You should Google Paul Allen. Then Herb Kelleher. The first search will get you three quarters of the way to a billion results so if that many zeros seems intimidating start with the second name then (you’ll only have to parcel through 3.4M). How did I not know these guys until recently? Did you?
Over the winter break I took the family to the Pacific Northwest where we reconnected with all of our idiosyncrasies we often forget about in the day-to-day churn of work/school/life, repeat. 10 days, 3 boys, 1 girl, 1 bathroom – my wife was never so excited to get back to see our dog Lucy :-)! We started our trip in Seattle which leads me to the first name referenced. While planning our Christmas day itinerary we asked our waitress the evening before about good movie theaters close by (traditionally their busiest day of the year). Without hesitation she told us you have to go to the Cinerama – we did and now I’m telling you – YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE CINERAMA (click here for the virtual tour)! It’s an old single-projector theater from the 1960’s that used to show 70mm films until falling out of favor and scheduled for demolition in the late 1990’s. In steps Paul Allen – he bought it. Turns out he also bought the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers (excellent article here in the WSJ on Allen’s sports advocacy). As co-founder of Microsoft and the middle school buddy of Bill Gates, Paul Allen has the means to do just about anything. As a matter of fact, he signed the Giving Pledge in 2010 as part of the inaugural class of the world’s wealthiest people joined together in a commitment to give more than half of their wealth away.
Herb Kelleher is a pioneer in his own right who grew up in New Jersey but made his mark here in Texas (well actually his mark is worldwide but he hubbed in Texas). As an attorney by trade with an uncanny business acumen, Kelleher pitched an idea some fifty years ago to businessman Rollin King while dining in the St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio. Three days later, as the story goes, the two made their way to the courthouse to secure an LLC. What began as a small regional carrier connecting the Texas Triangle with just four jets has now become the carrier that transports more passengers than any other airline. As co-founder of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher’s hunch half a century ago has simply changed how people travel (excellent article here in Texas Monthly on Kelleher as entrepreneur). Time and time again, the image that prevails of Kelleher was a highly successful leader who had fun and wanted everyone to have fun with him. In an industry where profit-margin often proves elusive, Kelleher and Southwest were the first to introduce profit-sharing to its employees, in 1973!
As the title of this entry suggests, Paul Allen and Herb Kelleher were game changers we recently lost. Giants in different ways, they shared a common appreciation for the intangibles. The more and more I learned about these two humanitarians, the more I came to understand their belief in cultivating a culture that transcends the work place. They were risk takers while remaining humbled and disciplined, with a consistent focus on their core values. In Seattle, everybody knew Paul Allen (but me), and back home it was the same story for Herb Kelleher. But I’ve learned a lot about kindness and courage now after researching the two and that’s the textbook definition of pervasive influence. They made people want to be better people – sound familiar?!
What if? Why Not? 