Business Plan on a Business Card

"On one occasion, exasperated by one circumlocutory explanation, Don extracted a business card from his folder, slid it across the table, informed the CEO that all of us would leave the room for a few minutes and when we returned he hoped that the company’s business plan would be written on the back of the card."

"Don was not a micromanager. He was comfortable letting others take the floor and was not one of those people who suffocate the initiative of others. He liked to keep things simple and didn’t believe people were capable of remembering more than two or three goals. He kept the same approach with portfolio companies saying, ‘The CEO who runs a good board meeting, runs a good company.’"

"Like Larry Ellison, he believed that anything not closely associated with either directly making, building, marketing or selling a product was a waste of money."