Lesson #2: “The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front, and also me.”
Lesson #2: “The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front, and also me.”
Still, what set Sarnoff apart from his peers was his ability to make the most and capitalize as much as possible on that right place and right time.
When Sarnoff was a boy, he had bought a telegraph key and taught himself Morse code. Thanks to that decision, after spending a short time as an office boy for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America, Sarnoff was quickly promoted to a junior operator.
It was during that time that Sarnoff would stumble onto one of the greatest experiences of his career. On April 14, 1912, Sarnoff was busy working atop the Wanamaker Hardware building in New York, when he picked up a message that read, "S.S. Titanic ran into iceberg, sinking fast." His actions over the next 72 hours would have a defining impact on his career within Marconi, and beyond.
For the next 72 hours, Sarnoff sent and received wireless messages conveying to the rest of the world the events that were unfolding, also gathering names of survivors and passing them on to relatives who had gathered on the streets below. For three days and three nights, Sarnoff did not move from atop that building. He kept his earphone in, listening for any faint coded messages that he could relay to newspaper reporters.
"Much of the time, I sat there with nothing coming in. It seemed that the whole anxious world was attached by my earphones during the seventy-two hours I crouched tensely in the station," he recalled. "I passed the information on to a sorrowing world, and when messages ceased to come in, fell down like a log at my place and slept the clock around."
In the aftermath of the Titanic tragedy, there were many changes. One of those changes was new regulations, which saw wireless communications become mandatory on all ocean vessels.
Still, no change was as prominent as Sarnoff's rise in the public eye. Whereas once he was an unknown, coding messages atop lonely rooftops, the Titanic sinking saw Sarnoff become a public hero, both in the eyes of his superiors, and people across the country.
And Sarnoff, who admitted, "I felt my responsibility keenly, and weary though I was, could not have slept," was also not necessarily completely altruistic in his actions. Looking back at the large role he played on that fateful day, Sarnoff recalled, "The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front, and also me." Almost overnight, Sarnoff had become one of the greatest self-promoters the world had seen - a characteristic that would carry him through the rest of his career.
Lesson 2 The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front and also me
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Much of Sarnoff's career seems to have been a case of being at the right place at the right time. For instance, intent on being a journalist, the young Sarnoff set off in 1906 to find a job with the Herald newspaper. By accident, Sarnoff found himself lost and wandered into the offices of the Commercial Cable Company instead. There, he was immediately hired, and his career in the electronic communications industry had begun.
Still, what set Sarnoff apart from his peers was his ability to make the most and capitalize as much as possible on that right place and right time.
When Sarnoff was a boy, he had bought a telegraph key and taught himself Morse code. Thanks to that decision, after spending a short time as an office boy for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America, Sarnoff was quickly promoted to a junior operator.
It was during that time that Sarnoff would stumble onto one of the greatest experiences of his career. On April 14, 1912, Sarnoff was busy working atop the Wanamaker Hardware building in New York, when he picked up a message that read, "S.S. Titanic ran into iceberg, sinking fast." His actions over the next 72 hours would have a defining impact on his career within Marconi, and beyond.
For the next 72 hours, Sarnoff sent and received wireless messages conveying to the rest of the world the events that were unfolding, also gathering names of survivors and passing them on to relatives who had gathered on the streets below. For three days and three nights, Sarnoff did not move from atop that building. He kept his earphone in, listening for any faint coded messages that he could relay to newspaper reporters.
"Much of the time, I sat there with nothing coming in. It seemed that the whole anxious world was attached by my earphones during the seventy-two hours I crouched tensely in the station," he recalled. "I passed the information on to a sorrowing world, and when messages ceased to come in, fell down like a log at my place and slept the clock around."
In the aftermath of the Titanic tragedy, there were many changes. One of those changes was new regulations, which saw wireless communications become mandatory on all ocean vessels.
Still, no change was as prominent as Sarnoff's rise in the public eye. Whereas once he was an unknown, coding messages atop lonely rooftops, the Titanic sinking saw Sarnoff become a public hero, both in the eyes of his superiors, and people across the country.
And Sarnoff, who admitted, "I felt my responsibility keenly, and weary though I was, could not have slept," was also not necessarily completely altruistic in his actions. Looking back at the large role he played on that fateful day, Sarnoff recalled, "The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front, and also me." Almost overnight, Sarnoff had become one of the greatest self-promoters the world had seen - a characteristic that would carry him through the rest of his career.
Lesson 2 The Titanic disaster brought radio to the front and also me
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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