Great Business Stories
- Episodes
- 86
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 11, 2026
About the podcast
A great business story thoroughly researched and brought to life by Caemin. New episode released every Wednesday .
Episodes 86
Rupert Murdoch: 1931-1969
Murdoch doesn’t really need much of an introduction- we all know about Murdoch, we all know how powerful and influential he has been throughout his life- but in this episode we look at the very beginnings, the …
Show notes
Murdoch doesn’t really need much of an introduction- we all know about Murdoch, we all know how powerful and influential he has been throughout his life- but in this episode we look at the very beginnings, the influence of his father, a powerful newspaper executive. We see how young Murdoch started with just 2 newspapers, was underestimated from the get go but battled his way to the top of the media business in Australia by the age of 37 before setting his sights on the UK- it’s a cracking story, enjoy.
Thor Björgólfur: Riches, Ruin and the Price of Respect
Thor Björgólfur's story is fascinating in one way because it gives us a great insight into Iceland’s catastrophic banking collapse in 2008, but there are also so many other great stories in Thor's own business …
Show notes
Thor Björgólfur's story is fascinating in one way because it gives us a great insight into Iceland’s catastrophic banking collapse in 2008, but there are also so many other great stories in Thor's own business career—like the 10 years he spent building his first business in Russia, some very big question marks about Thor’s dealings while he was there, how he sold his Russian brewery to Heineken and made $100 million, went back to Iceland to rehabilitate his family name, became Iceland's first billionaire, and how it all came crashing down and he became a pariah in his country.
Tim Cook: Who Would Have Thought?
The fact is that I never gave this guy a chance- of course i was wrong so I was intrigued to find out how this humble but very smart guy who took on probably the hardest CEO role by having to follow in the …
Show notes
The fact is that I never gave this guy a chance- of course i was wrong so I was intrigued to find out how this humble but very smart guy who took on probably the hardest CEO role by having to follow in the footsteps of Steve Jobs.
How did he grow Apple's revenues from $108 billion to $416 billion, and its market cap from $350 billion to nearly $4.9 trillion without actually bringing out any real blockbuster devices?
How did such a low key, no ego guy, come out of Jobs' shadow to be rightly lauded as one of the best CEOs ever?
I enjoyed researching this episode more than nearly any previous one, it surprised me and it’s a cracker- enjoy.
Richard Branson: 1950-1993
I would say more than anyone else, Richard Branson was the guy who inspired me to become an entrepreneur- I have a terrible memory but I remember so vividly Branson’s first appearance on the Late Late Show …
Show notes
I would say more than anyone else, Richard Branson was the guy who inspired me to become an entrepreneur- I have a terrible memory but I remember so vividly Branson’s first appearance on the Late Late Show- that was Ireland’s biggest talk show - and it was 1986 - and it was the first time I’d ever seen a businessman who didn’t act like a businessman- woolly jumper and jeans, big hair, big teeth and when he talked he just made business sound like fun, an adventure- which for most of us who love business, that’s exactly how we see it - yeah it’s tough, it’s challenging but that’s all part of the fun and adventure.
And the story I’m going to tell today where Branson leaves school at 16 to set up an anti-establishment magazine, gets arrested for cheating the tax man, signs the Sex Pistols when no one else would touch them, starts a transatlantic airline, using his hair-raising escapades on boats and hot air balloons to publicise his businesses, brings the mighty British Airways to its knees- it makes for a cracking story- enjoy.
General Magic: Right Product, Wrong Time
I had heard about General Magic over the years- and it was always held up as this almost mythical startup- the company that more or less developed the smartphone but was years too early, and then just 2 weeks …
Show notes
I had heard about General Magic over the years- and it was always held up as this almost mythical startup- the company that more or less developed the smartphone but was years too early, and then just 2 weeks ago I came across a documentary on it- it’s simply called General Magic- and it’s really good- well worth watching. So i did a b it more digging, found great articles and additional interviews with the founders. This is the story of how 1 guy had this vision for a new handheld device, how he got the top talent from Apple to join him, how they got the biggest tech and telecom companies in the world to join them, how they were stabbed in the back by John Skulley, the Apple CEO, and how it all fell apart- this is a cracking story, enjoy.
