Call Me Ted: The Autobiography of the Extraordinary Business Leader and Founder of CNN

by Ted Turner

CNN, AOL/Time Warner, Jane Fonda, The America's Cup: Ted Turner's story is the stuff of legend. Never before has the controversial businessman shared his personal journey. Here, for the first time, he will.



In this exceptional book, Turner spares no details of his extraordinary career and provides fascinating businesses insights along the way. Turner will also reveal the never-before-told details of his personal life. He frankly discusses a childhood of loneliness (he was sent to boarding school at the age of 4), the impact of devastating loss (his sister died at 17 and his hard-charging father committed suicide when Ted was in his early 20s). Turner also goes into great detail about his marriages, including his marriage to Jane Fonda, the "love of my life."



It's been a helluva ride -- a story to educate, enlighten, entertain, and inspire.

Genres: Biography, Business, Nonfiction, Autobiography, Audiobook, Memoir, Entrepreneurship

446 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2008

About the author

Little Known Facts About Ted
Only one of a few people who have been on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time magazine for different reasons

Currently holds 42 honorary degrees from such institutions as Brown University (Providence, R.I.), Morehouse College (Atlanta, Ga.), The Citadel (Charleston, S.C.) and Mississippi University for Women (Columbus, Miss.)

Number of sailing trophies won: 176

Favorite movie: Gone With the Wind

Favorite meal: A bison cheeseburger from Ted's Montana Grill with fries and an Arnold Palmer (half iced tea, half lemonade)

Appeared on over 115 magazine/weekly publication covers

Has a national debate named after him - The National Forensic League's Ted Turner Public Forum Debate

Largest individual landowner in the United States (owns approximately two million acres of personal and ranch land)

Purchased his first bison in 1976; current bison herd is approximately 50,000 head, which is the largest private herd in the world

Has visited all seven continents

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir lives up to its billing. The voice is Ted's through and through. What makes it unique is his raw, unflinching honesty in conveying his "assets and liabilities" , both personal and professional. I found myself wincing at times while reading, not just because of what was done to Ted, but also because of what he did/neglected to do and/or said to others. "Captain Outrageous" and the "mouth from the South" were terms often used to describe Ted, and, indeed, were appropriate. His relentless and boundless energy and drive have become legend. How many billionaire baseball owners (Atlanta Braves) would get down on their hands and knees and roll a baseball to first base (using their face to roll the ball)as a way of promoting interest in their team? Yet there are lines in business he will not cross, and those lines, defined by him, include a code of honor and truthfulness. His word and his handshake are as good as his signature. Sadly they don't seem to apply to his personal life. He admits struggling with monogamy and appears to have spent little time with his children on a day-to-day basis. Yet he is devoted to them, in his fashion, and that devotion appears quite genuine.
It takes one confident guy to allow former wives, former employees and ex-business partners the opportunity to share their "Ted" stories in one's memoir, particularly when their parting was painful. I think the inclusion of their opinions in this work represent the man himself. He is non-conforming, creative, brilliant and just plain remarkable. As he says to everyone he meets, "Call me Ted".
His legacy to the preservation of open land in the United States will surpass that of the Rockefellers. He was the last amateur to form a team that competed in the America's Cup. He revolutionized television and brought us news, old movies and cartoons, 24 hours per day. And he is only 70. Wonder what's next?

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's done so much with his life so far. This is one of the best autobiographies I've ever read.

[Darrenglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cant help it. I'm a sucker for Ted Turner. Between an interest in the early days of cable television, a connection to Atlanta, and an obsession with the Braves, I just like the guy. Besides, I have always felt that the world could use a few more eccentric billionaires who are willing to put their money where their mouth is, especially when they are outspoken on issues like world peace, nuclear nonproliferation, and the environment.

