Not so known stories of some well-known guys, full of inspiration.
or their concise biographies.
Henry (Hank) Merritt Paulson Jr, born in 1946 to a jeweler. BA in English, '68, from Dartmouth College, MBA '70 from Harvard; All East player as Offensive Tackle with 195-pound and 6'2'' frame. 72-73 worked at Nixon's governmental division, 74-98 worked at Goldman Sachs, 98 became the director, 99 named chairman and CEO, 06 sworn in as Treasury secretary. In Sept 22, 2008, along with Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke proposed a 700 billion US government bailout for the Wall Street financial crisis. Never before had such an astrological asset been handled by one man. Stirred uneasiness in the public as well as John McCain: "When we're talking about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, 'trust me' just isn't good enough." Fiercely roasted in congress hearing.
Duty man, one of the biggest crisis manager in the US history. Worked out the takeover of mortgage lender giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, brokered the Bear Stern Sale to Goldman Sashs, the 700 billion bailout proposal would involve pulling the American sinking financial system out of bog.
Money man, one of the highest paid CEO in Wall Street. About 512 million of Goldman Sachs stokes sold before taking the Secretary position plus tens of millions of tax exempt as Federal employee.
Keen conservationist, 100million donation to aid conservation, served as Charmian for a Nature Conservation committee.
Close partnership with Chinese officials and leader while in Goldman Sachs, visited China 78 times.
Quotable saying regarding Paulson.
'The man really cares about excellence.' -Dipak Jain, Northwestern mangement school dean.
'He's very tenacious, he does not take 'no' for an answer.' -Peter Fahey, has known him since college.
On a TV interview with Charlie Rose, Paulson said 'young man should know when to say No to his boss.' He elaborated that if his employee can work 50 hours a week, he would give him 55 hours' work. If he can work 75 hours a week, then his workload would be 80hours. And the young man has to say 'No' to stop this trend.
Source:USAtoday, Newsweek, Fortune, New York Times, etc.
Mark Cuban’s hobby and business
It is either inspiring or sickening to tell a rag-to-rich story, depending on how you look at the figure. For a colorful character like Mark Cuban, he fits the bill perfectly. You either love him or hate him. As a self-made billionaire, there is surely hundreds of coverage on this HDNet co-founder, NBA Dallas Mavericks owner and quite a few movie producer, TV shows sponsor or even direct participant (Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 07 season). His money-making experience is left to business students to do case study, his other side of true color is more entertaining.
Cuban was born a businessman. He made money at age 12 by selling garbage bags. Then he chose Indiana University over his hometown school, University of Pittsburg, for his college because IU has better value-to-tuition ratio. [1] Yet sport is in his blood. He played rugby in college, certainly an avid Hoosiers fan. Not until he made his fortune, did he buy lousy Mavericks and aimed at minting it into a powerhouse. He’s almost there. Probably it is any sports guy’s dream to own a franchise and have it to fight for the championship. Cuban has the leverage to make dreams come true. 10 years ago he was like an average Joe, yelling and cursing on the stands. 10 years later being the owner, he still likes an average Joe, sitting on a closer seat, wearing a T-shirt, yelling and cursing. The only difference is, NBA commissioner sent him big-money fine notice for his obnoxious words. This is where he makes friends and enemies. His close-up face on TV, either exhilarating or malignant, easily makes the people’s mind on him polarized.
The rich might do things for fun without asking the price. Cuban integrates his fun with his business. Superstar Dirk Norwitzki is on the team roster. The team jersey and other commodities are hot items, and AA Arena will be packed for Mavericks home games. As the new season begins, Cuban could have another round of by-the-court show. Definitely he is a maverick among NBA team owners, no one has been so outspoken, aspiring for limelight as he does. Once he toyed with the idea of buying hockey team Pittsburg Penguins, which is now off the market. Now he is a serious stake buyer for Chicago Cubs, the long time miserable baseball team with so large die-hard fan base. It would be very interesting to see what he would behave if he does become the new owner.
Cuban dabbles on many entertainment stages. Obviously he is seeking for business opportunities in these frontiers. So far he is not successful in his attempts compared with his sport endeavors. His reality show, the benefactor, only had TV ad. The radio talk show, Radio Maverick, is never on the air. He also invested in web 2.0 startup companies, from which he was one, if not the only one, of the biggest winners. The inspiring part of a rich guy’s story is not what he has been doing, but more of his attitude doing it. Certainly he has high-level of business shrewdness, sensibly analyzes the situation, makes wise decisions. [2] Once he is doing it, he is doing it like a fierce player in his best effort, and enjoying it. When he started Audionet, an online broadcasting site, He knew little of computer and Internet. Nonetheless he managed his guts and passion to go through it. Later he took over Mavericks, the first priority on his list was to form a sales team. ‘I don’t care what you do, but just sell out all the tickets and pack the damn arena.’ He ordered. This kind of will-fulfilling might be a general trait for success people, what underlies is the great passion. In another word, achieved guys enjoy so much for what they are doing. Cuban took part in the show Dancing with the stars only 3 weeks after he had hip surgery. He said he nodded to be in because the producer thought that was a good storyline. But more importantly, he’s in since his daughter loves the dancing show very much.[3] As the show goes on, he is just like the other participants, begging for votes from fans on the interview and his blog. He is really into the game and having so much fun. Cuban impersonates himself as a character player on larger courts other than the sports game field. He is not so much a role model as Manny Ramirez is so idiosyncratic in baseball or T.O in football, but no doubt, he is absolutely showing his loving side on a much larger scale.[4]
What about his sickening side? Well, there are people who love other teams more than Mavericks. For example, Suns.
[1] According to one of his interviews. Need citation.
[2] Check his personal blog for his comments on Google, iPhone, HDTV and other topics.
http://www.blogmaverick.com/
[3] USA Today, check the report on Sept. or Oct.
[4] For a concise and boring bio of Mark Cuban, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cuban