Local auto dealer Joe Agresti built an empire with Nick Saban. So what’s next? In 2004, Joe Agresti bet everything—his life savings and his parents’ home—on a failing Mercedes-Benz dealership in Baton Rouge that had lost $600,000 the previous year. His mother was terrified. His father’s r esponse: “Trust this guy. He’s a winner.” Two decades later, the 53-year-old billionaire has transformed that gamble into a business empire built alongside an unlikely partner: legendary college football coach Nick Saban. Their Dream Motor Group operates 11 dealerships across five states, generating $2.2 billion in annual revenue. What began with what Agresti imagined was a prank phone call from a Saban impersonator evolved into what he calls “a 50/50 marriage”—a partnership that now extends beyond cars to hospitality, bourbon and a stake in the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators. Agresti’s secret? A rare combination of accounting expertise and genuine customer connection, wrapped in what he calls “a will to be weird.” Personally cooking dinner for 200 customers and requiring tardy meeting attendees to sing for admittance are not typical business strategies, but they’ve worked. Now worth an estimated $1.3 billion, Agresti is considering his riskiest move yet: running for the U.S. Senate. Read the full story, and send comments to [email protected].   ...read more read less