Turner has finally written some memoirs, and I found it fun to read his stories about behind the scenes at his various businesses as well as his colorful comments about people like Jane Fonda and Rupert Murdoch. That said, I cant really recommend this book as a piece of fine writing. It is basically a collection of fairly well-written anecdotes about Turner's escapades, none of which are given much time and none of which give much insight into what makes him tick. But it still remains the best memoir of a tycoon I have read since Jimmy James: Macho Business Donkey Wrestler

[Gail Strickland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Say what you will about The Mouth of the South, but Ted's an astute businessman. He did go on (and on) about financing schemes he used for funding, but overall, it was a good look inside his brain (be afraid, be very afraid...LOL). It was a stroke of genius giving his friends, family, and even Jane Fonda space to write (uncensored, I've heard) about him.

[Kelly Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of Ted Turner and now love him even more after reading CALL ME TED. It's a fascinating read and completely delivers.

[Gisela Hausmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who want to know...

what keeps Ted Turner going, this is the book!! Conceiving the concept of and actually creating CNN are probably Ted Turner's greatest achievements. Yes, he is a fabulous, driven sailor, but so are others. Yes, he is a dedicated environmentalist but so are others.

However, the concept of having breaking news, world-wide, around the clock, was revolutionary. I believe that in a way this move helped to usher in the era of the world-wide web. In a way, Turner's vision of CNN leveled the ground. "Call me Ted" tells how and why he came with the idea. I loved reading about it. "Call me Ted" should be a must-read for every student of mass media. It is a candid, intelligent, witty, and exciting read.

Turner is a fabulous storyteller. Even though I don't care for baseball I was surprised that I enjoyed reading his excited account of buying the Braves and taking them to winning the World Series.

Highly recommended to everybody, who thinks outside the box or wants to learn it. 5 stars all the way!

Gisela Hausmann, author and blogger

[Brasel - · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been a Fan of Ted Turner. Growing up in the Atlanta area, he was the subject. I admire him and so enjoyed having him to read the book, Actually, he wasn't reading, he was telling the story. Listening to him, I would often say to myself, "I remember that." If I could ever meet him and just sit and talk to him, it would be awesome.

Yes I listen to books everyday on my hour to work and the hour home.

I recommend this book to anyone that has ever wanted to meet all their goals. Much information about the broadcasting business.

If you are a fan of Ted, get the audible and download it onto your mp3 player.

If you have read/hear this book, I would love to hear from you.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot more than I thought I was going to -- Turner's a pretty outspoken guy, so his stories about how he started turning a billboard business into a multimedia empire were awfully engaging. You've got the CNN stuff, the Atlanta Braves and WTBS stuff, the America's Cup, the Time Warner years, the Jane Fonda years... Turner also incorporates a lot of feedback from his business colleagues (including some rivals) and his family, so it's not all one-sided.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This man had a fascinating life. We listened to the audiobook on two long car rides, down and back. It made the miles go quickly. Ted Turner narrates it himself which is great. Maybe because I lived through some of the big events it is more interesting to me, but there was a lot I did not know or did not remember. If you are looking for some inspiration to accomplish things in your life just listen to Ted!!!

[Gary Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call Me Ted by Ted Turner

Basically his autobiography. Some of the financial stuff was dull and boring and I skipped over those parts, but in the process of skipping over those parts, I fear I may have missed some other stuff.

He spoke mostly about his business acquisitions and secondarily about his boat racing, which is a hobby of his. He speaks very little about his children or wives, especially Jane Fonda. I was expecting some interesting tidbits about his marriage to Fonda, but he spoke very little of that relationship. He is very upfront that he is really married to his businesses and his spouses were the “mistresses”. He does admit monogamy “has always been a struggle”.

Turner writing style was somewhat different in that he asked people who have contributed to his life to write short stories about that episode in his life. So the reader reads what Turner had to say about certain parts of his life and reads what some of his associates said as well.

