If it weren’t for a bout of pleurisy, there might have been no Walkman and the business world might have missed the person most like Steve Jobs. Norio Ohga was born in 1930, the middle child of seven. World War II was raging as he turned thirteen and he would have been assigned to work in a munitions factory » Read More
Category: History
The Fred Harvey Lessons
Fred Harvey didn’t know anything about restaurants when he came to the US from Liverpool, England in the mid-nineteenth century. When he died in 1901, there were 47 Harvey House restaurants, 15 hotels, and 30 dining cars under the Harvey name. His Fred Harvey restaurant brand was the best-known brand in » Read More
The Banker, the Earthquake, and Finding Opportunity in Adversity
At about 5 AM on April 18, 1906, the world in and around San Francisco began to shake. On the sixth floor of the Palace hotel, Enrico Caruso was awakened by the shaking. From his window, he saw “the buildings toppling over, big pieces of masonry falling.” He heard cries and screams from the street below. The » Read More
The Margaret Rudkin Lessons
All in all, Margaret Rudkin was having a wonderful life. She grew up on Long Island, the oldest child in a second-generation Irish family. After working for a bank, she took a job at a brokerage where she met her husband. They moved to a splendid farm in Southern Connecticut, where Margaret set about raising their three » Read More
Willie Mays and “The Catch:” Rules for Performance
When the discussion turns to who is the greatest baseball player ever, you always hear the name “Willie Mays.” Leo Durocher described him this way: “He could do the five things you have to do to be a superstar: hit, hit with power, run, throw, and field. And he had that other ingredient that turns a » Read More