I've been truly blessed to have been able to meet and work with so many truly brilliant and talented people. Somewhere at the top of the list would be John Malone. John was probably one of the most respected leaders of the cable television industry when it was young and really just getting started. He was the CEO of TeleCommunications, Inc. When I was introduced to Dr. Malone, it was when TCI was the third largest cable company in the world with some 1,000,000 subscribers. TCI looked up to companies like Warner Cable and ATC. He led the company to become the largest cable television company through aggressive building and acquisition strategies.
While John was respected, he was also feared as a fierce negotiator. Not many programming services or peer companies liked negotiating with TCI simply because John Malone was a tough negotiator who never backed down. I remember once in 1981 when Nickelodeon was just an upstart little network without a lot of decent programming, they wanted to increase rates substantially. Every cable system within TCI stood by the switch on a Sunday evening ready to pull the plug at exactly midnight. It's important to know that the good Dr. wasn't bluffing. We knew it and were prepared for the fallout. In the end, the plug didn't get pulled and the rates didn't go up.
John spearheaded acquisitions like United Artists theaters and many other programming related ventures. He has been actively involved in Liberty Media for many years now.
There was a point in time when I presented my annual budget to Dr. Malone. It was the mid-eighties. I was part of a company that was made up of a partnership between TCI and another media company. As I presented, I couldn't help but notice that nearly everyone in the room seemed a bit distracted; they'd been in presentations all day and it was late, so it was understandable. Everyone was distracted except for one person: Dr. Malone. His focus and the extreme attention he paid to every word I had to say was something I'll never forget. Despite being an unbelievable leader, he was an excellent listener. He was, at his core, someone who cared about people.
Of the lessons I've learned over the years, those Dr. Malone taught me are as valuable as any.
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