Like many entrepreneurs, Tom Hughes describes himself as someone who sees an opportunity and is willing to take the risks associated with achieving it; someone who thinks outside the box, gets an idea and pursues it. A self-proclaimed positive thinker who says he “just thinks differently,” Hughes’ approach to everything in life is not asking the question “Can we do it?” but “How can we do it?”

From the time he was a kid, Tom Hughes was always driven to challenging endeavors or working on something to make spending money. When he was a young boy, his first endeavor was weaving potholders on a loom and selling them door-to-door for 25 cents each.

As times changed and fads would come and go, Hughes tried his hand at various other enterprises, including pinball and vending machines (which he dissolved when he realized they break down and he didn’t know how to fix them).

While working his full time job as public relations officer for the St. Charles Police Department, Hughes began moonlighting as a security guard. Bored with that, he started his own security company. During all this time he sold real estate part time, was buying rental properties, got married and began building a new home.

“After building my own home, I helped a friend build his and then I kind of fell into building one or two contract homes a year,” he says. To help the sale along, “I’d post a sign that said ‘I’ll buy yours if you’ll buy mine!’ Between that sign and word of mouth, I ended up with 10 contracts in one year,” at which point he realized he could have a serious career in construction development.

So he left the police department in 1994, bought 20 acres near the I-370 area that was just beginning to be developed, and built his first development, Stable Ridge Estates. The 250-home development was an instant success and won several prestigious Homer Awards (the top award in the industry), and established T.R. Hughes, Inc. as a residential and commercial building and land development company.

The company has been listed at No. 178 on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 500 Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies in America.

Hughes knows the measure of his success is more than just numbers and he credits superior customer service, teamwork and employee commitment with the company’s remarkable achievements. No one person’s job is more important than another’s, he says.

Nicknamed the “Big Kahuna,” Hughes uses the question “Would I live here?” as the litmus test when working with customers, and he literally offers to buy back any house if a customer isn’t satisfied. No one has taken the offer.

The success of entrepreneur Tom Hughes is nothing short of phenomenal. Indeed, the story of this policeman turned successful business owner is truly an example of entrepreneurship in action. But there’s more. As his profits have grown, so have his tremendous philanthropic endeavors, giving back in whatever way possible to the community that has been so good to him.

For example, he underwrote the new ballpark for the River City Rascals—
T. R. Hughes Stadium. He has also donated land and erected a veterans’ memorial on a street named for him, T.R. Hughes Boulevard, in recognition of his many philanthropic acts and civic endeavors.