Hi People,
I'm rejoining Fork after a long hiatus, and inspired by the kinds of =
stuff Rohit and Adam used to post once upon a time... here's a little =
something that's damn inspiring...
Nalin
http://www.howardsbook.com/ch01/01.html
Chapter One
One Finger for Onions=20
On March 15, 1996, I made over a hundred million dollars. That was the =
day my company, IDT, one of the world's largest Internet and alternative =
telecommunications providers, went public. As IDT's founder, president, =
and majority shareholder, I was instantly rich beyond my wildest dreams. =
People ask me if this was the greatest moment in my business life. It =
wasn't.
Four months later, on July 18, 1996, we released a new technology, a =
breakthrough that would eventually cut the cost of international calls =
by a remarkable 95 percent. That day Sara Grosvenor, the =
great-granddaughter of Alexander Graham Bell, joined us in New York to =
use our new technology in order to place the first phone call ever over =
the network to Susan Cheever, the great-granddaughter of Thomas Watson, =
in London.
Within twenty-four hours of Ms. Grosvenor saying "Come here, Ms. Watson, =
I need to see you" over our system, CNN, CNBC, and newspapers had spread =
word of the development to investors and potential users and partners =
around the world. Combined with a more than fivefold increase in our =
quarterly revenues for the second year in a row, IDT's stock price =
started to move upward again. Many people who saw me glowing that =
morning asked if this was the greatest moment of my business life. It =
wasn't.
The greatest moment actually occurred approximately twenty-seven years =
earlier on the morning of July 23, 1970. That was the morning I pushed =
my newly built hot dog stand past Joe and Vinny's butcher shop on =
Eastchester Road in the Bronx. Only two months before, Joe had driven me =
from my after-school job in the butcher shop by forcing me to eat five =
pounds of rice pudding (a task that took me close to two hours) after =
catching me sampling the pudding while I waited on a customer at the =
deli counter.
I couldn't resist stopping in front of the butcher shop on my way to the =
spot I'd picked out three-quarters of a mile away to set up my stand. As =
Joe, Vinny, and Joe's nephew, Patsy, came out to see the new stand, I =
was gloating over the fact that I was now just as independent in =
business as they were. Nobody could make me clean out the rotten chicken =
tank anymore. Nobody could send me five miles away on the delivery bike =
in the snow to deliver ribs to a rich finicky lady who would just send =
them back to be trimmed, and never tipped more than a quarter. Nobody =
could make me lay in the sawdust and dig ground-up bones, blood, and fat =
out of the meat band saw. And, most importantly, nobody could do all =
this while poking fun at what a jerk I was to get all the dirty jobs. I =
was only fourteen years old, and the wheels would fall off my homemade =
hot dog stand many times before that summer ended, but that day, in my =
mind, I was as rich as a Rockefeller.