Ross Perot on Corporations 1992 & 1996 Reform Party Nominee for President

Build something better and money follows

If you learn to do something better than anyone else, you will find that financial success comes as a byproduct. This has been certainly true in my case to a unique degree. Making money has never been one of my goals. If we had set out to create a vehicle to make money, I don't believe we would have been successful at all. Instead, we set out to build a great company made up of great people.

Don't expect the financial rewards to come quickly or easily. You would probably consider me to be quite successful at an early age. It took me 15 years to build up to an income that substantially exceeded our family's monthly needs. Unrealistic expectations can damage your effectiveness and potential.

Supports employee stock options and performance rewards

• Don't limit stock options to executives.
• Make it possible for every employee to earn stock in your company by doing an outstanding job.
• Measure your success by how many people who work in your company become wealthy.
• Recognize and reward performance.
• Listen, listen, listen to the people who do the work.
• Personally fire the people who steal, cheat, or take advantage of others.
• Create a professional work environment where people are having fun while building the finest product or services.

Recruit people of all religions, races, and genders

Build a team of recruiters to go out and find a great team of people.
• Look for people who have a record of achievement since childhood.
• Find people who love to win.
• The worst mistake you can make is to look for talent with a cookie-cutter mentality: 5' 10" tall, blonde, blue eyes, master's degree, etc.
• Talent comes in all sizes, shapes, races, religions, and both sexes.
• If you find a talented person who has no college education, hire him. You won't be disappointed.
• Develop a world-class training program to support your growth.
• A common trait of the most successful business people I know is that they were not defeated by failure.
• The only way to avoid failure is not to take risks!
• Never forget that God made people imperfect.
• Accept the fact that every person has strengths and weaknesses.
• Play to their strengths.
• Accept their limitations.

Top US executives overpaid compared to foreign competitors

Theoretically, the compensation of most upper level management in US companies is tied to the performance of their company. But in fact, bonuses get paid even though the company didn’t have a good year. That’s not good for the companies; that’s not good for stockholders; that’s not good for the country. It may be time for board members to exercise a lot more discretion when determining compensation for the managers of our domestic companies.

If these management guys want to make the really big bucks, they need to be TV anchormen, basketball players, or rock stars. Overpaying company executives damages morale and splits the team. Our overseas competitors understand this.

Increase business fees and business tax collection

We can save $16 billion a year by reducing the business entertainment deduction from 80% of the cost for entertainment to 50% of the cost.

We can bring in an extra $12 billion by increasing certain user fees and imposing new user fees for many of the assets and services now provided by the federal government, such as the inland waterways and air traffic control services. We shouldn't be reluctant to charge a fair price for these items simply because we haven't done so in the past.