19

John Nassif review

great pure business advice thats practical. great job
strong stories to back it up also the advice

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  • Anonymous User
  • 10-17-20

Everything you need to know - highly recommend!

Tilman is a stickler for the detail and anyone who runs a business, is entrepreneurial or in a leadership position managing a time will gain plenty of value from this. It isn’t the most in depth book you could expect, but the relevance and points he makes are definitely there in spades.

Highly recommend!!

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  • Anonymous User
  • 09-26-20

I’m not sure whether to give this book a four or five star review

He makes it sound so simple. Quite a bit of it seems to be obvious stuff but I really wonder whether succeed in business is actually as easy as he makes it out to be. I suspect not, unless one gets really lucky...

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  • Anonymous User
  • 01-02-20

Down to earth, easy to understand!!!

Easy to follow. A lot of great practical advice. Cuts through all the BS. Excellent reading.

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