Caught an interview yesterday. Neil Cavuto on Fox Business talking to Mel Karmazin, whom I knew nothing about, but someone for whom Cavuto obviously had great respect.
I soon found out from the discussion that Mr. Karmazin was spectacularly successful in the broadcasting business, especially known for his knowledge, skills, experience, tenacity, brazen approach and refusal to waver from the principles and beliefs upon which he built his stellar career.
To get the specific details, I checked Wikipedia and found that he’d “presided over New York's WNEW-AM (now WBBR) and WNEW-FM (now WWFS) for Metromedia when he was approached to run Infinity Broadcasting in 1981. Soon after he would add fellow New York stations WKTU-FM and WFAN into Infinity's stable. WFAN morning talent Don Imus often referred to Karmazin on the air, never by name, but by the nickname "The Zen Master."
He “ran Infinity for 15 years, then sold the company to Westinghouse, then parent of CBS.”
As the interview moved along, Cavuto asked Karmazin if he’d ever considered entering politics, because that was a field where there weren’t many well-respected driving forces, but capitulating deal-makers and self-serving toadies instead.
Karmazin replied that his get-things done mentality didn’t fit into a system of “committees,” compromise and negotiation, but was more suited to approaching goals directly, accomplishing desired results and moving on to continued successes.
In that regard, Cavuto asked Karmazin what he thought about the incumbent's decision to cancel his scheduled meeting with Vladimir Putin at the upcoming G20 conference due to Moscow’s decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden.
As with many high-profile businessmen who wisely prefer not to voice strong opinions regarding political thoughts, beliefs or preferences, whereas they might create problems or issues for no business reason, Mr. Karmazin didn’t directly opine on the subject.
But what he did say, which I’ve paraphrased here, is that in negotiations weakness is soon detected by experienced professionals, who’ll then exploit it to gain advantage. And what’s just as important is leaving personal opinion out of business matters altogether.
Consequently, it doesn't really matter what the incumbent thinks of Mr. Putin, or what he personally feels about the Snowden situation and how it was handled by the Russians. The incumbent’s job is to represent the United States and its best interests regardless, instead of pouting in distrainment, thereby losing not only the particular case, but also the respect of Putin and any other leaders viewing the situation.
Mr. Karmazin went on to note that, in business its not unusual to have to deal with people one hates, that’s part of what being successful is all about. Because it’s not a game, its as serious as things can get.
So, here we have the thoughts of a highly competent, proven leader in an extremely competitive business whose accomplishments derived in great part from refusal to acquiesce under pressure from others, versus the performance of one who continually talks, and talks, and talks, but then whines and folds when actually tested in real-time situations.
And that to me clearly demonstrates the difference between those who succeed in the real-world as opposed to politicians. Because accomplished businessfolks have to actually produce every day to prevail, while politicians can survive forever if they sound good though never having to back up their words with any positive achievements at all.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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