Peter
Captain Courageous aka Ted Turner
Controversy has always followed Ted Turner. People either hate him or love. Personally, I have been a fan ever since he won The America’s Cup back in the 1970s. He epitomizes what a billionaire should be in my humble opinion.
He took advantage of the time away from his baseball team by entering the 1977 America’s Cup race. In a dramatic series of contests in mild weather, his outdated yacht Courageous defeated its competition with clever, bold tacking to win the right to defend the America’s Cup against the world’s challenger. In somewhat less calm weather, Turner and a crew comprising veterans in their fifties and young men won the America’s Cup. Turner was too drunk to stand up during the victory celebration and was remembered for falling from his seat to the floor during presentations of the competition’s awards. (Source)
To be clear it wasn’t so much the victory as it was his post-race celebratory style that won my admiration. (Hey, did I mention that I was still in high school at that point?)
Frontier Capitalism Documentary – Cowboy Capitalists
I know you guys like the frontier capitalism material, so here’s a documentary about another adventurer who travels far away to start a business. Hit the expand icon in the bottom right corner for full screen viewing and escape to exit it. Check the tag cloud for other posts on the topic.
People keep asking for a detailed breakdown of the modules. So here it is out in the open. The course consists of 12 learning modules comprising approximately 900 pages. It takes 3 months to complete.
Bebo’s $849M Implosion Teaches a Brutal Lesson in Business
This news story gave me a chuckle as I have a long-held fascination with revolving door deals. There are two basic kinds. The unintentional and the intentional. The Bebo one is an example of the unintentional variety with a spectacular payoff.
Also-ran social network Bebo has been bought back by one of its founders for $1 million five years after that same founder, along with his wife, sold Bebo to AOL for $850 million. Sure, the couple made out like bandits, but there’s a bigger lesson here: Buying a copycat social network is a terrible idea. (source)
Some are seemingly intentional.
In a nutshell, a revolving door deal is one in which a company is sold and then taken back when the buyer is unable to make his payments. The seller gets to keep the down payment and all the other payments received to date in addition to regaining full control of the business. I believe the term was first coined to describe Kirk Kerkorian’s various deals involving Las Vegas casinos and movie studios. When a buyer came along who needed seller financing help, Kirk would accommodate them but under some pretty onerous conditions. These were created by having a set of covenants that would create a death spiral in the event that the buyer failed to comply with even a single one.
How Richard Desmond Became a Billionaire
Richard Desmond is a British media mogul worth over $1.5 billion in USD. Here he talks about his rise from an impoverished childhood. His business career started at the ripe old age of 5 after his father became deaf from an illness and required a sign language interpreter to accompany him to meetings. Young Richard won the gig. When he hit 13 he was hired by a popular London music venue, Manor House, to work in the cloak room which afforded him the opportunity to meet and befriend some of the 1960’s biggest rock stars.
Richard Clive Desmond (born 8 December 1951) is an English publisher and businessman. He is the owner of Express Newspapers and founder of Northern & Shell, which publishes various celebrity magazines, such as OK! and New!, and British national newspapers Daily Star and Daily Express. Northern & Shell also owns British television network Channel 5 as well as Portland TV[3] which, in turn, owns the adult TV channels Television X, Red Hot TV, and others.
In 2010, Desmond was ranked the equal-57th richest man in Britain according to the Sunday Times Rich List,[4] with a net worth of £950 million. He was once again listed on the 2011 Sunday Times Rich List, with his fortune still at £950 million. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Desmond)
This a well done profile of a highly successful man from humble beginnings.
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