Bruce Wasserstein passed away yesterday at the age of 61.  He was the Chairman of our Board of Directors from 1997 until we were sold to Incisive in 2007.  Although he was best known as an investment banker and master dealmaker, he had spent several years practicing law and had a genuine interest in journalism and the arts.  No doubt his primary reason for acquiring American Lawyer Media was to make money for himself and his investors, but there was more to it than that--he was genuinely interested in the quality and sophistication of our news content.  Many of his good friends were partners at major law firms, and he cared deeply about how well we served their needs and reported on their work.  He was smart enough to know where the boundary line was between suggesting story ideas and meddling in the editorial arena, and in my experience he never crossed that line.

Most importantly, he was the most energetic and creative boss I have ever had.  His brain seemed to work non-stop, and in meetings he was so excited and filled with ideas that he could barely sit still.  Rather than sitting quietly in a conference room chair, he would often wander around the room while sharing his latest brainstorms--even wandering out of the room at times, still talking, but also hunting for cookies or whatever else provided all that energy.

His mantra when presented with any new idea from the American Lawyer Media team was always the same:  "More, Bigger, Faster".  He didn't believe in marketing research, other than phoning up some friends to ask what they thought of an idea.  He believed in being bold and moving quickly.  No matter what we presented, Bruce wanted us to do in a week what we thought might take a few months.  And, always, he wanted us to think bigger.

In 1999, at a time when others were launching websites, Bruce encouraged us to launch a newspaper for the deal community, a group which no one was really talking about until that time.  Bruce was all over that project, pushing us to think bigger about the kind of news and information that community would require, and urged us to consider not just the US audience but Europe as well.  And when we argued to launch as a weekly newspaper, he insisted on The Deal being a daily, a much more complex (and expensive) undertaking but also considerably bolder.  The Deal, which we spun out as an independent business after a year, just celebrated its 10th Anniversary and seems well-entrenched as a leading information provider to the dealmaking world.

I learned a lot from working for Bruce, but nothing more important than the idea of "More, Bigger, Faster".  Big corporations act slowly, pass all ideas through committees, do endless marketing research and take baby steps for fear of making a mistake.  Bruce made sure that ALM's culture was more entrepreneurial--try a hundred different things knowing that some will succeed and some won't.  And, always, think bigger abiout what you are working on.  Good lessons, as valid today as they were 10 years ago.

RIP