Porn star Stormy Daniels said she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, which Trump has denied.
She's at the center of Donald Trump's trial in New York related to a $130,000 hush-money payment.
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all 34 charges of falsifying business records on May 30, 2024.
Porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is at the heart of the years-long investigation into former President Donald Trump's finances — a probe that led to the unprecedented indictment of Trump earlier this year.
Adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels attends a signing for her book "Full Disclosure" at the 2019 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 26, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic
Porn star and director Stormy Daniels says she met President Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006, and the two allegedly began an affair. He was married to Melania Trump at the time, who had just given birth to their son Barron.
Just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 so Daniels would keep silent about the alleged affair, which Trump has denied.
In January 2018, news of the hush money broke, and Daniels was thrust into the national spotlight.
Daniels was born and raised in Louisiana.
Stormy Daniels attends a signing for Comedian Dane Cook's new CD/DVD 'Retaliation' at Tower Records on July 27, 2005 in Hollywood California.
Matthew Simmons/Getty
She started stripping as a teenager and soon entered the porn business.
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels presents a creation by Junker Designs during a fashion show debuting the company's new collection at the Rainbow Bar & Grill as part of the MAGIC convention August 28, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller/Getty
In 2002, she became the lead actress in a film for Wicked Pictures, a porn movie studio based in California.
Daniels and comedian Emcee Pete Giovine greet fans in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller/Getty
She has won numerous awards for her roles as both a performer and a director in adult scenes and films.
Daniels and musician Dave Navarropose on the press line at the premiere of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" in Los Angeles on April 10, 2008.
Dan Steinberg/AP
She has also had minor roles in more mainstream movies, including "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," and "Finding Bliss." She appeared in the Maroon 5 music video "Wake Up Call" in 2007.
Stormy Daniels arrives for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007, in Los Angeles.
She's been married four times.
Daniels with her former husband and actor, Mike Moz.
Wikipedia Commons
Her current husband is fellow adult film actor Barrett Blade.
Adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels (L) is kissed by adult film actor/director Barrett Blade as they attend the 2023 Adult Video News Awards at Resorts World Las Vegas on January 07, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Before her marriage to Blade and ex-husband Brendan Miller, Daniels stirred a bit of controversy after it was revealed that she was having a baby girl with her former boyfriend.
Daniels with comedian Dane Cook.
In a 2012 interview, she addressed those who thought she was not fit to be a mother: "It’s just all the negativity towards the adult industry in general, or people's fear," she said.
Stormy Daniels arrives at the 50th annual Grammy awards held at the Staples Center on February 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.
In 2009, she considered entering politics and challenging Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, who had been accused of engaging with a prostitute, for his seat. She told a reporter at the time that while she doesn't think she's the best person for the job, "I just think I'm a better choice than the senator they already have."
Adult film star Stormy Daniels, left, signs autographs at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009.
That same year, she was arrested for a domestic violence misdemeanor following a dispute with her then-husband.
Stormy Daniels visits a local restaurant in downtown New Orleans, Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
She ultimately decided to not run for the Senate.
Stormy Daniels visits a local restaurant in downtown New Orleans, Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
Bill Haber/AP
But in January 2018, she reemerged on the political scene, although perhaps not the way she had planned. The Wall Street Journal reported that she was paid more than $100,000 in hush money over an alleged sexual encounter with President Donald Trump over a decade ago.
Stormy Daniels visits a local restaurant in downtown New Orleans, Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
In an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" after Trump's 2018 State of the Union speech, Daniels refused to answer questions about the payment. Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, initially denied the existence of any payment.
In February 2018, Cohen admitted that he personally paid Daniels the money.
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's personal lawyer, arrives in Trump Tower in New York City.
Stephanie Keith/Reuters
"Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly," Cohen said. "The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone."
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In response, Daniels' manager said Cohen's admission invalidates a non-disclosure agreement her client signed that forbid her from speaking publicly about the money. The manager said things have changed. "Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story."
Adult film star Stormy Daniels arrives at the 50th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles February 10, 2008.
