I was just speaking with an extremely successful entrepreneur friend. Barry Diller‘s assistant called the other day and said Mr. Diller wants to see him on Thursday in New York about his latest internet venture.
"Well, New York wasn’t exactly on the calendar, but when Diller calls, you don’t say no!"
Indeed.
Interesting. You know, Barry Diller and Michael Eisner had quite a rivalry back in the day.
Now, decades later, Diller is worth about $500 million more than Eisner and is generally thought of better than him also.
And yet Eisner catapulted Disney through meteoric growth during the 90’s, developing a volume of assets and businesses at Disney (a company I would argue to be extraordinarily difficult to run) that dwarf what Diller has created considerably.
And yet, if Eisner’s assistant called your friend, I bet it wouldn’t be quite the knee-jerk “Let’s get on a plane to New York because this guy is brilliant and knows exactly what he’s doing” moment. It’s amazing how much impact first-layer reputation can have on people.
I used to (very casually) know both Eisner and Diller at Paramount. Diller is a killer suit; Eisner is actually an entrepreneur (hard as that may be to believe) stuck in a suit. It’s the reason Diller is generally well thought of and Eisner’s reputation is more tarnished – one pushes the envelope much harder than the envelope.
Sorry to vent. I’ve just never found Diller to be all many seem to think he’s cracked up to be. Of course, that was over 20 years ago.
Just felt compelled to share, though.