Turner’s father owned an advertising company specializing in billboard advertising and this is where Ted Turner began his business life. When his father died, Ted began to go into television by buying a local station. One business adventure after another and Ted becomes one of the richest people in the world. His venture into television was to make money, but in the process, he felt a need to “clean up” television. He felt there were too much violence and too many shows that portray greed as a virtue. He wanted to change that.

Jim and Tammy Faye Baker was one of Turner’s first shows on his local station. This was even before they became famous. Their TV show brought in more money in a week than the entire station made in a month.

From regular television to cable (as it was first getting off the ground), he formed CNN as well as other networks of cartoons, finances, movies as well as other channels as well.

From television, he began to search out other lines of businesses. He decided to buy the film library at MGM. Though controversial, he began the process of colorizing old black and white films. He states more people have seen these films because of the colorization. He kept the originals in the black and white mode. Colorization was not cheap. The cost per film ran about $200,000. He also became the landowner with the most amount of land in the US.

As Turner became richer and richer, he began to reach out to his community and world. He stopped seeing people from other countries as “foreigners” and began to see them as “fellow citizens of the planet”. He felt so strongly about this that he banned (whenever possible) the word “foreign” from being used at the businesses he owned. In his office, he had busts of Horatio Nelson and Alexander the Great removed and put in their place busts of Gandhi and Martin Luther King (two of my boyhood heroes).

“It is easy to hate people you don’t know”, but it is difficult to hate folks once you have met them and got to know them. He donated over $1 billion to the United Nations. He is concerned about the image the US presents to the world. Yes, we are rich nation. Being rich is not necessarily the problem. Turner believes it is the combination of being a rich nation and our arrogance and non-cooperative attitude, which creates many of our problems with many throughout the world.

He doesn’t understand why the US would spend billions of dollars to destroy a country like Iraq, then spend billions more to restore the country in Iraq just to remove one crazy dictator from office, who was no threat to the US. He feels Hussein could have been removed from office without spending so much money and losing so many lives.

Turner goes on to say we need to realize that old models of warfare simply wont work anymore. He says it is very easy to start wars, but very difficult to stop them. He feels our military posture hurts our diplomatic efforts worldwide.

When the US was boycotting the Olympic Games, Turner had an idea to form his own group called Goodwill Games, which allowed athletes from various countries compete regardless of the politics of their countries.

Today, his major issues of concern are 1) the threat of nuclear annihilation 2) climate change and 3) the growth of the world’s population.

He admits he has done a lot in his past 70 years, but expects to do more as he gets older and plans to write another book outlining new accomplishments.

He ends the book with what he calls his 11 Voluntary Initiatives

1) Take care of the planet including all living things especially people
2) Treat all people with dignity, respect and friendliness
3) Promise to have no more than two children
4) Promise to save our natural world
5) Promise to use little of our nonrenewable resources
6) Contribute to the less fortunate
7) Reject the use of force, in particular military force
8) Minimize use of toxic chemicals
9) Support elimination of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
10) Support the UN.
11) Support renewable energy.

[Bruce Deming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted Turner was a very interesting and nice man.

It is interesting that he was a stubborn guy being contrary and trying to fail and then decided that he was sick of that and he changed his mind and decided to be the best!

His father was in the Billboard advertising business which I knew nothing about and from whom he learned much. Unfortunately Alcoholism had him destroying himself and the therapy sought ought seemed to lead to his Father's suicide.

page 56:

"He tried to get his addictions under control by checking into a Place called Silver Hills in Connecticut. They managed to curb his drinking and smoking but right around that time he'd also been prescribed a variety of medications. He said they were for "his nerves," and I am pretty sure they included Quaaludes and a variety of other uppers and downers. In effect, my dad basically swapped alcohol and tobacco for prescription drugs. Everyone around him was concerned. Jimmy Brown, the one person who probably knew him better than anyone, told me many times that he feared that the drugs were not good for him..." (early in the book... 70's?)

Looks like a drugs for drugs program worsened the situation.

Ted's dad would have fared better at a Narconon. I visited their Northern California site at Vista Bay when I ran into someone with a similar problem. Wish Ted had known when his Dad needed help.

