It is a small world to be mentioned in the same breath here as the great John Chambers, longtime CEO of Cisco. Read this and laugh.
Not many people will know this odd fact but John and I once worked together back in the 70′s at a company called Wang Laboratories. I started in the call center answering technical requests from customers and John was a sales executive selling word processing systems. It was my first job out of college. Two Wang Labs alumni make good!
I have a George Carlin story.
It was 1979. I was out of college and working for a computer company in Massachusetts called Wang Laboratories. Its founder was a wonderful man named Dr. An Wang.
I was working in the marketing department at the time and was called into a big “hush hush” meeting. The CFO of the company was named Harry Chow. His meeting mate was another executive named Chauncey Chu. In front of them, they had a tape recorder. The meeting conversation went like this:
Harry: “Ted, sit down. We need favor.”
Me: “OK. What can I do for you and the company?”
Chauncey: “Ted, do you know who George Carlin is?”
Me: ”Yes, of course. Why?”
Harry: “You think this man is funny?”
Me: ”Yes. Why?”
Harry: “Listen to this.” (Starts to play tape.)
George Carlin: ”Can you believe there is a company doing business today called Wang? It makes computers. What do they say in their ads? …And now for the biggest Wang you have ever seen? Or Hey! Look at that shiny new little Wang! What do they say on the stock market report? TODAY my Wang is up? Yesterday my Wang was down? What is this company thinking?” …and on and on and on…
Me (stifling laughter): “Oh, what do you want me to do?”
Harry: ”You make him stop.”
Needless to say, George Carlin didn’t stop. He went on to do 14 HBO specials. He was one funny man. He will be missed.