I’m being a bit flippant here because this is a guy who worked hard for his money- he became a millionaire at 31 and then proceeded to build a company that had the most successful IPO opening day in history up to that point, and within 9 months of that IPO he sold the company for $5.7 billion becoming a billionaire- yet astonishingly at the time of the sale that company has revenues of just $40 million. How did he manage that?He then did what every sports fan would dream of doing and bought his favourite basketball team and turned them from also-rans into champions. He hasn’t been lucky all of the time- he’s had tussles with the SEC, got caught up in the #metoo movement, missed out on an investment that could have netted him $4.75 billion, but through Shark tank and other high profile investments, he’s now being mentioned as a potential presidential candidate for 2028. It’s a fascinating story- enjoy.
--------
29:52
--------
29:52
Sam Waksal: The Improbable Rise, Fall & Redemption
2001 was Sam Waksal’s year.Seven years after discovering Erbitux — the so-called wonder drug — everything seemed to be falling into place. The drug had made it onto the cover of Business Week, Waksal’s company ImClone’s stock was at record highs, and he was living like a celebrity. There were photographs of him with Mick Jagger, Lorraine Bracco, Matthew Modine. He was best friends with Martha Stewart, dated her daughter Alexis for years, and he’d just sold $111 million worth of shares.To anyone watching, Waksal looked like the golden boy of biotech — a scientist-turned-successful entrepreneur. But within months, he’d be kicked out of his own company, under federal investigation, and eventually sent to prison — dragging others, most famously Martha Stewart, down with him.And of course that moment didn’t come out of nowhere. It started years earlier, and to understand how he got there, we have to go back to the beginning.
--------
30:23
--------
30:23
Jeff Bezos: 1964-1999
It was the autumn of 1996. Jeff Bezos had just raised eight million dollars, putting Amazon’s valuation at around sixty million. Revenue that year was $15.7 million, small yes, but growing at a huge rate and it had caught the attention of two men who’d built an empire out of books the old-fashioned way — Leonard and Stephen Riggio, founders of Barnes & Noble.Their chain was the heavyweight of American bookselling: hundreds of superstores, nearly two billion dollars in annual sales, and a reputation for crushing smaller rivals.That autumn, the Riggio brothers invited Jeff Bezos to dinner in New York for what was described as a frank but cordial conversation. They told him they admired what he’d built, acknowledged that Amazon had the early lead online. But, they said plainly, if Barnes & Noble launched its own e-commerce site, their scale and publisher relationships would allow them to “surpass Amazon easily” in both selection and price.They floated alternatives — a partnership, maybe a strategic alliance, maybe for Bezos to lead Barnes & Noble’s online strategy.Bezos declined. Steve Riggio left the dinner unconvinced and said after the meeting. “That purely virtual model won’t cut it in the long term.”Now… to understand how Bezos ended up across the table from the biggest booksellers in America just over a year after setting up Amazon, you have to go back to where it all began.
--------
29:59
--------
29:59
Sandy Weill: Building and Breaking the World’s Largest Bank
Throughout my 20’s Weill was a constant presence in the business magazines that I read because he was always doing deals, always adding a little bit more to his growing business and it all added up because by the turn of the century he had built the biggest bank in the world- a remarkable achievement- but he didn’t do it all on his own- he had his protege- Jamie Dimon, without doubt the most influential and powerful banker of the last 20 years. I dig into Weill's early years when he built his first business, sold it and then through acquisitions- some good, some bad, he built the biggest bank in the world with Dimon, we look at his relationship with Dimon, why he sacked Dimon, how that impacted his legacy- it’s a cracking story- enjoy.
--------
30:28
--------
30:28
Michael Dell: My favourite business person?
I’m sure I’ll come across other people I admire for their business acumen but after researching Dell for this episode, he’s at the top- one of these people who is just brilliant at businessAt 16, he made more money in one summer than his teachers made all year.At 18, he was building computers in a dorm room with sales reaching up to $80,000 some monthsBy 27 he was the youngest CEO ever to lead a Fortune 500 company. He did it by always thinking about how to consistently eliminate unnecessary steps. But he’s tough as well- there were big battles with Carl Icahn where Dell comes out on top. And what I really, really love about Michale Dell is he does it all with no ego, no scandal, no politics- just great business. It’s a cracking episode, enjoy.
South Africa