Empathy is Not Optional: The Story of Mike Leven's Brutal Law Professor

On this episode of Our American Stories, Mike Leven was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp.—one of the greatest hoteliers of all time and a legend in the business. He’s also what you might call a “wise man.” In this story, Mike shares what he learned from an uncaring law professor.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate) 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports and business to history and
everything in between, including your story. Send them to our
American Stories dot com with some of our favor Mike
Levin was President and Chief operating officer of Las Vegas
Sands Corporation, one of the great hoteliers of all time.

(00:33):
A legend in his business. He also happens to be
a friend who almost every time I talk to him,
I learned something about him, myself and life. He's what
you would call a wise man, and we need more
wisdom in this country, and we love bringing wisdom to
this show. Up next is the story Mike tells about

(00:54):
his time in law school. Mike had graduated from Tufts.
He's a Boston guy, a diehard Patriots fan. Will forgive
him for that. And in the end, this is a
story about empathy and about life. And he's a businessman
talking about empathy, and ordinarily you wouldn't think that would happen.
Let's hear my in his story.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
TUFs was a really great experience and prepared me to
go to law school. So I applied to law school,
and I took the elsats, and I'm never a great
test taker, but I scored in those years seventy five
or seventy eight percent or something like that. So I
decided I'd applied to all the best law schools except
have ITD and Yale. So I applied to a Columbia,

(01:38):
I applied to Stanford, I applied to Michigan. I applied
to NYU and the University of Chicago, which at that time,
those were the highest rate of schools. I got into
all of those schools in law school, and even with
my l SAT test it little easier then, and I
got a scholarship to University of Chicago, uh, because they

(02:00):
were they were trying to recruit from the East Coast,
and Tuffts had the right to pick a students who
was getting in to take the scholarship. So I got
a scholarship, and I did get into Columbia. But how
fate works, I was supposed to go to Columbia with
a good friend of mine from Toff's, a guy named
Robert Field, and he uh his father had a law firm,
was partners of the law firm in New York City,

(02:22):
and he said go to law school with me, and
then we can work and the firm together. I said,
oh gee, that's a ready made job. I said, great,
we'll go to school together. Well, he didn't get into
Columbia and I did, so I decided not to go
to Columbia and take the scholarship and go to Chicago.
So that changed my life too, and I I worked
my butt off in Chicago. I was lonely. It was

(02:44):
the first time, other than other than summer camp, that
I was away from home that far. But I I
really put my nose to the grindstone. I took my
my Latin school study habits into law school. We had
five courses. In the first it was a trimester. We
took the exams. I went home for Christmas, and when
I got back, I got my marks and I did

(03:05):
very well on four of the courses, and on one
course I got a forty one. It was a contracts course.
And uh, of all the courses to get a forty
one on you would think that no one in the
world and contracts could possibly get a lousy mark in contracts.
I mean, it's really a relatively simplistic course compared the

(03:27):
criminal law and real estate and a few of the
other things I was taking. Anyway, the professor of the
course was a guy named Malcolm Sharp. All I knew
about Malcolm Sharker was his book that we were using,
and uh that he had been one of the criminal
lawyers defending the Rosenberg trial with the two spies that

(03:48):
were eventually executed for treason in the United States. So
he was a pretty famous guy. And he started the
class and he said, if anybody had any questions about
their exam, please come and see me. Well, I'm now
this had been this was nineteen fifty nine, nineteen sixty,

(04:08):
I'm now twenty one or twenty two. And uh, I'd
never talked to a teacher ever. I never went about
a mark. You know, teachers were authority figures. I mean
we I grew up with teachers and policemen and firemen
and like a rabbi or a priest or anybody else,
I mean authority figures. You know, Yes, sir, yes, sir,

(04:29):
I mean that's the way I was taught. And so
I said, well, I guess I'd better go see this guy,
cause I think I'm gonna flunk. So I went to
see Malcolm Shop and I'm terrified I go in and
I and he said, well, why are you here eleven?
And I said, I'm here because I don't understand why
I got a forty one. And he said to me,

(04:53):
I'll never forget it. He said to me, you don't
understand contracts. And I don't think he ever will. And
I left and I went back to my room. I
got my books. I went to the bookstore. I sold
my books back to the bookstore. My roommate was a
guy named Richard Bogozi and who went the toughs with me,

(05:14):
A terrific guy for me. Became an ambassador to Nigeria.
He was in foreign service and wonderful guy. I said,
I'm leaving. I'm getting in my car. I had a
fifty nine Volkswagon that I'm I got for graduation. It
was fifteen hundred and sixty five dollars and uh uh.
I was gonna get my car back up and go home.

