John Allison, founder, Centennial Bank.

John W. Allison has come a long way from digging ditches for trailer parks and selling mobile homes.

As chairman of board of Home BancShares, Allison now runs a $10 billion company with 151 branches and more than 1,500 employees.

Behind every successful man, Allison said, is a good story. Whenever he meets successful entrepreneurs, Allison gets them to share their story. He wants to hear about their ups and downs, the successes and failures, the risks and rewards.

“If you can dig into that story, therein lies the success,” Allison said. “I know you thought you would lose it at some point and time, tell me the story.”

Allison will share his story as a keynote speaker at EntreCon 2016 on Thursday, Nov. 3. He is among a host of participants who will share important strategies, offer advice and provide information on starting and growing a business.

At 70, Allison has some interesting stories to tell.

He can start by talking about how Home BancShares has grown from the days when co-founder Robert “Bunny” Adcock and Allison bought the Bank of Holly Grove in Arkansas for $4.5 million to acquiring several failed banks in Florida and having $10 billion in assets.

The Conway, Ark.-based bank holding company has dozens of branches throughout Florida, Alabama and Arkansas operating under the name Centennial Bank.

“Since 1998, we are the fasting-growing community bank in the country,” Allison said. “We’ve created more millionaires than anybody else in Arkansas with people who believed in us and invested a little money with us years ago.”

From an early age, Allison knew he wanted to be a businessman.

His father ran a mobile park in Jonesboro, Ark. At 13, Allison sold a mobile home at $1,000 over invoice and became enthralled with sales and entrepreneurship.

It was easy to fall in love with that aspect of the business after spending the previous summer at his dad’s mobile home park digging ditches with his brother and earning only $250.

Allison continued working in the family business while studying business at Arkansas State.

In college, Allison heard a successful businessman’s story and he said it put him on track to seek and find his treasures in business as well.

Arkansas native Kemmons Wilson founder of the Holiday Inn hotel chain, drove to Jonesboro to talk to college students, much like Allison will do this week at EntreCon.

“He came and spoke to a bunch of redneck college students, and I was one of those redneck college students sitting there," Allison said. "He motivated me, and I had never met the man, but I called him and talked to him on the telephone a couple times and just thanked him for what he did for me."

After college, Allison went to work for a company that made mobile homes and eventually ended up owning his own mobile home business.

He entered the banking industry in 1998, after accepting an invitation to serve on of the First National Bank of Conway.

“I became such a big depositor in town that banks were vying for my business,” Allison said.

The rest, as the saying goes, is his story.

Through his life's story, Allison has some good advice for fledging entrepreneurs.

A lot of businesses fail because they don’t have the operating capital eventually run out of money, Allison said.

“They grow themselves broke,” he said. “It’s difficult for kids to understand, but you can grow so much that you deploy all your capital and you have to borrow money.”

Allison prides himself on being frugal. He didn’t take a salary for the first 10 years of starting in the banking industry.

“Just because you own a business, doesn’t mean you can pay yourself a big salary,” Allison said. “Even today, I still drive my own car.”

Allison said he’s grateful for the people who took time to talk to and mentor him. To show his gratitude, Allison sponsors an entrepreneur speaking series at Central Arkansas University in Conway. His goal is inspire college students the way he was inspired in college.

At a recent Central Arkansas football game, a player came to him looking for guidance and help in business and life.

Because someone took the time to talk him, he wants to give his time to others.mThat’s one reason he agreed to speak at EntreCon.

“I’m busy and I got a lot of stuff going on, but I do this because of those kids in that audience that day,” Allison said. “It’s not about me, it about other people. That’s my life, that’s what I do, and I love running this company and helping other people be successful.”