Total Rethink

15Trying to Do Everything at the Same Time

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

—Helen Keller

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

—Winston Churchill

At the same time as going to Europe and expanding McCourt Kiewit International, I also suggested to Walter that we should create a residential version of the MFS business model in the United States, bringing the advantages of low phone prices to home owners as well as to business owners, like MFS does. It seemed like the right time to rethink the model for phone charges to the consumer. Both jobs seemed so exciting and so full of potential I wanted to run them both myself.

“Those are two huge ideas,” Walter said, “You have to pick one.”

“I wanna do both.”

“Pick one.”

I never give up, and I hate the idea of missing out on anything that looks like it will be a good experience. It's my best quality and also my worst, along with the dogged persistence I bring to everything I do. Trying to make things work that I should have walked away from has cost me billions of dollars over the years, just as sticking with winning ideas has made me billions. I thrive on doing several things at once, my mind constantly hopping from one thing to another. Keeping several balls in the air at once is so stimulating. At the moment when my wife started going into labor with our daughter, Alex, I was in the process of buying C-TEC Corporation, a diversified ...