Almost every business leader is a stickler for details. That should have been the first sign that Robert "Cap'n Bob" Maxwell, who thought he was qualified for the title, wasn't. In the middle of the 1980s, a small, unimportant thing happened that proved this point and showed why his fake publishing empire was doomed to fail.
It may never be known if Robert Maxwell killed himself or was killed by someone else...
Suffice it to say that the disgraced publishing magnate cheated so many people and financial institutions that there wouldn't be a shortage of suspects if it was the latter. Jan Ludvick Hoch, who was born to poor parents in Slatinske Doly and changed his name when he moved to Great Britain during World War II, took advantage of the fog of war to get a deal on a scientific journal distributorship. He quickly used that money to buy more books, and he did it so well that he was even elected to Parliament.
Soon after, though, a trail of lies began, which led to a censorship by the High Court, then to possible war crimes, and finally to an amazing web of faked balance sheets and false bank loan collateral that covered up Maxwell's massive theft from his own publishing empire. Maxwell was said to have fallen overboard while sailing near the Canary Islands just as everything was about to fall apart for him. The name "The Bouncing Czech" was given to him after he died because of all the double-dealing he did.
Maxwell's big head, on the other hand, was real. He wanted to be bigger than life and beat anyone he thought of as a rival, like Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose publishing empire stretches around the world. Ironically, Maxwell tried to use every chance he could to show Murdoch as a lowlife, while he tried to show himself as a more moral alternative to the responsible consumer. So, to compete with Murdoch's titillation-focused, Tory-leaning tabloid, the Sun, Maxwell ran the Daily Mirror as a kinder, gentler, Labour-leaning source of similar stories.
Maxwell was always a distant second in the tabloid wars in the United Kingdom, so he was always looking for a way to tweak Murdoch's operations and give the impression, however cynical, that he was on the moral high ground. I can say for sure that at least once, this obsession and the fact that he was a showoff got the best of him.
It was a summer day in the middle of the 1980s, and people were starting to believe that secondhand smoke could be bad for their health at work. Maxwell was called "Cap'n Bob," which was a joke, and he was one of the first people to try to stop smoking in the office. The Mirror's headquarters were definitely better off, but it was clear that he only did this to boost his own reputation and not because he really cared about his employees.
The first sign that this was the case was that Maxwell enforced the rule in a loud, arbitrary way. In particular, he loved to make a scene that showed him in a strong and good way. So, when Cap'n Bob announced a ban, he did it to get the most out of it. In this case, he said that anyone caught smoking in his building would lose their job right away.
On this day, Maxwell was holding court for people with respect. He was showing them around the Mirror building when he noticed a man hunched over a photocopier nearby. The man's cigarette was hanging out of his mouth.
Cap'n Bob called his guests over to go with him. Maxwell started his speech when he was only a few steps away from the man who was puffing away. His voice got louder with each step he took.
"Sir!" he yelled. "How much do you make a month?"
The person he was mad at was caught by surprise. It took him a moment to figure out that Maxwell was talking to him, or more accurately, at him.
"I asked you a question," Maxwell said again, making sure that everyone in the room knew who was in charge. "And I want a quick reply. How much money do you make every month?"
"Two thousand pounds," came the nervous answer. "Why do you ask?"
"You're smoking!" yelled the answer. Cap'n Bob then put his hand in his pocket to get ready for the killing blow. He took out a bunch of bills, quickly picked out GBP2000, and stuffed it into the shirt pocket of the shocked man.
"There's the money for a month! You're out! Now, get out!"
Maxwell then stormed off, and his guests at the cotillion, who were very impressed, followed him around the corner. A boss with a lot of power had made a strong point.
Left behind, the shocked man took the money out of his pocket, looked at it, and then shook his head in shock.
"I just got called here to fix the copier," he said with a shrug. He put the money in the back pocket of his pants, threw a few ashes on the ground, and walked out the front door to his van. He might have had more calls to make that day, but he probably decided to cancel them and go to a pub instead.
Cap'n Bob's behaviour was summed up in that one event. He cared more about how he looked than how things worked. It was a sign that he'd be in trouble whenever someone paid close attention to his business.
I just didn't expect it to be so literal.
