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[guitar music playing] [pause] >>presenter: It's my very great pleasure today to welcome today's View from the Top speaker, Ted Turner.
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It's difficult to know where to begin when introducing someone like Ted Turner because he has made an impact in so many different areas.
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He's primarily known in the business world for his impact on the media, which began when he took over a billboard advertising business when he was 24 years old.
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He used profits from this enterprise to enter cable television just as it was beginning to take hold in the US.
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In what was an audacious move at the time, he launched a 24-hour cable news network in 1980.
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CNN was the first all news network TV in the US.
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At the time, many questioned how he could fill the airwaves with news content continuously.
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Today, it is difficult to imagine what news and politics was like before 24-hour coverage existed.
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After launching CNN, Ted began buying media content, including the film studio, MGM, and used the library to create multiple, successful franchises, including TNT and Turner Classic Movies.
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The resulting Turner Broadcasting Systems eventually merged with Time Warner in 1996. Mr.
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Turner was Vice Chairman of Time Warner and was its largest stockholder when the company merged with AOL in 2000, in what I'm sure Mr.
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Turner would agree with perfect hindsight, was probably not optimal timing.
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But, in many respects, Ted is not here to talk about business at all.
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He's on campus to attend a meeting of the United Nations Foundation where he is Chair of the Board.
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The UN Foundation was established with Ted's pledge of one billion dollars in 1998; the largest philanthropic gift of its time.
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The foundation was established to strengthen and support the UN and its causes through a blend of advocacy, grant making, and partnerships.
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These causes include children's health, climate and energy, sustainable development, women and population initiatives.
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Ted is also an outspoken environmentalist, and as the largest land owner in the United States with more than two million acres of land, an area larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined-- [laughter] his decision to focus on ecological sustainability in land management has already had a major impact.
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Ted is Atlanta Braves baseball team and Atlanta Hawks basketball team.
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Not content to just stand on the sidelines, however, he also was skipper of America's Cup Sailing Team in 1977.
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He's known to be outspoken and controversial, earning him the nickname, "The Mouth from the South."
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But, he has also been named other things, such as Man of the Year by Time Magazine and Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.
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While this is only a partial list of accomplishments, one thing that ought to be abundantly clear is that when Ted Turner does something, he does not do it meekly.
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It should make for an interesting discussion today.
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Ted is going to be interviewed by Jason LeeKeenan, one of our second year leaders of the Speaker's Series, before opening the discussion to Q&A.
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Jason also has a record in the media business, having worked for Hulu during the summer and for Disney prior to business school, as well as Goldman Sachs and Texas Pacific Group.
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I'm not sure how Jason is at sailing, but he's an impressive classical pianist.
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Please join me today in welcoming Ted Turner to the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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[long applause] >>Jason: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you again Mr.
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Turner for coming -- >>Ted: Ted.
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>>Jason: to see us today.
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Sorry, I'll call you Ted.
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That is the name of your book, right? >>Ted: Right.
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[laughter] >>Jason: So, I thought I'd start off asking you a question on entrepreneurship.
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As you probably know, Stanford is well- known for inspiring entrepreneurship amongst its students and I'm sure many of the students in the audience today one day would like to start their own company.
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As the founder of many companies, including CNN, TBS, Ted's Montana Grill, and Turner Renewable Energy, could you talk to us a little bit about the challenges you faced in starting new businesses?
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>>Ted: It's a lot of work.
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It's a lot of work and you've got to have a, a good concept of what you wanna do and, and you need to have some knowledge of how to obtain capital because any business of any size requires capital.
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And then, I'd hate to say it, but you can't, you can't do it in, in, in just a couple of lines.
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When I get asked that question, though, when I get asked at groups like this I say, you know, "The secret of success in business is 'early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise'."
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[laughter] You know, that's about as good as, as anything.
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But, but, but I would recommend, because in a book you can cover it better.
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That's why I wrote the book.
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[laughter] >>Jason: This sounds like advertising to me.
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>>Ted: And also, I don't have to say the same, the same damn thing over and over again, you know?
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[laughter] >>Jason: So, lemme, lemme ask-- >>Ted: One of the things we did a lot in television, we had a lot of reruns and-- [laughter] and when you get over 70, life just turns into one big rerun.
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[laughter] >>Jason: So, you've founded these companies over a period of 30 years, have the leadership challenges-- >>Ted: Fifty years. >>Jason: Fifty years.
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Have the leadership challenges changed over that time?
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>>Ted: No, not really, I don't think.
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It's still pretty much the same thing.
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Don't forget to advertise.
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[laughter] >>Jason: Shifting gears then for a sec-- [laughter] So, in, in 1998, you founded the UN Foundation with an historic one billion dollar donation.
