Al Gore

"PRACTICE FREE-FORM LISTENING In a coaching session with Bill, you could expect that he would listen intently. No checking his phone for texts or email, no glancing at his watch or out the window while his mind wandered. He was always right there. Today it is popular to talk about “being present” or “in the moment.” We’re pretty sure those words never passed the coach’s lips, yet he was one of their great practitioners. Al Gore says he learned from Bill how “important it is to pay careful attention to the person you are dealing with . . . give them your full, undivided attention, really listening carefully. Only then do you go into the issue. There’s an order to it.”"

"Back in LA, Musk had dinner at a Beverly Hills steakhouse with a friend and early Tesla investor, Jason Calacanis. Musk was in a dark place. His third rocket had just exploded on liftoff, and SpaceX would go under if the fourth did. Calacanis had read that Tesla only had four weeks of money left; he asked Musk if that was true. No, Musk said. Three weeks. Musk confided that a friend had loaned him money so he could cover his personal expenses. There were other benefactors: Bill Lee, Al Gore’s son-in-law, invested $2 million, and Sergey Brin put in $500,000. Some employees were even writing checks, not sure they’d ever see the money again. Things looked bleak. Still, Musk said he wanted to show Calacanis something. He pulled out his BlackBerry and revealed a picture of a clay mockup of the Model S. “That’s gorgeous,” Calacanis said. “How much can you make it for?” “Well, it’s going to go 200 miles,” Musk said. “I think we can make it for $50,000 or $60,000.” That night Calacanis returned home and wrote out two checks for $50,000 each and a note to Musk: “Elon, looks like an incredible car…I’ll take two!”"

"I’d told Ralph and Brian that I’d promised myself to never again sign an employment agreement and that I’d report to a board, but not to an individual. QVC was a public company, and the other major owner was John Malone’s Liberty Media. Malone had become the overlord of cable media. He controlled the largest cable network, and with Liberty, he owned most of the programming. He was known both as the Cable Cowboy and, in a swipe from then–vice president Al Gore, as the Darth Vader of media. He was and always has been the smartest person in media, with an extraordinarily subtle and ingenious mind in the body of an outdoorsman conservationist libertarian who’s never met a tax he wanted to pay. I didn’t want to ever be stuck between them and would only agree to a three-way partnership where any two members could decide an issue, as long as I was one of the two. This made them more than uncomfortable, but I was adamant—I’d never do anything again where I wasn’t in some position of control."

"However, in November 2010, the last event, his health was not in good shape, and he left the table after only sipping miso soup. In any case, the board dinner was held at Keizuki for five consecutive years. Apple’s board of directors in 2006 included a distinguished lineup of members. Starting with Steve, there was former Vice President Al Gore, Bill Campbell from the finance software giant Intuit, Mickey Drexler from the apparel giant J. Crew, Arthur Levinson from the biotech giant Genentech, and Eric Schmidt from Google."

"rom the moment Al Gore stepped into the restaurant, he stood out differently from other patrons. He continuously cracked jokes, shaking hands with everyone indiscriminately. Eventually, he even barged into the kitchen and shook hands with the employees washing dishes. His immediate handshaking habit was perhaps innate for a politician who has gone through many elections. He once entered the store with a white flimsy plastic bag in hand, despite wearing a well-tailored suit, after visiting the grocery store next to the restaurant. Those who happened to be at the supermarket probably didn’t realize it was Al Gore. His appearance was somehow humorous and didn’t resemble a former vice president. Thanks to Apple’s board dinners, I was able to catch a glimpse of an unexpected side of the former Vice President not conveyed through television."