CHAPTER 4
Why the Best Entrepreneurs Seem Crazy
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.
—John Dryden, “Absalom and Achitophel”
In December 2008 Toyota’s executives, heads hung in shame, gathered to announce the first losses since 1938—almost $2 billion—of the world’s largest auto manufacturer.1 Across the Pacific, number two General Motors, the symbol of corporate America, had just taken out an emergency federal loan, approved by presidential order. Rumors of impending GM bankruptcy were rife—predictions that were to come true a few months later. These were the darkest few months in all of automotive history. These were also the months during which Jay Rogers was convincing private investors to ...
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