Ed Prichard, Eliot Spitzer and the Comeback

Ed Prichard, Eliot Spitzer and the Comeback

I'll always be around. and around and around and
around and around

-The Highwayman by Jimmy Webb

Author and CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin recently spoke to the Kentucky Bar Association and told a fascinating story.

Several years ago, Toobin interviewed Donald Graham, Publisher of the Washington Post. He asked Graham where he got his middle name Edward. Graham told him he was named for Ed Prichard, who was his father Phillip’s closest friend.

David Halberstam’s bestseller The Powers That Be, chronicles the friendship that began when Prichard and Graham were Harvard Law students.

Prichard and Graham were the two brightest stars of their generation but their careers were cut short. Graham suffered from mental illness and ultimately committed suicide. Prichard was convicted of stuffing the ballot box in Kentucky. He spent time in jail and his political career was ruined.

25 years later, Prichard came back and huge impact on Kentucky’s education system.

Toobin became fascinated with Prichard’s story and Tracy Campbell biography of Prichard, Short of the Glory.

Toobin was also a Harvard Law school classmate of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

When Spitzer was forced from office, Toobin sent Spitzer a copy of Short of the Glory. Toobin hoped that Prichard’s story will inspire Spitzer to make a contribution to society like Prichard did.

An Ivy League education is supposed to give you a leg up on the world. Look at any list of important business, political and media figures. The Ivy League is all over it.

Barack Obama and Al Gore went to Harvard. Bill and Hillary Clinton graduated from Yale as did George H.W. Bush. George W. Bush did both. Yale undergraduate and a Harvard M.B.A.

Prichard and Spitzer threw away the advantages their education gave them.

I met Mr. Prichard in 1980 while I was a college student. I was charged with running a stop sign and he was my attorney. Prichard seemed to need the small fee I paid him. He was in poor health.

That same year, Prichard formed a group which in 1983 became the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. The group is one of the significant in the history of Kentucky. It promotes education reform and help Kentuckians value the importance of education as part of their overall quality of life.

The group is celebrated its 25th year by forming the Al Smith Fund for Education. Smith, one of the greatest living Kentuckians, is leading the charge for an endowment to continue the cause that Prichard spearheaded.

Smith is the perfect choice to head a cause related to Prichard. Al was a young man of promise who lost years to alcoholism and turned it all around in middle age.

The key ingredient in Prichard and Smith’s redemption is that they helped themselves by helping others.

It is the concept that many religions promote. The road to salvation comes from loving others as you love yourself. In the case of a guy like a self destructive guy like Prichard, he loved Kentucky more than he loved himself.

I’ll be curious to see if Spitzer will comeback like Pritchard did. People who screw up their lives often get bitter and withdrawn. Prichard did for many years. When Prichard started on the trail of redemption, he didn’t seek riches; he set out to make a difference.

As Toobin astutely noted, Prichard is a role model for people who self destruct and later find redemption. Prichard and I had a mutual friend who screwed up and went to prison. When our friend got out of jail, he went straight to Prichard for advice. He is now a success in business and life.

Prichard focused on helping others become educated. I’m not sure if he was atoning for the outstanding education he squandered but it was a good choice for his focus.

Education would also be a good area for Spitzer to devote himself to.

I hope Spitzer follows Prichard’s example and contributes to society. He has a lot of talent and the benefit of a fine education. If he uses those talents and education to help others, he’ll leave a legacy that will always be around and around and around.

Just like the legacy of Ed Prichard.

Don McNay is Chairman of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky. You can read his award winning, syndicated column at www.donmcnay.com or write to him at don@donmcnay.com

Russert and Inheriting the Blue Collar Work Ethic

Russert and Inheriting the Blue Collar Work Ethic

“I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
keeping my eye to the keyhole”

-STYX

The reports Tim Russert’s death goes back to one theme: the work ethic that he inherited from his father.

It’s the legacy of a blue collar family.

“Big Russ,” Russert’s dad, worked two full time jobs. Just like my dad did. Dad went to work in the morning, came home for dinner, and went to his night job. He worked every weekend and usually every holiday.

We never went on vacation. My parents didn’t take a honeymoon until 7 years after they were married.

No one thought it was strange. My mother was a nurse with. 70 hours work weeks. My grandmother rode a bus and walked for two hours to put in a 10 hour shift at a potato chip factory. She didn’t miss a day in 33 years.

All the neighbors had similar lifestyles. Although none produced a child as influential as Tim Russert, many of their children are well educated and successful.

No matter how far they have gone, the blue collar work ethic is part of those children’s psychic.

Like it is in mine.

