Success and winning can be like a drug. But like many drugs, people can take it too far and it can destroy their lives.
This first story about Sumner Redstone is truly sad.
Sumner Redstone: Winning Above All Else. [Neckar’s Insecurity Analysis]- “Sumner Redstone’s story is fascinating in a scary way. Starting with his father’s regional chain of drive-in movie theaters, he battled his way through the full range of competitive forces and often faced them down in the courtroom. First, he fought his suppliers, the movie studios. Then he mastered competitive rivalry by setting up multiplexes, pushing the operators of drive-ins and single screens out of business. He saw the threat in substitution from cable TV and VHS video cassettes, so he bought Viacom (and later Blockbuster). To complete the vertical integration of his empire, he wanted his own studio, Paramount. In the process, he fought new distributors, the cable operators. The peak of his power coincided with the peak of the old-media world. Redstone had triumphed only to be toppled by the arrival of streaming and digital media.”
Here’s a scary stat – Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-64 [The Center Square] – “The head of Indianapolis-based insurance company OneAmerica said the death rate is up a stunning 40% from pre-pandemic levels among working-age people. “We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica,” the company’s CEO Scott Davison said during an online news conference this week. “The data is consistent across every player in that business.””
The Future Seen [Humble Dollar] – “At inception, Vanguard’s index fund had been met with skepticism. The fund wasn’t trying to beat the market, just ride along with it. As Fidelity Investments Chairman Ned Johnson told the press, “I can’t believe that the great mass of investors are going to be satisfied with just receiving average returns. The name of the game is to be the best.””