Ross Perot: My Life and the Principles for Success

Ross Perot was born Henry Ray Perot on June 27, 1930 in Texarkana, Texas. He was the son of Lula May and Gabriel Ross Perot. While in his teens, Perot changed his middle name from Ray to Ross to honor his father. Perot had an older brother, Gabriel Ross Jr., who died at an early age. From 1947 to 1949, he attended Texarkana Junior College, then entered the United States Naval Academy in 1949. After he left the Navy in 1957, Perot became a salesman for IBM. He quickly became a top employee. He left IBM in 1962 to found Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Dallas, Texas. He was given his first contract with the U.S. government in the 1960s, computerizing Medicare records. EDS went public in 1968 and the stock price rose from $16 a share to $160 within days. Fortune called Perot the "fastest, richest Texan" in a 1968 cover story. Perot ran for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. He received 18.9% of the popular vote, about 19,741,065 votes, but no electoral college votes in 1992, making him the most successful third-party presidential candidate in terms of the popular vote since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election. In 1995, he founded the Reform Party and won their presidential nomination for the 1996 United States presidential election. Perot received 8% of the popular vote in 1996, lower than in the 1992 race. Perot believed tax should be increased on the wealthy, while spending should be cut to help pay off the national debt.In his 1993 book Not For Sale at Any Price, Perot expressed support for giving tax cuts for small and medium-sized enterprises, as opposed to larger corporations. Additionally, Perot supported a balanced budget amendment. Perot and his wife Margot had five children (Ross Jr., Nancy, Suzanne, Carolyn, and Katherine). He left 19 grandchildren. With an estimated net worth of about US$4.1 billion. He was ranked by Forbes as the 167th-richest person in the United States. Ross Perot passed away on July 9, 2019 at the age of 89 on Dallas Texas after a battle with leukemia.