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Staff post about: Howard Hughes Become an Author

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Although Hughes liked to put his personal touch on every project he worked on, he was also able to recognize the difference between business and personal. At times a ruthless businessman, Hughes would take whatever action he deemed necessary to achieve his goals.

In The Aviator (2004), a film that depicts the rise and fall of Hughes’ career, the reality of the often-harsh business decisions that Hughes made was portrayed. When a colleague questions Hughes’ choice to fire a sizeable number of his employees, Hughes is quoted as saying, “I know what you’re going to tell me. You’re going to tell me, probably, that you know someone who has cancer or someone who just got married or just had a baby, and that you can’t do that to those people…a corporation has no soul. I can’t know about those things and be a corporation.”

While for many entrepreneurs, their personal and business lives are so intertwined that it is difficult to make a distinction, it is necessary to recognize that you are in fact operating in two distinct worlds. A savvy businessman, Hughes understood that in the world of business and fierce competition, it was often necessary to be ruthless.

On the flip side, Hughes demonstrated that the challenges you may face in your personal life do not have to be a determinant of your professional success. Hughes’ personal life was one fraught with challenges, but he did not let that stand in his way.

Faced with the reality of being an orphan at age 19, Hughes chose not to succumb to despair but to instead use the wealth his family had left him to pursue his dreams. He recognized that tragedy in his personal life did not have to stand in the way of professional success.

Hughes also found it extremely difficult to have a stable relationship with a woman due to his womanizing father as well as the unusually close relationship he had with his mother. Hughes had bounced back and forth between numerous male and female partners in Hollywood, never settling on one person. Kathryn Grayson, just one of his many partners, said that Hughes seemed to be “the loneliest man in the world.” But, Hughes did not let the frustration and loneliness he might have been experiencing in his personal life hinder his professional pursuits in any way.

It was only in his later life that Hughes finally succumbed to the ravages of OCD and mental illness. But, even as his personal life and mental health began to deteriorate, he continued to pursue his business interests, taking on contracts with the CIA, investing in casinos and hotels throughout Las Vegas and acquiring 25,000 acres of property.

Hughes’ passion might have moved away from film and aviation and into the real estate market, but the passion was nonetheless as strong as ever. Personal challenges were not going to obstruct Hughes from continuing to pursue his passions. He recognized the difference between the business and personal realms and rarely let one affect the other.

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