(05:39):
And so he said, don't go, don't go. I said, no,
I'm going. I sold my books. Next thing you know,
I got a call from the Dean Edmund Levy became
eventually the attorney generally the United States. He said, I
like to see her I went to see him. I
told him the story. He said, please don't go. He said,
you finished the year. You're gonna be fine. Don't worry

(06:01):
about it. You'll I mean he knew the contract of
all the courses. The contract was probably not that you know.
I mean, you don't have to be a genius to
pass a contract course. I mean the way they did
it in those days. So I, I, uh, I said, no,
I'm going. I wrote a letter to my parents so
the letter would arrive before I got there. But this

(06:22):
is an interesting story because if I could redo it,
I would have finished the first year. I think it
was a bad decision on my part. It was an
emotional It was just so difficult to think that I
could I get get such a lousey mark. So I I.
I drove home. It was about a nineteen hour drive
at the time. I had to sing on the way

(06:45):
home in the car to keep myself from falling asleep.
I got home. I had no idea what my parents
were gonna say. I was the first graduate student person,
you know, to get a professional degree. You know, you
can imagine what that means to the christ generation Americans
and what have you? And when we come back.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
More of what happens next as Mike returns to his
family no diploma in hand. Mike Levin's story continues here
on Our American Story Folks, if you love the great

(07:32):
American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to our American
Stories dot com now and go to the donate button

(07:53):
and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's
our American Stories dot Com and we continue with our
American Stories. In Mike Levin's story, he had just quit

(08:14):
the University of Chicago because he got a wickedly bad
grade from a very tough and in the end mean
contracts professor, saying and speaking over somebody that they'll never
do better. It's just ugly, it's just mean. Mike's returning home.
Let's listen to what happens next.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
So I walked up the door and the door was open.
My father was standing at the door and he said
welcome home. And after a tearful greeting, when we had
dinner that night, they said to me, what are you
going to do? And I said, well, I said, Boston

(08:56):
University's down the street. Let me take a look at
some graduate programs and be able to get a degree
in something. And uh, and that's how everything else started.
As I went to Boston University, got into a masses
and public relations and communications and was a year on
program with a thesis. And I had a lot of
time on my hands. I had been a camp counselor

(09:18):
over the summers, and a director of athletics and assistant
head counselor. I have had some administrative jobs and whatever.
And there was a part time job posted and I
thought I could make some money and pay as I
was going. And uh, it was at the Morgan Memorial
Home for Boys, and it was sort of like an
assistant social worker said, well, I had to be close
to being a counselor of a camp, you know, the

(09:40):
same kind of thing. And I went down there and uh,
I get greeted by a guy whose name was John Moreland.
He was about six or five, must have gone two
fifty foundly as a former football player for Grambling at
All Black College, and and he was a PhD in

(10:02):
the social work. Took my resume, you know, he talked
to me. He said, okay, I'm gonna give you the job.
And he said to me, you never worked for a
black guy, have you? He said no. I didn't make
any difference to me. I didn't care anyway. I had
a nice experience there for the year. And at the

(10:24):
end of the year, doctor Morland calls me in the
office and I said, look, I'm gonna be looking for
a job. He said, I'll tell you what. He said,
I'll hire you here. Why don't you become permanent And
he said, I'll pay for you to get a master's
degree in social work. I said, I need to make
more money. I'm getting married in May, and I don't

(10:44):
know if I could afford to be married in this situation.
So I said, will you write me a letter of recommendation?
And he said sure, And I saved the letter. I
can read it to you. Yeah, and it says, to
whom we may concern, it gives me a great deal
of pleasure to recommend to you. Michael A. Levin, the

(11:06):
young man came to work with us about a year ago,
and during this period has contributed a great deal to
the efficiency of our unit. However, there are several intangibles
beyond efficiency which have accrued to us in consequence of
his presidence. He is jovial, personable and intelligent fellow. He
has been found to be circumspect and is dealing with

(11:28):
all members of the organization. He has made up for
lack of experience by initiative, desire and in short, heart
and thoughtful work. He put his heart into his job
at all times. Mister Levin will be an asset to anyone,
whether in an employment or a social situation. Lastly, I
can only say mister Levin's present will be very much missed.

