<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>I'm rejoining Fork after a long hiatus, =
inspired by the kinds of stuff Rohit and Adam used to post once upon a =
here's a little something that's damn inspiring...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><FONT size=3D4><STRONG>Chapter =
<P><FONT size=3D2>On March 15, 1996, I made over a hundred million =
was the day my company, IDT, one of the world&#8217;s largest Internet =
telecommunications providers, went public. As IDT&#8217;s founder, =
majority shareholder, I was instantly rich beyond my wildest dreams. =
me if this was the greatest moment in my business life. It =
<P><FONT size=3D2>Four months later, on July 18, 1996, we released a new =
technology, a breakthrough that would eventually cut the cost of =
calls by a remarkable 95 percent. That day Sara Grosvenor, the=20
new technology in order to place the first phone call ever over the =
Susan Cheever, the great-granddaughter of Thomas Watson, in =
<P><FONT size=3D2>Within twenty-four hours of Ms. Grosvenor saying =
Watson, I need to see you&#8221; over our system, CNN, CNBC, and =
world. Combined with a more than fivefold increase in our quarterly =
the second year in a row, IDT&#8217;s stock price started to move upward =
people who saw me glowing that morning asked if this was the greatest =
my business life. It wasn&#8217;t.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3D2>The greatest moment actually occurred approximately =
years earlier on the morning of July 23, 1970. That was the morning I =
newly built hot dog stand past Joe and Vinny&#8217;s butcher shop on =
in the Bronx. Only two months before, Joe had driven me from my =
in the butcher shop by forcing me to eat five pounds of rice pudding (a =
that took me close to two hours) after catching me sampling the pudding =
waited on a customer at the deli counter.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=3D2>I couldn&#8217;t resist stopping in front of the =
way to the spot I&#8217;d picked out three-quarters of a mile away to =
As Joe, Vinny, and Joe&#8217;s nephew, Patsy, came out to see the new =
gloating over the fact that I was now just as independent in business as =
were. Nobody could make me clean out the rotten chicken tank anymore. =
could send me five miles away on the delivery bike in the snow to =
to a rich finicky lady who would just send them back to be trimmed, and =
tipped more than a quarter. Nobody could make me lay in the sawdust and =
ground-up bones, blood, and fat out of the meat band saw. And, most =
nobody could do all this while poking fun at what a jerk I was to get =
dirty jobs. I was only fourteen years old, and the wheels would fall off =
homemade hot dog stand many times before that summer ended, but that =
mind, I was as rich as a Rockefeller.</FONT></P>