Then on March 6, 2018, Daniels sued Trump, arguing that he never signed his portion of the agreement. The lawsuit also said "attempts to intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and 'shut her up' in order to 'protect Mr. Trump' continue unabated."
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels arrives at the 24th annual Adult Video News Awards Show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center January 13, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Daniels began to tell her side of the story about her and Trump's alleged 2006 affair in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired on March 25, 2018.
Adult film actress and director Stormy Daniels hosts a Super Bowl party at Sapphire Las Vegas Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 4, 2018.
She told Anderson Cooper a man threatened to keep quiet about her relationship with Trump in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011. Daniels also wouldn't rule out that there may be photos or videos proving she had an affair with Trump.
Daniels appears on "60 Minutes."
In April, 2018, Trump publicly acknowledged the $130,000 payment to Daniels for the first time by denying he knew about the payment or where the money came from.
President Donald Trump answers a reporter's question as eight different phones and recording devices placed on his desk by reporters and White House staff members record his words in the Oval Office of the White House.
The FBI seized records of the $130,000 payment to Daniels and recordings of phone calls between Cohen and Daniels' lawyer during a raid on Cohen's office and home in April 2018.
Michael Cohen.
Also in that month, Daniels released a sketch of the man she says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot to stay quiet about her affair with Trump in 2011.
A sketch of the man Stormy Daniels says threatened her in a parking lot in 2011.
Outside of a Manhattan courthouse, Daniels said Cohen "acted like he is above the law" and "played by a different set of rules." "That ends now," Daniels said.
Stormy Daniels, accompanied by her attorney, Michael Avenatti, talks to the media as she leaves federal court on April 16, 2018 in New York.
In a stunning admission, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the president was aware of the $130,000 payment to Daniels at the time and reimbursed Cohen in installments over several months as part of Cohen's salary.
Rudy Giuliani.
Trump responded to Giuliani's comments by saying that the payment was legal and that his lawyer would "get his facts straight" on the Daniels case.
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally to show support for Ohio Republican congressional candidate Troy Balderson on August 4, 2018 in Lewis Center, Ohio. Balderson faces Democratic challenger Danny O'Connor for Ohio's 12th Congressional District on Tuesday.
In a highly criticized statement, Giuliani took aim at Daniels' credibility: "If you're a feminist and you support the porn industry, you should turn in your credentials. I respect women—beautiful women and women with value — but a woman who sells her body for sexual exploitation I don't respect."
Rudy Giuliani.
Avenatti described the arrest as a "setup" that he says was "politically motivated." The prosecutors later dropped all three misdemeanor charges against her.
Stormy Daniels arrives at federal court on April 16, 2018, in New York.
On August 21, 2018, Cohen struck a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to eight federal crimes, including one count of making an illegal campaign finance contribution.
Michael Cohen.
Cohen said in his guilty plea that Trump directed him to make the illegal campaign contribution to Daniels in order to influence the election. Trump has called Cohen a liar, and accused him of making up the story to get a plea deal.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media after he steps off Air Force One, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018, in Charleston, W.Va.
Daniels celebrated the news by tweeting: "How ya like me now?! #teamstormy."
Adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels attends the 2018 Adult Video News Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 27, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
When Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt asked whether he knew about Cohen's payments to Daniels and the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, Trump said he knew "later on." "They didn't come out of the campaign — they came from me," Trump said.
President Donald Trump appears on "Fox & Friends" with host Ainsley Earhardt.
In a statement to NBC News, Daniels said: "Michael and I are vindicated and we look forward to the apologies from the people who claimed we were wrong."
Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti.
But in June 2022, Avenatti was sentenced to four years in prison after a judge convicted the lawyer of embezzling nearly $300,000 from Daniels.
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, speaks to media with lawyer Michael Avenatti outside federal court in Manhattan on April 16, 2018.
On March 15, 2023, Daniels made a surprise appearance at the Manhattan DA's office. The meeting came as prosecutors approached the final stages of a years-long investigation into the hush-money payment and Trump's alleged role in facilitating it.
Stormy Daniels at an adult entertainment fair in Berlin on October 18, 2018.
