Against the Odds

He was just another dropout -- until he got the measles and a goal.

Gumption and Guts

Ron Meyer was 14 when a friend gave him his first tattoo, a crude design done with ink and a needle. Like many of the guys he hung out with in West Los Angeles, Meyer was a high school dropout, a kid quick with his fists who seemed to get into fights somewhat regularly.

Today, Meyer is the president and COO of Universal Studios. As one of the most successful business leaders in Hollywood, he heads up Universal Pictures and Universal Parks & Resorts. He's the guy who oversees the production of multimillion-dollar extravaganzas like King Kong and Cinderella Man.

Even though Meyer could easily afford it, he has no interest in getting his tattoos removed. They symbolize just how far he has come, and they remind him of the choices he made -- good and bad -- along the way.

Meyer's story sounds like the plot of one of his motion pictures. The son of German immigrants, he grew up in a modest home where there was little disposable income. It was a big deal to go to a restaurant.

At 15, he quit high school and spent his time shooting pool, boxing at a nearby gym and hanging out with the neighborhood toughs. With little education or direction and few options, he figured he'd be drafted. So when he heard about a boxing program in the Marine Corps, he signed up.

At one point, he was quarantined with the measles, with no TV and nothing to do. His mother sent him two books. One was The Amboy Dukes, a novel about kids in street gangs. The other was The Flesh Peddlers, now out of print, about a guy in the talent-agency business who was living a glamorous life. "I realized," he says, "that I was no longer that idiot kid I had been, and I wanted to change my life."

Meyer knew he was up against considerable odds, but he finally had a goal: to become an agent and live the sort of lifestyle described in The Flesh Peddlers. He says he must have interviewed at all of the major talent agencies. "Everyone said no to me. I didn't have a formal education. I came from no influence, no money. There was no obvious reason to give me a job."

But the gumption and guts that helped him to excel as a boxer in the Marines kicked in. "I was afraid to fail," he says. "Also, I couldn't afford to fail. I had to make a living -- I needed to make money."

Meyer took any job he could get. He worked as a busboy and short-order cook. He cleaned grease off duplicating machines. He sold shoes. "Once I got a job, I put all I had into it," says Meyer. "When I was a busboy, I wanted to be the best busboy."

That attitude made an impression on people. While he was working at a clothing store, the Paul Kohner Agency called. Their messenger had quit, and they remembered the guy named Ron who was willing to take whatever job they offered. At the clothing store, he was making $35 a week. Kohner was going to pay him $75. That was on a Friday. He started the next Monday.

Luck and a Winning Attitude

Meyer's messenger job included chauffeuring Paul Kohner, a successful agent who represented stars like John Huston, Billy Wilder, Charles Bronson and Lana Turner. Meyer kept his eyes on the road -- and his ears on the conversations in the backseat. "Paul would have meetings in his car and talk about deals. I learned the business, and got to know a lot of people."

Meyer was lucky to work with a good boss -- and he had the brains to make the most of that experience. In nearly six years of driving for Kohner, Meyer became his right-hand man. By that time, though he knew the business, he still had to learn a lot about the process.

He pretended he was an agent and landed a job at über agency William Morris in the TV talent department. After everyone left at night, he would analyze his mentor's deals and figure out how to do them.

By the 1970s, Meyer had built a lot of relationships in the business. His clients included Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner. Clearly, Meyer was becoming a leader in his industry.

He stayed at William Morris for over five years and would happily have stayed longer, but fate intervened when his mentor was fired. That presented an opportunity to start his own operation, Creative Artists Agency. Founded in 1975 with four colleagues from William Morris, CAA became a huge success, representing Hollywood legends like Barbra Streisand, Cher, Madonna, Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise. In the beginning, though, the staff of five struggled -- 18-hour days, seven days a week. They didn't draw any money out of the company for the first two years.

But Meyer had an advantage: Few people knew the business as well as he did, and few were as good with people. He built CAA client by client. He was always networking, attending anything he could get invited to -- parties, dinners, screenings, tapings.

His first major clients included Charlie's Angels Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson. But his big break came when he signed Sylvester Stallone during his Rocky and Rambo years. "Everyone wanted Sly," says Meyer. "It was a big deal to be his agent. That became my entrée to representing people like Michael Douglas, Goldie Hawn and Jessica Lange."

Twenty years later, Meyer was tapped to run Universal Studios, a position far beyond his youthful dream. But once he saw success was possible, he was driven to achieve it. It was important to him, though, that he was trusted and well-thought-of. In looking back, Meyer allows that he's never forgotten his humble beginnings.

Today, colleagues regularly attribute his success -- and theirs -- to his humility and perseverance. It's a level of success that takes a certain tenacity, a certain personality, a certain kind of intelligence, whether it comes from a college education or from the street.

It takes guts to make a choice -- and gumption to stick with it.

AND FYI...

• The Rocky movies: Rocky, Rocky II and Rocky III. The underdog boxer, Rocky Balboa, fights to become a "somebody."
• The Success Principles by Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer (Harper-Collins). How to get from where you are to where you want to be.
• The Power of Purpose, by Peter S. Temes. Fear of failure holding you back? Not able to reach your personal and career goals? Try a surprising solution -- help others achieve their goals.