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What motivated you to make this donation and why the United Nations?
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>>Ted: The UN was in lot of trouble.
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They were in financial trouble and this was back before governments bailed out companies.
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This was a time when companies and individuals bailed out governments.
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[laughter] And at the UN, the United States was over a billion dollars in arrears on their dues to the UN, and the UN couldn't pay their peacekeepers.
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We're the biggest contributor and we were almost two years behind in, in our payments.
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And I, it, it drove me crazy cause I, I, I'm a student of history and I read a lot when I was younger; studied history very carefully and I don't think we'd be here today without the United Nations.
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I think the United Nations did, through all the things that they didn't do, and it's not perfect.
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Our federal governments not perfect, the state governments not perfect, but, but it did, maybe it was luck, but we did prevent World War III.
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And if we had had a World War III, particularly about the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was the closest we came, we'd probably all be dead. And that's worth saving.
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You know, something that saves everybody is worth hanging on to.
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And I was trying to figure out how I could get the money to the UN, because all of a sudden I had been worth, I was worth a couple billion dollars.
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And it happened real quickly when my stock went up when CNN turned a corner, in a period of just a few years, I went from just about broke to worth, well, at, at the high point close to ten billion.
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And so, I had, I had the money and I, the first thing I thought is, is, "Why don't I go to the UN and buy the debt at, at a discount, you know."
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Offered at business school, right?
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[laughter] Because, and, and, and then I could, I could present the bill to be paid.
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The UN couldn't push the United States because they wanted them to stay a member, but they had to be real nice even though, if you owe somebody a lot of money you're supposed to be nice to them anyway.
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That's what get, forget about China.
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We've got to be nice to China because we own 'em a trillion dollars. [laughter] Right?
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An idea of how we can get rid of that, too, real quickly is, is, you know China wants to build an aircraft carrier because they'd like to, they've got a lot of money now and they don't know what to do with some of it.
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Aircraft carriers aren't much help in a place like Afghanistan, and we've got, I don't know, like 12 battle groups and we owe China a trillion dollars.
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Why don't we sit down with them and say, "Look, you guys want aircraft carriers.
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We can't use them in Afghanistan and Iraq in all the wars we're fighting, they weren't very helpful in Vietnam, either.
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We'll sell you, we'll give you our aircraft carriers if you write off the debt and then you can have a Pacific fleet, you know?"
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What are you gonna do with it, you know?
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I really think war is totally obsolete.
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That's, but anyway, I was gonna buy-- [laughter] I was gonna buy the debt and then sue the United States for the full face amount, pick up a couple hundred million dollars on, on, on the deal.
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And I check with my lawyers and they said, "You can't do that.
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An individual can't bring a lawsuit against the United States for unpaid bills." Ha!
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[laughter] So I-- [laughter] That didn't work and it took me, it took me awhile because I kept thinking I, when I, it's like CNN.
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I'd, it, I'd spent three years just thinking about it before I even started it.
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I was just amazed that CBS, NBC, or, or CBS didn't, didn't do it cause they had all the infrastructure, the news department, the bureaus, all they had to do was, was do it but they didn't have the imagination.
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And that's another good thing to do is go into a business where the people that are running it are a bunch of dumbasses.
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[laughter] That makes it easy to have dumb competitors.
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It's one of the best ways to get started.
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[laughter] >>Jason: So when you think about the UN Foundation today, what are the most critical issues that it's working on and what are you most proud of in terms of what they've accomplished so far?
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>>Ted: Well, the thing that, that, that we're working on the, the most is trying to eradicate the intractable diseases that we, well they're not intractable because they, and, and, and we've done it with partnerships with, with Gates, with Rotary, for instance, with polio.
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We are maybe one year away, thanks to some breaks that we got, from eradicating polio.
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And that will only be the second disease in the history of the world that's ever been eradicated; po-, smallpox being the other one.
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That will be a gigantic win for those of you that are sports fans, which is just about everybody, you know, it's like, we need a Dubya. Humanity needs a Dubya.
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One, the last week, somebody blew up refugees were standing in line to get a little food in, in bowls and somebody killed 35 of 'em.
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What in the hell are you bombing refugees for?
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I mean, who, what, what does a-, accomplish?
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What, are they a different religion?
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What, in the name of God, are we doing?
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Why don't we start acting like civilized, educated, decent, kindhearted human beings?
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That's, why don' t we start doing that? It's not that hard.
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I spent my whole life doing it and it's been a ball.
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[laughter] >>Jason: So, you've spoken-- >>Ted: Most people like to help other people.
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Like in Haiti, we spent a million dollars the first day, you know?
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And, and millions and millions of dollars, most people wanna help other people.
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Who in this room would like to bomb somebody? Not one person.
