|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frederick W. Smith
Founder, Federal Express
In retrospect it was ridiculous to try to put this system together, which required so much up front money, and required changing a lot of government regulations, but I didn't know that at the time. And I think probably my experience in the service, where -- the currency of exchange in FedEx was just money, it wasn't people's arms and legs, or lives. So my perspective on it was perhaps a bit more -- I don't know how you'd say it. I was willing to take a chance, because losing wasn't the worst thing in the world that could happen to you. I had seen that very clearly.
View Interview with Frederick W. Smith
View Biography of Frederick W. Smith
View Profile of Frederick W. Smith
View Photo Gallery of Frederick W. Smith
|
|
|
Frederick W. Smith
Founder, Federal Express
Frederick Smith: The reason I never lost confidence is because I never believed that the consequences of losing were as bad as some other people might have thought, you know? "Oh my goodness, I've lost my money!" or what have you. I mean, I just wasn't motivated along those lines. And I was very, very, very sure that what we were doing was extremely important and was destined to be successful. So that's the definition I think of an insane person, or a zealot. And most entrepreneurs, I think you would find, have that sort of green wire laid in there just a little bit cross-wise. And they begin to get focused on something, and they believe in the idea or themselves far beyond what they probably should.
View Interview with Frederick W. Smith
View Biography of Frederick W. Smith
View Profile of Frederick W. Smith
View Photo Gallery of Frederick W. Smith
|
|
|
Stephen Sondheim
Award-winning Composer and Lyricist
I asked him (Oscar Hammerstein) if he would read it and he said sure, and so he called me the next day and I went over, and I said, "Now, you know, I want you to really treat this like a professional, as if you didn't know me, as if it just crossed your desk." And he said, "All right, in that case it's the worst thing that ever crossed my desk." And I was shocked, and he knew how disappointed I was, to put it mildly. He said, "Now I didn't say it wasn't talented," he said, "but if you want to go through it, I'll tell you what's wrong with it." And he started right from the first stage direction, and he treated me like an adult. He treated me as if I were a professional, and by the end of the afternoon I was on my way to being a professional.
View Interview with Stephen Sondheim
View Biography of Stephen Sondheim
View Profile of Stephen Sondheim
View Photo Gallery of Stephen Sondheim
|
|
|
Wole Soyinka
Nobel Prize for Literature
Wole Soyinka: Those elections were very violent and the people resisted. This was the Western Region at the time. I was then teaching at the University of Ibadan. Violent, and the incumbent government used its power of incumbency in the region, in alliance with the power of the center. It was a federal structure. In spite of that, they could not rig the election successfully. And so what they did was just start altering the results. And even that proved exceedingly difficult for them. Finally the premier of the region decided to just forget the whole thing and announce his victory on radio. And I happened, you know, by very fortunate coincidence, I learned that this was going to become a fait accompli. And since he had the support of the federal government, something drastic had to be done. And so with some assistance, some of my usual collaborators, I managed to stop the broadcast, substitute my -- I pre-recorded my own statement. So I went to the studio and I took the premier's tape off and substituted my own and went away. And so I was tried -- very, very nasty charge. I was charged with armed robbery, because apparently this event was supposed to have taken place with the aid of a gun, and so -- very cunning people, coming to frame a charge of armed robbery, for a tape! Costs under a pound or whatever, and I substituted one, anyway -- so it wasn't -- and I left that one. So where was the robbery?
View Interview with Wole Soyinka
View Biography of Wole Soyinka
View Profile of Wole Soyinka
View Photo Gallery of Wole Soyinka
|
|
|
Wole Soyinka
Nobel Prize for Literature
When I realized that war really was going to happen, I tried to -- and he (Christopher Okigbo) had left, like the other Igbo that fled to the East, where they were more secure. Chinua Achebe was in the East. We had other writers like Gabriel Okara in the East, and I felt maybe by linking up and resurrecting that tight community we might be able to do something to prevent that war, and so I traveled. By then the firing had started, the early skirmishes had begun. And I traveled by road to the East. I was promptly arrested as a suspected enemy by the Biafrans whom I had come to see, but of course, some time after, the police realized who I was and I was released. And who had come into my police station? He didn't know I was there. It was Christopher Okigbo, coming from the war front, coming for more equipment. And so we were reunited for the last time. He went back to the front. So the leader of the secessionist enclave, Ojukwu, we spoke, and then when I came back I was detained for having traveled to the East. I was accused of all kinds of things, including trying to buy jet fighters for the -- I don't know why people like to cook, you know, fantasies, around one's individual existence.
View Interview with Wole Soyinka
View Biography of Wole Soyinka
View Profile of Wole Soyinka
View Photo Gallery of Wole Soyinka
|
| |
|
