“In an Oriental-themed, tricked-out parlor, Nicholas, his friends and a bevy of prostitutes would party and have sex for days - abusing cocaine, laughing gas and other drugs, as music from such chart-toppers as Led Zeppelin and Phil Collins played.” — from the New York Post
During the Web 1.0 heyday, the founders of Polyverse, the company that had acquired Netmix and then spent our investment money on a half-a-million dollar Randalls Island rave that lost over a quarter of our funding, introduced me to this guy and Kenji Kato, his assistant.
They ended up partying with him well into the night, while I was taking care of Netmix business. They thought Nicholas might invest in the company, as he was keenly interested in youth culture Internet plays, having funded a youth-driven startup in Denver. While Nicholas was in town, they ended up partying at Lotus and a few other spots, taking a break in between to meet with me and some of my staff at the time.
Although I was excited to meet with the billionaire, I was still very cautious and direct, knowing that the Polyverse folks were playing the party game, while I was trying to grow a business. When Nicholas asked me if I was ready to work 24-hours a day, I said I’d work 26, just to see Netmix grow .
It turned out that Henry Nicholas wasn’t much feeling the partners in Polyverse. Despite his partying ways, he could see through them, as I did while constantly battling with them to do the right thing. Unfortunately, I was stuck with them.
In August of 2000, I caught one of our sales people doing cocaine with a client in a hotel room at the MGM Grand during the DJ Times Expo in Atlantic City. I wanted her fired, but I was told by the Polyverse folks after a series of personnel meetings that “this is the way business is done” in the advertising world. Needless to say, that girl didn’t sell one piece of advertising for the company while taking in a $90K salary in all the time she worked there. Although they didn’t fire her, she was persona non grata in the Netmix offices and I forced them to move her to another location. That memory of her is forever etched in my mind. If that’s how you want to be remembered in this world, more power to you.
If you need to use cocaine to sell a product, then in my eyes, you’re not that much of a sales person. Once you get known as the drug provider, that reflects on everyone in the company, undeservedly tarnishing the reputations of the company’s other employees and forever damaging your organization’s reputation.
The Henry Nicholas Jr. story just goes to show that the crazy days of Web 1.0, where the money to fuel the parties seemed endless, was a time of extraordinary mismanagement, greed and self destruction. Anything goes, but then you had nothing to show for it. Fortunately for me, I never transferred the Netmix domain to Polyverse. They broke the purchase and sale agreement, and I still own the brand that I cultivated.
I, unfortunately, chose the wrong path. I could have opted to go with an angel investor in the Philadelphia area that had backed a successful world music concert series, but we decided that it might be better to work with the Polyverse folks, given their ties to companies like SonicNet, MTV and others. It was probably my biggest mistake and one that taught me a very valuable lesson.
I’m certainly glad that Henry Nicholas decided not to fund us. Seeing his very public downfall reminds me that you can have all the money in the world, but it doesn’t matter if you end up in a $66,000 a month rehab facility, your personal assistant is suing you for being your personal drug courier and all your former employees think you’re ass. The money doesn’t matter when you have no friends.
I always turn to this one quote from a David Halberstam book, “The Breaks of the Game,” which reads: “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident and money takes wings. The only thing that endures, is character.”
Now that I know what Henry Nicholas Jr. is really all about, he’s just another two-bit hustler like the rest of them. I’ve totally lost the ounce of respect I had for him for achieving so much. If you lose $4 Billion in personal net worth, although you still have $2 Billion, it isn’t all that impressive to me. Henry Nicholas III could have been the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, but those guys aren’t in rehab and he is. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. Certainly glad I don’t have to deal with him every day. I’d rather run Netmix as the hobby that it now is, then be around spoiled billionaires who’s self-defeating ego turns the entire world against them.
I know too many people who’s lives have been tarnished by extreme drug use. I’m certainly glad mine is not one of them.
read more (New York Post story) | digg story
Tony Zeoli is an innovative digital media product development consultant who has been at the forefront of the convergence of music and technology since he founded Netmix.com in 1995. He has guided music, video and web application product development and strategy for a wide range of companies including Cablevision, the Associated Press and Entertainment Media Works.
