“I didn't, and I still do not, compare myself to others. I think those kinds of comparisons are almost invidious … I usually just sort of give it my best shot and try to have some fun.”
So said Dick Parsons in an interview 20 years ago for this book's predecessor, Take a Lesson. It was vintage Parsons, a self‐described Type‐B personality who has routinely defied proscribed limits, breezing across borders in race, business, and politics as if they weren't there.
From his first job fresh out of law school, as counsel to then New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, this child of Brooklyn's Bedstuy kept stepping from one heady perch to another, forging an incomparable career.
At a time in the nation's top 100 law firms when Black associates were still a rarity and Black partners were the unicorns of their era, Parsons was managing partner at Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler. His subsequent role as chairman and CEO of Dime Bancorp began a succession of leadership roles that include some of the most legendary brands in business: Time Warner, the Los Angeles Clippers, and CBS. Interim CEO at the latter two companies, he stepped down from CBS in 2018 to tend to his health. He has also served as chairman of the Apollo Theater Foundation, the Partnership for New York City, and, until 2021, the Rockefeller Foundation. ...
