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Success
•
tsmore
than
money
by
William F. Dankenbring
One of the unique success stories of modern
times is the incredible rise to wealth of a
Texas businessman - H. Ross Perot. lt
deserves to be told in the pages of The
PLAIN
TRUTH .
N TER
GRADUATING
from the Na–
..t"\.
val Academy in Annapolis
and serving in the United
States Navy, young Perot became a
salesman for IBM. During the time
he worked for IBM, he became frus–
trated. He was a good salesman, and
the company became concerned
that he was making too much
money, so it set a maximum lirnit on
his sales. He reached this limit for
the whole year of 1962 by the end of
January of that year.
At this time, Perot read an in–
spiring line from Thoreau's
Walden:
PLAIN TRUTH March 1974
"The mass ofmen lead lives of quiet
desperation." That moment was a
turning point; he decided to go into
business for himself. Perot says: "I
decided 1 would rather be a young
failure than lead a life of quiet des–
peration."
With only $1 ,000 in savings, Perot
founded Electronic Data Systerns
Corporation (EDS). Six years later,
he decided to sell company stock to
the public, and from the first day,
the stock grew at an astounding
rate.
Stock was first sold to the pu blic
September 12, 1968 a t $ 16.50 per
share. Perot himself retained more
than nine million shares. By March
1971, the value of the stock had sky–
rocketed
to
$ 150 per share. His
personal worth on paper quickly
rose to about $1.5 billion. Since
that time, with the traumas of the
stock market and lack of investor
confidence, the entire market has
sagged. The value of EDS stock has
also greatly declined, but Perot
doesn't overly worry. He is st ill
a multi-multimillionaire. His for–
tuoe is now roughly $300 to $400
million. His firm presently does
$ 100 million worth of business
annually. Perot also had control of
duPont Walston, l nc., the second
largest brokerage firm in the United
States, but is presently getting out
of the shaky securities industry.
What makes this financia! saga of
H. Ross Perot intriguing is the fact
that Perot's supreme goal in life was
never to make money. Perol does
not equate wealth with success!
"Making all this money is partly
an accident," Perot asserts. "1 could
have gone into an earth-moving
business or been a farmer and maybe
not had the same opportunities."
But because of his opportunities
and hard work, Perot is a rnillion–
aire many times over. Nevertheless,
he has no intention of hoarding his
wealth for himself or his family. His
goals transcend money making.
For example, he has organized
the Perot Fouodation in order to use
his wealth to help others. He has
given $2.5 million to an experimen–
tal public school for disadvantaged
Dalias children and has contributed
another m.illion for Boy Scout activ–
ities in the ghetto. He has also pur–
chased a ranch for the Girl Scouts
and promoted a program to combat
drug abuse among Texas youths.
Ross Perot believes that he should
invest his money for the good of the
nation that gave him the opportu–
nity to make it. He is wholly con–
cerned about national affairs.
He made worldwide headlines
when he cbartered a Boeing 707 -
christened
Peace on Earth
-
and
11