Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur

by Jeff Smulyan

Overview

"A nicely balanced personal and practical book of corporate reflections and hard-won business lessons."  —Kirkus Reviews

What is it really like to be an entrepreneur? After nearly fifty years of building a successful media company, founder of American all-sports radio Jeff Smulyan shares with candor and humor just how many bitter failures come with each great victory along the way.

For founder and CEO of Emmis Communications Jeff Smulyan, the path to success has been anything but straightforward. When you’ve owned a Major League Baseball team, started America’s first all sports radio station, created the world’s two largest hip hop radio stations and managed everyone from David Letterman to Ken Griffey Jr. and Don Imus and even been nationalized by an ally of Vladimir Putin, you’ve seen the rollercoaster ride of an entrepreneur from every side. 

Aspiring entrepreneurs, radio and media industry insiders, and avid sports fans alike will appreciate Smulyan’s honesty as he shares the countless lessons he’s learned from decades of entrepreneurship. Smulyan offers readers priceless insight into navigating the twists and turns of growing a business and teaches how to build a culture based on both trust and humor—the essential keys to surviving almost anything.

Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down details Smulyan’s journey: from taking over his cousin’s failing country music radio station and founding his own company, to purchasing and then selling ownership of the Seattle Mariners and guiding his company through the Golden Age of Radio. Alongside his humorous, eventful, and dramatic stories, Smulyan presents valuable pointers and tips—for anyone else brave enough to try their own hand at starting a business.

The journey to booming business is a rollercoaster. Learn from someone who has experienced all the ups and downs—and knows that what’s most important is to hold on while keeping your sense of humor intact.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637742235
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Jeffrey H. Smulyan serves as founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of Emmis Communications Corporation, an Indianapolis-based publicly traded diversified media company. A cum laude graduate of USC with a BA in history and telecommunications, Jeff earned a JD from the USC Gould School of Law, where he served as note and comment editor of the Southern California Law Review. He has served on the USC Board of Trustees since 2001.
 
Jeff is a former director of the National Association of Broadcasters, and a member of numerous civic boards and committees. As principal shareholder, he led a group that purchased the Seattle Mariners baseball team in 1989. In 1994, Jeff was named by the White House to head the U.S. Delegation to the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunications Union. Smulyan resides in suburban Indianapolis with his wife Heather; he has three children—Samantha, Cari, and Bradley—and two grandchildren.
 

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Prologue xv

1 Do What You Love 1

2 The Golden Years 23

3 The Fine Line Between Idiot and Genius 47

4 From Genius to Idiot 71

5 Rising from the Ashes, the First Time 107

6 The Siren Call of Sports (Ownership) 123

7 The Inquisitive Ambassador 147

8 Best of Times, Worst of Times 159

9 The Golden Age of Exuberance 171

10 How to Fix Television (Or Not) 185

11 Not for the Faint of Heart 205

12 The Hundred-Year Flood 215

13 An Existential and Financial Crisis 237

14 The Search for Shiny New Objects 247

15 No Good Deed Goes Unpunished 259

16 Escape from Dresden 287

Epilogue 297

Acknowledgements 301

Index 305

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Meeting, knowing, and working for Jeff Smulyan gave me the confidence to leave Indianapolis and seek fame and fortune in our sister city of Hollywood. I will never be able to repay Jeff for his faith, kindness, and motivation. Please read the book and phone me.*”  
*Anyone attempting to phone Mr. Letterman will be subject to prosecution.
—David Letterman, comedian and former TV host
 
“Jeff is a natural storyteller and makes me laugh out loud every time he shares the highs and lows of his life as an entrepreneur in sports and media. Full of insight, humor, and an honest voice, Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down is cleverly paced and a delight for the reader.”
—Andrew Luck, former quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts
 
“Jeff Smulyan is the kindest, funniest, and smartest person I’ve ever known . . . except for everyone else I’ve ever known. Read Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down and you’ll find out why.”
—Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox
 
“Jeff Smulyan brought fun to baseball. He also brought us together as the only father and son to ever play in the major leagues together. If you read this book, you won’t play in the major leagues with your father or your son, but you will have fun reading it and you will learn some great life lessons.”
—Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., former MLB players
 
“Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down chronicles the experiences of a classic entrepreneur. Told in a humorous, engaging style, Jeff provides the lessons that anyone who has ever thought about starting a business needs to know. Some of his experiences are death-defying, some are bizarre, but all of them have led to a life filled with joy and accomplishment. I’m not in favor of cloning, but if I did, I’d suggest Jeff Smulyan be cloned.”
—Evan Bayh, former Governor of Indiana and former United States Senator

Editorial Reviews

2022-06-25
A successful entrepreneur tells his story and provides guidance for others seeking a similar path.

Smulyan, founder and CEO of Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corporation, offers a pleasing amalgam of business guide and memoir. The author begins by chronicling his humble beginnings in a Midwest Jewish family in which entrepreneurial roots ran deep. Though he developed an early passion for radio, his father steered him toward a law degree for the “instant credibility a master’s degree won’t give you.” After operating WNTS, a small Indianapolis radio station (“These days, WNTS is known for its original midday host, David Letterman”), Smulyan branched out to own stations in other markets, experimented with diversified formats like religious and all-sports broadcasting, and eventually founded Emmis Communications, a company that expanded to include TV stations and magazines. In 1989, Smulyan led a group of investors in the acquisition of the Seattle Mariners, a problematic proposition that the author recounts candidly. Sprinkled throughout the shrewd text are accounts of impressive ratings for Emmis’ top radio stations and anecdotes about the personal and professional sacrifices that became necessary to keep Emmis profitable amid dot-com crashes and recessions. Smulyan fair-mindedly contrasts his major successes against his failures and near misses, some of which nearly cost him everything. He takes readers on a largely entertaining behind-the-scenes tour of the tumultuous nature of a struggling business and illuminates the uniquely challenging economics involved in the media and sports worlds. Smulyan, now 74 and still working, clearly believes in the classic principles of hard work and lifelong learning as well as the understanding that “to succeed, you absolutely have to know how to handle failure.” He dispenses sage advice on the power of effective leadership, business ethics, and integrity, and the rewarding benefits of fostering a collaborative corporate culture.

A nicely balanced personal and practical book of corporate reflections and hard-won business lessons.

Kirkus Reviews