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How many people wanna help other people?
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Yeah, that's right, that's, that's humanity.
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That's, why don't we start acting like human beings?
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>>Jason: One of the topics you've spoken out a lot about and I think you're most passionate about is climate change.
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>>Ted: One of 'em cause it, it poses a real threat to us.
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>>Jason: So, if you were running this country what are the three things you would do to help combat this issue? >>Ted: Well, why three?
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[laughter] Isn't that awfully arbitrary?
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[laughter and clapping] >>Jason: Ok, how about seven things you'd do?
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>>Ted: That's like my competitors at CBS, ABC, and NBC.
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They only thought of three, but I thought of ten ways to attack ' em and they-- [laughter] they stopped me on the first three, but I got 'em with the other seven.
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[laughter] >>Jason: You didn't answer the question, though, so don't-- [laughter] >>Ted: Because it was such a dumb question.
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[laughter and clapping] [ ] Well, one I'd ask people to turn out the lights.
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You know, basically the, the, the, the cheapest and, and, and quickest way to make progress is to, is to conserve. Conserve energy.
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Walk, don't drive and you know.
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So, that, that, that sort of thing and then, and what we have to do is switch over to, it's time to say goodbye to coal and oil, and replace it with renewable energy like solar, wind, and possibly geothermal, if we can figure, figure out how to, to do it.
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We should be doing a lot of research on it because it has tremendous potential. And it?
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s time to, to, the Industrial Revolution was started with burning coal, its time; it's time to say goodbye to it.
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We're burning too much of it and it's, and it's poisonous.
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And we're gonna, we're gonna run out of it anyway, but, but it's time to say goodbye to coal.
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And I mean say goodbye to coal.
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Those 35 senators from the coal states, they're gonna vote for coal.
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They don't care what happens, they do have care what happens to the country, but they care more about whether they get re-elected than anything else.
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We're gonna have to get our government to work better.
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And, because it, then they'd have to be able to do more than one thing at a time.
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I mean, I ran CNN and the Cartoon Network at the same time.
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[laughter] And, we have to multitask. I mean, they, they stop.
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The whole country comes to a halt for six months while they get the, get the healthcare bill through.
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Why can't they do two or three bills at one time, you know?
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And I mean you take more than one course, don't you?
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[laughter] For Christ's sake, I mean, you know.
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[laughter] You gotta get with the program.
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>>Jason: So, you mean-- >>Ted: Speed things up a bit. Go into high gear. >>Jason: I like that.
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[laughter] See, you mentioned China before and I think one of the big challenges is with addressing climate change is it's really a global issue and countries like China and India are projected to be the biggest producers of carbon emissions over the next decade.
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>>Ted: You know China is very, very close to it right now.
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>>Jason: So what should the US be doing to figure out the global dynamics here?
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[pause] >>Ted: Basically, there's a lot of people thinking of it, thinking about it and, and, and working on it.
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I, I am and it's, we just gotta, we gotta, we can't really afford to lose this one.
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And it's not just climate change.
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Climate change is a symptom of overpopulation and too many people uses too much stuff.
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If we, what we have to do is we gotta stabilize the population.
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And, and, and, and, and, and, and quickly because we can't handle nine billion people, well, 6. 7 billion.
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When I was born in 1938, there were only two billion people in the world.
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In, in, in, in the lifetime of one person, in those 70 years, we've increased the number of people on the planet by three and a half times. That's, that's gigantic.
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Nothing like that ever happened before.
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If we'd have got that many more elephants, for Christ's sake, we'd all be elephant dung, you know?
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[laughter] So, we've got to, we've got to go, what we really need to do, and Paul Ehrlich, I don't know if he's still around, but he's, he's involved here I think, I, I read The Population Bomb 30 years ago.
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And he, he, he feels like that, cause I talked to him, I had him out for a weekend 30 years ago when I was doing my research on population.
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And he thought that the world population ought to be between two and two and a half billion people.
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With that, with the support, you know, internal combustion engines, there wouldn't be so many people that would overwhelm the, the, the resource base.
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The planet's collapsing all around us.
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Ocean fisheries are collapsing from overfishing, the top soil, the top soils eroding away from farming; the kind of farming that we do where we plow and, and wind is, and water erosion are washing the, are washing the top soil away.
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We gotta take better care of the planet because without, without a healthy environment, it's, the populations not gonna make it.
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And with it, and with that 6.
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7 billion population, there's a billion people going to bed hungry at night.
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What are we gonna do if we had two or three billion more people?
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And that's where we're headed if we keep going, going the way that we're going.
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So, we have to do that first because that's the most important thing.
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And, and, we, or we have to do it simultaneously.
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So we're gonna have to multitask.