In summers between high school, I worked 76 hours a week as a grocery clerk. It helped me save for a college degree, which I still have. I also gained 70 pounds, which I still have too.

The summer defined the rest of my life. 76 hours remained a normal work week. My work ethic has been my security blanket. I know I can outwork my competition and usually do. It also means that I put my job in front of my health, vacations, and fun time.

I suspect Russert was like me. I can’t turn it off, even if I wanted to. I doubt he could either.

Russert and I had professions that we love. Many people don’t like their work. It was what they do to support their families. Being educated allowed Tim and myself to have more options.

My parents loved their jobs but my grandma had a hard life. When I feel like slacking off, I think about my grandmother stacking boxes in a potato chip factory to support my mom and uncle.

The example of my ancestors keeps my nose to the grindstone.

I’ve fired smart people with poor work habits but can’t think of a time when I did the reverse. Work ethic is the unifying characteristic of my longtime employees. Most come from families where parents put in long hours. In a moment of true candor, one told me during a salary review, “I’ll work hard, even if you don’t give me a raise.”

Money was not the motivator for her. Pride in her work ethic was.

I once hired a man of wealth. He had tremendous skills but our attitudes about work drove each other crazy. I would get angry when he skipped out to hang at the country club.

We had different views of the world. Both stemming back to our childhoods.

When I see a guy like Russert die at age 58, it is a wake up call. I turn 50 next year. My dad died at 59 and my mom at 66. Few of my parent’s friends died of old age.

Tim came to work after an all night plane flight and two hours sleep. It’s the type of thing I’ve done all my life.

I think I should take time off but I don’t really don’t know how. My greatest frustration is that each day is not long enough to do all the stuff I want to do.

Like Russert, I was allowed to have a good education and career opportunities my parents couldn’t’ dream about. I want to make the most of those gifts.

I root for dedicated golfers like Tiger and against “The Big Easy” Ernie Els. I want hard working people to succeed and slackers punished.

A guy like Russert is a man to admire. He was a good family guy and great journalist. With drive and determination, the son of a garbage truck driver from Buffalo climbed to the top of his profession.

He inherited the gift of a blue collar work ethic. He also inherited its cost.

Don McNay is Chairman of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky and author of the book Son of a Son of a Gambler. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com and read his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com

Winning in Business & Life

"It's a town full of losers, we're pulling out of here to win"

Bruce Springsteen

Political advisor and commentator Karl Rove is an avid student of American history . I am a semi avid student of the same subject.

We both studied the presidential election of 1896. It is pivotal since the Democratic party nominee, William Jennings Bryan, changed the way that presidential campaigns were run.

Rove spent his time studying William McKinley and how he defeated Bryan twice.

It occurred to me that Rove focused on the tactics of the winner while I focused on the tactics of the loser. That might be why Rove has supported more winning candidates than I have.

I have an affinity for the underdogs and "losers" of life. I am a believer in giving people second chances.

I know that the best way to make a person a winner is to put them in an environment where others have positive attitudes.

It is a common in areas like sports, business or overcoming addictions to see a person turn their lives around when they go from a negative environment to a positive environment.

It was a lesson in Jack Welch's book "Winning". It was published shortly after Welch reitred as Chariman of General Electric in 2005.

Welch focuses on a simple point: A positive environment spawns successful people and a negative environment pushes people down.

The leader of a group needs to develop and maintain a positive environment.

My father often said, "If you tell me who your friends are, I'll tell you who you are."

Dad was a professional gambler and saw people brought down by the people they befriended.

One of my favorite movies is Carlitos Way, which is based on two excellent novels (Carlitos Way and After Hours) by Edwin Torres. Al Pacino stars as a man trying to break away from a "town full of losers" who ultimately bring him down.

It is a struggle many face in business and life. The winner inside them can be brought down by friends, family and co workers.

Welch focused his energies at General Electric at ridding the company of people with bad attitudes.

I did a great deal of business with a an affiliate of General Electric when they were in the structured settlement business. Welch was in charge at that time.

They found ways to tell you yes, when others would find ways to say no. Most of the employees had been successful in some other endeavor, such as sports, and all had a "can-do" attitude.

If I had an innovative idea, I would go to them first.

I've been around other businesses where the employees were the enemy of the customers. I worked with one insurance company where two of the customer "service" representatives had a sign on their desks.

It said: "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

It did not say "I'm here to help you" or "I am here to make life better for our customers" or "I'm here to make the company more money." It said, "I have a lousy attitude so don't bother me."

Since their jobs were supposed to be customer service, I am not exactly sure what they actually did. Their negative attitudes brought down any good workers around them.

Jack Welch would had them out of the building before the signs ever went up.

