Perot Systems-Plano, TX
Perot has stories, and he loves to tell them. A man born in Texarkana, Texas, during the Great Depression, he started working at the age of six, selling Christmas cards and garden seeds.
“Cards at Christmas and seeds in the spring,” he said. “At six, I figured out not to be in a seasonal business. Some people don’t figure that out until after they finish business school.”
Perot delivered newspapers by horseback, and then worked breaking horses. He became an Eagle Scout in just 15 months, was selected to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, and served his country around the world.
He joined IBM in 1957. In 1962, using a $1,000 loan, he started Electronic Data Systems (EDS). He built it into one of the world’s largest tech services companies, and sold it to General Motors in 1984 for $2.5 billion. At 77 years old, he still serves as Chairman Emeritus of Perot Systems, a FORTUNE 1000® company ranked No. 2 on Fortune magazine’s “most admired” list for 2 years in a row.
Still, there’s more to Perot’s life. He also spent much of the early 1970s leading the charge to stop the brutal treatment of American POWs in Vietnam. In 1979, when two EDS senior employees were imprisoned in Iran, he organized and directed a rescue mission to get them out. It worked, generating headlines worldwide and forming the basis for Ken Follett’s best-selling book, “On Wings of Eagles.”
“I called Col. Arthur Simons, a decorated Special Forces guy, and he came in [to EDS] to put together a team of 12 men,” Perot said. “We had a lot of veterans in the company, and we called 303 people into a meeting. Many of them had been wounded. They knew exactly what they were getting into. Every single one of them volunteered to go. Now that’s living the motto of the Three Musketeers, ‘all for one, and one for all’ – right? That’s from the military, and we try to live that in my companies.”
Perot went to Iran himself a few days before the operation, risking his own life to brief the imprisoned men. Then Simons helped orchestrate an uprising that led to 30,000 people storming the prison, freeing the pair and nearly 5,000 others, many of them considered political prisoners.
Perot made headlines again as a candidate in 1992, when he won 19 percent of the vote, one of the best showings ever for an independent and third party candidate.
“I’ve had a lot of luck in my life,” he said.
NaVOBA talked to Perot about his life and times, his dedication to veterans and their causes, and his remarkable success in business.
NaVOBA: What are you up to these days?
Perot: I’m working with wounded soldiers and I spend a lot of time on education and medical research. So just more of the same, I guess. We’ve spent a huge amount of time and money on Gulf War Syndrome. Our soldiers were injured by chemical weapons in Desert Storm. Thirteen Special Forces people came to see me, and they looked like people coming out of [German concentration camp] Dachau, in World War II. They brought pictures of their newly born children, and they had all kinds of birth deformities. It was pretty obvious something had happened to these men. The Clinton administration called it stress, hired a tobacco lobbyist and spent $160 million trying to just dismiss it as stress. But we finally got so much evidence that they had to go forward with it. There are just always projects, and these things come along from all different directions at all times. Now, during the war [Operation Iraqi Freedom], there are a lot of wounded soldiers that need special attention and since I fund medical research, that finds me the best doctors in the country to get it done. And they do an incredible job on seriously wounded people on the battlefield.
NaVOBA: Tell me a little bit about your military service.
Perot: I had a lot of great experiences at the Naval Academy. When I was a student, I was asked by the superintendent to rewrite the honor code. Rewriting it was the easy part. I had to take it to every platoon, and get everybody on board and supporting it. Believe it or not, that’s the honor code still in effect today. But it’s not about me. It’s about the fact that we got all of the midshipmen involved. It was their honor code.
I got to go on a destroyer right after I graduated, and went all the way around the world in 11 months. I was the youngest officer on board, so I got all the odd jobs, including ship’s chaplain. Picture me on the fantail on Sunday, overflowing with sailors, war still going on. I thought I was Billy Graham. When we got to Midway Island, they declared a truce, and nobody came after that. I realized then I didn’t have the talent I thought I had. Everybody was just worried about being shot. After that, I spent 18 months on the aircraft carrier USS Leyte. And that was an incredible experience.
NaVOBA: So, you have come a long way from Texarkana, and the Depression?
Perot: Like I said, I had a lot of luck in my life. I wanted to go to the Naval Academy, but we didn’t have any contacts. I tried. Suddenly, I got a telegram, a principle appointment to the Naval Academy from Sen. W. Lee O’Daniel of Texas. I asked no questions. Thirty years later, a man came up to me and said, “Didn’t you ever wonder how you got an appointment?” I said, “I sure did, because I tried forever and couldn’t get one.” He told me, “I went in to see Sen. O’Daniel and told him there was a boy from Texarkana who had been trying to get it for three years. Perot, your name never came up. That might’ve been why you got in.”
When I got there, I had a broken nose from breaking horses. The captain said “Son, you’ve got to go home and get your nose fixed.” I said, “I can’t do that for two reasons: I can’t afford the trip home and I can’t afford the operation.” He let me in anyway. I should have a cute little pug nose now, but I’ve still got the deviated septum and the broken nose.”
NaVOBA: You went to work with IBM in 1957, right after the Navy. Tell me about that experience.
Perot: I was leaving the Navy because my father had died and I was going back to take care of my mother. Again, through sheer luck, we had an executive from IBM on the ship, Stanley Farwell. His brother was one of the ship’s top officers. So here’s me landing and launching airplanes, bringing ammunition and cargo ships alongside, refueling, and so on. This stuff looks impressive. He asked if I’d like to have an interview with IBM. I said, “Mr. Farwell, I started work when I was six years old. I always had to look for work. You’re the first person to ever offer me a job in my life. You bet I’d like to have an interview with your company.” I didn’t know what IBM did.
NaVOBA: How did you get into business?
Perot: I had a great career with IBM, and I felt very strongly that people who were buying the computers didn’t have software and didn’t know how to use it. I thought IBM should go into the business of giving the finished product – software for insurance companies, for banks, etc. IBM was doing so well in the hardware business, they weren’t interested. So I just had to try, and started EDS.
NaVOBA: Why was EDS so successful?
Perot: I gave the highest priority to hiring young people coming back from Vietnam and leaving the military. Enlisted men and officers, usually in their mid-20s, so smart they could’ve gone to MIT. They all had the character, the integrity and the leadership, forged in combat that you don’t get anywhere else. Some of the finest leaders in our company came out of that group. They made us successful.
NaVOBA: Today, your company, Perot Systems, offers a Military Transition Program, designed to attract talented former military personnel with a strong interest in information technology; You’ve got a Military Police to College Degree Program and a Military Disabled Veterans Program (DVP), which offers a variety of opportunities for disabled veterans who have separated from military service within the past 18 months. What do veterans bring to the table?
Perot: They’ve got leadership under fire and experience that’s 10 times better than leadership in a company. These people are in a whole separate category, and it’s unbelievable that a lot of corporations haven’t figured that out yet. It’s the leadership, the character, the integrity, putting the other people first. That doesn’t even come up in many colleges. They’ve learned all that. They’ve lived all that. You don’t have to teach that to them.
NaVOBA: How did your military experience help you?
Perot: Leadership, character and integrity: I got tremendous doses of that in the military. I was surrounded by incredible role models. They were more than I could ever be and were a great inspiration to me. I learned from them.
Written by Mike Woelflein