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We're gonna have to stop doing the dumb things and start doing the smart things that we gotta start with you.
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You're generation has got to be the one that does it because if you wait till another generation before you start turning things around, it's gonna be too late.
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So, and global warming and climate change is just one symptom of a sick planet because of too many people using too much stuff.
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>>Jason: Going back to business for a second, over the last ten years business, business has gotten a bad rap.
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From Enron to the recent financial crisis-- >>Ted: A lot of it was deserved.
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>>Jason: I was gonna say, business leaders are more vilified than glorified.
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What do you think the reason is for that and what can we do to change that?
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>>Ted: Cause they're crooks.
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[laughter] They deserve being vilified.
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You know, just like the good guys outta be lionized, like me.
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[laughter] I never did anything wrong.
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Not anything substantially wrong.
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[laughter] Not that I got caught.
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[laughter] Well, I would've gotten caught, too, because I was high profile enough and they were, enough people would've liked me.
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We need, you gotta play by the rules.
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You've got to, and it's not that hard.
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You could, you can make billions doing it playing by the rules and doing it honestly.
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If you're smart enough and work hard enough.
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>>Jason: So, on the topic of the financial crisis, reportedly in 2007, you transferred almost all of your financial portfolio into cash, successfully anticipating the crisis. >>Ted: Bonds, right. >>Jason: Ok, or bonds.
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>>Ted: But that's, that wasn't the reason I did it.
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I had-- >>Jason: So I was gonna ask you, what are the reasons?
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>>Ted: I had lost between seven and eight billion on the AOL transaction, and gone from eight or nine billion and for a brief moment, I think a high, I went over ten.
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And I was back down to under two and I was just, and that was in Time Warner.
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I thought, you know, I'd, I was, by cashing in my chips when I merged with Time Warner and, and, and, and, but, but I lost so much in [ ] with AOL, it was just hard to believe we could make so many mistakes. It was really just one.
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Merging with them without doing adequate due diligence and finding out that the books were cooked and we didn't know it and the auditors didn't catch it, but, of course, we only did one day of due diligence.
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[laughter] Anyway, yeah, it's on a forty billion dollar deal, or hundred billion dollar deal, depending on what you're grossing up.
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So, I, I just wanted to hang onto, there's nothing worse than being a broke, old man who once was rich.
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[laughter] And I wanted to be able to have enough money to cover my funeral-- [laughter] without having my children having to cough it up.
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>>Jason: Do you think there are steps we should've taken to prevent the financial crisis? >>Ted: Yeah.
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We should not have borrowed so much money.
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I don't owe a penny to a soul and haven't for a long time.
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I think, I think you outta aim in your business career and your life to be out of debt by the time you're 60.
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And not owe anything on your house or anything else.
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That and the reason for that is because after you're 60, it' s hard to find a job.
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People don't want you because of medical care, you know, you've got people, older people have more health problems than younger people and so forth.
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It's really hard, hard to find a job over 60, unless you want to be a greeter at Wal-Mart, you know.
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[audience chuckles] I know, because I haven't had a job in over ten years.
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That' s one reason I had to start these philanthropies and, I just had to have some kind of activity.
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So if I don't have it coming in, at least I can have it going out.
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[laughter] Movement, you know, just don't stand still. Do something.
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>>Jason: Are there any CEOs or business leaders today that you admire? >>Ted: Yeah.
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I, I, I like Warren Buffet.
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And I like, I like Bill Gates.
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I like the winners that, that-- [chuckles] there's some other ones.
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[pause] [laughter] >>Jason: So, I guess, you know, looking back you've founded a media empire, became a billionaire, started a restaurant chain-- >>Ted: Won the World Series.
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>>Jason: won the World Series, -- >>Ted: That was important.
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>>Jason: invested in renewable energy, married a movie star.
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For those people in the audience who aspire-- [laughter] to do something like that, if you have any advice to us going out into the workforce.
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>>Ted: Pump a lot of iron. It's tiring.
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But I really had a great time.
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I've, I, I, I, I've had a great life and I'm having a great life right now. >>Jason: Right. >>Ted: I really am.
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>>Jason: Well, before we turn it over to the audience here for some questions, in 2008, you celebrated your 70th birthday with a party in Atlanta and reportedly, you spent some time reading poetry to the guests and-- >>Ted: No, I didn't.
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I, I quoted it from memory. >>Jason: Even better.
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So you said at the time, that the words that have meant the most to you-- >>Ted: I would do it again, too.
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>>Jason: are integrity from Shakespeare.
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Would you like to share some of that with us?
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>>Ted: I think its Richard the Third. It's short.
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The best lines on integrity that I've ever, that I've ever heard.
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"My honor is life, we live in one.
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Take honor from me, and my life is done.
