Ross Perot
American businessman (1930 - )
- || At The Bottom
1962 -- 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.
- || At The Top
1992 -- After his initial difficulties with EDS, Perot began to land contracts, and before long his company skyrocketed to the top, making him one of the wealthiest men in the nation. By the late 1980s, Perot had sold EDS to General Motors for nearly $1 billion, after which he went on to found Perot Systems, which became a major success in its own right. Already one of the most successful businessmen in the United States, Perot made a spirited run for the presidency in 1992. His infomercial-style campaign spots turned him into a household name and drew millions of enthusiastic followers to his economic ideas (especially his concern over the deficit and job losses) as well as his critiques of Washington "gridlock." After leading in many polls during the summer of 1992, he eventually wound up earning nearly 20 percent of the popular vote -- the strongest showing for a third-party candidate in 80 years.
- || The Comeback
A journalist once wrote that Perot is driven by a ferocious sense of certainty. "Once he is convinced that he is right," Peter Elkind explained, "he will never give in." It was this spirit that gave Perot the confidence to leave a comfortable job with IBM and start his own company. He'd tried to persuade his bosses to listen to his ideas about providing customized computer information services to business clients; when his bosses ignored his ideas, Perot founded EDS to bring his vision into reality, and he made a fortune. Perot's success was due in no small part to his boundless energy and attention to detail, as well as his ability to stay grounded in the family and business values he grew up with. As an executive, Perot created a "straight-arrow" culture within EDS, and he maintained high expectations of his employees. He also took a personal interest in the people he employed, and former EDS employees often recall the ways he was able to stay connected to ordinary working people. Though Perot experienced setbacks along the way -- losing half a billion dollars in a stock market downturn, losing $60 million in a failed venture with DuPont -- he learned from his mistakes but never swayed from his approach to doing business. Indeed, when he was running for president in 1992, much of his success was based on the sense many voters had that Perot -- one of the hundred richest people in the US -- understood the concerns of regular folks.
