 either in an airport waiting lounge or in one of Wachtell Lipton's conference rooms. "Listen," he said, "can you come in here Sunday? I think it's time." While Armstrong had eliminated chauffeur-driven commuting, most of the company's top officers had themselves driven almost everywhere else, especially into New York City, SO that they could read their mail, work the phone, and otherwise avoid stretching out what were already twelve-hour days for most of us. The back of a company car was the perfect place to lose myself in the Sunday New York Times. To my surprise, the business section featured a 2,800-word profile of the man I would be spending the next few days with: Leo J. Hindery, Tough Calls Jr., the president and chief operating officer of TeleCommunications, The profile acknowledged Hindery's management skills and gave him credit for the company's soaring stock price (which had increased I49 percent since his arrival). But it also portrayed him as a "story- teller" who, among other things, embellished his past to make it seem more difficult than it really was. It said that his brother, one of his Jesuit college professors, and even his own mother had contradicted his claims that he "left home when he was 13"; "lost touch with his family" because "they just didn't care"; and "joined the merchant ma- rine at 16." It also said that he "worked like a maniac," getting into the office or on the phone by 5 A.M. every day. In fact, the Times said, Hindery attributed his work habits to his "weird childhood," since he "started paying for everything" when he was nine years old, "working in the fields." The story said that Hindery's wife likened living with him to "having an eccentric uncle in the attic." "Eccentricity," con- cluded the Times, "might well be Mr. Hindery's defining characteris- tic."3 I couldn't wait to meet him. Hindery Hindery turned out to be a slightly paunchy man with a doughy com- plexion and a short but intense attention span. He had a courtly man- ner (he was "awed by the opportunity and respe