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Then pray, my liege, my honor let me try for that I live, and for that will I die."
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>>Jason: Thank you very much.
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[applause] >>Ted: I wanna give you the other two that I gave at my birthday, too; the lines that, that on courage.
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Because if you're gonna be successful in business you gotta have a lot of courage.
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"Then stepped forward, Horatius."
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This is from Horatius at the Bridge by Thomas McCauley.
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"Then step forward, Horatuis, Captain of the Gate.
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He said, 'To every man of woman born, death cometh soon or late.'
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And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his Gods.
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Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may; I, but with two beside me will hold the foe in play.
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In yon narrow span a thousand, might well be stopped by three.
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Now who will stand in either hand, and guard the bridge with me?"
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Pretty strong, it stopped the whole [ ] [applause] And the last one is the longest one and I really, I hope I don't forget a line and, but [ ].
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And it's also about Richard the Third and it's about humility.
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"No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of worms, of graves, of epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of earth.
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Let's choose executors and talk of wills: And yet not so, for what can we bequeath Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
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Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own save death And that small model of the barren earth That serves as paste and cover to our bones.
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For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings; How some have been deposed; some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have de-, deposed; Some poisoned by their wives: some sleeping killed; All murdered: for within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king
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Keeps Death his watch and there the antic sits, Scoffing at his state and grinning at his pomp, Infusing him with self and vain conceit, As if this flesh which walls about our life, Were brass impregnable, and Comes at the last and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king! Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
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Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence: throw away respect, Tradition, form and ceremonious duty, I live with bread like you, feel want, Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, How can you say to me, I am a king?"
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[applause] It's what, my company, in 1970, the first year in the television business, there were 35 employees and we did six hundred thousand dollars and lost nine hundred thousand; almost a million.
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That same exact company, 30 years later, did 2.
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5 billion, had 12,000 employees and made six hundred million.
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That was the year I merged with Time Warner.
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That, that's what you could do, just say, "Smoke 'em."
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The stock went up 2,000 for one during that time and that's how you make 'em.
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You wanna be a billionaire, start with nothing and turn it into a fortune.
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[laughter and clapping] >>Jason: So now, we'd like to open it up to questions from the audience.
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Please take a mic and make sure to stand up.
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>>audience1: Thanks very much for coming today.
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I wanted to ask you a question about mentorship.
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I'm wondering who have been some of your biggest mentors over your career and what are some of the biggest lessons you've learned from them?
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>>Ted: My father was definitely the biggest one.
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He taught me about business.
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It was, he was in the billboard business, it was a real easy business.
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You lease the space, put up a sign, and then rented it to an advertiser for enough to have a profit.
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But, I wanted to do more with my life than just make money, so I wanted to get to television so I could do programming.
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I wanted, I had ideas for, for programs and so that's what I, but he was, he taught me about how to, you know, what profits and losses were and so forth. [pause] >>audience2: Mr.
29:36
Turner, Ted,-- >>Ted: Ted.
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[laughter] >>audience2: Thank you for joining us today.
29:43
During this conversation, we talked about both your experience as an entrepreneur, fighting against the odds, and also for your passion about the environment; a lot of the challenges that even people here at Stanford have characterized in our global ecosystem.
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I was wondering if you could take a pass at bringing those two together and speak to one, to what extent, what advice you have for leaders who want to have an impact in those issues, and two, do you have any specific, are there any specific opportunities that excite you outside of energy, whether it be water or soil, agriculture, etc.?
30:16
>>Ted: Well, I think of, I, I think of soil and, and water and energy to-, to-, together, but, but I think that's, that's where I would, if I was starting a business today, that's, that's where I'd go because we've got to completely rebuild our whole energy system all over the world.
30:35
We've got to save that coal and, and oil.
30:44
We've, I, I, I'm, I'm going along with Boone Pickens that we outta use natural gas as a bridge fuel to, when we're completely reliant on, on solar wind and, and perhaps some geothermal and, and bio, biofuels.
30:59
That, that's where, where, where I'd go.
31:06
I think that's where the, the growth industries for the, for the future are.
31:09
At least for the immediate future; for the next thirty forty years.
31:20
And I'm in; I'm personally going there myself.
31:20
I, we're building one of the largest solar installations in New Mexico with, I partnered with the Southern Company, which is a big utility; the biggest one in the Southeast, one of the biggest ones in the country.
31:34
And they are, half of their power is generated from coal and, but what I'm doing is I'm partnering up with them and trying to work with them and to show them that we can go, that they can go with clean energy rather than fight them.
31:49
But, but I've been known to do a little fighting, too. From time to time.
31:57
[chuckles from audience] Yes, sir?
31:58
>>audience3: Thanks for coming.
