Bob Johnson
The Disruptor
Contrarian and drawn to the edge; challenges the settled answer.
Bob Johnson reads as The Disruptor because he built BET by ignoring what the television industry said was possible and betting on an underserved audience everyone else had overlooked. He worked regulatory environments creatively, lobbied Congress directly on cable access, then sold BET to Viacom for three billion dollars and became the first Black American billionaire.
“Oh, definitely regrets. Tell Michael about that all the time. But nobody could have predicted that Don Sterling would say what he said about black people, and that led to the NBA commissioner to say, we've got a huge racial problem if we're going to keep Don Sterling as an owner. And he basically forced Donald Sterling out.”
“Part of the game. I think, to be honest, I think there's a need for a multi party system in the US to give more people a choice about where they can throw their voter support and their political support, but also to cause the country to try to come together for having everybody have a role in deciding what is in the long-term best interes…”
“I think the economy has to have a recession in front of it until we stop the huge amount of fiscal spending that comes out of the government. And I see nothing in the government that will change that trajectory on spending.”
“David, I don't think it's necessarily easier. I think there's a mindset within the white business community and to some extent in the country at large is that this definition of equity and diversity ought to see money flowing, capital flowing into black entrepreneurs for investment and startups of business. It's just not easy.”
The David Rubenstein Show: “Bob Johnson”
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