Jack DeBoer

Jack DeBoer’s message Tuesday night at the Lied Center was clear and concise: Move to success and move to significance.

The 78-year-old entrepreneur graced the stage for the 40th anniversary of the Vickers Memorial Lecture Series, sponsored by the Kansas University’s School of Business. He urged future leaders to be honest in their business ventures, to celebrate successes, and not to focus on failures because they are typically short-lived.

“I like to tell kids that everybody fails,” said DeBoer, chairman of Consolidated Holdings Inc. in Wichita. “I have started over 30 companies and most of them have failed.”

Hundreds were captivated in the Lied Center auditorium by the simplicity and honesty with which DeBoer spoke. DeBoer, whose companies have built more than 500 hotels and 16,000 apartments, challenged Kansas University business students to evaluate why they have chosen their current career paths, and threw in his two cents about entrepreneurship and smart decision-making as well.

“The Singer Company offered $100 million for my company and I owned 95 percent of it personally … but I didn’t do it and a year later I was broke,” DeBoer said.

He spent seven years picking up the pieces and once again rose to the top of the business world.

DeBoer designed and built the first Residence Inn all-suite hotel in Wichita in 1975, later selling the company to Marriott Corp. He then co-founded Summerfield Hotel Corp., before selling to Hyatt, and then founded Candlewood Hotel Co., later sold to InterContinental Hotels.

He has also received the prestigious “Uncommon Citizen” award from the Wichita Chamber of Commerce.

While explaining the events that led to some of his largest successes and failures, and the ethics behind his practice, he plainly told the audience that it’s how you give back that’s important.

DeBoer has teamed up with World Vision, helping provide basic services, such as clean water systems, for the people of Myanmar, formerly Burma, in Southeast Asia.

He closed his lecture Tuesday by talking about the future of the world.

“It’s wonderful,” DeBoer said. “Enjoy reasonable health and build on it, prepare for life and its challenges, practice honesty … if you will do those things, you are guaranteed a life that only a few of God’s people have ever had the opportunity to enjoy.”