Olympus: A Very Japanese Scandal
I have a very clear memory of this story because it became public 15 years ago in 2011, and I remember watching the news and seeing Michael Woodford, the whistleblower being mobbed by the media in Tokyo after …
Show notes
I have a very clear memory of this story because it became public 15 years ago in 2011, and I remember watching the news and seeing Michael Woodford, the whistleblower being mobbed by the media in Tokyo after he had found out and exposed a 20 year $1.7 billion dollar fraud in Olympus the company where he had just been promoted to the CEO role.
And what I love about this story is that it gives us a great insight into Japanese corporate life, how saving face was, and maybe still is prioritised over everything else. This story has drama, strong characters and even the hint organised crime in the form of the Yazuka- it’s a brilliant story- enjoy
Ken Griffin: Wall Street’s Ultimate Competitor
Griffin has been on my list from day 1- like he’s the 32nd richest person in the world with a net worth of $60 billion, but I was in no real rush to cover him, until about 2 weeks ago when I finally got round …
Show notes
Griffin has been on my list from day 1- like he’s the 32nd richest person in the world with a net worth of $60 billion, but I was in no real rush to cover him, until about 2 weeks ago when I finally got round to watching Dumb Money- the movie about the GameStop short squeeze-and it’s a pretty good movie.
But in the film the 2 or 3 times when Griffin's name is mentioned, it’s followed by the word “prick”- so that got me really interested- is he that bad or is it simply jealously as a result of his success because, even compared to the other Masters of Universe on Wall, Griffin is seriously successful- his hedge fund is the most successful hedge fund ever in history, but even more than that he has a second separate business, a securities business, and it trades more than $170 trillion worth of securities a year making it one of the biggest trading businesses in the world- how did he get to where he is - this is a fascinating story- enjoy
Ben & Jerry’s 1978-2026 RIP
The RIP part, well you’ll see what I’m getting at by the end of the episode. I wanted to dig into this story for a while now because like most of you, I knew the outline -you know, 2 hippy type guys who did …
Show notes
The RIP part, well you’ll see what I’m getting at by the end of the episode. I wanted to dig into this story for a while now because like most of you, I knew the outline -you know, 2 hippy type guys who did things a bit differently, who were never really interested in money or success and yet they built one of the biggest and best known ice cream brands in the world.
But the details of how they did this- through just being totally authentic, following their sense of fun, getting a lucky break, and then when they become successful they do everything they can to spread the wealth, to develop a different type of business but eventually big business catches up with them and while the ending is sad for Ben and Jerry, I just love this story for so many different reasons- enjoy.
Brian Chesky and Airbnb: The $100 Billion Bad Idea
Look, I’d be lying if I said I’d always wanted to cover Chesky and Airbnb. I hadn’t really read much about either of them. The business itself sounds pretty humdrum. People renting out apartments, spare rooms …
Show notes
Look, I’d be lying if I said I’d always wanted to cover Chesky and Airbnb. I hadn’t really read much about either of them. The business itself sounds pretty humdrum. People renting out apartments, spare rooms. Nothing really new or exciting there. And Chesky himself has always flown under the radar.
But each week the story I pick just depends on what catches my fancy and last week, for whatever reason, I thought, you know what, I know absolutely nothing about this guy. I want to dig into it.
And what a story.
Because Chesky and his co-founders basically took one of the crappiest business ideas — renting out airbeds on apartment floors — and through sheer tenacity and a fantastic understanding of how a product should work, they turned it into a $100 billion company.
But it’s really the stories behind the company that make this so good. Making their own cereal to clear their debts. Not knowing what a slide deck or an angel investor was. Coming up against the king of the clones, the dreaded Samwer brothers from Germany, losing 80% of their business when Covid hit.
