Takeaways
- Don’t be afraid to go against the grain.
- Stay in touch with the problems employees face.
- Elite talent does not outweigh questionable character.
The Decker File
Name: Colin Decker
Title: Head
Company: Discovery Digital Networks
Born: Denver
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; master’s degree non-fiction film, Boston University.
What was your first job and what did you learn from it? My very first job was in a picture frame shop making fine picture frames. It sounds boring, but it’s actually a credentialed art. I was a young apprentice helping people put together picture frames for oil paintings. I learned that it’s better to own than to be employed. It was a small business and it gave me a very quick understanding of the service business and what aspects you would do because you enjoy the subject matter versus what you would do to build a strong, growing business.
Those are two different things. A lot of people open up a shoe store because they love shoes and that’s great. That doesn’t often turn into a growth business.
Who has been the biggest influence on your life? Both of my parents. My father was an architect, which is the intersection of vision and commerce. How do you have a creative idea and vision and how do you bring it into life in the context of the economy and the real world?
My mother was very involved in technology. By the end of her career in the early 90s, she was the chief technology officer of a pretty big company. She modeled hard work and tenacity and never once thought twice about fact that she was probably the only woman among the top 200 executives in this company.
