I am a kid from Chicago, the city of the Big Shoulders. We believe in hard work, family, sports, loyalty to friends, resilience, modesty, community and having a chip on your shoulder.
I am told by my wife that I am like Alexander Hamilton in that I will never be satisfied. I am described by PRWeek Editor-In-Chief Steve Barrett as relentless. My kids call me the Energizer Bunny whose ideal day means going through four shirts. Bret Stephens calls me the Eternal Child.
My heroes are Teddy Roosevelt, Henry V, and Olympic champion Harold Abrahams from Chariots of Fire. And of course, my father.
I had three formative experiences. I was sent to Culver Military Academy for summer camp at age nine to learn how to be grateful for normal life. My bar mitzvah was a true disaster because I never learned Hebrew, memorized my Torah portion in two parts, then proceeded to do the second part first, leading my parents to send me off to prep school. Then there was the fateful call from my father just before the end of business school, asking me to come into the family firm because he did not want to sell to an ad agency and needed a good explanation. Three weeks later, he called me to say that I was to come to work the day after finishing exams because we had just won a commodity futures client and I was the only one who understood the industry.
I have a few favorite terms. Desire and Discipline. Lead from the Front. Get Knocked Down Ten, Get up Eleven. Hustle above Talent. You Can Do Anything if you have an Optimistic attitude. Team Above All—take responsibility for any mistakes. Zig when the others Zag. Be Delusional.
I am so proud of my family. I have an incredible wife, a life partner whom I adore and respect. My three kids have made all my dreams come true—and they all work in the family business to carry on the tradition. My two step-kids came to the U.S. a decade ago speaking no English and now are enrolled in two of America’s top universities. My sister and brother are loyal, loving and decent people committed to a better world. My parents set an impossibly high bar—children of immigrants, they never lost belief in us or in our country…true role models.
I am deeply proud of what has been built at Edelman and Zeno. A special thank you to Matt Harrington, Vic Malanga, Lisa Sepulveda, Ed Williams, Kirsty Graham, Barby Siegel, and many others for their partnership in helping make Edelman and Zeno the world class agencies they are. I want to express my appreciation to our clients who entrust us with their brands and allow us to be their partners. Most importantly, I am grateful to all the current and former employees of Edelman and Zeno for everything they do, being relentlessly ambitious and setting the pace for the communications industry. You and the work you do for our clients inspires me every single day.
My next 25 years will be running as hard as I do today, remaining CEO of my company, loving my job and doing it well. I want to see more colors in the sky, to be more than a guided missile, to spend more time with my family and friends, to read even more history books and mentor the next generation.
Richard Edelman is CEO.
