The Guy Who Almost Saved Blockbuster

The Excellence Project with Eric Worre

Eric Worre

Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Networkmarketing, Business, Ericworre, Mlm

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2024

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Global Business Leader James Keyes details his tumultuous childhood and experiences heading various major companies. He also shares his views on the importance of education and reveals details about his time at Blockbuster. He also recounts why it went broke (and how he almost saved it). 2:01:31

Show Notes:

0:00 - Introduction

02:04 - Eric welcomes James Keyes and Eric shares his impressive resume.

04:06 - James and Eric discuss different concepts of being a CEO and how adversity shapes successful individuals.

08:48 - James details his tumultuous upbringing.

19:35 - The pivotal moment James realized he needed to work hard in school because nobody was going to take care of him.

24:45 - James gets a life-changing opportunity to study in Europe his junior year in college.

30:43 - James shares what his family and friends thought about him getting a college degree.

36:22 - James gets in a physical fight at his first summer job.

43:09 - James details his suggestions for how to manage politics and collaboration inside a company.

57:23 - James shares his insightful views on politics in the U.S.

01:07:08 - James discusses his time as CEO at various major companies and how he used technology to move them forward.

01:14:47 - Eric asks James how much he still owes Blockbuster in late fees and James pulls back the curtain about his time with the company.

01:52:53 - What James is doing now as Chairman of Wild Oats Markets.

Resources From This Podcast:
Education is Freedom: The Future is in Your Hands by James Keyes https://www.amazon.com/Education-Freedom-Future-Your-Hands/dp/B0CH6X6BVB

Questions or Comments?
Do you have questions you would like me to answer in future podcasts or comments on the show you'd like to share? Email me at [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	What I've felt in my career is most of the learning comes from doing.
0:05.4	So the preparation, yes I prepare, if I've got a presentation or if I'm going to do a talk or something, I'll prepare.
0:14.0	But in the solopreneur world, the entrepreneur world,
0:18.6	it's mostly just go out there and be willing to be embarrassed
0:21.0	and learn from the mistakes and have some humility. Don't take yourself so simple. to be and
0:25.0	and
0:28.0	and to be embarrassed, and to take yourself so seriously. But in corporate environments, failure can be devastating.
0:29.0	So you have to be careful about how willing you are to break some eggs.
0:35.5	If you're breaking your boss's pet projects eggs,
0:39.5	it's gonna be a problem.
0:41.5	It can be, but again, if you're doing the right thing, if you're prepared and you're making decisions based on data, and it's the right thing for that enterprise, and he fires you anyway?
0:52.6	You're in the wrong place.
0:54.3	That's the wrong company.
0:55.4	Okay.
0:56.0	That's what you would do.
0:57.2	You don't want, the thing that kills entrepreneurial companies is politics because someone will be afraid to do the right thing.
1:05.6	They're trying to do what you want them to do.
1:07.4	That's the worst thing that can happen.
1:09.8	Versus being prepared, having the data to show you that this is really the right way to go as a company, you want to reward that person, not fire them.
1:18.0	Welcome to the Excellence Project, my name is Eric Worry, and in today's episode we have James Keys who is probably most
1:26.0	famously known for being CEO and chairman of Blockbuster. What a story.
1:32.0	You're going to hear about the journey through his career adversity
	...

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