A Passion to Win

Wow! I'm the first to review this book here in over a year! A Passion to Win was recommended to me by a fellow Viacom employee, though he's at Paramount and I have freelanced at MTV for the past four and a half years. I'm embarrassed to say that I previously knew nothing of Sumner Redstone or his behind-the-scene battles to turn Viacom into the world's top entertainment company. When confronted with the inevitable bureaucracy of performing my job duties, I just envisioned a nameless, faceless corporation that really only cared about the bottom line. What a treat it was to spend the last day and a half seeing operations from the creator's perspective! I have a newfound respect for Mr. Viacom (or Mr. Redstone) and every other division that has invariably kept him awake at night as he set to reform it from the inside out. Quite an inspiring and optimistic tome from someone who could easily have concentrated on the negatives of his own triumphant journey. I was surprised with Redstone's candor in recounting his business deals, including the personalities of the players involved. The character "types" he has dealt with paralleled my own encounters with businessmen over the years. It was comforting to know that our dealings were not so dissimilar, only in the scope of what was being negotiated. I'm sure Sumner has his share of detractors, but I was really impressed with his story. I found myself cheering (though not audibly) when he closed a significant business deal. The uncomplicated prose actually helped me through most of the legal situations, as that's never been an area of interest for me. Suffice it to say that I think this book holds up exceedingly well, giving great insight into one of the top business minds currently at play on the American (even global) corporate landscape. A complete recommendation.

If one is asked to describe a blueprint for genocide, Hitler's "Mein Kampf" invariably comes to mind. Thus ever should Sumner Redstone's "A Passion to Win" be linked with the equally heinous crime of cultural genocide.In this book, Mr. Redstone recalls the long road that led him from drive-in theater projectionist to media mogul. At every twist and turn, Mr. Redstone defeats "incomprehensible" odds to claw his way to the top of his "entertainment" empire. The capstone of this empire was his acquistion of Viacom, and with it, MTV.Redstone describes with almost messianic fervor how he ignored advice to sell off the fledgling music channel. "I believed that MTV could be a cultural force in America" (page 116). "Young people 12 to 20 were going to become adults of 30 to 40...", "If we attracted them early, we could keep them forever." (page 117).Well, attract them he did, and anyone who can sit through ten minutes of MTV "programming" can readily appreciate Mr. Redstone's "cultural messages". (Try searching "Shower Rangers" on you favorite browser some time. Thanks, Sumner!).Even more sinister is the calculating way in which he targets the youngest viewers for his oily propaganda. "I felt much the same way about Nickelodeon and the possibilities in creating a children's brand." (page 117). From cradle to grave, Uncle Sumner had a direct conduit to America's, and then the world's, most impressionable viewers.But Mr. Redstone does not live in a vacuum. He has children and grandchildren of his own. They grew up with the MTV generation too (Can't you just see Grampa Sumner settling down with the grandbabies to watch some quality rap videos?). Mr. Redstone, however, believes that while "multiculturalism" and "diversity" are just the ticket for the gentiles, his family would attend private schools in Israel.Towards the closing pages of this book, Mr. Redstone also mentions his wife of 50+ years, as he is in the process of divorcing her. "I took measures to see that she would have no control in the company". Heart warming, ain't it?I highly recommend this book. As the old proverb goes, "Know thy enemy."

Several other reviewers seem to have attached little (if any) importance to the fact that the information Redstone provides (especially the opinions) are from his perspective. They challenge the accuracy of his comments about various negotiations, lawsuits, personnel decisions, etc. No doubt he employs selective memory. No doubt he frequently bends the truth to suit what are often his self-serving purposes. No doubt in several instances he is flat-out wrong. So what? I rate this book so highly because it provides access to Redstone which would otherwise be denied, at least to me. No one can question the nature and extent of his achievements in business. No one can deny that he is among the most controversial of media empire CEOs. The person he himself describes is not someone I would wish to be closely associated with. I do not plan to invite him over for Sunday dinner (although he may well be delightful company in that situation) and I have not included him on my holiday greeting card mailing list. Again, so what? In his own words, he shares with me and other readers his "take" on his life and career thus far. We have his version of volatile relationships with others such as Barry Diller who also bears little resemblance to Mr. Rogers. Thank you, Mr. Redstone, for explaining why you think you have a passion to win; also, what you think the impact of that passion has had in your life.

