Former President (Sr.) George W. Bush’s $14 Million Speech

In researching we often uncover stories that are so utterly incredible they’re almost unbelievable. But they are true and reinforce the uniqueness of barter as a versatile, powerful business tool.

Opponents of ex-president George W. Bush used to say that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Now, it turns out he also has a golden tongue! In 1998 Bush gave what undoubtedly was the highest paid speech made by anyone, anywhere. After addressing customers in Tokyo on behalf of Global Crossing, then a fledgling telecommunications start-up, Bush agreed to take shares of stock in lieu of his $80,000 fee.

The trade occurred when Bush, sitting at breakfast with the founder and chairman of the company the morning after the speech, expressed curiosity about the company. Founder Gary Winnick suggested Bush take his fee in the form of stock in their nascent concern, which wasn’t even publicly traded at the time.

Global Crossing went public August 1998, making headlines seven months later by agreeing to acquire Frontier Corporation. In ten months Global reached $30 billion in market capitalization. (It took WorldCom, a standard-bearer for telecom growth stocks, ten years to reach that mark!)

In all of this excitement, the bottomline for Bush was the $14 million worth of stock he received for his speaking engagement in Tokyo.