Founders
Learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs. Every week I read a biography of an entrepreneur and find ideas you can use in your work. This quote explains why: "There are thousands of years of history in which lots and lots of very smart people worked very hard and ran all types of experiments on how to create new businesses, invent new technology, new ways to manage etc. They ran these experiments throughout their entire lives. At some point, somebody put these lessons down in a book. For very little money and a few hours of time, you can learn from someone’s...
Tue, April 01, 2025
#384 Ken Griffin: Founder of Citadel and Citadel Securities
Because of the podcast I get to meet a lot of super successful people. I'm always asking them "Who is the smartest person you know" and "Who do you think has the best business?". "Ken Griffin" is a very common answer. I've heard Ken described in two ways: "Winner" and "Killer". For years I've come across interesting anecdotes about Ken. Like when he appears as a 19 year old kid in Ed Thorp's excellent autobiography A Man For All Markets . Or when John Arnold describe Ken's intense competitive drive following the blowup of Enron . And then consider the fact that I'm obsessed with people who run their business for decades (Ken founded Citadel 35 years ago and Citadel Securities 23 years ago) — and I knew I had to make an episode about his life and work. The only problem was there's no great biography of Ken. So to make this episode I transcribed this talk that Ken gave at Yale . And for additional context I read the book Ken recommends: Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win . ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Bonus · Sun, March 23, 2025
The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig
Daniel Ludwig was the richest man in the world and no one knew his name. I've read almost 400 biographies of history's greatest founders and this book is one of my all time favorites. Daniel Ludwig started his company at 19 and was working on it well into his 90s. He built a massive conglomerate of over 200 companies operating in more than 50 countries. Spending the time to learn how he did this is a great investment. This episode will tell you what I learned from rereading The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- EPISODE OUTLINE 1. Obsessed with privacy, Ludwig pays a major public relations firm fat fees to keep his name out of the papers. 2. An associate speaks of his unlimited ingenuity in dreaming up new ways of doing things. 3. Ludwig’s most notable characteristic, besides his imagination and pertinacity, is a lifelong penchant for keeping his mouth shut. 4. I'm in this business because I like it. I have no other hobbies. 5. Pertinacity: Holding strongly to an opinion, purpose, or course of action, stubbornly or annoyingly persistent. 6. Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur by Francis Greenburger (Founders #243) 7. At his peak, he owned more than 200 companies in 50 countries. 8. War makes the demand for Ludwig's products and services skyrocket. 9. Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Founders #290) 10. He did not mellow as he grew richer and older. 11. Some years later, the captain of a Ludwig ship made the extravagant mistake of mailing in a report of several pages held together by a paper clip. He received a sharp rebuke for his prodigality: "We do not pay to send ironmongery by air mail!" 12. Ludwig’s tightfistedness, however, persisted after the Depression, putting him in sharp contrast to such free spenders as Onassis and Niarchos. It also was largely responsible for many of his innovations in the shipbuilding industry. 13. Onassis: An Extravagant Life<
Mon, March 17, 2025
#383 Todd Graves and his $10 Billion Chicken Finger Dream
Todd Graves is one of my favorite living entrepreneurs. He's a great example of Charlie Munger's maxim: Find a simple idea and take it seriously. Todd wanted to create a quick service restaurant that only focused on quality chicken finger meals and nothing else. Everyone told him that couldn't possibly work. The college paper that described the idea that would turn into Raising Canes got the lowest grade in the class. Banks wouldn't loan him any money —but nothing could stop Todd from living out his "chicken finger dream." He worked 95 hour weeks as a boilermaker, risked his life on a commercial fishing boat off the coast of Alaska, and scrounged up startup money from his bookie and a guy named Wild Bill. Todd made every mistake in the book, over leveraged himself, almost lost everything and yet he refused to give up or sell out. Today he has over 800 locations, 50,000 employees, and owns 90% of a business that's worth at least $10 billion. Todd's maxim is "Do one thing and do it better than anyone else." Sources: Trading Secrets: Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves reveals his path to building the wildly popular restaurant Theo Von: Raising Cane’s Founder Todd Graves ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, March 07, 2025
#382 Who Is Michael Ovitz?: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Most Powerful Man in Hollywood
