She understood I was a CEO just fine. Everybody on the Road Show seemed to know it too. I just walked the way I walked. Told jokes. Told them when I wasn’t sure and they were so refreshed they bought our stock. Maria was right. All this corporate nonsense was just that. The trick was to be ourselves.

As it turned out, investors got to see how I acted as a CEO under fire rather than just having to judge from a canned presentation. This occurred when, only two days into our Road Show, AT&T announced they were going into the Internet business. Not only were they going into it, but they were offering free Internet service for up to ten hours per month to all their millions of clients, and matching our price to any of their clients who wanted unlimited service.

The market immediately went into a panic. The value of the other Internet provider stocks went into free fall. Some fund managers started canceling appointments to even see us. Market pundits in front-page stories around the world began to hail this as the start of the great phone giant’s total domination of the Internet business (and the probable death of our offering). Even the team of Cowen personnel with whom we were traveling, along with the people back at the main office, went into a panic.

Everyone wanted to know whether I was also panicking and ready to give up and, if not, how I was planning to sell stock that it seemed nobody really wanted. Surprisingly, even to myself, I was not panicking at all. I had a feeling that, having come so far against all rational expectations, we were no longer subject to normal laws. Rather, like the ’69 Jets under Joe Namath, we had become a team of destiny. Nobody had expected us to win even a game, but there was a spirit within us that kept us coming back again and again, so many times against all odds. Soon everybody, including me, began to feel that in some almost metaphysical way we just could not be stopped.

The whole situation was so surreal that I had ceased feeling like a participant and had become a sort of audience watching disconnectedly in fascination. I was playing my leading role in the unlikely drama that had become my life. From this perspective I thought the AT&T announcement was actually a great dramatic opportunity. Great leaders, after all, only get to be great when they rise to the challenge of adversity. Without the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II, no one would have ever heard of, much less seen, the greatness of Washington, Lincoln, or Churchill. Here was my opportunity to show leadership. Everyone, even fund managers, wants to go with a hero, so all I had to do was overcome AT&T’s challenge and the offering was secured. To me, it was fourth down and long yardage in the Super Bowl. I was Joe Namath, and my team had the ball. All I needed was a great play.

As I mentioned previously, it’s usually careful preparation that makes for the greatest “impromptu” victory. And for this challenge we were prepared. It came as no surprise to me that AT&T was entering the Internet business. If they didn’t, they would be laughingstocks on their way to becoming communications has-beens.