Little Big Man

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Patience is not one of Jeno Paulucci's virtues. For most Minnesotans, a fishing trip means drifting in a lonely boat, listening to the loons and pulling up an occasional northern pike or walleye. But not Jeno. He'll give any lake five minutes to yield up a satisfying catch, or he's off in his private seaplane for another lake and another try. "We may fish seven or eight lakes in a day," explains Ed Korkki, a 33-year fishing buddy, "but we always come back with the limit."

Then there was the time Paulucci tried to beat the crowd out of a hockey game at the Duluth civic center he helped to build, only to find his illegally parked Wagoneer blocked by buses. The bus drivers, intent on a game of cards, suggested that he wait until the hockey match was over. "Do you know who I am?" the angry Paulucci is said to have roared. To which one driver reportedly replied, "Hey, fellas, we got a guy here who doesn't know who he is."

For one who hasn't much time for contemplation or self-reflection (he even says his prayers while jogging on a treadmill), Paulucci knows very well who he is. He's gotten by in life on a powerful instinct for what sells, and how to sell it. As a young fruit-seller, Paulucci once made an extra 4? per bushel on some bananas that had been browned by ether, hawking the otherwise edible fruits as "special Argentine bananas." Years later he went nationwide with a television commercial created by Stan Freberg that claimed "9 out of 10 doctors recommend Chun King." The camera panned to show 10 smiling doctors in white coats, 9 of them Chinese. Sales soared.

These days, Paulucci spends much of his time selling himself. To many, the incessant grandstanding and self-promotion grate. Even his critics, however, admit that it works. "He demands to be recognized," says one, "just as he demands that the people he's trying to help be recognized." Jeno sees it in grander terms: "I'm telling the story of America. But I'm also selling a product" -- himself, though he stops short of saying it -- "and using the power and influence of the media to deliver a message." The message? "Dammit, we are our brother's keepers. We've got a responsibility, and we've got to live up to it."

This is a man who enjoys the role of "catalyst, devil's advocate, and son of a bitch." Paulucci shrugs off enemies and writes off mistakes with the supreme self-confidence of a man with a mission. Those who cross him may receive a letter stamped only with an emblem of the letter "u" with a screw through it. "When I'm right," he says, putting up in his chair like a rooster preparing to enter the coop, "nobody better get in my way. I'll take on anybody. Sometimes you've got to make a problem worse before it gets better."

As he speaks, he is interrupted by any number of calls from associates and politicians. A county commissioner in Florida, one of the many politicians Paulucci supports, is confronted with a choice: redesign a highway project to better suit the needs of Paulucci's Heathrow development, or have Jeno as a problem. "You've got enough problems without adding me to the list, isn't that right?" asks Jeno with an impish smile. A few minutes later it is the Vice-President on the line -- of the United States, no less -- and George Bush receives the benefit of Paulucci's opinion on a particular administration initiative. The conversation is more delicate than the one with the county commissioner, but only by degrees. Jeno Paulucci doesn't care who sees the strings being pulled.

If he can't get his way through his own brand of diplomacy (he has passed up two ambassadorships, he says) Paulucci opts for some old-fashioned muscle. He once helped push through the Minnesota legislature a bill to tax the profits of taconiteproducing companies and return the proceeds to the people of the Iron Range. In Milan, he closed down a beverage plant several years back when he found himself at odds with the Italian government on layoff restrictions. And when Disney Inc. opposed his plans to link his Heathrow development by monorail to Disney World and Orlando Airport, Paulucci put his lawyers to work on a lawsuit challenging the legality of an embarrassing list of special benefits and concessions that Disney has received from the Florida state government. Shortly thereafter, Disney relented and began to negotiate.

You have to admire this ruddy-faced rogue whose knack is for finding opportunities to do well by doing good. The former bean-sprout farmer describes his businessman's attitude toward social responsibility this way: "You plant, you harvest, you plow a little back in for the next crop." Those who skip the last step aren't just greedy, he says, they're short-sighted.

Paulucci shifts his seat, and with it his metaphor. "Life is a relay race. We each have a certain stick -- what is it, a baton? -- to pass on to one another. Don't give me a statue or put my name on a building. Give me the goddamn stick and let me run with it. And then let me give it to somebody else. If they stop, or drop it, I'm gonna kick 'em aside, pick it up, and keep running for 'em."

In conversation, Paulucci's voice ranges over several octaves. Gruff and low when talking about himself; mid-range when he's asking for favors; upper register for making the big points. More often than not, he avoids "I" in favor of the more royal "we," but it is less an affectation than a sign of how little distinction he makes between himself and his community, between self-interest and community interest.

"There's nothing Jeno Paulucci does that isn't a very good business decision for Jeno Paulucci," declares a Duluthian who has watched him for years. It's a common suspicion folks have about their roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-it-done civic booster. Is it really proper to let the hand of business wash the hand of social responsibility? Isn't it just a bit self-serving, unseemly, all the publicity and philanthropy and profit reinforcing one another?

Paulucci responds to the questions with surprise. "You bet I'm out to make a buck. That's the name of the game -- what keeps it all going, isn't it?"

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