Tony James
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Yep.
Steve called out of the blue and said, can we have lunch?
And one thing led to another.
And he said he'd been looking to hire someone for a couple of years and would I consider coming in and helping him run the firm?
And my first reaction was,
geez, Steve, you're a tough boss.
And I really haven't had a boss in like 15 years.
And I don't really, you know, DLJ went public and went private a few times.
So I didn't really need to work.
And I said, Steve, I don't know that I want to be told what to do or what not to do.
I mean, I haven't had that a long time.
He said, no, no, no.
You come in, you run the firm day to day.
We'll talk all the time.
I'll back you if we don't agree.
By the way, we agreed 98% of the time.
I'll back you.
But if performance is not good, I reserve the right to get rid of you.
I said, that's fair.
So we cut a deal where he could get rid of me at a drop of a hat.