Lessons From Dad
Media entrepreneur Ted Turner said the best advice from his father was to learn a business from the ground up. And he did, working summers for his dad’s billboard company.
David Rockefeller, philanthropist, statesman and one of the world’s wealthiest men, said he got his first lessons in banking by having to account for every penny of allowance from his father. Rockefeller went on to head Chase Manhattan Bank.
The life lessons that generations of fathers have taught their sons and daughters -- positive and negative, deliberate and inadvertent, serious and silly -- are just as important to Southern Californians today.
“It’s not what parents pontificate to their kids, it’s the actual behavior children observe that matters,” said Warren Bennis, who studies leadership at USC’s Marshall School of Business.
Stephan Poulter, a Brentwood therapist and author of “The Father Factor,” believes the father-child relationship is key to success in life: “A father’s influence is timeless.”
Many of California’s business executives and others would agree. Just ask them.
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-- Molly Selvin
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Hector Ruiz is CEO of Sunnyvale-based computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Probably the most memorable lesson from my father is one that he imparted to me during several milestones in my life. When I decided to go to school, he told me it was important for me to become the first person in the family to achieve a college education.
When I got married he told me it was important for me to be a better husband than he was, and when I became a father he said it was important for me to be a better father than he was. When I asked him, “Why is it important that I always do better than you did?” he said, “That’s progress. That’s the definition of progress.”
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-- Terril Yue Jones
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Robert Eckert, CEO of toy maker Mattel, is the son of Elmer Eckert, 89, a retired dentist.
My father is always a glass-is-half-full kind of person. He has lived his whole life helping people. I tell my kids that unfortunately, they don’t have the world’s best father. The good news is that I did have the world’s best father and I learned something from him along the way.
My father never encouraged his kids to go into dentistry and I don’t encourage my kids to go into business. I want them to find something they really like, the way my father encouraged us, and work hard at it.
At our house we talked about teeth at the dinner table, not business. So I wasn’t raised in a house where people talked about CEOs or vice presidents or anything like that. He didn’t teach me much about business. He taught me about life and it has served me incredibly well.
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-- Abigail Goldman
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Parker Kennedy, 58, is CEO of title insurer First American, a Santa Ana-based company founded by his great-grandfather. His dad, D.P. Kennedy, 87, is chairman emeritus.
There are a few things my dad has always done that are good and somewhat unique. One is that he always treats people with dignity. He can be very tough but he never embarrasses people in front of others. And he’s never mean.
The most important thing I picked up from Dad was that you should do things honestly and not brag about it. Dad never says “to be honest,” he just is.
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-- Annette Haddad
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Heidi Kunz is the chief financial officer of Blue Shield of California, the state’s third-largest health insurer. She lives in San Mateo.
When I was about 13, my father made me rotate the tires on his car. He wanted to be sure his daughter could take care of herself. A pediatrician, arts lover, sportsman and world traveler, my father set the bar high for his kids.
Self-reliance was important, whether it was changing the tires or balancing a checkbook. Perhaps most relevant to my current career, he preached that you shouldn’t buy anything you can’t pay for in cash.
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-- Daniel Yi
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Sung Won Sohn is president and CEO of Hanmi Bank in Koreatown. His father was president of a bank in South Korea.
My father taught me about true north. Sailors know that it is not easy to go in the direction of the true north because of the Earth’s magnetic field, wind and current. In real life, we are subject to many temptations moving us away from the true north. My father told me to check my bearing every day so that I am always moving in the direction of the true north.
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-- E. Scott Reckard
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Bob Lowe of Los Angeles is a real estate investor.
My dad was a product of the Depression. Watching him, I learned the importance of thriftiness, the importance of accepting self-responsibility and the overriding importance of honesty and integrity.
He taught us responsibility and judgment, and then gave my brother and me great freedom. But he did discourage me from getting a motorcycle. I got one later to ride in the mountains, but after falling over several times I decided it wasn’t my sport. He was right again.
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-- Roger Vincent
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Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo, 50, whose father worked as a manager in the garment industry.
When I was growing up and very junior in my career, my dad always talked to me about two things -- patience and persistence. He would always say to me, “If you just keep doing it, just keep working at it, it will happen.” He was an incredibly patient man.
And then, when I became more advanced in my career, he absolutely loved the fact that I worked at Disney. He used to drop by the office and be so thrilled to see me in action. One day, he pulled me aside and he said, “It’s much more important as a leader to be admired and respected than to be feared.”
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-- Kimi Yoshino
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Car dealer Mike Smith, 61, owns Bob Smith Toyota in La Crescenta with his brother Tim. They named their dealership after their late father, who owned a Dodge dealership.
My office is right next to the front door. I learned that from my dad. Back in the 1960s, you had to wait three to four months for a car. He said there will be a day when there are more cars than customers. He said you have to treat each person, even if they might have to wait awhile, with such importance. His focus was on customer care. I hold him as the model for us.
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-- Cynthia H. Cho
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Jeanie Buss, 44, of Playa del Rey is executive vice president of business operations for the Los Angeles Lakers. Her father is Laker owner Jerry Buss.