It all makes for a cracking story.
Enjoy.
Peter Thiel: 1967–2002
As regular listeners will know, I’ve wanted to cover Thiel for some time now.He’s going to warrant a three-parter at least because, love him or loathe him, Thiel is without doubt one of the most interesting …
Show notes
As regular listeners will know, I’ve wanted to cover Thiel for some time now.
He’s going to warrant a three-parter at least because, love him or loathe him, Thiel is without doubt one of the most interesting, controversial and polarising people in business over the last 30 years.
For listeners who don’t know him, Thiel was part of what became known as the PayPal Mafia - this group of supersmart guys who founded and built PayPal. The company survived the dot-com crash, it almost went under because of Russian fraudsters and they eventually cashed out in 2002.
And then a lot of the people involved went on to even more success. We’re talking Thiel himself, Elon Musk, David Sacks and Reid Hoffman.
So this episode focuses on Thiel’s early life and brings us right up to the sale of PayPal in 2002. It is a cracking story. Enjoy.
Enzo Ferrari: The Obsession Behind the Prancing Horse
Now I’m not a big petrol head, but as some of you might know, I love Formula 1, and I think it's fair to say that Formula 1 wouldn’t be where it is today without Ferrari—so I was really keen to dig into …
Show notes
Now I’m not a big petrol head, but as some of you might know, I love Formula 1, and I think it's fair to say that Formula 1 wouldn’t be where it is today without Ferrari—so I was really keen to dig into this.
And what a story.
Enzo Ferrari wasn’t your typical business guy. Most people think of Ferrari as a company that builds expensive road cars and also happens to race. But for Enzo Ferrari, the road car business was really secondary—those beautiful, expensive cars were made for one reason only—it was to fund his obsession with racing.
And it was an obsession.
He valued his engines more than his drivers. He had little time for his family, but still made time for numerous affairs.
He could be a charming, funny and brilliant salesman, but he could also be cold, ruthless and very difficult.
And he makes for a cracking story.
Bernie Ebbers & WorldCom - When The Tide Goes Out…
The whole WorldCom scandal never really registered with me- because it happened straight after the dotcom bubble burst, so myself and my cofounders were just dusting ourselves off and slowly realising that we …
Show notes
The whole WorldCom scandal never really registered with me- because it happened straight after the dotcom bubble burst, so myself and my cofounders were just dusting ourselves off and slowly realising that we weren’t going to suddenly become business tycoons and on top of that whole Enron scandal had exploded just a bit before so that was the story that consumed me back then - so when WorldCom went bust, I didn’t really give it a lot of time, but I knew in the back of my mind that there was great story here- Bernie Ebbers, this 6 foot 4, honest to goodness church-going cowboy who kind of came from nowhere to all of a sudden building one of the biggest telecom companies in the USA, until suddenly it all collapsed becoming the biggest bankruptcy in US history, far surpassing Enron and and I’m glad that I finally got round to digging into thai story because it really is a cracking one- enjoy
The Rise and Ruin of the Barclay Twins
This is the remarkable story of how David and Frederick Barclay went from painters and decorators to owning the most prestigious hotels in London: the Ritz, Claridge's, the Connaught, the Berkeley. They bought …
Show notes
This is the remarkable story of how David and Frederick Barclay went from painters and decorators to owning the most prestigious hotels in London: the Ritz, Claridge's, the Connaught, the Berkeley.
They bought the Telegraph Newspaper Group, they bought an island and built a £100 million castle on it, their fortune was estimated to be £7 billion pounds as late as 2020. But these guys, man, they were secretive, underhand — these guys pulled some very sneaky shit. And then it all came crashing down when the twins turned on each other, culminating in the Ritz Hotel bugging scandal. This is a sensational and cracking story — enjoy.