In late March 2023, Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury after a five-year investigation into his finances, with charges stemming from the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
Donald Trump speaks during his meeting with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at Winfield House, London on December 3, 2019.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images
Daniels called the unprecedented indictment "poetic" but "bittersweet," saying "Trump is no longer untouchable.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 11: Stormy Daniels attends the Los Angeles Premiere Of Neon's "Pleasure" at Linwood Dunn Theater on May 11, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
The former president surrendered himself to the Manhattan district attorney's office on April 4, 2023, where he was booked and arraigned on the historic indictment, pleading not guilty to 34 felony charges.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.
Kena Betancur/Getty Images
The hush-money trial kicked off April 15, 2024, and Daniels took the stand.
A courtroom sketch of Stormy Daniels being questioned by assistant district attorney Susan Hoffinger as former President Donald Trump looks on.
Elizabeth Williams/Associated Press
Daniels' testimony included new details about when she says she met Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006. She said she went to his hotel suite that night after accepting a dinner invitation.
Daniels testified that she and Trump had sex and that afterward, she felt scared and ashamed.
She said she and Trump kept in touch afterward and even met in person occasionally, though she said they did not have sex again.
In her cross-examination of Daniels, Trump's lawyer, Susan Necheles, said, "Am I correct that you hate President Trump?"
"Correct," Daniels said.
Editor's note: This story has been updated.
The jury found Trump guilty on all 34 charges of falsifying business records.
Former President Donald Trump.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
The Manhattan jury deliberated for less than 10 hours over two days before delivering 34 guilty verdicts on May 30, 2024.
Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A new 155mm factory in Texas aims to produce 30,000 rounds a month, per The New York Times.
It's part of the US plan to manufacture 100,000 rounds a month by the end of 2025.
But that pales to Russia's annual production estimates, which go up to 3 million to 4.5 million.
The US has opened a new factory for Howitzer ammo near Dallas, which aims to pump out 30,000 of the 155mm shells a month as the Ukraine war chews through Western stocks.
The factory, run by General Dynamics in Mesquite, Texas, was built from scratch in just 10 months with the help of technologies from Turkish arms manufacturer Repkon, The New York Times' John Ismay reported on Wednesday.
Ismay noted that one of its production lines would be next to a Frito-Lays distribution center that appeared to be taking deliveries from Cheetos trucks.
The Texas plant's monthly manufacturing goal of 30,000 shells falls under a new push by the US Army to make 100,000 rounds a month by 2025.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, the US produced only 14,000 shells a month, but by the end of 2023, this had doubled to 28,000.
According to Ismay, the most updated production figures show that 36,000 shells are made monthly at two factories in Pennsylvania. The new facility at max capacity would bump total production to 66,000 shells a month for the US.
That might be two-thirds of the way to the US' 2025 goal but still pales to Russia's current production rate — underscoring a major advantage in artillery capacity for Moscow.
It is also unlikely that all of the forecast 100,000 monthly shells produced by the US would be reserved for Kyiv. Washington is also sending ammo to Israel, for example, and needs to think about replenishing its own stock.
NYT cited Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, saying: "Let's say a year and a half from now both the US and Europe are making, or buying, over a million shells each. That's still probably less than Russia is going to produce this year."
Kofman told the outlet that while the Mesquite plant would be important for long-term production, Russia would likely still be producing more ammo than the West even if the US hits its 2025 goal.
The US and Europe have sent Ukraine more than 3 million 155mm artillery shells since the war began. Ukraine has said the munitions are critical to its defense. Though Kyiv is burning through thousands of shells per day, Russia is estimated to be firing multiple times more shells back.
In March, the European Union earmarked another $2.15 billion to boost its production after only being able to supply about half of the 1 million 155mm rounds it promised to deliver by that month.
Meanwhile, the US Army said it would need some $3.1 billion to hit its 100,000-rounds-per-month goal and received $6 billion instead.
The US, on the other hand, spends about $3,000 to $4,000 to make a single 155mm round. With Washington and its allies expected to produce about 1.3 million rounds in 2024, that would be about a third of Russia's forecast capacity at triple the cost.
