Tough taskmaster. Kind heart. The paradox that is Eddie McGuire

Eddie McGuire is slightly taken aback by the suggestion that people might have misconceptions about the person he is.

One of Australia’s most powerful and polarising figures at the height of his media career, Eddie only ever demanded of his colleagues the same professionalism he demanded of himself.

He’s the first to admit he’s a tough taskmaster. Work with Eddie, and you know you need to be on your game.

And then – as those who’ve been on the receiving end of his generosity and kindness will tell you – Eddie has a much softer side as well.

Asked how others might perceive him, Eddie laughs and says “You’ll have to tell me what my reputation is.”

I suggest that people who’ve worked with him might have found his presence a bit intimidating.

Eddie considers this and replies “There has to be a standard that you want to get to. That’s where it starts and finishes.”

“I suppose I don’t understand when people come in and put their hand out for a cheque without having a real go.”

Reflecting with Radio Today on his media career to date – including his early days at Triple M Melbourne – Eddie says you don’t become #1 FM in those competitive markets without giving it your best shot.

“If you’re getting up at four o’clock every day to come to work, you want people to be switched on.”

The rest, he says, is all about looking after people.

“I’m still half a soft touch,” he says. “It’s about compassion, but it’s also about trying to motivate people.”

By his own admission, he is super competitive. But Eddie’s success was never built on undermining others or taking their jobs.

He would much rather people find motivation in the success of others, rather than feel threatened by it.

“There are a lot of people on the ladder of life who spend more time looking down, trying to kick people off the rung below them, rather than look up and make the most of their own careers,” he says.

It’s hard to believe there was once a time when Eddie feared he was on TV’s equivalent of death row.

As a fresh-faced teenager starting out as a footy reporter, live crosses were Eddie’s nemesis. The first couple, he butchered.

“Early on there were a couple where I didn’t know the jargon, to be perfectly honest. I didn’t know, really, what I was supposed to be doing.”

Thrown in the deep end, nerves got the better of him.

It was legendary broadcaster Bruce McAvaney who came to his rescue.

“I remember Bruce saying to me ‘Look, Ed. You can talk about sport underwater. Just back yourself in, work out what you’re doing, and get up there and go for it.’”

Eddie has never forgotten McAvaney’s generosity.

“Bruce could have quite easily let me drown,” Eddie says. “It wasn’t his job to be coaching me. But he did.”

“Later on in our careers together, he really supported me in getting me a TV segment called Doing The Rounds”.

“He had enough generosity of spirit but also enough confidence in his own ability to think that this was something we could do as a team.”

As a result, Eddie has long adhered to the pay-it-forward philosophy. Building others up in a dog-eat-dog world is much more satisfying than ripping them down.

“Lots of people looked after me and gave me a chance. It’s incumbent upon me to do the same thing,” he says.

Eddie set up his own production company JAM TV largely because it enabled him to support the people who once supported him. Doyennes of the industry, who gave of themselves. People who remember what it’s like to be a young person coming up through the ranks.

Anyone who knows Eddie knows he does not forget the people who supported him, from TV’s David Johnston and Mike Tancred to radio’s D Generation, Kevin Hillier, Richard Stubbs and Lee Simon.

Media, says Eddie, is a contact sport, and those within it must not only learn how to compete, but how to protect themselves.

There have certainly been tough times for Eddie. Times when he’s even found himself the headline story. But nothing insurmountable.

Sometimes, he says, we simply get beaten in life. It’s how we pick ourselves up that counts.

“I don’t have a fear of failure. I have an absolute desire for success. And there’s no success without failure.”

Eddie says what we don’t do enough is forgive ourselves.

He is immensely proud of his two sons: Joe, who continues to make his mark in American football as punter for Ohio State, and Xander – who will feature in Triple M Melbourne’s summer Breakfast line up.

And whilst the media might trot out the old ‘like father, like son’ line, Eddie is quick to offer a gentle correction:

“Xander’s not following in my footsteps.”

“He’s making his own way in the same profession his old man was involved in.”

Images supplied.