There are many more interesting anecdotes that follow in Ted's life.

[Mukesh Emes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describe how Ted Turner build his news media business empire from a billboard company. He had a difficult childhood and he took over his father's billboard business when his father died.

He came up with lot of revolutionary ideas in the media business such as 24/7 news channel, nation wide broadcasting of local channels. Everyone thought that these are bad ideas and he had to jump many hurdles However, he always stick to his plans and that helped him to become one of the richest man in US. Almost everything went well except the disastrous merger of his corporation Time Warner with AOL.

He also describe his family life in this book like his struggling childhood, loss of his father and teenage sister, marriage, divorce and his children. In this book he gave us an opportunity to know more about his family and personal life.

Apart from his media career he is also a champion sailor. He always found time for sailing during his busy schedules. He won the American Cup on 1977 America's Cup, he defeated the Australian challenger, Australia, skippered by Noel Robins, four races to zero. He was also the owner of Atlanta Braves when they won the World Series championship trophy in 1995.

This is a nice book and Ted also included other opinions and views about him and his ideas in this book. The inclusion of their views make this book really special.

[Irene Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted Turner is a successful businessman and philanthropist . This book is a autobiography of him .

Turner is known as a sailer in his childhood days and he also won america’s cup for first time at the age of 39 . He faced many hurdles in his childhood . His father was arrogant and his sister passed away . Ted father tired to control him with his money and violence , he also forced him to work in his company . Because of his father , Ted started to work in his father’s company and made the profit double. As days rolled on Ted Father shot himself because of his competitors growth. Ted didn’t stop himself because of this , he always sees whats next . He is a perfect vision and a hard worker .
This made him to acquire Atlanta UHF station though he know very less about the television industry . And then he build CNN and became its founder .

After merging with AOL , Time warner didn’t like the idea he shared and that made turner to fire from his position .

Later on he had multiple failed marriages, and often away from his children . But he kept moving rather than dwelling in the past.

I think he was successful because whatever hurdles he faced and whatever things he lost , he didn’t stagnated there . May be he was too busy in doing stuffs, so it didn’t allow him to think about his past .

A good book with full of simple but effective motivations.

[Salim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book on an amazing visionary. I purchased the audiobook because it is read by Ted Turner himself - a brilliant book. If you have any interest in media, including the development of cable TV and cable programming, the big three broadcast networks (CBS, ABC, NBC), media companies, movie studios, sports leagues, tech and media moguls including Rupert Murdoch, Steve Case at AOL, the Time Warner guys, Jack Welch, Kirk Kerkorian, Bill Gates, Jerry Yang, Malone (TCI), all the other cable companies, this is just fascinating. Ted had his fingers in it all, and helped influence a lot of the media landscape.

You can also hear how Turner's visits with Castro, Gorbachev & Putin, to name a few, changed his outlook and politics. Plus, hearing firsthand how he created the first 24 hour content stations like CNN, The Cartoon Network, etc, is just fascinating. Plus a lot of the AOl-Time Warner merger.

I am not a big audio book guy, but it was great to hear the story straight from the horse's mouth.

[J.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed hearing this Ted Turner's story and having him read it himself added to the overall value and enjoyment. His life's story if truly inspiring. All great achievers have adversary and find the mean neccessary to overcome them. Turner seemed to always be driven for something more. He is visionary type. IF you have any interest in the broadcasting industry or are curious as to how we ended up with cable TV today this story will fill you in and give you a sense of knowing the behind the scenes look. I felt Turner did an excellant job of starting from the beginning of his life and showing the events which would later cause or help him to make important life decisions. He is transparent and unabashed in his life and his story telling. I very much enjoyed this reading Call Me Ted.

[Jay Dawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an incredible life story. The guy was a type A overachiever from the start and moved people, money, and even international politics with the sheer force of his personality. An inspiring read to say the least.