At the core of Michael Ovitz's success is his relentless work ethic and commitment to mastering his craft. 50 years ago he founded Creative Artists Agency. CAA starts out as just five young guys in a run down office and eventually becomes the most powerful agency in the world. Ovitz's autobiography explains how that happened. As the Wall Street Journal wrote: When the history of Hollywood is written, few people will have played a larger role than Michael Ovitz. This episode is what I learned from reading (for the 2nd time!) Who Is Michael Ovitz?: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Most Powerful Man in Hollywood by Michael Ovitz. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Vesto : All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben . Tell him David sent you. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, March 07, 2025
#381 I Had Dinner With Michael Ovitz
What I learned from having an intense and fun 3 hour dinner with Michael Ovitz. 1: Mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it. 2: There's no ceiling on where you can push your profession. 3: Don't be unequally yoked. Pick partners that have the same ambition as you. 4: Read biographies. Know everything about the history of your industry. 5. Have a profound sense of belief. The world is very malleable. 6: There’s opportunity hiding in plain sight. 7: By endurance we conquer. 8: Work 10% less. Optimize for the long term. 9. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. 10: Retirement is lame. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, February 25, 2025
#380 Four Hundred Pages of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger In Their Own Words
For over 30 years the Berkshire Hathaway Annual meetings were recorded. Munger and Buffett answered over 1700 questions from shareholders during that period. Alex Morris watched hundreds of hours of these meetings and then he gathered, organized, and edited the most interesting ideas into 450+ pages — all in Buffett and Munger's own words. I thought it would be fun to rip through a bunch of Munger and Buffett's best ideas very rapidly. It was. This episode is what I learned from reading Buffett and Munger Unscripted: Three Decades of Investment and Business Insights from the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meetings by Alex Morris. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Vesto : All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben . Tell him David sent you. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, February 18, 2025
#379 Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys)
Jerry Jones rolled the dice until his knuckles bled. He started working at 7 years old. Jerry could sell, sell, sell. He sold fruit at his father’s grocery store in grade school and sold shoes out of the trunk of his car in college. After failing to sell pizza franchises he tried real estate and insurance. He never met a high risk deal he didn’t like. Jerry got pitched a deal to drill for oil that everyone else had already said no to. Jerry said yes. That well made $4 million. He hit again on the next 14 wells. Jerry decided to drill for natural gas next. He drills 200 wells. He hit on 199 of them. He sells that company for $175 million. He has $90 million in the bank. He buys the Dallas Cowboys for $140 million. 75 other people had the opportunity to buy the team and said no. He empties his bank account and borrows $50 million at steep interest rates. The year before Jerry bought the team the Cowboys lost $9 million. Financial advisors told Jerry that the Cowboys were ridiculously overpriced and that he was committing financial suicide. Within a few years the team is printing $30 million a year in profit. The Dallas Cowboys are worth $10 billion today. This episode is what I leaned from reading King of the Cowboys: The Life and Times of Jerry Jones by Jim Dent. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Vesto : All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben . Tell him David sent you. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book:
Mon, February 10, 2025
#378 The Last Oil Baron: Leon Hess
Your father goes bankrupt. You work for 50 cents a day to try to help your family survive the Great Depression. At 19 you see an opportunity where others see nothing. You start “a little fuel delivery business” with one used truck. Five years later you have 10 trucks. World War II breaks out and you serve as the fuel supply officer for General Patton. You come back to America and apply what the war taught you about logistics and moving fuel efficiently. You expand from fuel delivery to storage, refining, and open gas stations in 16 states. You take your company public. You merge with an oil exploration firm. You build the largest refinery in the Western Hemisphere. You buy the New York Jets. You built your “little fuel delivery business” into a multibillion-dollar, multinational, vertically integrated energy behemoth. You are Leon Hess, founder of the Hess family dynasty. This episode is what I learned from reading Hess: The Last Oil Baron by Tina Davis and Jessica Resnick-Ault. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Vesto : All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben . Tell him David sent you. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 27, 2025
#377 Expanding A Family Dynasty: Marcus Wallenberg Jr.
