Ross Perot

  b. 1930 | American businessman

At The Bottom

— 1962

After four months of being in business for himself, he'd failed to land a single contract.

Ross Perot stared at the telephone, wondering when he’d catch the break he needed.  After four months of being in business for himself, he’d failed to land a single contract.  More than 70 times, he’d heard, “No, thanks,” from potential clients.  The son of a Texas cotton farmer, Perot had served in the Navy as a young man before joining the sales force at IMB in 1957.  Frustrated with the prospect of scaling IBM’s corporate ladder, Perot left the company after five years and — on the day he turned 32 — founded Electronic Data Systems with $1000 he had borrowed from his wife.  EDS was created to serve companies that were beginning to use computers in their offices, but Perot was curiously unable to land any clients. To pay the bills, he offered consultation services to Blue Cross.  At some point, Perot must have wondered if he’d made the right decision in leaving IBM.