Lead, follow or get out o' the way

Ted Turner has been a longtime hero of mine — It was an article he wrote about the media business that was the last push to leave a safe, lucrative publishing job to start a local media business.

I just stumbled on a nice CNN interview with him.

For me, this was the money-shot:

CNN: … [The book describes your] getting stuck on a sandbar, getting caught in a storm, almost dying off the coast of Cape Hatteras. … How did you go from being a sailor that got stuck on the reef and almost died to somebody who managed to win the America’s Cup on the Courageous?.

Turner: Well, the same way in baseball, [the Atlanta Braves] set a record for consecutive last-place finishes in divisional play in baseball. First four years, we finished last, four years in a row. But I stuck with it and after 18 years, we won the World Series. And that’s what I did with sailing.

CNN: Just stick to it?

Turner: Yeah. [I] stuck to it. And I wasn’t losing — I was just learning how to win.

[Insert clip of April huffing over the fact that she says such things and they roll off my back until I read them elsewhere and take them to heart.]