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“The chief business of the American people is business.”

— Calvin Coolidge

When Ross Perot’s “computer facilities management” startup Electronic Data Systems was listed on the stock exchange in 1968, the shares were offered at 118x earnings.

It was an eye-popping valuation at the time — especially given the risks. 

EDS “is in a precarious position,” Fortune noted shortly after its IPO. “It has only a few customers, and three of them accounted for a total of 64% of revenues during fiscal 1968.”

But those were the kinds of risks that investors were keen to…

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