I think the No. 1 thing that he stressed to me was education. When I was 19 years old, I was at USC, and he had decided to get into the tennis business. He bought the L.A. Strings and he asked me if I wanted to be the general manager.
It was very exciting to me. I jumped at the opportunity. I thought, “Now I can quit school because I have a job.” My dad told me, “If you quit school you can’t have the job.”
And I was thinking, “Wait a minute, I have a job, what do I need school for?” He made it very clear that education was a priority....It was a turning point for me in my life. It’s something he’s inspired in people -- to pursue education.
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-- Cynthia H. Cho
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Leslie Moonves is chief executive of CBS.
My father, who recently turned 85, owned three gas stations. He left the house at 5:30 in the morning and didn’t get home until 7 in the evening. He worked every weekend. That’s no way to make a living, so I guess that’s one thing he taught me -- that there’s a better way to make a living.
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-- Sallie Hofmeister
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Inventor and late-night TV pitchman Ron Popeil, 71.
I didn’t spend a lot of time with my father, who was also an inventor, when I was growing up. My parents were divorced and I was sent to live in a foster home from the age of 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 . Then I lived with my grandparents.
But when I was 16, I worked with my father in Chicago to promote his products. I took around the Mince-O-Matic, the Chop-O-Matic and a kit used to make plastic plants for the home.
What I learned from him was that it was as easy to make a great product as an ordinary one. And that people were not just interested in buying cheap -- they were willing to pay a fair price for a quality product.
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-- David Colker
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Elizabeth McLaughlin is CEO of Hot Topic Inc., a retailer of music licensed and influenced apparel based in the City of Industry.
My dad taught me to appreciate the arts, especially music. As a child, I always remember the house being filled with music. Whether it was my dad pounding out jazz on the piano or the sound of Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, music was a significant part of the household from morning until night. Often during my workday, as I am surrounded at Hot Topic with sounds and sights related to music, I think back to my dad’s music lessons.
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-- Leslie Earnest
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Political activist Jamie Court is president of the Santa Monica-based nonprofit Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. His father, Jerry Court, 71, spent his career at insurer Mutual of New York.
There’s definitely a lot of my father in every phone call and letter and every confrontation I have with politicians.
He believed that it doesn’t matter how much money the other side has, if you work hard enough and you’re telling the truth, you can win. I think I have really, subliminally anyway, picked up on his outrage at injustice and his belief that if things are wrong, if you’re persistent enough, you can make changes.
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Elizabeth Douglass
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s father was a police officer in Graz, Austria.
I have had some good advice from my father: Marry a woman who is the best cook because the best definition of love is a woman who can cook. But I married a woman who hired four cooks.
Other good advice was when you have a career and start making money, being successful is how much money you keep, not how much you make.
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-- Marc Lifsher
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State Treasurer Phil Angelides is the Democratic candidate for governor. His father, Jerry Angelides, 83, is a retired mechanical engineer.
He always told me from the time I was very young that I should recognize how lucky I was. And if you make it, don’t be one of those guys who thinks he was the smartest guy or the brightest guy. Remember you got breaks and the same way you got breaks, give people breaks. If you make it, it would be a combination of luck and hard work.
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-- Marc Lifsher
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Steve Tisch is an Oscar-winning producer of such films as “Forrest Gump.” His father, financier Preston Robert “Bob” Tisch, died in November of brain cancer.
I moved here from New York in 1971. I wanted to be on my own and see if I could succeed. He cast a big shadow.
During his memorial service everyone made the point that Bob Tisch did not differentiate between the doorman at the hotel and the owner of the hotel. Everybody was on equal footing. He taught me to be extremely professional and respectful of people, from returning every phone call to being honest in dealings -- to be a mensch.
He was a mensch, and I hope I’ve succeeded in being a mensch.
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-- James Bates
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Developer Rick Caruso’s projects include the Grove and other upscale shopping centers.
My father said to do what you love to do, work hard and do the right thing by people, and that advice has served me well.
He also told me to stay low-key and out of the public eye. I broke that rule. He cringed when I became a [Los Angeles] police commissioner, although he believes in community service -- just not in a public fashion.
My father is a very sharp dresser, immaculately put together every day. We believe in being well-dressed, well-manicured and well-groomed, and I see it being passed along to my kids. I like people in the office looking sharp. It’s a bit old fashioned, but I still think it’s right.
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-- Roger Vincent
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Maria Elena Durazo is executive secretary-treasurer of the L.A. County Federation of Labor. Her father is former migrant worker Felizardo Durazo, 89.
The thing that stands out the most was his work ethic. He worked sunup to sundown, a good 12 hours a day. He worked really hard.
Even when he stopped working the fields, he was still working, out fixing the car that was perched up on cinder blocks. He was doing that one day when the car fell on top of him and broke his arm.
When he recuperated from that, he did janitorial work, handyman work, anything that he could. It stuck with me and all of my brothers and sisters. No matter how poor -- or how well off -- you are, you really must work hard at whatever it is that you do.
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-- Ronald D. White