Microsoft 1994-2000: How Bill Gates Turned a Browser War Into an Antitrust Disaster
This is, without doubt, one of my favourite stories ever. And look, I'll be doing a good few episodes on Gates and Microsoft, but why I decided to start off with this one is because it's a fantastic standalone …
Show notes
This is, without doubt, one of my favourite stories ever. And look, I'll be doing a good few episodes on Gates and Microsoft, but why I decided to start off with this one is because it's a fantastic standalone story. You have Bill Gates and Microsoft, in the mid-90s at the height of their power, and then along comes Marc Andreessen and Netscape, who develop a browser that really launches the World Wide Web. And this is an existential threat to Microsoft. They try to bully Netscape into a deal, but Netscape fight back, and this sets in motion an antitrust case that brings out Gates' arrogance, petulance and fear, and it leads to a judgement where Microsoft is ordered to split in two. This is a cracking story, enjoy.
John Foley and Peloton: What Went Wrong?
I wanted to dig into this story purely because what I knew of Peloton really was just from the headlines. During the pandemic, stock pickers and the business media crowned Peloton the business of the future. It …
Show notes
I wanted to dig into this story purely because what I knew of Peloton really was just from the headlines. During the pandemic, stock pickers and the business media crowned Peloton the business of the future. It was called the Apple of fitness. You had the Obamas, Usain Bolt, Leonardo DiCaprio, dozens of high-profile celebrities as customers, and some of Peloton's live classes had bigger audiences than Madison Square Garden. And then, just as quickly, the same press that had lauded him turned on him. Foley and Peloton became the poster child for pandemic-era hubris. A company that reached a $49 billion valuation is now just worth $2.6 billion. Was it all Foley's fault? That's what we'll find out in today's episode. It's a cracking story, enjoy.
Yuri Milner: From Russia With Billions
I've wanted to cover Milner ever since I first came across him in Sebastian Mallaby's excellent book, The Power Law, where Mallaby introduces Milner with the following:"At the start of 2009, the CFO at Facebook …
Show notes
I've wanted to cover Milner ever since I first came across him in Sebastian Mallaby's excellent book, The Power Law, where Mallaby introduces Milner with the following:
"At the start of 2009, the CFO at Facebook took a call from Moscow. A soft Russian voice announced that he wanted to invest in Facebook. The caller had a gentle but insistent style. He had a slight build, a nose bent to his right, and an oval face crowned by a smooth dome. He wanted to meet in person. Facebook did not accept capital from just anyone." The CFO told Milner bluntly: "Don't come all the way here just to see me." Milner booked a plane ticket, flew to San Francisco, and more or less doorstepped the CFO.
This is the story of how this small, quietly spoken Russian goes from earning just $5 a month to reaching the very peak of Silicon Valley, investing in Facebook at a valuation that US investors thought was crazy, becoming one of Mark Zuckerberg's most trusted friends and advisors, and then going on to make huge and very successful investments in Spotify, Zynga, and Revolut, to name just a few. Along the way, Milner navigates his way through the oligarch-infested pools of Russian business, survives all of the political and media backlash that comes from the revelation that much of his early money came from entities closely linked to the Kremlin, and has come out the other side still riding high with a personal fortune of $8.7 billion. It's a cracking story—enjoy.
Steve Ballmer: 1956–2000
And let me start with a quote: "I didn't pull you out of Stanford Business School to bankrupt the company" — that's Bill Gates, early on, arguing with the man he'd just hired as Microsoft's first ever business …
Show notes
And let me start with a quote: "I didn't pull you out of Stanford Business School to bankrupt the company" — that's Bill Gates, early on, arguing with the man he'd just hired as Microsoft's first ever business manager. That man of course was Steve Ballmer, and the two of them would go on to build one of the most valuable companies in history together, through huge arguments, a legendary contract with IBM, and a decade of ruthless sales tactics that got Windows onto practically every computer on the planet. This episode takes Ballmer from his childhood right up to becoming Microsoft's CEO in 2000. It's a cracker — enjoy.