(11:49):
This young man has an excellent future in store for him.
His executive potential is paramount. Thank you, sincerely, yours, J. B. Morland.
To this day, every time I look at that letter,
I I I I don't understand how he possibly could
have known in one year, with the exposure I had

(12:10):
working thirty hours a week, that that description of me
could be written. I I I don't I I don't
don't ever remember being jovial. I don't remember. I know,
I I you know, I know I worked hard. I
know I read all the files I know about l
I ler. I wanted to learn about the kids that

(12:30):
were in the home, so I kept pulling the files
out and understand they were fifteen or so resident kids.
And I remember that one was a descendant of Ulysses S. Grant,
the President of the United States family, and and they
were troubled kids, and that his his parents were all military,
and they made him sit at attention at the table

(12:53):
when he was one or two years old. It was
in the th and it was stuck in my head
and and there wa it was a very race mixed group. Uh,
no one cared. I mean it was very integrated. And
and uh the ability to be able to project yourself

(13:13):
into the into the into someone else's position and emphasize
with them, Like I talk a lot about when you
have to terminate somebody and about terminations and firing. It's
the most hideous thing you have to do unless the
person is a thief or a rapist or something like that.
But for the lack of being able to perform the job.

(13:36):
I mean, I would put myself in a situation of
thinking about what do you think it feels like when
somebody tells you you can't perform anything? And I think
that the experience with Malcolm Shop was really one that
that always stayed with me. How could the guy do
that to me when all he had to do was
to say, mister Levin, let me, let me explain to

(13:58):
you how you could have done from a forty one
to a sixty one. I want to help you. My
whole life would have changed on that page. Now I
don't think I know it'll change favorably or not, but
it would have changed. So when you have when you're
in a position, an authoritative position, your responsibility with people

(14:19):
and customers has to be how do you help them?
Not how do you hurt them? And I and I
and I you know, you know something. I don't think
it's any different with your children when you bring up
your children. I mean, nobody has experience being a parent
unless there a parent you get, you know, you're learning

(14:42):
from day one. What's the difference between a child and
your employee. What's the difference between a child and your customer.
It's the same thing. It's being able to say. Can
you project yourself into what it feels like. So when
I began to develop a a termination technique to say, look,

(15:03):
I made a mistake, and the person looked at me
and saying eh, I said, I don't think the job fits.
I should have thought better. I want to take some responsibility,
but you have to go. And how was that difference
saying you failed, You're out. I'm disappointed in your performance.

(15:30):
And I you know, when I was a high school
basketball player, and I was a pretty good player. In
the state tournament, I played thirty seconds, the last thirty seconds,
I wasn't on the floor or last minute or so.
He just put me in. My parents are at the
game because I was a sixth man basically. So the

(15:56):
next season, we had an alumni game and I came
back from Tufts where I was playing some freshion basketball
and I'd improved a lot. I scored twenty two points
in the alumni game and the coach came over to
me afterwards. He said, Mike, he said, where were you
last year? I took my finger and I pointed to

(16:21):
the corner of the bench. I was there, you know.
He said, Oh, So I think after all I said,
and done with all this, we could walk through job
after the job after job. But you know, and I know,
people don't change. They are who they are. And many
years later, you know, I ran into a guy from

(16:42):
a professor of law school at Duke was on a
board with me, and he happened to know who Malcolm
Shop was, and he said, oh, I can understand it.
He'd behaved that way with everybody.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
And you've been listening to Mike Levin and now you
know why we tell you he's one of the wise men.
I like bringing voices from every walk of life here
on this show. Mike obviously running the Las Vegas Sands
no small feat, helping move and create holiday in worldwide,
one of the great hoteliers. But in the end, it's

(17:14):
his human nature and his humanity that always comes to
the fore. Talk to anybody about Mike, they'll tell you.
And by the way, if you have a leader in
your community, somebody in the business world, a church leader wherever,
an education person.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
My dad was a.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Great leader at a school system where he was a
superintendent for twenty years, we'd love to hear their voice
bring wisdom across the airwaves and love and Mike epitomizes
both words. Mike Levin's storytelling his wisdom. Here on our
American stories.