Press teams for the Pentagon and the US Army did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
A few years ago, Nathaniel Hudson-Hartman, 38, calculated that he'd need about $1.5 million in savings to retire comfortably in his sixties.
"I was making roughly $50,000 a year between my W-2 job and gig work, and I hope to enjoy retirement for about 30 years," he said.
As of March, the Portland-based gig driver had roughly $100,000 in his 401(k) from a previous job and about $12,000 across other savings and investment accounts.
In other words, he still has a ways to go.
The average millennial said they expected to need about $1.7 million in savings to retire comfortably, according to a Northwestern Mutual survey of 4,588 US adults conducted by the Harris Poll between January 3 and January 17. However, the average millennial reported roughly $63,000 in retirement savings so far.
Meanwhile, the Census Bureau's 2022 survey of consumer finances found that only about 62% of Americans between the ages of 35 and 44 had a retirement account like a 401(k), and among those who did, the median balance was $45,000.
A common rule of thumb when it comes to retirement savings is that by age 30, one should have saved up 100% of what they make in a year. So if one earns a $75,000 salary at 30, they should have $75,000 in total across their savings, retirement accounts, and other assets. While millennials will need more money to retire comfortably, many are far away from the savings milestone experts suggest.
However, millennials have their own unique set of obstacles compared to boomers. Millennials are more saddled with student debt than prior generations and face some of the worst housing affordability levels relative to income ever seen. What's more, the future of the US Social Security system is uncertain, and longer expected lifespans — while a positive development — will require more retirement savings.
How to figure out how much retirement savings you need
Tiffany Bell, a 36-year-old business management professional based in Houston, didn't always take retirement savings seriously.
When she was 23, she said she didn't participate in her company's 401(k) plan. But after about a year of "chastising" from one of her supervisors, she said she finally gave in.
"Their harping significantly changed the course of my life over the next decade," she told Business Insider.
Over the past 10 years, Bell said she's meticulously tracked her budget and focused on saving. She now has roughly $280,000 in savings and retirement accounts.
That's way ahead of many of her peers, but it might not be enough.
Bell would like to retire around age 65 but isn't sure this will be possible. Using the NerdWallet retirement calculator, she estimated she'd need several million dollars in savings to retire comfortably. Assuming a 4% annual investment return on her $280,000 savings, she'd have about $900,000 in 30 years, her target retirement date. She'd have to invest an additional $40,000 each year to get to $3 million in savings by age 65.
Initially, she put into the calculator that she'd need 80% of her annual pre-retirement income — which is currently in the six figures — to maintain her lifestyle in retirement. But when the calculator spit out a savings goal of over $6 million — which felt impossible — she tried 40% instead. This provided a $3 million savings goal, which she said still felt out of reach, but is a more realistic goal for now.
"Ideally, I'd like to overshoot the target and actually have something to pass down to family," she said. "But it is depressing to think I might not even be able to save enough for myself."
Fidelity recommends that people plan to need between 55% and 80% of their annual pre-retirement income to fund a retirement lifestyle they're satisfied with, though it depends on one's personal circumstances.
While saving for retirement can be a challenge, developing retirement savings goals — and figuring out if they're realistic — is a crucial yet complicated part of the process.
For example, the suggestion that people should have saved 100% of their salary by age 30, has many issues, experts say. One of them is that people don't always start working at the same point in their 20s, said Chris Chen, a certified financial planner and cofounder of financial advisory firm Insight Financial Strategists.
"A lot of the time, when kids graduate from college, not very long thereafter, there might be graduate school, and that's going to put a dent in their style," Chen told Business Insider. "And for these people, getting to the level of one-times earnings can be very difficult."
Meanwhile, he said, salaries for those who don't go to graduate school often won't be as high as those who do.
Another problem with the rule is that the cost of living varies greatly depending on where one lives, says Judi Leahy, senior wealth advisor for Citi Personal Wealth Management. In big cities, costs are going to be much higher, but this is where job opportunities for some industries are concentrated.
"If you're living in New York, it's going to be harder to save money than if you're in Montana," Leahy said.
