David Barth was a young CPA at Ernst & Young who felt trapped in that hierarchial environment. You could see the young lion behind the accountant’s glasses when he took an unpaid leave to start up and run a camp for underprivileged kids in Russia with hundreds of participants. This lion was not only young, but he had integrity, soul, and passion, which he was eager to apply to a venture that challenged him. We hired him away for half his Ernst salary to join our then two- man company. He subsequently, at different times, has served as the company’s sales manager, telecom director, Internet coordinator, and controller. Wherever there’s a problem, we just plug David in. Our solvency is due in large part to his efforts.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jonathan Rand was a truly spectacular failure, through no fault of his own. The Campus Connection magazine he started in his University of Pennsylvania dorm grew to a national chain. At its height, it had a sales force on a hundred campuses, a slew of national advertisers, and a circulation in the millions. A public offering was just around the corner when Esquire’s parent company entered the market and, after years of cutthroat competition, bled Jonathan’s company white and forced a sale of the publication.

Jonathan, who also took a pay cut to join our five-person enterprise, has been our international sales director, CFO, and human relations director. Whenever energy, organization, and enthusiasm needs to be instilled into the company, we just wind Jonathan up and, like the Energizer bunny, he keeps going, and going, and going.

To me, though, the most spectacular failure we ever hired (I laugh to think anyone has the nerve to use this appellation) is our current chief operating officer and real mastermind behind IDT, Howie Balter. He’s the one who really runs the company day to day. Howie had been a major New York City property developer in the eighties, converting old factory buildings into luxury condominiums. He had millions in credit lines from the big banks, dozens of construction crews reporting to him, and he was making money hand over fist. Not content to rest on his laurels, he plowed everything back into further expansion.

Then, suddenly, the real estate market crashed, with Howie’s company and all his fiscal net worth along with it. The first time I interviewed him it was as a favor to a friend who asked if I could give him a job because it was difficult for him to support his wife and three kids doing small home repairs.

Can you imagine it? This guy with an advanced math degree, advanced rabbinical training, a huge intellect, tremendous street smarts, who’d been one of the city’s big real estate developers, was fixing people’s porches, and wanted a real opportunity? I’d have given him a job anyway, just as a good deed, even if he had no qualifications. But could this be real? Talk about finding gold in the sewer! Sure, he was a little depressed when he first started. But how’d you feel if you’d lost all that?