H Wayne Huizenga is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and former professional sports team owner who was born on December 29, 1937 in the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park, Illinois. In his mid-teens, his family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After a stint in the Army Reserves, Huizenga returned to Fort Lauderdale and, starting with a single garbage truck in 1968, he grew Waste Management, Inc. into a company that would become a Fortune 500 company. By the time he took the company public in 1972, he had completed the acquisition of 133 small-time garbage companies. By 1983, he grew Waste Management into the largest waste disposal company in the United States. Huizenga repeated this success with Blockbuster Video, growing it from a handful of stores in 1987 into the U.S.’s leading movie rental chain by 1994. He also started and acquired auto dealerships and in 1996 he formed AutoNation, which has become the nation’s largest automotive dealer and a Fortune 500 company, and remains his most recent major business venture. Huizenga is also the former owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, the NHL’s Florida Panthers, and MLB’s Miami Marlins teams.
Quotes of H. Wayne Huizenga:
1. If you say you’re going to do something, be darn sure you do it.Â
Wayne HuizengaÂ
2. I like to build things – a hundred stores, a thousand stores.
Wayne HuizengaÂ
3. My father always said working for somebody else never amounted to anything. You have to be an entrepreneur.
Wayne HuizengaÂ
4. One unhappy customer will tell ten people and then you’ll have eleven unhappy customers.Â
Wayne Huizenga
5. [On being offered a deal on a video store when he rarely watched movies and didn’t own a VCR before blockbuster] You know I get 20 of these a week. Come on John [Melk]. A video store? I’m not interested.Â
Wayne HuizengaÂ
6. I’m not leaving until you say yes.Â
Wayne HuizengaÂ
7. I’m not looking for a job. I don’t want a job.Â
Wayne HuizengaÂ
8. I don’t need any more money. I’ve got enough money, but the challenge is to make money.
Wayne Huizenga
9. You got to do what you think is best.Â
Wayne HuizengaÂ
10. You make the decisions you got to make.Â
Wayne Huizenga
BY SHWETA TIWARI
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