In his article, “The Sure Thing”, Malcolm Gladwell argues that the conventional thought of entrepreneurs as ‘hot-headed risk takers’ is absolutely wrong. From Ted Turner to Sam Walton and John Paulson, Mr. Gladwell arrives at the conclusion that many successful entrepreneurs are not high-risk risk takers, but are instead merciless, careful thinking attackers. Many of them are not even taking risks- they simply see an opportunity presented to them that most others do not consider. They all consistently minimize chances for failure along the way, and always see what they do through until the end. In 1969, Ted Turner had the bright idea to buy a television station, and no amount of displeasure or arguments would make him abandon the idea. The thirty …show more content…
However, a young and rich man had found that to be boring. And television was an exciting though to him. One of Mr. Turner’s many biographers, Christian Williams, wrote that “He knew absolutely nothing about it.” in his book “Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way”, published 1981, “It would be fun to risk everything he had built, and scare the hell out of everybody- Then get back in the front seat of the roller coaster.” The station Mr. Turner decided to buy WJRJ, channel 17, based in Atlanta. The chanel was an independent station on the UHF band, a part of the television spectrum that required a special antenna to locate. The origin of the channel was housed in a run-down cinder-block building, located near a funeral home. All of the equipment was falling to pieces, the staff weren’t the brightest, there was no decent programming on the show, and every year the station lost half a million dollars. Both Turner’s lawyer, Tench Coxe, and his accountant, Irwin Mazo, firmly
Television has always been an industry whose profit has always been gained through ads. But in chapter 2 of Jason Mittell’s book, Television and American Culture, Mittell argues that the rise of the profit-driven advertising television model can be traced back through American television history, and that the rise of the profit-driven advertising model of television actually helped to mold American culture both from a historical standpoint and from a social standpoint.
Ted Turner got the idea of CNN from his channel that he already owned. Channel 17 first started off as a sitcom channel. On Channel 17, their would be reruns of movies and new shows would be produced. Gilligan’s Island was a popular broadcast on Channel 17. Ted Turner thought to himself and realized that he would soon be losing money if he did not change his business strategy. Channel 17 was owned by Rice Broadcasting which was run by Jack Rice Jr.Jak;s initials provided the call letters, WJRJ. When Ted Turner met with Jack Rice, he found out that Jack’s business was bleeding cash. Ted Turner wanted to invest in the channel because his company could use the losses to lower their tax obligations while he turned the station around. Another reason why Ted wanted to use the deal was to promote his station. About fifteen percent of Ted’s billboard inventory went unsold. The signs all over Atlanta, Ted could put the unsold ones to use and promote their radio station. Ted Turner thought it was a challenge, but he loved the challenge of
"The Golden Age of Radio." CyberCollege Index Page for Free TV Production and Mass Media Course. Cyber College, 21 Feb. 2010. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. .
For generations, only certain people have achieved success - they are known as geniuses or outliers; however, they did not obtain it on high IQs and innate talents alone. In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell, #1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, reveals the transparent secret of success behind every genius that made it big. Intertwined with that, Gladwell builds a convincing implication that the story behind the success of all geniuses is that they were born at the right place, at the right time and took advantage of it. To convey the importance of the outlier’s fortunate circumstances to his readers, he expresses a respective, colloquial tone when examining their lives.
Garvin, Karen S. “Television Technology.” The Thirties in America. Volume 3. Ed. Thomas Tandy Lewis. Pasadena: Salem Press, 2011. 945-946. Print.
Ted began to realize that the majority of the business was in radio and television. He began by buying radio stations and bought a failing broadcasting station that was in Atlanta. He also bought a second in North Carolina. “Both stations were hemorrhaging money, but Turner moved boldly ahead. He began buying old movies, and TV shows, securing the broadcast rights outright, so he could show them over and over wit...
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell looks at a number of social epidemics and analyzes their build up to the point where they tip. “Tipping” is that point where an epidemic booms, or grows, to its maximum potential. Gladwell begins defining “tipping” with a literal example of the famous shoes, Hush Puppies. Once considered old-fashioned, Hush Puppies experienced a social boom in the mid-90s when hipsters in New York made them trendy again. Gladwell continues explaining “tipping” with a medical epidemic of syphilis in Baltimore. Gladwell introduces us to three essential rules of epidemics: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few says a key factor in epidemics is the role of the messenger: it spreads through word-of-mouth transmission. Gladwell explains this theory with an example of how Paul Revere managed to spread the news of British invasion overnight. Gladwell continues to explain that there are several types of people that create these types of epidemics. They are called Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors are those people that are very social and can literally connect with people with as little as two degrees of separation. Mavens are those that know a lot about a lot of different things. They may recommend a certain restaurant and you must go because you know what they told you about it is true. And Salesmen are exactly that: people that are easily social and persuading.
