Image: The New Yorker
As a regular reader of these pages you will be aware that one of my favourite prodcasts is 'How I Built This' by NPR. Its a podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
On the first warm day in London this year I had the pleasure of stumbling across this episode as I crossed Putney Bridge. Nothing could have prepared me for the introduction from Mr Saban:
"I have to tell you that the biggest hits I have had in my life and in music and in television and in business have always been as a result of significant rejections and repeated rejections. So every time I have an idea, and people tell me 'no don't do that'..I think oops I'm onto something"
As a serial ideas man and wannabe entrepreneur, nothing could have shook me to the core quite like it. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a tear in the eye! Anyone that has ever attempted to build anything will tell you of the heartache and tears it caused. And damn right! because nothing without effort if worth celebrating. And no one sums that ethos up more than Mr Haim Saban. As a refugee growing up in Tel Aviv, Mr Haim Saban remembers not having enough money to eat. As an adult, he hustled his way into the entertainment business, writing theme songs for classic cartoons like Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff. But producing the mega-hit Mighty Morphin Power Rangers put him on track to becoming a billionaire media titan. He his a highly amusing and deeply inspiring gent. This one isn't to be missed!
Listen to the full episode here.