I didn't find much of interest in the news today, but when perusing Drudge I found a reprinted article from The Hollywood Reporter titled What Ever Happened to Ted Turner? by Stephen Galloway.
I read it because it brought back a memory regarding a transaction I handled while in the equipment financing business, and the tale of that sales presentation is something I'll never, ever forget.
At that time, I think it was somewhere around 1980 or so, Turner owned the TV broadcast station TBS, and also the Atlanta Braves baseball team. The company I was with at the time arranged financing for businesses wishing to lease or finance equipment they were acquiring, so we primarily worked in conjunction with equipment suppliers who brought us in as needed by their clients.
Shortly after a broadcasting equipment trade show in Las Vegas where one of the most prominent suppliers of mobile TV studio equipment displayed its wares, I got a call from them saying that TBS was interested in acquiring a full-sized tractor-trailer equipped with the finest state-of-the art technology available at the time. This production studio on wheels was not only capable of shooting, transmitting and taping any kind of remote event, it could also produce a finished reproducible recording.
The TBS plan, as I recall, was to produce and air Atlanta Braves away games around the nation and also to broadcast, record, and preserve all kinds of other events in outdoor venues such as big-name performers concerts in stadiums and arenas.
Now, naturally, the equipment involved was very, very costly and thus I was invited to make a presentation of my financial offerings by visiting Turner's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
The morning I flew in from New York, I hopped in a cab outside Atlanta's airport and gave the cabbie the street address of my destination. Upon hearing the building number, the cabbie said something like, "Gonna see Ted, huh?" And then I quickly learned from him that almost all Atlantan's at the time tried to stay abreast of everything Ted did, whereas to them he was a hero far bigger than life. A few minutes later the cabbie said, if you get a chance, "You ought to ask them why they fired the Brave's manager, Joe Torre, this morning."
On my arrival in my prospective customer's headquarters, I was ushered into one of the largest offices I'd ever seen. The room was not only immense, but perfectly appointed and although not austere, considering whose business I was visiting, it was extremely intimidating. As was it's occupant, the CFO, a financial wizard and exactly the type you'd expect to be acceptable to one of the world's foremost business geniuses and successful entrepreneurs. This man had a financial calculator in his head.
Now, despite my own experience and considerable accomplishments to date, my host and his surroundings threw me off my pace to the extent that no dazzling opening statement came to mind. Consequently, being unable to display genius, I simply stuttered all I could remember at the moment, "H,h,h,how come the Braves let Joe Torre go this morning?"
Upon hearing that, my potential client whirled his chair around to face the largest custom phone console I'd ever seen. There must have been more than a hundred buttons on it. And he started pushing them, one after another, speaking quickly and curtly to whoever answered each of them.
Then after what seemed an eternity, but was likely only five or ten minutes or so, he turned back around to me. He then said he'd called everyone he could think of in the baseball organization, from the GM, to the manager, to the coaches and even the bat boy and none of them was aware of the managerial firing. So, what he asked me to tell him was exactly where I'd gotten my information, because part of his responsibility was over-seeing employees contracts so he had to get started on handling this one immediately because he hated being the last one to find things like this out.
It was then that I fully understood the meaning of that old comparative, being between a rock and a hard place because I didn't have the nerve to tell him that a cabbie had mislead me just a short while ago. After a further little hemming and hawing, I finally told him I'd seen a news headline in the NY airport which obviously had been wrong. Within a short time later, calm returning to the room, we finally got down to the purpose of my visit and discussed what alternatives I had to offer.
My own professional standards prevent me from telling you whether I finally made that sale or not. But, in retrospect, simply getting out of the hole I'd dug for myself and staying in contention long enough to present my suggestions to a consummate professional such as the one I faced taught me two things I've never forgotten. Don't ever give up no matter the situation -and always stay out of cabs.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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