For example, Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, earned a scholarship to Harvard University, and took his time and spent it all on the school's computer and he knew he had potential. So he dropped out of college his sophomore year, and started a company: Microsoft. This man is what is known a as a pure risk taker. Gladwell states, “Bill gates got to do-real-time programming as an eighth grader” (12). He then evolved his company and he launched it on April 4th, 1975. He knows how to sell his products to needing customers. He interprets how to communicate with customers to attract them to his product that he wants to sell. He excelled at monopolizing his company. In all, he went way beyond just ten years. He knew that in all these events that led to his goal, he was exceedingly lucky. This does not mean he wasn't a brilliant man or that he just relied on luck. He just had excellent communication skills and knows how to sell and induce customers to buy his product, and this led him to achieve a great
Physical, emotional and mental abuse is affected by the entire body. Physical is the outside, mental is the inside, and emotional is even deeper on the inside of the body. The people in this new world deal with this abuse every day. It has become a severe tragedy of what the future might become.
Outliers-The Story of Success is a sociological, and psychological non-fiction book, which discusses success, and the driving reasons behind why some people are significantly more successful than others. Malcolm Gladwell explains this by dividing the book into two parts, opportunity and legacy. Opportunity discusses how select people are fortunate enough to be born between the months of January through March, and also includes the idea that those who are already successful will have more opportunities to improve and become even more successful. The 10,000-hour rule proves the idea that in order to become successful in a certain skill, one must have practiced that skill for at least 10,000 hours. In addition to the 10,000-hour rule, timing is also a major component that implies being in the right place at the right time, which brings the author to discuss Bill Gates who was born during the time where programming and computer technology was emerging, therefore sparking his interest in computers, later bringing him to create Microsoft. Another point Gladwell brings forth is the notion of one’s upbringing, race, and ethnicity can be a factor behind their success. And lastly, pursuing meaningful work will cause one to continue working with their skill and not give up. Legacy is a collection of examples that support the idea: values are passed down from generation to generation, which may cause a certain group of people to be more persistent in a skill, or occupation.
From the Space Race, to the Civil Rights movement, and to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the 1960s was a very eventful decade. Americans enjoyed popular shows, including “Leave It to Beaver,” comedians such as The Smothers Brothers, and a well-known news anchor named Walter Cronkite. There were many ways that events of the decade and the television industry affected each other.
1980--- American television network executive, b. Cincinnati. After inheriting his father's billboard company, he founded (1976) a television station, WTBS, and built it into the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). He pioneered superstation broadcasting, in which a TV station provides programming via satellite to cable systems nationwide.
After reading the introduction in the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I was struck by some interesting information and noticed things within the introduction that were relevant to my life. In the introduction, Gladwell basically gave a summary of a town called Roseto. He went on to explain that the people that lived in Roseto never died of heart dieses and other illnesses because of the way their community grew up. The information was very intriguing. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell states, “For men over sixty-five, the death rate from disease in Roseto was roughly half that of the United States as a whole” (Gladwell 7). This information within the book was highly shocking to me. How could this be possible? I continued reading, and the shocking statement was better explained. As the introduction continued, Malcolm Galdwell said, “The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny little town in the hills” (Gladwell 9). When reading this, I was flabbergasted. How did how one lives have anything to do with ones health? It was striking to me because I never connected life style to health. After reading the introduction, the information taught me that how one lives does result in how one’s health and life span may be. After reading the introduction, some of the information seemed relevant to my life. Malcolm Gladwell exclaimed, “They looked at how the Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards” (Gladwell 9). This is relevant to my life because I grow up in very conservative and close knit family. Like the citizens of Roseto, I live differently than the normal teenagers ...
Thomas, L. L., & Litman, B. R. (1991). Fox broadcasting company, why now? An economic study of the rise of the fourth broadcast `network.'. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 35(2), 139.
The book, The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman draws attention to some very good points concerning globalization and the world economy today. Friedman emphasizes the status of America today in relation to the other countries of the world. As I looked at the things in which he warned about or highlighted, I realized the importance of this issue. He talks about a few aspects in which need to be kept competitive in order for America to retain their current standing in the world market.