I've never decided if I like Jack Welch but I have read everything about him and he has made a huge mark in business. I favor him more as I see the struggles his successor has had. One thing I do like about Jack is that he understands how firing people is personally difficult and painful. A guy like Donald Trump acts like it is macho and fun.

Welch said firing a person is the by product of helping a larger group succeed.

Some leaders understand it all levels. It is why you see coaches throw problem athletes off teams and rehab program kick out people who fall off the wagon.

I can't think of four people with less in common than Karl Rove, Bruce Springsteen, Jack Welch and my dad but they all understand one thing:

If you want to be a winner, you have to study and act like other winners.

Don McNay is Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group in Richmond Kentucky. You can write to him at don@mcnay.com or read his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com

Joe Nocera's Good Guys & Bad Guys

Joe Nocera’s Good Guys and Bad Guys

Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks

and I’ve learned much from both of their styles.

-Jimmy Buffett

One of my favorite business books is Mark McCormick’s What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School.

The 1986 book had a huge influence on me. McCormick encouraged readers to write letters to people and say what you admire about them.

I always meant to write to McCormick and never did. I did write to Joe Nocera.

In 1994, I had reviewed Nocera’s book, A Piece of the Action, for the Lexington Herald Leader. I was completely blown away by Nocera’s work. He did exhaustive research in the style of David Halberstam or David McCullough. It was combined with writing that flows like Tom Wolfe. I’ve re-read the book 50 times and still find nuggets of wisdom.

I wrote and told Joe how much I admired him. He wrote back. We’ve followed each other’s careers since then.

Joe had been writing for Esquire and GQ when we connected. He went on to be the Executive Editor at Fortune and now a columnist for the New York Times.

His latest book, Good Guys and Bad Guys, is a collection of writings along Joe’s life journey.

Like the Jimmy Buffett song, Nocera noted that villains of business have good traits and business heroes have flaws.

Those of us in business need heroes. We need a realistic dream where we work hard and become the next Warren. We need to know that Warren has some flaws, (such as bad dietary habits), like we do.

Nocera looks at business people in a balanced way.

Movies and television tend to stereotype business people as ego driven and ethically challenged. Businessmen come across as some combination of JR Ewing on Dallas and Michael Douglas character in Wall Street.

They are really more complicated. Nocera allows us to see the nuance of that complexity.

Nocera said that in 1982, he was drawn from political journalism into business journalism. He saw the passion and drama of business stories in an era before CNBC and 24 hour business news.

Nocera has spent time with the great business leaders of this era. His insights into Steven Jobs and Warren Buffett are fascinating but my favorite chapter is one on Michael Milken.

Sometime in the late 1980’s, I became fascinated with Milken and read every book written about him. Depending on the author, you got dramatically different portraits. Some books were intensely critical while others were puff pieces.

Joe wrote a 1991 article for GQ that nailed the Milken story. It balanced good versus bad.

Like Nocera does with many famous figures.

Since the book covers a 25 year spread, Nocera gives a historical perspective to recent events. A good example was the saga of how Rupert Murdoch took over the Wall Street Journal.

In a chapter called, “How the Bancrofts Blew it” Nocera includes a historic 1998 story in Fortune, when Elisabeth Goth Chelberg, a Kentucky horsewoman, started asking innocent questions about the company’s stock price and management.

She is part of the Bancroft family, which had own the publishing empire for 100 years. Rather than getting the family to” act like an owner,” Elisabeth was given the family cold shoulder.

If they had listened to Elisabeth in 1998, they could have addressed the long standing problems. 10 years later, it was too late.

Some might view the Bancroft’s as good guys. They put out an award winning newspaper. If you owned WSJ stock, they were bad guys. Management lost billions in businesses they didn’t understand and missed numerous opportunities. The company violated their investors trust.

Joe Nocera has knocked on the door of every business mover and shaker of the past 25 years. This collection inspires and provides a historic reference. Most of all, it captures our attention.

The characters depicted are the people who have made American business what it is. They encourage and motivate us those of us who seek to follow in their footsteps.

Sometimes business leaders are good guys and sometimes they are bad guys.

We can learn much from both of their styles.

Don McNay is the Chairman of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky. And the author of Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or other award winning columns at www.donmcnay.com

Read Tom Eblen's Column about Facebook

Longtime Lexington Herald managing editor Tom Eblen made a recent move into column writing. It is really, really good. His insights are absolutely stunning.

When Tom told me that he was going to be a columnist, I can't say that I jumped with enthusiasm. I had never seen his writing. I appreciated his low key humor when we appeared together on Comment on Kentucky but didn't know how that would translate to print.

It translates well.