31:58
I'm Steven [ ], I'm a first year student here at the GSB.
32:01
So, a lot of the ide-, the business ideas that you've spoken about have been, you know, business ideas with a social mission.
32:09
Media in itself is effectively a business i-, is a business that does have a large social mission and I think that is around education.
32:19
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about getting the right trade-off between propaganda and education and how much mass appeal you get versus, you know, a smaller, a smaller audience and how you and, you and CNN broadly have struggled with that.
32:33
Well, not necessarily you struggled with that, but how you found that, that trade-off.
32:38
>>Ted: I'm gonna ask, cause I'm hard of hearing, the-, the-, the-, there were about three or four questions, there.
32:45
[laughter] That's very complex.
32:45
I mean, it take a, a, [ ] That's a good question and you have to, as far as, as far as, just take the news media, take the news network, take CNN.
33:00
They're being beaten in the ratings by Fox, which I knew that that was where the greatest threat to CNN would come from.
33:09
It'd come from a right-wing network.
33:09
This was before I even started at CNN.
33:14
That they're, because, and, and, and they have done a good job of filling that niche.
33:17
On the one hand, you could say that they're not as responsible as I would like to see them, see them be, but they're very successful.
33:25
A, and, and sometimes doing the wrong thing is more successful than doing the right thing.
33:32
And, and that's one of the hardest things about business is I, I, I couldn't do the wrong thing and make money on it.
33:40
I, I, I just, I have too much pride to do that.
33:46
As, I'd rather not be successful than be successful by doing the wrong thing. And for me, it worked. Luckily.
33:50
It doesn't work for everybody and it, it's, it's a very hard thing to, to balance. It, it really is.
34:01
And that, and that, you know, it's one thing just to go into business to make some money but most people have enough trouble.
34:08
That's hard to do by itself.
34:11
And then if you have strong so-, sense of social consciousness on top of that, that's just is another layer of complexity to it.
34:19
But I would strongly recommend, because I did it and was successful that way, that, that you go strive that way to, to, to, to do it with a, with a conscious; that what you do is something you can be proud of.
34:33
And I, because I think in the long run, that's really more important that you have your pride and, and you did good with your life rather than just making a whole lot of money. But it's not easy. >>audience4: Hi, Ted. My name is Ebert Casano.
34:53
I grew up watching Captain Planet and wanted to thank you for that.
35:01
[laughter] >>Ted: Of all the things I did, I, I'm really proud of Captain Planet.
35:05
How many, how many people in the room grew up on Captain Planet? Look around.
35:08
If we save this world, it's gonna be partially because of Captain Planet.
35:17
[laughter] No, I'm serious.
35:17
It's right because Captain Planet taught you about environmental stewardship, didn't it?
35:22
I mean, I came up with the idea that I said, who's, outside the Cartoon Network, outside they had, I had already bought Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, I mean, I had everything.
35:31
I had the Flintstones, I had Yogi Bear-- [laughter] I had Yogi Bear, I had The Jetsons, I had all I ever, I mean I was the cartoon king.
35:42
And then, and then I bought all the movies like Gone With the Wind, Citizen King, I just, it was so great. [laughter] What fun.
35:50
Anyway, but, but Captain Planet, I, the girls and the boys in it were both the same, you know?
35:54
They, the, the, the, the girls were just as smart as the guys. Yup.
35:58
And they were kids from all over the world; Quami from Africa, right?
36:05
Wheeler from New York, Ji from Asia, she was composite Asian girl.
36:09
Linka from the Soviet Union and we had to change it to Russia because Soviet Union disappeared while Captain Planet was running.
36:18
[laughter] It ran all over the world, including Russia, including China, and they won't run it.
36:23
If I, if I could do one thing at TIme Warner to get Captain Planet back on the Cartoon Network running at a decent time so we can train today's kids, cause it's, it, it, the stories are still, you know they're timeless. >>audience4: They are.
36:37
So, as you mentioned-- [laughter] So, as you mentioned earlier, there's a lot of energy effort being expended to deal with the symptoms of environmental problems, and of the 2.
36:52
4 trillion dollars that our federal government collects in taxes, 95 percent of that comes from taxing wealth, innovation, labor, and less than five percent of that comes from taxing activities that generate negative actionalities; pollution, resource depletion, waste and inefficiency.
37:15
So, my question, what do you see is like, as the best way to actually address the root cause of environmental problems, instead of just dealing with the symptoms.
37:24
I know you mentioned earlier population control, have any ideas?
37:31
>>Ted: Not population control; family planning.
37:33
>>audience4: Family planning.
37:34
>>Ted: People don't like to be controlled-- >>audience4: Ok, >>Ted: but they like to plan. >>audience4: All right.