BlockBuster: The Men & Moments Behind Its Rise and Fall
There are so many great characters in this story — I dig into the founder, David Cook, a guy who sold the business for $12 million but could have made $300 million if he'd stayed on for just a few more years …
Show notes
There are so many great characters in this story — I dig into the founder, David Cook, a guy who sold the business for $12 million but could have made $300 million if he'd stayed on for just a few more years. And then Wayne Huizenga, the guy who turbo-charged the business, after building his first fortune in the rough and tumble of the waste management business in the 70s and 80s. There's the now legendary meeting where Blockbuster's executives had the chance to buy a fledgling company called Netflix for $50 million but more or less laughed the Netflix founders out of the room. And then, as I've come to expect, Carl Icahn makes an appearance and bullies his way into the business, but makes a complete mess of it. It's a cracking story — enjoy.
Carlos Slim: The Numbers Genius Who Built an Empire
This is a guy whose father fled Lebanon with almost nothing and today is worth $120 billion. I examine how he built his fortune buying up distressed businesses during Mexico's economic collapse of the 1980s …
Show notes
This is a guy whose father fled Lebanon with almost nothing and today is worth $120 billion. I examine how he built his fortune buying up distressed businesses during Mexico's economic collapse of the 1980s, and how a controversial privatisation deal for the national phone company turned him into the richest man in the world. I also look at the huge criticism he's faced for monopolistic practices that cost ordinary Mexicans billions and also held back the development of an entire country, and how he's used that fortune combined with this intrinsic and intangible gift for numbers to make savvy investments in everything from Apple to the New York Times. It's a cracking story — enjoy.
CZ and Binance: The Man Who Built Crypto's Biggest Empire
This is a guy who grew up in a village in rural China with no running water and today is now worth $110 billion. I examine his relationship with Sam Bankman Fried- and his subsequent involvement in the multi …
Show notes
This is a guy who grew up in a village in rural China with no running water and today is now worth $110 billion. I examine his relationship with Sam Bankman Fried- and his subsequent involvement in the multi billion dollar collapse of Bankman Fried’s company FTX. I also look at how he tried to keep Binance away from any type of regulation, and this ultimately led him to serve time in jail but then very controversially get a presidential pardon. It's a cracking story — enjoy.
Hyundai Part 1: Chung Ju-yung, The Founder
Initially I had intended to do just 1 episode on Hyundai, focusing mainly on the car business and it’s current leadership, but the story of Ju-yung is just too remarkable to be consigned to a footnote- this is …
Show notes
Initially I had intended to do just 1 episode on Hyundai, focusing mainly on the car business and it’s current leadership, but the story of Ju-yung is just too remarkable to be consigned to a footnote- this is a guy who, from nothing, built a conglomerate that at it’s peak in the 90s was one of the biggest companies in the world, with revenues of $90 billion, 200,000 employees, operating in everything from semi conductors, to cars, to ship building, to construction, to retail outlets- you name it, they did it and Ju-yung built it all through wars and military rulers, it’s a cracking story, enjoy.
Calvin Klein:An American Icon
Now, I’m not into fashion and I really didn’t know anything about Klein before I did my research for this episode and I found him to be such a fascinating character-how he, together with Ralph Lauren and Ann …
Show notes
Now, I’m not into fashion and I really didn’t know anything about Klein before I did my research for this episode and I found him to be such a fascinating character-how he, together with Ralph Lauren and Ann Klein, no relation, dragged American fashion out of the shadow of Paris and made it stand on its own two feet.
How he didn’t do it on his own- Calvin Klein the business was always 2 people- Klein and Barry Schwartz, how Klein pioneered designer jeans, how he built his company while partying in Studio 54 and burning the candle at both ends, and how the business was just days from bankruptcy before David Geffen came to the rescue. Also, his marketing genius, he was behind some of the most controversial and influential ads of the 1980’s and 90’s. He makes for a cracking story, enjoy.
