Teledesic

"and propose something even more exciting, built around something bigger than the parts of his disparate enterprises. But how could he possibly top Teledesic's celestial ambitions?"

"Faced with these huge questions, Tuck and his team set to work. Tuck found that, in an almost spooky fashion, solutions to specific problems occasionally seemed to materialize out of nowhere. For exam- ple, the engineers were busy wrestling with the design of the satellite antenna when an entrepreneur happened to visit, asking Tuck to fund an adaptation of Reagan-era Star Wars antennas. Tuck was about to toss him out when he realized that the design had potential application to the Teledesic problem. Moments like this made Tuck feel that some angel was watching over the project."

"What lies ahead for Craig McCaw? Expect the unexpected. He could spend years staying on course, expanding his companies, and enjoying the result. But just as his face begins to appear again on the covers of magazines that celebrate his triumphs, look for a change. He hates routine. He gets restless when a venture begins to succeed and his presence is less essential. Having built and sold two national companies, McCaw could wake up one morning and decide to sell one or all of his present companies. One possible scenario would be a sale of Nextel to a bigger company that needs a wireless presence, or a sale of Teledesic to a huge global player such as AT&T. There could be important strategic reasons for such a sale, but he wouldn't sell his empire merely for strategy or money, but to move on to new challenges. Or he would find a way to make his routine more interesting. He could pull in new partners, raise his bets,"