A principle in speaking is that people remember stories much more than they remember concepts. This is a great story and there is much to be learned from it. It's also clear to me how easy it is confuse a person with the single-minded courage of his convictions with someone who is ruthless. I have known a few people similar to Mr. Redstone, who were similarly single-minded of purpose. When you look closely at these people, the look in their eye in much more about having a vision or goal and thinking intently, "How can I make IT happen?" than it is about "who can I hurt or run over?" If they do happen to run over people it is usually not done from malice, but because those people are merely in the line of whatever goal they are trying to achieve.This is not to say that these strong-willed people suffer fools gladly (which they don't) or are not capable of getting even (and then some) after someone else attacks them first. But they don't go out of their way to hurt people without having been hurt by them.Mr. Redstone also exemplifies how easy it is to become confused about aggression being bad. Tiger Woods is aggressive. Andre Agassi is aggressive. Aggression + Principle = Conviction. Aggression - Principle = Hostility. Aggression is actually admirable, but it needs to be wedded to principle. And Mr. Redstone is a good example of how to be aggressive in the right way.Read this book as a guide to taking the bull by the horns and taking charge of your life, instead of waiting for life to happen to you.

Being from the Boston area, I have long followed and been interested in the career of Sumner Redstone. This autobiography greatly added to my knowledge of the man by describing the thought processes behind the many successful innovations he has helped pioneer. The main drawback of the book is that you will find his personality unappealing at times. He savages those who do not meet his exceptionally high standards.If you do not know who Mr. Redstone is, let me fill you in a little. He is a self-made multibillionaire, who is the chairman and controlling shareholder of Viacom. This is the company that brings you the CBS television network, Paramount motion pictures, and many popular cable networks like MTV and Showtime. Mr. Redstone may well be the brightest owner of a major company in the world. He is certainly one of the best educated. But beyond that, he is undoubtedly one of the most competitive. The combination gives him the impact of a Mack truck when he decides to move. The book begins with the most famous story about Mr. Redstone, how he survived almost being burned to death in a fire in Boston's Copley Plaza at age 55. You will come away impressed with his determination from reading about this experience. If you are like me, you will come away even more impressed that this experience had little psychological impact on him. It was just one more challenge. The story then picks up with the horrible problems he had in turning around Blockbuster Video after purchasing it during Viacom's acquisition of Paramount. To succeed required recruiting two different top officers of the company (the first one was not successful) and renegotiating the fundamental way that motion picture studios were compensated for video rentals (substituting a revenue sharing arrangement for purchases of video tapes). Mr. Redstone always wins in business. It's that simple. In fact, in this autobiography, he can recount few occasions when he did not in any aspect of his life. He bitterly resents the injustices present from those few instances. One was when a professor of law gave him a D in constitutional law at Harvard Law school (when he had taken the course earlier at another law school, he had received an A+). While an appellate lawyer for the federal government, he won 18 appeals in a row. "I am hands on . . . but I also invite confrontation." Mr. Redstone acts as though each penny involved is potentially his own, and that the principle at stake is a life-and-death one. This gives his focus an intensity that no one I have ever met could match. His descriptions of bidding contests to buy businesses and efforts to win legal cases will provide fruitful examples of best practices for generations to come. If you want to win in business or law, think like Mr. Redstone. And get the best talent to help you . . . particularly if you are not a towering genius like Mr. Redstone. The title of the book is somewhat misleading. Mr. Redstone is equally devot