David Sacks: Silicon Valley's Rainmaker
Sacks is a very interesting and powerful figure. He started his tech career with PayPal, and it was Sacks, together with other PayPal founders, who organised the coup that got Elon Musk fired as PayPal's CEO …
Show notes
Sacks is a very interesting and powerful figure. He started his tech career with PayPal, and it was Sacks, together with other PayPal founders, who organised the coup that got Elon Musk fired as PayPal's CEO. He went on to start up Geni.com and Yammer, selling Yammer for $1.2 billion dollars. He then set up a venture firm and has risen to prominence through the All In podcast, and then in 2024 was made President Trump's AI and Crypto Tsar. It is he who is advising Trump on the type and the amount of regulation required for AI — an extremely powerful and important position. So who is Sacks, how did he get to where he is? This is a cracking episode — enjoy.
Roberto Calvi: Italy’s Corruption Laid Bare
This is a story that I’ve wanted to get to the bottom of for years- for those of you who aren’t aware of who Calvi is- he was known as God’s Banker- the guy who managed the vatican;s money back in the 70’s and …
Show notes
This is a story that I’ve wanted to get to the bottom of for years- for those of you who aren’t aware of who Calvi is- he was known as God’s Banker- the guy who managed the vatican;s money back in the 70’s and early 80’s and who was found hanged under Blackfriars bridge in 1982, and here's an excerpt from the BBC on Calvi:
"Calvi was at the centre of an incredibly complex web of international fraud and intrigue. It involved the Italian banking world, the underworld, the Mafia, Freemasonry and, most startling of all, the Vatican. The banker's death would trigger a wide-ranging political and financial scandal in Italy. It would involve the disappearance of millions of dollars, and leave behind an enduring mystery.”
So as you can imagine- this is a story that has so many different strands- you could do probably a dozen different stories from all of the characters and plot lines-but Calvi’s story shines a light on how corrupt Italy was- this is a cracking story- enjoy
Steven A. Cohen: The Master of Edge
The edge in the title refers to an advantage that Cohen had over the rest of the market-because he is considered without doubt one of the best intuitive traders ever- good enough that he took home $3.5 billion …
Show notes
The edge in the title refers to an advantage that Cohen had over the rest of the market-because he is considered without doubt one of the best intuitive traders ever- good enough that he took home $3.5 billion last year, rich enough to lose more than $1.5 billion in the whole Gamestop short squeeze and shrug it off but is his wealth and success all down to skill or does he cross the line, as prosecutors have tried to prove numerous times? It’s a cracking story enjoy
Michael O Leary: The Jumped-Up Paddy Who Doesn’t Give a Shit
I chose this episode not only because it’s brilliant, but also because my youngest listener and favourite nephew has been bugging me to do the story of a leary for a long time nowI’ll start with an excerpt from …
Show notes
I chose this episode not only because it’s brilliant, but also because my youngest listener and favourite nephew has been bugging me to do the story of a leary for a long time now
I’ll start with an excerpt from a profile the journalist Philip Watson did on O Leary: “Through a series of audacious business moves and a decidedly gunslinging approach to his opponents, Michael O Leary made Ryanair the most profitable low-cost carrier in Europe.
As one business associate bluntly puts it: "When he goes into battle he boots the shit out of anyone or anything that gets in his way."
And to give you an idea of O Leary view of business:
“When you look at the number of stupid people who have succeeded in business, you clearly don’t have to be very bright. Business is all about getting your sales up and your costs down, the bit in the middle is profit.”