Most of his stories leave you feeling thrilled, except the chapter about the AOL-Time Warner deal, which reaffirms it as possibly the worst business decision of all time.

I will likely reread this autobiography. Get the audiobook, Ted himself reads it and it adds wonderful depth to the story.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been mildly curious about Ted Turner for years - first when he won the America's Cup, then when he married Jane Fonda, and finally when his name came up during the AOL-Time Warner debacle.

His memoirs are continually interesting - what a character! He is also a great philanthropist and conservationist. He also let important people from his life make comments along the way - not all positive.

This is an easy read and well worth the effort.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted Turner became one of the richest men in the world, the largest land owner in the United States, revolutionized the television business with the creation of TBS and CNN, became a champion sailor and winner of the America's Cup, and took home a World Series championship trophy in 1995 as owner of the Atlanta Braves. Fascinating and very frank expose.

[Jan Martinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and entertaining!

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted Turner is one of my biggest heros for reclaiming so much land here in the West. He has re-established vanished species, specifically the buffalo to their native habitat. He is perhaps the foremost American Conservationist with 2 million acres restored and protected. Way to go Ted!

[Safy magdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

قصة لشخص عادي جدا شبهك وشبه ناس كتير لكن قدر يحقق نجاح كبير اوي. اكتر ما عجبني في الكتاب انه حكى عن فشله واخفاقاته اكتر من نجاحاته وبين لك مقدار التعب بدون دراما. اسلوب الكتاب ممتع جدا وكنت بحس اني فعلا قاعدة مع تيد في مزرعته وهو بيحكيلي.

[Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a review for the audio version of the book. I am listening a second time now and going to say this is a top-five audiobook for me. Importantly it’s read by Ted himself. You can hear about his insane life from a safe distance!

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted Turner was a fascinating figure to me, and as an Atlanta Braves fan I found myself vaguely following his dealings. As I had figured, the merger with AOL pretty much screwed him out of his company.
He was very hard charging with his ideas and did things his own way.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun biography

It has the right mix of business, family and personal issues.

Well written with a good flow.

Still shocked by the amount of hurdles one must overcome in achieving greatness.

[Nick DiGuiseppe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eye opening book, however tough to read many sections where he paints himself as the greatest man alive, and sometimes forgets to credit those working under him.

[Marek Korenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great inspiriting story about business, challenges in life! It was definitely worth it! I recommend it to everybody.

[Kellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio Version read by Ted Turner
I really enjoyed this thought-provoking dive into the life of this fascinating, funny, complicated, and brilliant man. From start to finish, I was hooked.

[queen esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted Turner and I have a very special relationship.

When I was a kid in the ATL, there was no cable television. There was WTBS, Channel 17 – the SuperStation! – running an endless and constant array of cheesy sit-coms, classic Hollywood movies, game shows, wrestling matches and a ton of Bugs Bunny cartoons. Even the late-night news fare was askew, with a news desk that was as accessible and irreverent as anything else that came on their airwaves. They seemed to come out of nowhere, and suddenly they were everywhere – and at their helm was Ted Turner, that swashbuckling iconoclast, a maverick in the truest sense of the word.

I didn’t know exactly what Ted did all day long, but I knew that this station was his and subconsciously in my little kid heart, I thanked him for it. Why? With a father and a mother, two older brothers, two younger brothers and one tv set, there were a lot of people to please – and somehow, this one little channel managed to pull it off. There was no one to tell me that I shouldn’t watch this particular line of programming, or that it was in poor taste, or that I shouldn’t watch television at all. In a strange way, I felt as though it belonged to me, because so much of what they programmed made me so happy.

Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t live on the couch. With so many brothers afoot, I was a sturdy, athletic little tomboy of a girl. My parents were extremely traditional, so I was cooking, cleaning and running the house before I hit puberty. We lived on several wooded acres, so there was always plenty to explore in the great outdoors. I was a voracious reader – i learned how to read when I was three years old – so books were a great escape.

