Joel: Thanks for tuning in to Streaming Futures. I’m Joel Holland, and today we are on location in New York City for an interview with Steve Forbes.
Joel: As many of you know, Mr. Forbes is the editor and chief as well as CEO of Forbes magazine, and if you are a reader you see him in the front of the magazine each issue with his column, “Fact and Comment.” He is also a two-time presidential candidate as well as the author of A New Birth of Freedom. He has also won the prestigious Crystal Owl award four times for his economic forecasts. Today we are going to get in his head and find out what his advice for teenagers is; for young aspiring politicians, businessmen and journalists.
Joel: So, to start out Mr. Forbes, I want to dig right in with your job as editor and chief of Forbes Magazine. What do you do?
Steve: Well, the key thing in addition to writing two pages of editorials each issue, which is probably the most fun part of the job, is overseeing the editorial process, making sure that the articles are what they should be. Bill Baldwin does a lot of the actual editing of the magazine, but our name is on it so I want to be sure that what goes into it we can defend and feel is up to our standards.
Joel: Okay, so in your day to day activities as editor and chief, what is the most fun part of your job?
Steve: Well, in addition to writing the editorials, the other fun part is picking other people’s brains, whether it’s bringing in CEOs or going out on the trail—finding out what is going on. One of the nice things about this job is that you can pry into peoples business and get paid for it. That is the whole nature of the thing. So if you have curiosity, there is probably no better job than this.
Joel: On the flip side, what is the most difficult part of your job?
Steve: All the details. It is one thing to write a piece, but then you have to edit it, get illustrations for it and make sure it fits in. And then there is the whole thing about advertising and circulation. It’s like most things—the god is in the details, or the devil is in the details, depending on what you are grappling with. But it is details. There is a tendency to think that this line of work or profession is all highs, but it isn’t highs. What you see at the end in terms of a magazine product is just a lot of scut work, and the sooner you get accustomed to the fact that there is a lot of sweat, I think the better off you will be. As Thomas Edison the great inventor said, it is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.
Joel: Okay, then I guess that your job is not a 9-5. You have deadlines and late nights…
Steve: No, 9-5 would be a holiday. Because in this job there is a lot of travel, and when you have to meet deadlines, you meet deadlines. I think that is the way most of the work gets done in the world—the fact that you’ve got to have it done by a certain time, so you find a way to do it.
Joel: What traits or skills do you find are most important for a job like yours, in an executive position and in a leadership position?
Steve: Well, always asking yourself, “what are we doing that is of value to the reader. What are we providing that they aren’t going to find anywhere else.” You’ve got to provide that service, because without a service you don’t have a business. I think that another part of it is having a sense of direction, learning to see beneath the surface of things and recognize that we are a people business. I mean everybody pays lip service to the importance of people. We literally we don’t have steel mills, we don’t have factories; our business is in people’s heads. My grandfather, who founded this magazine, B.C. Forbes, was an immigrant from Scotland at the turn of the last century. He was one of ten children with a grade school education and very little money. When he was asked what he looked at in a business, he said that you learn more about the prospects of a business by focusing on the head knocker more than the balance sheet, and that spirit is with us today. So we write stories using statistics, but they always focus on people. People make the difference; markets are people.
Joel: What activities where you involved in during high school that you feel helped you get where you are today and help you in your position as Editor and Chief?
Steve: Well I was fortunate that at a fairly young age, whether it was genes or something else, I was always interested in publishing. When I was in grade school I turned out news sheets, and even tried once to grade the teachers as they graded me, but that project did not get very far. In high school I working on the school paper with some friends and I shouldn’t say this, but often you learn more outside the classroom than in. Obviously the disciplines you learn inside the classroom are essential, but how you learn to apply them is by meeting deadlines and getting something out people might want to read. I think that is critical. Learning that if you don’t please others, you aren’t going to make it.
Joel: So what classes or activities would you advise aspiring young journalists and editors to get involved in during high school?
