Most of Wang's travels involve meetings with key clients -- big
corporations, many of which spend millions a year on software and related
services. Wang is there to listen to what they have to say, to show that CA
is sincere in its commitment to giving them what they want. On average
Wang spends 180 days a year on the road, a third of it overseas.
That kind of schedule leaves little time for family life. Not surprisingly, he
is divorced and admits to no prospects for a second marriage. "I'm
married to my work," he says by way of discouraging further questions
about his personal life. He lives in a five-bedroom mansion on Long
Island's exclusive North Shore, near the presumed setting of Jay Gatsby's
wild parties. Wang declines to describe his home except to say that he
doesn't think that he lives ostentatiously. "But that depends on your
definition of ostentatious," he allows. His daughter, with whome he has
never spoken Chinese, lives away at college.
Though his office is practically next door to that of older brother Tony, they
also see each other outside of work, often with their parents who live near
Tony. "Sure, we do a lot of things," says Wang. "Weekends we'll see each
other if we have time. We're a close-knit family in that sense." He sees
little of younger brother France who spends most of his time in his San
Francisco office. The only recreation Wang cares to name are racketball
and basketball, which he often plays with Russ Artzt, and on occasion,
Tony.
A reasonable estimate of Wang's salary and dividend income alone is about
a million dollars a month. About how he spends his money, Wang is
vague, not to say evasive.
"Well, you have more options," he concedes, groping for a way to express
the precise degree of his disinterest in the subject. "You can go places. You
just have more options. You don't have to worry about living hand to
mouth as before." It takes more pressing to get him to admit, "I have
nice cars, a very nice house, travel. I have a very nice life." But he'd
rather skip the details.
Wang is just as impatient with questions that seek to elicit lessons he has
learned about building a successful business. He feels there really isn't
any. [Ironically, in 1994 he would write and publish a book on the
subject]
"I think perhaps the fear of it is probably more than if you just do it," he
offers, somewhat reluctantly. "People always say there must be something
to starting a company. In the software business, the business I'm in, it's
one of the most wonderful businesses. It's not a capital-intensive
business. It's not like a steel mill. Not every entrepreneur sits around and
decides, "I think I'll open a steel mill next week.' 'I think I'll go into car
manufacturing.' Software still has that wonderful sort of self-starting
[aspect], where you can start small. Creativity plays a tremendous role in
it."
[CONTINUED BELOW]
"People who come out of business schools, the MBAs, lose sight of the fact
that the talents needed to start a business and the talents needed to just
climb the corporate ladder are very very different. Business schools
unfortunately teach MBAs how to climb the corporate ladder. They come
in, they know all the latest things about spreadsheets and beautiful
reports, analyzing and so forth, and they never get into the [real] world
where you have to worry about little things like making payroll. It's
unfortunate because you lose out on so much of the fun of building
somethjing and watching it grow."
The entire experience of starting up CA was one big fun joyride, to hear
Wang. "I still have fun. I know I'm having fun."
His only goal is just to keep doing what he's been doing. "Right now I've
got my hands full. There's no secret ambition to be senator or governor or
mayor or councilman." He laughs at the idea. It's a sincere laugh.
There's a remarkable air of inevitability about Charles Wang's success. As a
grocery clerk in high school he was every bit as driven about his work as he
is today. What made him work so hard even then?
"If you're gonna do it, put your heart in it and do it well," he says after a
rare moment of reflection. "Otherwise you're gonna end up regretting -- if
only I had done da da da da, right? I don't want to live my life always
regretting what might have been. I want to be able to sit there and say
that I gave it my best shot. I don't succeed at everything, right? -- but
boy, did I give it a shot! I tried my best. I know I committed and I tried
my best."