While financial advisors say you should have savings that equal your salary at 30, they recommend that people have three times their annual salary saved by 40.
While still difficult, this one should be easier to achieve, in part because of the law of compound interest on previous savings, Chen said. When one is invested in securities like a bond or dividend-paying stock, they can choose to reinvest the yields they earn. Doing this repeatedly then snowballs the total return for the investor.
In addition to speaking with a financial advisor, some free online retirement tools — like those from Vanguard, Bankrate, and NerdWallet — may be able to help people develop more personalized retirement goals, experts told BI.
But these tools aren't without their limitations. Bell — who used one of those calculators — said her future is too uncertain to accurately assess her retirement needs. For instance, Bell doesn't know where she'll be living when she retires and if that home will be paid off. What's more, she can't anticipate what health needs she'll have when she stops working.
"I have no idea where I'll be at that point in my life," she said. "To me, it seems almost impossible to guess what is really needed."
To be sure, many millennials may feel similar to Bell: It can seem impossible to predict how much you'll need for possibly 20 or 30 years of your life without an annual salary. Even if someone saves what they think is enough, there's no telling exactly how much they'll need for any family emergencies or health crises that arise. If it turns out they haven't saved enough, the lack of a social safety net in the US means they may be forced to work well past their desired retirement age.
How millennials can get their retirement savings back on track
While some millennials are struggling financially, it's not all doom and gloom when it comes to their retirement prospects.
A Vanguard report released in October found that early millennials — people between the ages of 37 and 41 — were better positioned for retirement than older generations. Vanguard attributed this in part to the passage of the Pension Protection Act in 2006, which it found made it easier for Americans to join their workplace retirement plans and increase their savings rates over time.
In a Fidelity survey conducted last December — in partnership with consumer research firm Big Village — of more than 2,000 US adults with an investment account, 75% of millennials surveyed said they were confident they'd be able to retire when and how they want. The survey found that millennials started saving for retirement earlier than both Gen X and boomers. What's more, Fidelity research published last year found that, since 2020, millennials have seen a larger increase in median income than any other generation.
But experts told Business Insider that for the other millennials who are behind on their retirement savings, there are a few tricks that can make up for lost time.
First, start saving whatever you can, when you can. Nilay Gandhi, CFP senior wealth advisor at Vanguard, told Business Insider that he recommends people put between 10% and 15% of their annual pre-tax income toward retirement savings.
Second, make sure you are putting money into a retirement account like a 401(k) or a Roth IRA — which offers diversified investments and tax advantages — and getting any deposit matches that your company might offer. Many firms match deposits up to a certain percentage of an employee's salary. The maximum one can contribute to a Roth IRA, which is funded by post-tax deposits, is $7,000 in 2024. For a 401(k), which is for pre-tax deposits, the maximum this year is $23,000.
"They should religiously put their money in there, whether it is the Roth version or the traditional version, and at the very least pick up the match," Chen said.
Third, if you have an investment portfolio, make sure it has the right mix of stocks, bonds, and cash.
Leahy said that those in their 30s may want to think about leaning more heavily into stocks given their longer investing timeline and higher risk tolerance. Older investors may want to consider higher allocations to safer options like fixed-income assets, she said.
"If you're trying to play catch up at 45 or 55 and you think you want to go all in on equities, it might not be your best bet," she said.
The concern for some millennials isn't that they don't have the money to put toward retirement savings, it's that they're investing it too conservatively, Rita Assaf, vice president, retirement savings at Fidelity Investments, told Business Insider.
Assaf said Fidelity's research found that millennials have seen the largest drop in "age-appropriate asset allocation," meaning they're holding too much of their savings in cash and bonds than she would typically recommend.
"These indicators point toward a trend of millennials taking a more conservative approach to investing, which likely stems from the fact they have multiple other savings priorities of their own," she said. "The concern is that millennials may not end up with the appropriate mix of assets to help them adequately achieve their retirement goals."
While a solid investment strategy is important, allocating more money toward saving is the most important step.
"If an individual is not saving enough, even the best investment strategy is unlikely to help them reach their goal," Gandhi said.
