After six years , you were promoted to Yahoo media which encompassed this new sports and entertainment divisions and were among many other things , you led the $100 million acquisition of the college sports site rivals dot com in search of excellence . How important is it to be at the right place at the right time and get a big break ? And what's your advice on how to get one ?
I really can't . But again , timing is everything and the timing was just so awful . Uh We were way ahead of our time in the music industry and as a result , we had to make a decision that uh uh we otherwise would not have made or we weren't planning to make , I should say .
Yes , launch dot com was Spotify , Pandora and Vivo . But as you alluded to timing is not everything but almost . And if , if launch dot com , we were just early , uh we , we were uh personalized radio , uh customized radio , uh music on demand , whether it's audio or video , uh the royalties that were required by the record labels at that time were so significant that it was impossible , literally impossible to make a profit .
When those opportunities do present themselves , you'll be there and ready to go . Just as a little aside here on the personal side , being at the right place at the right time has not only been an important part of my career , it's been a huge part of my personal life when nearly 10 years ago I happened to check in with my friend Madison who was lucky to have , it had broken up with her boyfriend the day before and I was the first person to know well , before she told her friends and word had gotten out and knew that timing was everything . So I flew to New York the week after that to take her to dinner .
I had never heard anybody specifically say or identify that being nice to people is an element of success or that people should focus on this as one of their goals . What are the other elements of success ? And where does being nice to people rank among them ?