37:41
[laughs] Population planning, then?
37:42
[laughter] >>Ted: It, it, it's very important and that's why I, I, I forbade the, the TV announcers on CNN to use the word " foreign" because it was, CNN was going all over the world, they looked really stupid. Foreign, who's foreign?
37:51
Everybody was close together now because we interconnected the whole world.
37:57
So, but what's, what's the question?
38:03
[laughter] >>audience4: So, what do you-- >>Ted: That was a long question.
38:06
>>audience4: How, how, what are some ways in which we can deal with the root cause of environmental problems?
38:09
What do you see as the most effective ways?
38:13
>>Jason: Should we be, for example. taxing polluters?
38:15
>>Ted: Ta-, taxing pollu-, absolutely.
38:15
Tax the polluters, you bet.
38:19
And then, we made the-, absolutely.
38:19
That's who should be paying for it.
38:23
That's who, you know, why should we be paying for somebody else? s pollution? That's not the solution.
38:31
>>audience4: And if I could follow up, what do you see as the role of education versus technology-- >>Ted: Tax gasoline. You know.
38:38
>>Jason: And he's also asking do you see education playing a role in this as well? >>Ted: Of course.
38:45
Everything plays a role in it.
38:45
Captain Planet was television, but it was educational television, right?
38:51
[audience chatter] Sure, education's extremely important.
38:52
If we don't have a good educational system that teaches, Ger-, Germany had a great educational system in 1935.
38:59
The only problem was it was preaching hatred.
39:05
You know, it, it was saying that, the educational system was anti-Semitic there.
39:09
But the, but what we need an education system that's strongly educates us about the environment and how important it is to preserve it. You bet.
39:19
It's not just something that we just can, can rape and pillage and, and, and, and, and expect it to support us.
39:28
I, I wanna see us sustainable.
39:28
I'd like to see, what's wrong with a concept of where five thousand years from now people are still here?
39:35
Living in harmony with nature, right? And having a great life.
39:39
I, I think what we've done, one of the biggest mistakes we've made in America and in the Western world to a smaller degree, but America is, is we emphasize that how much money you have and how much you spend is what determines how happy you are. That? s not right.
39:56
The thing that really determines your happiness is your relationships.
39:59
with you family, with your friends.
39:59
And, and we need to have, we need to change over, that's what got us in all this financial problem.
40:07
People wanted to spend more money so they borrowed, went out and borrowed more than their house was worth against their house.
40:14
The banks lent them the money; that was the banks mistake.
40:17
We were all, but it's our fault that, that we got in this problem.
40:21
Basically, it was because we were spending more, George Soros figured it out, I think six percent a year for five, the last five years, we spent more than, than we were earning.
40:32
And borrowing the money from the Chinese, we can't operate like that.
40:36
What we should do is live in smaller houses; they're building smaller houses now.
40:38
Smaller houses and smaller automobiles; I drive a Prius.
40:43
That's my main car, you know, and I'm a billionaire still.
40:46
And, and I don't have a gigantic house, I got a nice house, I'll tell ya, I do, I do.
40:53
[laughter] But it's not gigantic.
40:53
I mean, you know, I don't feel guilty about living there and, and, and, and, and, and put more emphasis, get to know your next door neighbors.
41:04
Don't drive all the way across town.
41:07
But, get to know the people next door.
41:10
Then play bridge with them, you know?
41:10
It doesn't cost anything, for Christ's sake, you know, cook dinner together.
41:17
You have more fun than you do if you go out and drink too much at some fancy restaurant anyway.
41:21
And I'm in the restaurant business, so please go out to the, the moderately priced restaurants.
41:26
[laughter] Like Ted's Montana Grill, we're not in California yet.
41:29
Anyway, does that answer the question?
41:29
That's a, you guys are asking me, you guys and girls are asking me tough questions.
41:37
[laughter] >>audience5: Hi.
41:37
>>Ted: I don't think I can handle it.
41:41
>>audience5: I'm Alicia Washington; I'm a first year MBA student here.
41:44
You mentioned earlier that government should work better and I wondered how you think the 24-hour news cycle either helps or perhaps hinders governments from working as well as they should be?
41:54
[pause] >>Ted: Well, it depends on how its, how it's used.
41:54
Cause if it's used to turn people against the government, it's got, my concept of, of a way I try to run CNN was to tell the truth in a non-, a non-threatening way and to, when, whenever there were controversial issues, to seek out the leading proponents of both sides and let them air in their opinions and let the viewers make up their own minds.
42:24
Some, some of this talk radio now tries to make up, it, your mind for you and to convince you that they're right, and you know, they're right wing whatever. Or left wing.
42:36
But, but that's the way, the way I try to do it.
