Evan Carmichael profiles Ted Turner, from his troubled youth through building CNN and Turner Broadcasting into a $2 billion empire. Turner bought the Atlanta Braves, owned 2 million acres, and donated $1 billion to the UN. Carmichael extracts three lessons: decide you'll succeed, never quit despite setbacks, and work 18-hour days.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael, and welcome to another edition of Modeling the Masters. I believe that the fastest and most effective way to grow your business is to model the strategies of people who've already done what you're trying to do. So today we're going to look at how a young man who had all the odds in the world stacked against him rose up to the challenge, proved his critics wrong, and went on to become one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the world. This is the story of CNN founder Ted Turner and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.
Ted Turner is an American media mogul and philanthropist. He's the founder of the cable news network CNN and is known for his $1 billion gift to support United Nations causes. Growing up, Turner was a C student and was rebellious, eventually getting expelled from Brown University for having a woman in his room with him. In the following years, his parents divorced, he got married and divorced, his 12-year-old sister developed terminal lupus, and his father went so far into debt with his advertising company that he committed suicide. Turner was 24 years old and his father's company was almost bankrupt, but he decided he would take over the family business. Nobody believed the young rebel would ever make anything of himself. Turner set out to prove them wrong. He built up his father's advertising business and then expanded into radio and television ventures. He went on to create the CNN television network and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). He would also go on to buy the Atlanta Braves baseball team and Atlanta Hawks basketball team to provide original content for his stations. Turner came a long way from a 24-year-old who nobody believed in. In 1991, Turner became the first media figure to be named Time magazine's Man of the Year. He owns over 2 million acres of land, has the largest private bison herd of 50,000, and donated $1 billion to United Nations causes. His current net worth is over $2 billion, and he currently dedicates his time and resources to making the world a better, safer place for future generations.
By committing himself to becoming a success and by working hard, Ted Turner was able to turn his father's bankrupt company around and become one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the world. To help you turn your company around, here are 3 action items you can learn from Ted Turner.
Action Item #1: Decide you'll be a success. A turning point for many entrepreneurs comes when they commit to their business and decide that they're going to see things through until they become a success. It doesn't mean that it's gonna happen overnight, but it's a commitment to reaching success and putting the daily effort into making that goal become a reality. Stunned by his father's suicide, Turner realized that he had to set ambitious goals for himself so he always had something to live for. He committed to changing his path and getting serious about his life. Despite advice to sell off Turner Advertising after his father's death, Turner fought to keep the company and worked to bring in enough business to pay off its debts. As he grew his business, he kept striving for higher goals to keep himself challenged and and gave his best effort every day. According to Turner, "If you've got an innovative idea and the majority doesn't poo-poo it, then odds are you must not have a very good idea. When people thought I was loony, it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I considered that I must be really onto something. You should set goals beyond your reach so you always have something to live for. I decided I wanted to be a success." Action Item #2: Never Quit. When you're an entrepreneur, there's always a temptation to quit when the excitement of starting up wears off and you're in the daily grind of running your business. Don't quit. Remember, you decided that you're going to be successful, and that comes from doing something every day that will move your business forward. Remember why you started your business and think about all the people you're going to be able to help. Find that motivation to keep going even when people around you think you're nuts. Almost every venture that Turner started up, or every business that he acquired, critics told him that it would never work and he was spending his money foolishly. When Turner told people he wanted to create a 24-hour news-only network, they thought he was crazy. Nobody would tune in to watch news all day long. It was a suicide mission, they said. Undeterred, Turner fought tooth and nail until he finally launched CNN, which revolutionized the media industry and became a rapid success. According to Turner, "All my life people have said that I wasn't gonna make it. They laughed at me when I started with CBS. They laughed at me when I started CNN. They laughed at me when I bought the Braves. They laughed at me when I bought the Hawks. They laughed at me when I bought MGM. You can never quit." Winners never quit and quitters never win. Action Item #3: Work hard. There are many paths to success, but one common theme you'll find if you model successful entrepreneurs is that they worked very hard to get their businesses going. Being an entrepreneur is not a 9-to-5 job. You're gonna work harder than you've ever worked before and will hopefully love almost every minute of it because you're doing something that you're extremely passionate about. Success does not come without the hard work behind it. When Turner was launching CNN, he frequently worked 18-hour days. He converted his office into an apartment and slept over most nights at CNN headquarters. CNN staff regularly saw him leave his office to grab a cup of coffee in his bathrobe. Turner felt that the best way to lead is by example, and he inspired his staff to work almost as hard as him to achieve their common goal. A former employee once said of Turner, he was much more than a cheerleader. He was the kind of guy you'd want to run through a wall for. According to Turner, "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise. CNN came out of my heart and soul.
I see what keeps people young: work." So remember, decide you're going to be a success, never quit, and work hard. To finish up this video, I wanted to share one of my favorite true stories about Ted Turner and some of his best quotes.
Turner has a long-standing bitterness with News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch. It began in 1983 when a Murdoch-sponsored yacht crashed into Turner's boat during a race, causing it to sink only 10 kilometers from the finish line. Turner was an avid sailor and won the American Cup, Sailing's most prestigious award, so he took the crash personally. He challenged Murdoch to a televised fistfight in Las Vegas. Murdoch declined.
Thank you for joining me for another edition of Modeling the Masters. If you like the video and want to see more, please leave a thumbs up below. I'd also love to hear feedback if you want to leave a comment under the video, and stay tuned for the next episode.
