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Date 4-19-06
Contact Jana Bryant 601.266.5854
Hattiesburg—A
once-in-a-lifetime experience is how senior business administration
student Charity Butler described Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot’s
visit to her class at the University of Southern Mississippi Tuesday.
Perot stopped
in to chat with the class of about 30 business students before delivering
the 2006 Distinguished Entrepreneur lecture on campus. “His outlook
is so people-oriented,” Butler said. “He didn’t talk about money
or finances, but focused on people and their importance at his company.”
During his business
career, Perot founded two successful technology companies, twice
ran for president of the United States, won numerous awards and
has written seven books. In 2004, MSNBC named Perot one of history’s
10 greatest entrepreneurs.
In his lecture,
Perot injected his own bits of business wisdom, along with those
of others, from his father to Winston Churchill and extolled the
ideals of principled leadership to an audience of more than 600
students and community and university members during his lecture.
“The principles
of leadership are timeless,” said Perot. Remember the golden rule
and treat people the way you want them to treat you, he said. “I’ve
been carried on the shoulders of my people time and time again across
the finish lines of success.”
Perot drew both
applause and laughter from the audience with his Texas humor and
stories of company successes. “Trust and respect are fragile, but
people make honest mistakes. When mistakes happen, learn from them
and go on, but treat people with dignity and respect,” he said.
When asked about
any future plans to run for president again, he said, “I’m too old.”
Perot was honored
earlier in the day at a luncheon attended by more than 350 area
community and business leaders. David Oreck, the college’s first
distinguished entrepreneur in 2001 and founder of the Oreck Corp.,
gave the event’s keynote speech and recounted his company’s recovery
and response following Hurricane Katrina.
“The single
most important thing we did was to relocate our phone center to
Denver,” said Oreck. That move allowed the company to continue sales
without interruption. Always the salesman, Oreck told the crowd,
“I make a great vacuum cleaner!”
College of Business
Dean Harold Doty announced that the event generated $50,000, raised
from 27 south Mississippi corporate partners toward establishing
a chair in entrepreneurship. “Clearly, entrepreneurship will be
a key to Mississippi’s successful recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Thus, there is no better time to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit
than today,” said Doty.
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