What I realize now is that as an artist, WTBS/Channel 17 was a really important part of my childhood. Every time I watched any of that programming, I was doing my homework. Each old movie was a chance to watch a great director at work on every level—to absorb the mise-en-scene, to let the dialogue swing through my head like a melody, to ogle the clothes, the hats, the accessories, to unhinge the elaborate musicals, to understand what made it good or bad and why. Bugs Bunny cartoons were filled with show tunes and tin pan alley songs and strange ditties and so many obscure vaudeville references and gags that I watched so carefully and so often that in my head they were commonplace.

Funny thing. I took it for granted that everyone had this kind of an “education”—and I was wrong, wrong, wrong. God knows everyone needs it. Even now, I will talk to other artists – actors, writers, whatever – and there are all these movies and tv shows and cartoons that they have never seen and/or can’t reference, stuff that’s an integral part of the very fabric of this industry we call entertainment and the pop culture we all swim in as citizens of the world. Oh, well. As an artist, I never wanted to be that kind of uninformed.

So yes – my time glued to the tv watching Ted’s station was very important.

It was with all of this and much more that I picked up Ted’s autobiography Call Me Ted.

The book is an easy, straight-forward, accessible read, in part because it sounds for all the world like Ted is sitting next to you, telling you all of this himself, with an occasional antecdote from a business associate or family member to augment whatever he’s saying and give insight into the person Ted really is. Ted is very honest and is quite candid about his childhood traumas, his sister’s illness, his father’s suicide, and so many of the intimate details in his life.

Here’s one that floored me: he was sent to boarding school at the age of four. That alone would be enough to upend most people but Ted bounces back from this with all of the resiliency of a bright red rubber ball. At one point in his youth, he simply makes up his mind to be positive and not dwell on the bad things in the past.

And yes, I was loving all the antedotes about Fidel. I keep wanting to run away to Cuba and meet Castro and learn how to speak Spanish once and for all, before he dies and they turn Havana into a strip mall. So I was more than a little jealous that he got to meet him, and go hunting and fishing and the whole nine yards.

After a certain point, though, I realized that much of what Ted said sounded canned, rehearsed. Like he’d told these little vignettes a thousand times before, at this gala or that dinner party or to this dignitary or some good ol’ boy around the way. And along the way, he glossed them into such a high sheen that sometimes they blindsided me. It was like that with the stories everyone else told, too. Even the negative things that happened—“there goes Ted, shooting his mouth off again!”—turned into clever twists that only undid him momemtarily. Ted didn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the past. He kept it moving. I suppose there’s a lesson in there for all of us.

There were lots of details that he clearly wasn’t about to fork over, like the intimate goings on regarding his three marriages. But nevermind the personal details. The book really comes alive on this whole other level when it delves into the anatomy of the art of the deal. There are moments when he swoops in and conquers by the sheer velocity of his vision and his unswerving belief in it. When you consider all of the factors – he doesn’t really have the hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to pay for whatever he just bought, for example, but he has 30 days to come up with the money…and he does! – you find that he is literally doing what can only be described as the impossible, again and again and again. And in so doing, he created an empire and defined news media for an entire generation.

But Ted wasn’t necessarily doing the impossible, and he was hardly a fluke. His success is a result of years of hard work, a dizzying amount of sacrifice, a lot of well-thought out planning and execution and a tenacity that i recognize all too well in myself. He never sits back on his laurels and says, Enough. He simply can’t leave well enough alone. He constantly reaches for more—and for excellence, for doing a job well—and he’s really strategic about it. It’s the way he thinks. It’s who he is.