Steve: Well, in addition to developing a lively sense of curiosity, never hesitating to ask why and never feeling inferior because you seemed to ask a dumb question—usually the dumb questions get the most intriguing answers. If you want to find out something you’ve got to ask. So that is critical in addition to having the discipline to do research. Everyone can have an opinion, but not everyone can have an opinion worth listening to and insights worth conveying to readers. So learning to use the internet, learning to do research and practicing writing is important. There is no harder thing to do than sitting down and learning how to write, and that only comes from practice. There are a handful of individuals who may be naturals, but most of us have to learn it the hard way, and it is very painful. You have to be prepared throughout your life for editors telling you that “this is a piece of you-know-what.” You’ve got to learn to make it short, recognizing that readers don’t have all the time in the world for your “priceless” pros. For high school students in general it is important to find out what interests you, what turns you on. Everyone has a knack or talent for something, and if it isn’t readily marketable or easy to make a living from, you’ve got to figure out how to those talents and make a life around them.
Joel: What have you taught your children as they have grown up over the years to insure that they had a prosperous future?
Steve: I think the key is to recognize that you’ve got to do it on your own. One of the things my father told me and my brothers and sisters at a fairly young age was that he wanted us to learn where our bread was buttered. So we would go to business functions not just to hang around, but we were expected to know who was there and why they were there. And you learn at an early age that success doesn’t just happen, you have to work at it, and I think that is what you try to give your kids. If they have the right attitudes, the right disciplines and the right outlook, they will make it in the world. Even if they get dealt some bad cards, they will find a way to get around it. Again, its about hard work, a sense of discipline and a sense of direction and you can do something in the world.
Joel: If you were to write an autobiography, what would you say has been your key to success in life?
Steve: Well, besides picking parents who owned a great business, I think it is having discovered what I have a passion for and moving with it. Obviously my proudest accomplishment is family. That is the essence and you can’t describe it until you’ve experienced it. And then on the professional side is the opportunity to have an outlet and have an avenue to try different things.
Joel: So what is your advice for aspiring young journalists, politicians and businessmen, because I feel those are three areas that you are well versed in. So what would you say to these young guys as they are in high school preparing for college—what should they be doing to prepare for ultimate success as you have found?
Steve: Obviously the first thing they have to do if they haven’t done it already is subscribe to Forbes Magazine.
Joel: Absolutely—and there is the marketing man inside of you.
Steve: I think that the key thing is having that sense of direction and recognizing that their value comes not just from copying what everyone else does, not just from being part of a pack, which is very hard when you are in your teen years because the peer pressure is probably as intense as it is ever going to get. Instead it’s about getting a sense of what you can add to it. I think that good teachers recognize that in a class even though everyone might be 17 or 18 years old, they are not all the same in terms of their own growth patterns. And two, recognize that life doesn’t end at thirty. If you don’t hit the ball at an early age there is still plenty of time to do it. As Yogi Berra said, “It’s not over till it’s over.” The classic example of that is Ray Croc, who didn’t really get involved with McDonalds until his late fifties. He was a sales person for milk shake machines until then and people wouldn’t say that he was successful. He was always striving but hadn’t really had a great success, and then in California he came upon the McDonald brothers who had a hamburger stand and he saw that they were getting a lot of people through this facility, and he said “by gosh, if I can persuade them to open more facilities, I can sell them more milk shake machines.” But the McDonalds brothers didn’t have much ambition, which Ray Croc did, so he bought them out, and the rest, as they say, is history. So there is a man who didn’t really come into his own until when many people are thinking of retirement. Recognize to that you can do everything you can, but sometimes timing just doesn’t work your way, and sometimes people just seem to glide into the timing. There are some things beyond your control, but what is in your control you can do a lot with if you apply yourself.
Joel: For teens that want to go into journalism and possibly become the next editor and chief of a magazine like Forbes, what should they major in at college?
Steve: Well I think that the key to being a good journalist is having the discipline of looking for things, looking beneath the surface of things and doing research. So in terms of early college, I would say cast a wide net. Don’t feel you have to major in business to write about business. If you are a good writer, if you know how to get your teeth into a subject, you can learn business after college. So see college as an opportunity to broaden your horizons, delve into some disciplines, get a flavor for them, learn to do the scut work on the net and in the library, and then you can go into almost any faucet of journalism. We at Forbes, for example, rarely have beat reporters. We don’t necessarily have people who are expert in certain areas, but we feel that if you have the right stuff you can go into a new field or new industry and pretty quickly get the essence of it and know how to ask the right questions. So you don’t have to specialize early, but what you do have to do is have the willingness to work and have curiosity and then you can move in lots of different directions. Don’t feel you have to narrow yourself too early. The mind is like a muscle. Develop the muscle and then you will find the athletic outlet for it.
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