“That’s true,” says Sumner. “In fact, I used to buy my suits off the rack from Filene’s Basement in Boston until my associates at Viacom told me I needed to stop that. I used to just travel by cab and my associates said it’s not safe and I needed to get a car and driver. So yes, I have never had a real interest in anything material.
The house is more than a home to Sumner, “It’s paradise,” he says. He knew he had to buy it when he walked out back, looked at the infinity pool and Jacuzzi with sprawling views of the trees and bushes that were peppered along the peaks and valleys of Beverly Hills. His favorite room of the house is what he refers to as the fish room. It’s a cozy den with floor-to-ceiling windows and striking fish tanks built into surrounding walls. Not surprisingly, Sumner boasts he has the largest private collection for saltwater fish in the world, which he keeps in seven tanks. He even has a hospital tank in the garage to nurse the sick and weak.
“I find it mesmerizing,” explains Sumner. “When I’m working, I love to sit and look at such beautiful fish and I understand that by doing this it lowers your blood pressure, to be caught-up by such beauty.”
Sumner knows the names, characteristics, and behaviors of each one. Perhaps it’s this acute sense of observation that enables him to tune into the zeitgeist, or perhaps he was just born at the right time, but every move he makes seems to be the right one. Upon mentioning the word legacy, he’s quick to say that he’s going to live forever and no matter where he is in 100 years he will still control Viacom. Though softness emerged from the media mogul as he smiled and said, “I make it my business to look when I’m driving to see the foliage, to see the trees, to see the houses, and I think that is very advantageous, to spend time looking at what’s around you, the beautiful things around you.”
If, by chance, Sumner has a legacy to leave behind, besides the obvious groundbreaking, worldwide media revolution, it’s that we can all learn to take our time to smell the roses.