42:43
It's very complicated, it's, these are not, your, your, you' d expect Stanford Business School, post graduate, you expect good questions and tha-, we're getting them.
42:52
They're most complicated questions that, that you could ask. But that's ok.
42:59
I, I just wish I could answer them better, but the answers can't be simple, they have to be com-, they're, they're complex by their very nature.
43:07
Complex answers to complex questions. >>audience6: Hi, Ted.
43:13
David [ ] I'm a second year MBA candidate.
43:14
This one might be a little bit easier, but Malcolm Gladwell recently profiled you as an entrepreneur and you kinda touched on this a little bit earlier, in terms of he profiled entrepreneurs as not being risk-takers but rather calculating, opportunistic predators.
43:33
I'd like to get you, you're view on that and you' re, do you agree with him or how you view yourself.
43:40
>>Ted: Who am I agreeing with?
43:42
>>audience6: Malcolm Gladwell.
43:43
>>Ted: I don't even know who he is.
43:45
>>audience6: He's a, he's a-- [laughter and clapping] >>Ted: I don't remember being interviewed by anybody by, by that name, but I maybe I was.
43:54
>>audience6: So, so the, the, the thrust of the articles-- >>Ted: What networks he with?
43:57
>>audience6: He's a Harvard psychologist, and a New York Times, a New Yorker columnist. >>Jason: The New Yorker?
44:04
>>Ted: The New Yorker, ma-, I, I do a lot of interviews.
44:08
>>audience6: The, so the, the thrust of the, of the piece was about entrepreneurs as being more calculating predators, as opposed to risk-takers, as we commonly view them.
44:18
>>Ted: I, I, I really don't remember much about it.
44:18
My memory's so bad I can't remember, I can't remember if I got Parkinson? s or Alzheimer? s.
44:27
[laughter] >>audience6: So, I guess my question, so-- [laughter] >>Ted: That's an original.
44:30
>>audience6: So, I guess, the, the, the, the thrust of the question, I'm sorry I'm not being clear.
44:37
Do you view yourself as a risk-taker or, or, in terms of-- >>Ted: Yeah!
44:43
It was risky coming here.
44:45
[laughter] >>audience6: Thank you.
44:45
>>Ted: We're running late and you should've seen how fast we drove across town. Oh, my God. I'm lucky to be here.
44:57
[audience chatter and laughter] >>Jason: Are there any more questions? Yeah, go ahead. >>audience7: Hi, Ted.
45:01
Alex [ ], first year MBA.
45:02
You came in to television at a time of large transition and I think a lot of people would say that, that television industry is changing a lot right now, too, with content being delivered over the Internet and Video on Demand and everything like that.
45:15
I was wondering if you could just speak for a second on where you see media and the television industry going in the next five, ten years, or if you have a view on that? >>Ted: I don't know.
45:25
I'm not in the media business anymore.
45:28
I've moved on to energy and I'm having enough trouble keeping up with that.
45:31
You gotta keep up with solar, they got a magazine that comes out every week, you got wind, you gotta read that every week.
45:38
Geothermal, you gotta read that every week.
45:38
I'd say, I read The Economist cause that's my basic news source cause I gotta know what's going on in the world even though I don't have CNN anymore, but I, with my work at the UN, I have to know everything that's going on everywhere all the time.
45:50
And just trying to keep up with, what, it's wearing my behind out.
45:55
I gotta keep up with the environmental stuff, I gotta, every week I call somebody at over at TBS and try and get ' em to put Captain Planet back on.
46:04
[laughter and clapping] Hey, I'll tell ya what ya'll could do.
46:04
Let's see, I'm trying to remember who's the chairman of Time Warner now.
46:16
>>Jason: Well, it just so happens that he's a GSB alumnus. Jeff Bukus. >>Ted: Yeah, Jeff Bukus.
46:20
Why don't ya'll write Jeff Bukus a letter?
46:23
Each individually, saying, "I'm a Cap-, I'm a Planeteer.
46:25
Put Captain Planet back on."
46:30
[laughter and clapping] >>Jason: Is there any more time for one more question?
46:33
>>audience8: Ted, I'm, I'm a first year MBA from India.
46:33
Just had a question, what's your biggest, in your view, what's your biggest accomplishment and your biggest regret in life? >>Ted: Biggest regret? >>audience8: Right.
46:45
>>Ted: That my marriages didn't work out.
46:45
That really is, I' ve been married three times and the, the biggest accomplishment was probably Turner Broadcasting and specifically CNN.
47:00
It was the first global news network.
47:00
It was the first global network and the first 24-hour news, news source, so it was, it was, it was groundbreaking.
47:10
I think it's fair to say.
47:16
>>Jason: Everyone, please join me in thanking Mr. Turner for coming today. [applause]