I was profoundly disappointed to learn that Ted basically abandoned his family for the sake of business ventures and yachting competitions. His children were raised by his second wife and a black man named Jimmy who worked for Ted’s father when he was a kid. (Too bad Marlon Brando didn’t have a decent wife and some real help. But then, I suppose I could say that about a LOT of famous people.) Then again, I’m not so sure that he would have been able to accomplish as much as he had if he’d stayed home and made his marriage and family a priority. Clearly, his temperament isn’t suited for such a life. But it was more than this. He seemed to be completely open, and yet i sensed that he was as closed as a fist, and i couldn’t say exactly why.

As the book went on, i realized that the litany I sensed in the book’s delivery and presentation had echoed throughout his life. There were certain personal issues that Ted simply didn’t want to deal with, certain places he would not go—and understandably, this in part led to the demise of his marriage to Jane Fonda.

Still and all, he soldiers on with his philanthropic work, his business ventures as a restauranteur, his travels—and as God would have it, he gets to be a grandfather. Throughout, I love his style. The way he calls rich people on their BS, the way he’s worth nearly a billion dollars at one point and he wears the same suit and drives the same car year in and year out. I love the way he mouths off to the press and gets himself in so much hot water, he’s still feeling the heat several decades down the line. What i think I really love is his panache, his nerve—the thing that drives him, that has him out thinking everyone in the room, thinking ahead of whatever anyone thinks is happening, whether it’s a conversation or a corporate merger. It burns through the sheen and the gloss like some sort of cleansing fire.

I suppose all of this begs the question “What makes Teddy run?” There’s something explosive in there, embedded inside the glint of his willfulness. In reading this book, there were moments when I thought I actually glimpsed it.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fascination towards Turner has to do with me trying to understand how he did it: how did a no name person from a no name company be able to launch a smashing national (subsequently international) success of CNN?

The answer - as Turner explains himself in the book - is he is nuts, or a bit too energetic. He said that he even turned to medicine to see if his hyper energy could be calmed down (it didn’t). Eventually he realized that his energy is just who he is.

Turner’s book is a little bit different. Before each chapter, he would have an insert of a related person reviewing him. Here’s John Malone (of Liberty Media) reviewing Turner, explaining what he thought of Turner’s energy:

… this was the first real meeting I’d ever had with him. Not knowing him too well, we all thought he’d had too much coffee or something. He put on a real dog-and-pony show - a one-man circus like only Ted can. I remember at one point he got down on the floor and crawled around on all fours and said, “Whose shoes do I have to kiss?”

Turner does things, even at the time seeming impossible for his company’s size, because he is a visionary - and a lunatic - at the same time. It’s almost like he refuses to believe physics exists if physics is on his way of accomplishing his goal. Again, Malone wrote:

I think one of his big secrets of success over the years is that the things that most of us would sit there and ponder - all these regulatory and legal reasons why it might not be something you could do - Ted would just say, “Oh, hell, you can overcome those kinds of things,” and he’d just go do it.

Turner in the book explained that to him, regulatory burden should, and can be done away with if it’s a bad regulation. For most people, that sounds crazy - how can you just “change” laws when you don’t like them? But to Turner’s credit, his relentless work ethics and undeterred drive helped him do just that: after countless hearings, he convinced Washington to change law to help him launch his “SuperSatation” - which will eventually become TBS.

This attitude reminds me a lot of Richard Branson (of the Virgin Group) or to some extent, Elon Musk. People like Turner feed on challenges, and grow stronger with challenges (Turner in this book accredited this with his rough childhood upbringings, something Musk also did in Walter Isaacson‘s book Elon Musk). Which reminds me of Charlie Munger’s comment of Musk:

These weird guys who overestimate themselves occasionally knock it right out of the park.

It also seemed that a big part of Turner’s success is first mover’s advantage. Turner sees new technologies coming, and adapts to it right away - often several years before everyone else. In addition, his product is indeed good enough to retain his audiences’ attention. That also means that because he was so early, sometimes other businesses can’t catch up with him. Commenting on TBS’ initial inability to gain advertisers, he wrote:

It was nearly two full years before we got any meaningful national buys… What we were doing was so new and so unique that everyone was slow to adapt, but once a few of the bigger players validated our concept, the rest began to follow.

