Much has been said and written about the RJR Nabisco deal (1988), so I won't dwell much more on that one deal in these vignettes other than to say that there was an unpleasant by-product of that story. We were labeled "barbarians." The stigma mostly came from the title of the 1989 book "Barbarians at the Gate," which depicted the inside story of the buyout of RJR Nabisco and became a worldwide bestseller.
After that, every time we visited a company, we had to start by explaining to the board of directors that we actually had ideas, resources and were there to help them achieve their vision and potential. Reputation and trust are crucial in business -- whether you are raising capital or trying to invest in a business -- and while most corporate executives quickly realized our true intentions of partnership, the "barbarian" label persisted. Even today, that perception lingers more than it should.
