Episode 69: Dick Bodman's Remarkable Career and Life Lessons

What do you do with a good friend who has had a successful career in many fields, who seems to be good at everything, and is interesting on a wide range of topics? Well, in my case, I bring him on my show. Richard S. Bodman, founder of AT&T Ventures, joins me with John Tamny, editor of Real Clear Markets, an Editor for Forbes Magazine and the author of "The End of Work" and "They're Both Wrong." Among the many things John and I learn from Dick are: His "eleven different careers." Why "whatever I do, it's going to start in California." How he helped start "something called Mastercard" at age 24. Sparked AT&T's acquisition of McCaw Cellular. His three rules for success. And what "orthogonal" has to do with it. How he launched AT&T ventures. And why he sold it before the dot-com bubble burst. What he learned about the American legal system from his experience as a Director of Tyco. His views about the impact of artificial intelligence growing at a thousand times a year. Also, "for dyslexics like me, I listen to 160 or 70 books a year on Audible on my iPhone." My favorite: "I've never been confident that I know I can do something. I just do things. But one thing I did know, I had a lot of curiosity. And I knew that you couldn't ever get anything done if you didn't sell it. So that was what got me started."