O Leary took a tiny airline from almost bankruptcy into what is now the third most valuable airline in the world- he is without doubt one of the most unconventional, uncompromising and yet I think in a very round-about way, one of the most endearing and self-aware business people in the world and he makes for a cracking story- enjoySam Altman: 1985-2023
I’ll open up with an excerpt from a fantastic New Yorker article on Altman:"Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart- and according …
Show notes
I’ll open up with an excerpt from a fantastic New Yorker article on Altman:
"Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart- and according to an OpenAI board member: “He’s unconstrained by truth. He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”
So in this episode I look at Altman’s progression from app developer to a massively successful investor- eventually accumulating a $3.5 billion fortune from his investments, to taking over and growing Y Combinator, the most influential incubator and to then battling Elon Musk to eventually take charge of Open AI and by the time we get to the end, at the age of just 38 he’s become one of the most influential and powerful people in business and technology. It’s a cracking story- enjoy.
Philip Green: The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism
I’m going to kick it off with this excerpt from Oliver Shah’s excellent book on Green called Damaged Goods:“Mr Toad-like in appearance, with a bulging belly and a mischievous grin, Green turned into a business …
Show notes
I’m going to kick it off with this excerpt from Oliver Shah’s excellent book on Green called Damaged Goods:
“Mr Toad-like in appearance, with a bulging belly and a mischievous grin, Green turned into a business celebrity, often spotted on the front row of fashion shows between Kate Moss and Anna Wintour. Nut-brown from the Riviera sun, his silver hair slicked back into a rat’s tail, he relished the role he had carved out for himself as the retail industry’s roguish uncle.
Bankers from Goldman Sachs and HSBC fell over themselves to offer him money and advice. Simon Cowell and Ronnie Wood attended his parties. He paid his wife almost £2bn of offshore dividends from his high-street empire and made two headline-grabbing hostile takeover attempts for Marks & Spencer. He was knighted by Tony Blair. It all came crashing down in 2016.”And that is the story I’m going to tell today—Philip Green, the one-time king of the high street. The opulent lifestyle, the aggression, the bullying, the greed—it’s a cracking story. Enjoy.
Bill Ackman: 1966–2008
I’m breaking up Ackman’s story into three, maybe even four parts because, like him or loathe him, Ackman is a very interesting character. I’ll kick it off with a quote from Carl Icahn, the legendary Wall Street …
Show notes
I’m breaking up Ackman’s story into three, maybe even four parts because, like him or loathe him, Ackman is a very interesting character. I’ll kick it off with a quote from Carl Icahn, the legendary Wall Street investor who has tussled with Ackman on more than one occasion, and this kind of encapsulates the core of Ackman’s character:
“I would be a very happy man in life if I could be as certain of just one thing as he is certain about everything.”
And really, that’s Ackman in a nutshell—supremely, annoyingly confident, to the point of arrogance. Yet it is this confidence, combined with intelligence and persistence, that has resulted in the Ackman we know today—sticking his nose into everything from college admissions, to DEI, to Israel and Ukraine, while also building up a fortune estimated to be $9.6 billion at the time of recording.
So in this episode, I dig into how he started off. It’s a fascinating story. Enjoy.
Ross Perot: Shorty Got Game
I’m having a bit of a dig at Ross Perot’s height, but for a little guy, this guy had a lot of game—not just as a businessman. This guy could have been the US President.Here is a quote from Time Magazine from …
Show notes
I’m having a bit of a dig at Ross Perot’s height, but for a little guy, this guy had a lot of game—not just as a businessman. This guy could have been the US President.
Here is a quote from Time Magazine from 1992, when he threw his hat into the ring to become president: "It's hard to envision a seriously short guy who sounds like a chihuahua as a charismatic threat to democracy, but it is delicious to watch the thrills of horror running through the establishment at the mere thought."
Because as we’ll see in the story, Perot came this close to becoming the President of the United States in 1992. But this is a business story, so we will also, of course, be talking about his business achievements, which are just as big. He was IBM’s top salesman. He coined the term facilities management and created the first professional business model around it. Then he built and sold two multi-billion dollar companies.
And even more intriguingly, he hired a special ops commander who then trained some of his own employees, and then they flew into Tehran and helped break two of Perot’s employees out of a jail in Iran. I mean, this story has it all. It is brilliant. Enjoy.
These are the latest 40 of 86 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
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