About Businessmen and Politicians

I looked at the front page of the business section of the Atlanta newspaper the other day, and here ... big as life ... was a picture of Guy Millner. It accompanied a story about the fact Millner is building another major company ... the kind of company that
will serve people, and create jobs, and get things done. Guy Millner had built a highly successful company before he ran for statewide political office ... a public company with $1.4 billion in annual revenue. He had a record of building companies that listened to and served customers well; of building teams that worked efficiently; of using money wisely. He was, and probably still is, an excellent businessman operating in the high risk, highly competitive American free enterprise system.

Guy Millner was very personable, a down-home sort of a guy. I have pictures of him at the Hall County Republican Headquarters, laughing and shaking hands, when he ran for governor. I recall him at the L & K Cafe and at Jakes and at Curt's, when Curt's was at the other end of Mundy Mill Road. He enjoyed people, and both he and his wife seemed to thoroughly enjoy being out in the midst of crowds.

But I have come to the conclusion that successful businessmen are not necessarily going to be successful politicians. They want to gather the facts as best they can, make decisions, and get going. Generally, they are not patient people; they are not willing to procrastinate until they find which way the political wind is blowing. They are not always good at public relations; they will tell you what they think, and that is not always good politics. And it usually makes them furious to find something in their area of influence which is inefficient, or a situation in which money is being wasted.

All this is not the fault of the businessman or the politicians. It comes about because we-the-voters would, in my judgement, rather have a good politician in political office than a good businessman.

This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.