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exit interview
The Many Stories
of Stephen Magee
The finance professor opens up about confronting Castro,
dancing the Dougie, and ranching with rattlers.
What is the toughest part of your job
Getting enough sleep. My hyperactivity causes me to
stay up late.
If you had to choose another career, what
would it be
There could be no other job for me. I have always wanted
this because I get to be an academic entrepreneur.
What is the last movie you saw
“Django [Unchained],” about the tragic violence of slavery
in the Deep South. Despite the serious message of
the movie, it was also hilarious.
What are people surprised to
learn about you
I grew up in Lubbock and spent 10 summers on my
grandfather’s ranch working with cattle. Every job I
have had since then has been easy.
on earth. Then he would light up and become positively
charismatic. I never had a personal meeting with Nixon,
but I understand from Secret Service who worked for
presidents from Eisenhower through Gerald Ford that
Nixon was the nicest to the staff.
You’re now famous for your cameo
in the MBA student video “Teach Magee
How to Dougie.”
[Student] Carlos Dinkins said he would teach me [the
“Dougie” dance move] but he forgot, so I just had to
wing it. I didn’t know how to do it then, and I don’t know
how to do it now, as you will see if you watch it.
below: A 12-year-old Magee with a
rattlesnake he killed while working on
his grandfather’s ranch. “We would
get up before daylight and have to
wait some mornings until it was bright
enough to see to work.”
@ McCombsToday.org/magazine
for more Q&A with Magee and the video
showing off his dance skills.
What was the most fun you had in
your career
Debating Joe Jamail (the world’s richest lawyer) in
front of 500 people on the economic costs and benefits
of lawyers.
Describe yourself in three words.
Enthusiastic, inspiring, and kind.
What or who do you think is overrated
No one is overrated. Scientists estimate that man has
been on this earth for six million years. That works out
to each of us having 300,000 generations before us.
Each of our preceding generations successfully reproduced
without a single miss. If there is a .5 chance that
each generation would contribute to the next, the probability
that each one of us is here is .5 raised to the
300,000th power. That probability is a decimal point
followed by zeros reaching from here to Dallas before
a positive digit is encountered. Thus we are all walking
miracles and no one is overrated.
You were on Richard Nixon’s White
House staff, and you once presented a
paper in Cuba to Fidel Castro. Who was
more intimidating
I was lecturing at a conference in Havana in 2003.
Fidel Castro walked in and sat on the front row. At the
end of my talk, he motioned for me to come meet with
him. He would place his hand on my shoulder, look into
my eyes, and rail at me on the evils of Wall Street and
American capitalism. I wondered how many people had
looked into those yellow eyes as their last experience
Clockwise from top: courtesy University Communications; courtesy Stephen Magee
OPEN SPRING 2013 www.today.mccombs.utexas.edu
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