Tom s not afraid to embrace new technologies or new ideas. He has a blog, uses video and I receive the column from his RSS feed. In an age when many columnist gravitate to polarization, Tom allows for both sides of an argument to have their say.

Tom and I are the same age and he was one of my first Facebook friends born before the Reagan presidency. We both immediately realized that Facebook was an important communications tool and not a college fad.

Tom's thoughts about Facebook are something I wish I had written and concur with completely.

Tom Eblen's Thoughts About Facebook

Tiana Ann McNay

On April 21 Tiana Ann McNay entered the world. She is the daughter of my nephew Nick McNay. Her name is deratative of her mother Tina and her late grandmother, Theresa Ann McNay.

Nick has completed his second year at Eastern Kentucky University and I am very proud of him.

You can see Tiana's picture and read about her by clicking on the following link:

Tiana McNay Picture & Stats

What Big Name Kentuckians are Reading and Listening to

What Big Name Kentuckians are Reading and Listening to

It's going by the book

-Johnny Cash

John Eckberg asked in his book, The Success Effect, what book business leaders had by their bedside and what music they were listening to.

I posed the questions to a number of well known Kentuckians.

(You can get the complete list of responses at Big Name Kentuckians)

A clue to personality is how they responded to the question.

Judge Bill Clouse (Madison and Clark Counties) selected books that reflected his passion for history and law. I was impressed by how he answered.

He responded well before my deadline. He neatly organized the list of books and directed where I could find more information on each.

If you ever show up in Judge Clouse's courtroom, you had better be on time and you had better be prepared.

Peter Perlman, former president of the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA), would impress Judge Clouse. They were both reading John Grisham's latest book, The Agenda.

The most popular book was Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio by Alec Foege. Joe Elliott at WHAS-84 in Louisville, Tom Leach, the voice of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, and myself are reading that new release.

Tom and I had almost identical picks expect Tom has Earth Wind and Fire's greatest hits. They won't make my list. A band member kept trying to pick up my date during a concert. It's been almost 30 years but I still hold a grudge.

Bill Goodman, host of Kentucky Tonight and several other shows on KET, and Tom Leach were both listening to Allison Krauss. Goodman joins state representative Joni Jenkins from Louisville as Bruce Springsteen fans. Bob Dylan is on state representative Kathy Stein's playlist and frequently mentioned on others.

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson and Louisville attorney Bonita Black are both Harvard educated (Bonita was Kentucky undergrad and Harvard Law School, Trey was the opposite) and have heavy books on their reading list. However music is controlled by their children.

Bonita is listening to Dora the Explorer while Trey is serenaded by Hanna Montana, Enchanted Soundtrack and High School Musical 2 Soundtrack.

When Trey seeks another office, he is a cinch to get the Disney lover's vote.

Mary Jo Perino, sports anchor at WLEX TV, says her life is dominated by her two year old son. Her lead book was Curious George and music by Giggly Wiggly Rhymes.

Sports books were popular. WTVQ news anchor Don Hudson is reading Pistol Pete, a biography of Pete Maravich. Leach is reading Sound and Fury(about Ali and Cosell) by Dave Kindred.

Re-reading classics is a popular activity. Lexington Vice Mayor Jim Gray was re-reading John Adams and Anna Karenina and Joni Jenkins was re-reading Truman.

Inspiration books were on many lists. Don Hudson was reading When Times are Tough by John Bytheway. Bonita Black read In the Grip of Grace and Facing Your Giants, both by Max Lucado. (She also was reading my book.) Joni Jenkins was reading Eat, Pray, Love.

Joe Elliot touted Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to Seeby Robert Kurson.

Joe had Kurson on his radio program and Bill Goodman is also boning up for an interview. He is reading Hezbollah by Richard Norton. Norton, a noted Boston University professor, will be a guest on Bill's One to One show.

Goodman, Stein and Judge Clouse had excellent books for Kentuckians. Goodman was reading Kentucky's Everyday Heroes by Steve Flarity. It profiles the lives of 40 lesser known Kentuckians. (I read it after Bill's recommendation and it is an excellent book.) Stein took a break from Michael Moore and Bill Bradley to read Secrets of a Kentucky Gardener by Karen Angelucci. Judge Clouse is a big fan of The Admirable Trumpeter: A Biography of General James Wilkinson by Thomas Robson Hay and M.R. Werner.

Wide ranging taste was a common denominator. Although classic rock dominated the list, many selections were all over the map. Typical was Mary Jo Perino who along with Giggly Wiggly Rhymes goes for Kid Rock, James Taylor and a guy on American Idol.

Don McNay is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group and the author of Son of Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What To Do When You Win the Lottery. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com and read all of the well known Kentuckian's selections at www.donmcnay.com

.