Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The super libraries of the uber successful: the NY Times on books and business types

NY Times writer Harriet Rubin says, "Michael Moritz, the venture capitalist who built a personal $1.5 billion fortune discovering the likes of Google, YouTube, Yahoo and PayPal, and taking them public, may seem preternaturally in tune with new media. But it is the imprint of old media — books by the thousands sprawling through his Bay Area house — that occupies his mind."

In an article entitled "CEO Libraries reveal keys to success" there is considerable comfort for teachers and classicists. Rubin writes, "Serious leaders who are serious readers build personal libraries dedicated to how to think, not how to compete." She cites Steven B Jobs extreme interest in the books of William Blake and the attention paid by Michael R Milken to books about Galileo.

Rubin says that "Dee Hock, father of the credit card and founder of Visa," retired and built a magnificent library. "In his library, Mr. Hock found the book that contained the thoughts of all of them. Visitors can see opened on his library table for daily consulting, Omar Khayyam’s “Rubáiyát,” the Persian poem that warns of the dangers of greatness and the instability of fortune."

Shelly Lazarus, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, tells Rubin, "“As head of a global company, everything attracts me as a reader, books about different cultures, countries, problems. I read for pleasure and to find other perspectives on how to think or solve a problem, like Jerome Groopman’s ‘How Doctors Think’; John Cornwall’s autobiography, ‘Seminary Boy’; ‘The Wife,’ a novel by Meg Wolitzer; and before that, ‘Team of Rivals.’"

"CEO Libraries" has been high on the NYT's Most Emailed list since its publication on July 21.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I've long wished that some main stream media publication in our area would publish stories on people and their art collections and why they collect. And not just one story with every one mixed in. I want separate stories -- at least a couple of them a month.

Now I have something else to wish for... I want to see pictures and lists from local personal libraries. Part of my fantasy list of private libraries I'd like to peek into -- Virginia K. Shehee, Maggie Martin, Eric Brock, Clyde Connell, and Mary Bennett Cane.