In fact, Turner’s life circles around struggling while being the first mover and eventually gaining momentum when the rest of the world catches up with him.

Turner is rather earnest in this book. He adamantly explained that his personal life is a clusterfuck, and partially explained by his work habit. He wrote of his work habit:

I’d work right up until it was time to fall asleep. I had a pull-down Murphy bed in my office and I would literally work until the point of total exhaustion. Then I’d put my head on the pillow at night worried about problems, then wake up and spend the entire next day trying to solve them.

The result? Multiple marriages ended in divorce, and affairs. He wrote:

I’ve tried to be the best person that I could be, both at work and in my personal life, but monogamy for me has always been a struggle. As noted earlier, from an early age my dad told me “real men run around,” but as I’ve reflected on his philosophies I no longer think he had it right. Maybe it’s too late for me to change my ways but as my children have grown I’ve encouraged them to follow my advice and not my example when it comes to being in committed relationships.

Overall, an interesting book. You can see Turner’s personally shine through from the text, even when you can’t visually see him.

[Lien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Một quyển sách hay vượt kỳ vọng, một quyển sách truyền cảm hứng về những nỗ lực ko ngừng trong công việc và vì một thế giới tốt đẹp hơn.
Sách viết về Ted Tunner - 1 tỷ phú truyền thông Mỹ, 1 vận động viên đua thuyền xuất sắc và người đg nỗ lực trong sứ mệnh để cải thiện Trái đất. Qua đó, người ta thấy dc một con người tràn đầy năng lực và quyết liệt, ko lùi bước trước khó khăn.
- Không ít lần ông được coi là điên rồ với những ý tưởng táo bạo trong kinh doanh như phát sóng truyền hình lên vệ tinh, lập kênh tin tức 24h… Nhưng sau tất cả, đó là con người có tầm nhìn đi trước thởi đại cả nhiều năm.
- Là người ưa mạo hiểm, dù đôi lần đối mặt với cái chết khi chơi thuyền buồm, nhưng điều đó ko làm ông bỏ cuộc mà chỉ càng quyết tâm chinh phục những giải đấu (sẽ là rút ra kinh nghiệm và cách để đảm bảo an toàn hơn)
- Để từ một đài phát thanh nhỏ thành cty sở hữu kênh truyền hình nổi tiếng thế giới, ông gặp ko ít khó khăn trong công cuộc cạnh tranh với các ông lớn, đến độ đã có sáng kiến bóc tem trên thư khách hàng mà bưu điện chưa đóng dấu để tái sử dụng, tiết kiệm chi phí; hay khi thay vì cty cho xe ra sân bay đón, ông tự thuê xe lái về. Tuy nhiên lại ko ngần ngại ủng hộ hàng trăm triệu usd khi dc kêu gọi cho trường cũ… hay ủng hộ hẳn 1 tỷ usd cho liên hợp quốc.
- Và rồi vào những năm 60-70 tuổi, ông lại trải qua biến cố lớn khi cùng lúc ly dị người vợ nặng tình Jane Fonda, bị “lừa” mất quyền kiểm soát khỏi đứa con tinh thần, cháu gái qua đời. Nhưng ông vẫn tự vực dậy và đã lại sẵn sàng cho sự nghiệp mới trong chuỗi nhà hàng và quỹ từ thiện.
Gần 400 trang khổ to dày đặc chữ nhưng ng ta bị cuốn vào với những thương vụ mua bán công ty ngoạn mục hay những nhiệt huyết trong công việc của ông (làm việc 18h/ngày đến độ mua giường ngủ ở phòng làm việc).
Nhiều khi vô tình mà đọc dc quyển sách hay thật:)
Chắc nếu ko vì Nhã Nam giảm giá thì mình cũng ko mua quyển này:D rồi nếu ko vì giãn cách thì chắc cũng đã ko ngồi lục sách giết thời gian như vầy:)