With any investor there is something the importance of which I can’t stress enough. My first criteria is that there should be strong chemistry and commonality between us. An investment in a private company is usually long-term. A bad partnership, like a bad marriage, can ruin everyone’s life and might even wind up in court. My own father once had a partner with whom he got along so poorly that the two did not speak for over five years in spite of working in the same office. My family thinks my father’s angina and need for bypass surgery is directly attributable to this partnership. To this day, the ex-partner is never referred to in my parents’ house by name, but simply as “the beast.”

To me, it’s a very personal thing. In fact, almost everything about business, from the people I hire, to my suppliers, to my investors, is a personal thing with me. If someone has something good or bad to say about IDT, I take it personally. That’s the point of being a person in business rather than a robot.

Decisions made only by the numbers are dehumanizing. But if this is how your valuation is to be based, then why go to a private investor? You can always do better from the public markets, and when really big money is needed, that’s where you belong. Until that time, if you’re going to take a little less in cash, see that it’s made up for in the value of the relationship.

As you have seen, many of the initial people who funded IDT were contacts I made through my involvement in charitable causes. Though getting to know these kinds of people is obviously its own reward, I’d like to tell you a little bit about why I feel it’s so important for a businessman or anyone else to contribute generously, in both time and money, to good causes and to those less fortunate.

First, however, I need to confess a little bit about myself so you can understand where I’m coming from. To begin with, I am largely a media creation. The self-confident Howard Jonas you read about in magazines who fearlessly challenges large corporations and state monopolies is not me. Though I play up to my role like any good actor who’s finally landed a successful part, I am anything but arrogantly self-confident. In reality, I am usually as scared as a person left alone in the wilderness, and I’m in a constant state of anxiety over what to do next. And while I can’t deny I enjoy the image the press has given me of being a whirlwind boy genius who’s taking the high-tech world by storm, this too is an extreme exaggeration. I’m neither the smartest person in my company nor even one of the youngest. In fact, I’m already over forty. Maybe I look younger than I really am. Appearance, I have found, is often more important than reality.

This said, there is a certain grain of truth in associating me with youth. I don’t feel I’ve ever really grown up. As a child, I used to complain to my parents that I was an adult trapped in a child’s body. Now, ironically, I feel just the opposite. I’m just a young boy trapped in an adult’s body. I think when you strip away all the pretension, many of us are still just our little boy (or girl) selves. You already know about my earliest business ventures and my high school and college careers, but let me tell you a bit about the young me so you can understand the old me better.


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