Glen Taylor
october 1994 // interviewed by
anthony f. Giombetti
I’vE MADE MISTAKES. i’ve made a
lot of them. what i‘ve been able to
do on those mistakes, however, is
to cut them off quickly so that they
didn’t become significant ones.
Before Their Fall
We happened to cover Denny Hecker and Tom Petters well before their oft-documented courtroom dramas, and must admit, it’s interesting to look back—
knowing what we do now—at what they had to say.
Denny hecker indicted: february 10, 2010
Irwin Jacobs
July 1994 // interviewed by anthony
f. Giombetti
IT’S LIKE EvERyDAy LIFE. by
watching other people, i’ve learned
more by their mistakes than i have
by my own successes. watching
other peoples’ mistakes is what gives
people the fear and desire to do it
or not do it. the drive for me comes
when i want to do something.
• I’m like Irwin [Jacobs] the junk dealer. Can I
make a buck? OK, I’ll do it.
• I think I can sell my image better than any
hired advertising guy could go on stage and do.
• Life’s been pretty good to me. I try not to
forget where I came from. And I don’t ever
begrudge anybody for doing better than me.
• I don’t want to be angry at my cash. I try to
keep all the emotion and ego out of a deal.
• I think you have to be an eternal optimist to
be an entrepreneur. If you don’t think way out
there, you’re never going to reach high enough.
FROM ThE ARChIvES
Tom Petters convicted: december 2, 2009
Bill Bojan
July 2009 // interviewed by drew wood
June 1999, Interviewed by Stephen J. Dupont
• We have a lot of loyal people and I want to keep
it that way.
• I was giving away too much of my business and I
need to constantly guard my passion more carefully.
• I have the disease of being an entrepreneur. It’s
thinking I’m always right. I’ve made a lot of mistakes
over the years, but I’ve had a lot of success in asking the
right people.
Bill Bojan is the president and CEO of
Integrated Governance Solutions.
The problem with corporate governance:
there is a broken system of checks and
balances. My firm believes that the single
worst governance practice is the combi-
nation ceo-chairman of the board.
Asymmetrical compensation: Many of
today’s ceos are compensated asym-
metrically. they are rewarded for both
risk and failure.
Protecting the status quo: trust won’t be
restored if companies are forced to make
the change. we are still in a phase of pro-
tecting the status quo. Management has
changed, but governance has not.
March 2002, Interviewed by Mark Druskoff
• I’ve made more mistakes than anyone you’ll ever
meet in business. I have to get up earlier and go to bed
later than just about everybody in our business because
I’m not smart.
• In my mind, if you’re not focused on a business, you
shouldn’t be in it.
• How do you get people to follow you? You have to be
credible. That’s the hard part. It’s easy to talk the talk.
It’s much harder to do what you say you’re going to do.
• The most important thing about any company is its
leadership has to be focused. I will tell people publicly,
I have not become a focused entrepreneur until the last
couple of years.
FROM ThE ARChIvES
• We’re very, very careful on how we’re approaching a
deal. I want to try to get it done, but I won’t get it done
at any expense. I’ve done that before.
• Every entrepreneur wants to keep doing something
until it works. Are we there? We’ll never be there. This
company will never be there. It will always be growing,
and it will always be looking for opportunities.
