In 1984, I was honored by President Reagan for my contribution to telecommunications, media, education, and humanitarian efforts and invited to the White House. As I recall in Chapter 12, I nearly didn't make it to the ceremony!
The hardest period of my career was the restructuring of RCN, the first company to offer what's referred to as triple play in telecoms (the bundling of telephone, cable television, and internet service) over one network – something we take for granted now. We owed JP Morgan $1 billion and we had a good case for not paying the bank back given our circumstances. But every employee worked together around the clock as a team to make sure that wasn't the case. Although it was a tough time, I was never prouder of a group of employees working together for a common cause and a cause that benefited others not themselves.
Growing up there were 11 of us in the house, including my Mom's parents who lived out back but were in the house all day long. This was taken at my grandparent's surprise fiftieth wedding anniversary at the house (in those days the idea of having a party anywhere but at home was not considered).
As you can see some things never change, as ...