So now we all know what Luke Johnson got for Christmas; a book of quotations by famous people.
Johnson, Channel 4 chairman and one of the few people, along with Stelios, to be inevitably granted the irritating epithet ‘serial entrepreneur’, was guest speaker at today’s ISBA annual lunch and attendees cannot have failed to have been impressed by the way the he managed to shoehorn into his speech on ‘success’ an endless stream of quotes from different people.
Certainly it was amazing how he managed to cobble together a speech that seemed to rely on quotes from sources as diverse as Walter Bagehot, Teddy Roosevelt (‘my favourite US president’), Dr Johnson and virtually any other person who committed their thoughts to paper, that all had a vague relevance – with the right interpretation - to achieving and sustaining success.
While there is no doubt that as a businessman, Johnson has undoubtedly enjoyed success. But whether he lives his life and runs his businesses – not least Channel 4 – by these mantra I’m not so sure. It would have been nice if he’d put the book of quotes away and given us some real insight. But then the fact that he called ISBA the 'I. S. B. A'. showed that perhaps he wasn’t that interested in the first place.
