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Summary Of The Sure Thing By Malcolm Gladwell

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In this excerpt from the “The Sure Thing“ by Malcolm Gladwell the author outlines the career of Ted Turner. Ted Turner inherited a billboard business from his father. The business was doing great but, he was became bored & decided he wanted to buy a TV station which he knew nothing about. He decided to buy an independent radio station that was a “run down cinder block building near a funeral home, leading to a joke that it was at death’s door.” It was losing a million dollars a year. Turner wanted to buy a business a build it from the bottom no matter how bad the condition. His lawyer & accountant warned him not to “We tried to make it clear yes it might work, but if it doesn’t everything will collapse “If he did so he would lose everything including all his life savings. Turner did not listen he was “Captain Courageous” he took many risks; he was known for signing contracts without reading them. His advisors believed he had a lot to lose buying a failing business. Yet before the end of his life, he had a super star wife, took on networks, & became a billionaire. He bought the station & it became one of the greatest stations of the 20th century. …show more content…

What is sometimes forgotten he wasn’t just a proprietor of just any billboard-company , he inherited the largest outdoor advertising that was bring in rivers of cash. It fitted in nicely into the business he was already running. He could advertise his new station for free. For programming he had a fix for that too. He asked New York whatever programming their affiliates weren’t running such as news & sports. By then the purchase price for WJRJ was 2.5 million & other business’s like it went for many times that. He paid it with swap engineer in such way he didn’t have to put a penny down. “Within in year the company was breaking even, by 1963 it was maki8ng a million dollar in

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