Savings outside a retirement account are also important, Chen said, and one should start by building up at least six months of expenses for an emergency fund. One way to do this is to have money deposited directly from their paycheck into a separate account. And with certificates of deposit paying annualized rates around 5% at the moment, Leahy said savers are even more incentivized to hold onto their money.
Both Leahy and Chen also agreed that credit card use should be avoided for those who are not highly confident that they can pay off their balance every month.
"Do not maintain a credit card balance. That's a great way to erode capital because the card is charging you anywhere from 12% to 22%," Leahy said. "So that item that you bought that was on sale that you really didn't need wasn't worth it."
But for some millennials, following most of this advice might not be enough for them to reach their retirement goals. It could force them to join the millions of Americans working well into their sixties and later.
Bell, for example, has started coming to terms with the possibility that she might have to work later in life than she initially hoped.
"I'm fortunate to be in an industry that allows you to work well past retirement age because it's not very physically intensive," she said.
Similarly, Hudson-Hartman said he takes comfort from the fact he enjoys working — and has an income stream he can count on well past age 70 if necessary.
"I always planned to do gig work part-time in my later years," he said. "I plan to just dial it back and work during busy times and keep my mornings and afternoons free."
The rest of us have to do our best to use them to generate ideas, investigate details, and focus on a single issue.
These are some of the tips household names in business have had for stopping unproductive meetings.
Jeff Bezos began his with 30 minutes of silent study
Jeff Bezos.
Cooper Neill via Getty Images
Meetings with Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos started with employees studying a memo.
One employee might spend two weeks pulling together a six-page memo for a specific meeting.
After 30 minutes of silent reading, attendees were invited to ask questions and start a discussion about the memo. "I like a crisp document and a messy meeting," Bezos said in a conversation with podcaster Lex Fridman in December.
Allowing attendees time to read a memo and prepare their thoughts enables employees to ask more productive questions in the meeting, he said.
Bezos said he didn't like slideshow presentations, which can hide "sloppy thinking" in bullet points.
He also maintained a "two-pizza" rule: If two pizzas can't feed everyone in the room, there are too many people.
Bill Gates dug for answers
Bill Gates in May 2024.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Microsoft founder Bill Gates would use meetings to quiz attendees, said Chris Williams, the former VP of HR at Microsoft, who worked closely with Gates for eight years.
Williams said he'd never forget his first meeting with Gates in 1992. Microsoft had just bought the company Williams worked at. Gates wanted to meet its employees to find out why one of its products ran faster than Microsoft's equivalent.
He grilled a developer with "rapid fire" and "detailed" questions, Williams recalled. By the end, the pair were discussing "the movement of single bits and the size of the Intel 80386 instruction cache," he added.
Gates "was always curious, always wanted to understand, always drilling for more detail," Williams wrote for BI in 2023.
"As he got older, his passion for detail never left, just his method for getting there mellowed," Williams added.
Steve Jobs ensured only key staff were in the room
Steve Jobs.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Steve Jobs was meticulous about keeping meetings small, according to Ken Segall, who worked closely with Jobs as creative director of Apple's ad agency.
After Jobs died in 2011, Segall wrote a book about Apple's work culture, "Insanely Simple." In it, he described how Jobs once noticed someone new had joined a weekly meeting.
"He stopped cold," Segall wrote. "His eyes locked on to the one thing in the room that didn't look right. Pointing to Lorrie, he said, 'Who are you?'"
After she explained who she was and that she was working on related marketing projects, Jobs said, "I don't think we need you in this meeting, Lorrie. Thanks," Segall recalled.
Eric Schmidt made sure meetings had a hierarchy
Eric Schmidt.
Antoine Antoniol/Getty
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said meetings need leaders to make decisions.
In "How Google Works," the 2014 book Schmidt wrote with former SVP of products Jonathan Rosenberg, the pair said each meeting needed a designated "decision-maker" to have the final say.
They wrote that when companies have meetings where everyone present is equal, there's a risk of compromising instead of finding a clear resolution.
Schmidt and Rosenberg added that this person should set the purpose and structure of the meeting and summarize decisions and tasks for participants afterward.
