Captains of Industry: Magic Johnson - Part 1

Last night, I attended the Captains of Industry series talk sponsored by Business Week and held at the 92nd Street Y. It was the first in the series for the season. Previous honorees included GE's Jeffrey Immelt, Sun's Scott McNealy, HP's Carly Fiorina and Amazon's Jeff Bezos. They are certainly "Captains" in their own right, but Magic Johnson???

Prior to the event, my only recognition of this man is of an athlete and HIV spokesperson. I knew little of him but can only bow in awe of his superstardom. The setting was intimate. The auditorium at the 92nd Street Y can seat several hundred people but many seats were sadly empty. Magic entered on stage after a brief introduction by Business Week's editor-in-chief Stephen Adler. Stephen told a brief story about Magic's first meeting with the LA Lakers. The management team took him out to a fancy dinner to negotiate his contract. They ordered a fish dish which Magic never even heard of...and proceeded to offer him $400,000 a year. He did not have a manager to negotiate on his behalf (I think he was only 19 at the time) but he was business-savy enough to know how to negotiate. He politely turned down the offer and also returned his fish order back to the kitchen. The LA Lakers were surprised by this young man's negotiating skills and continued to woo him with a higher salary - up to $500,000. Whoo hoo! In the late 1970's that was considered a large sum of money.

The interview went back and forth between Magic's basketball career and his business. I was impressed with the laid-back and honest answers that he provided in the hour long talk. While it is without question that he is a talented basketball player, he always had aspirations to become a business person. While growing up with 9 siblings in a small-town in Michigan, he was exposed to the hardships of life from an early age. He had to work different jobs as a young boy including one where he had to clean an office building of 7 floors. He would indulge in cleaning the top floor of the building which contained the offices of the CEO. Magic recounted how he would sit in the leather chair in the office (which was a little too small for his body) and play the role of the CEO by pressing the intercom button and calling for his secretary for coffee and newspaper. He would do this for two hours everyday. His advice to young people? "You have to imagine yourself in your dream job. Dream big."

....To be continued in tomorrow's Part 2.