Marcus Wallenberg Jr's impact on Swedish industry was so substantial that during the 1970s, Wallenberg family businesses employed about 40% of Sweden's industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stock market. The Wallenberg family is one of the most fascinating family dynasties you could read about. The family has survived — and continues to thrive — for 170 years. In a family full of talented entrepreneurs and investors Marcus Wallenberg Jr. stands out. This episode is what I learned from reading Furthering A Fortune: Marcus Wallenberg Swedish Banker and Industrialist by Ulf Olsson. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Vesto : All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben . Tell him David sent you. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 13, 2025
#376 Jensen Huang: Founder of Nvidia
What I learned from reading The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 06, 2025
#375 The Single Biggest Individual Financier In The World. The Richest Woman In America: Hetty Green
Hetty Green bailed out New York City. Her decisions on what interest rates to charge moved markets and were reported in major newspapers. She was a one woman bank and the single biggest individual financier in the world. She took no partners and ran her own money. She built a financial empire of stocks, bonds, railroads, and real estate. She battled the great men of her day and kept a gun on her desk. She did all of this alone. Defiantly independent and ferociously intelligent she built a vast, liquid fortune at a time when women couldn't even vote. She used her intelligence to increase her wealth, her independence to live as she wished, and her strength to battle anyone who stood in her way. This episode is what I learned from reading Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America’s First Female Tycoon by Charles Slack and The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Vesto : All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben . Tell him David sent you. Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each pod
Bonus · Fri, December 27, 2024
The Most Inspiring Autobiography I've Read: Chung Ju-yung Founder of Hyundai
Chung Ju-yung grew up so poor he had to eat tree bark to survive. He founded Hyundai and became the richest person in Korea. When Chung was in his 80s, he wrote an autobiography that tells the devastating reality of growing up in dire poverty, how he escaped through manual labor, and how he founded and grew one of the world's largest conglomerates. Along the way he shares advice like why you should emulate bedbugs, the importance of going where the money is, and why people called him "The Bulldozer." This episode is what I learned from reading Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-yung. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, December 15, 2024
#374 Rare Jeff Bezos Interview
Jeff Bezos on retirement being lame, AI, the electricity metaphor for AI, the good fortune of being alive during multiple golden ages, long term life long passions, refusing to underestimate opportunity, dancing with curiosity, inventing, wandering, crisp documents and messy meetings, willing to be misunderstood, and why he doesn't do many interviews. This episode is what I learned from reading and watching Jeff Bezos at DealBook Summit and Jeff Bezos: The Electricity Metaphor . Another excellent Jeff Bezos interview on Lex Fridman Listen to more Founders episodes on Jeff Bezos: #321 Working with Jeff Bezos and #282 Jeff Bezos’s Shareholder Letters ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, December 06, 2024
#373 Breakfast with Brad Jacobs + How To Make A Few Billion Dollars
Brad Jacobs is one of the most talented living entrepreneurs. Brad has started 8 different billion dollar or multi-billion dollar businesses. He has done over 500 acquisitions and has raised over $30 billion. He started his first company at 23, has over 40 years of experience as an entrepreneur, and is the most energetic person I have ever been around. Earlier this year he published his life story: How to Make a Few Billion Dollars . How to Make a Few Billion Dollars was one of my favorite books that I've read this year and the episode I made about the book was one of the most popular episodes of Founders. This episode is what I learned from having breakfast with Brad Jacobs and reading his book How to Make a Few Billion Dollars ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, November 29, 2024
#372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group
Amancio Ortega is one of the wealthiest people in the world. Ortega is the founder of Inditex, a pioneer of fast fashion, an entrepreneur with over 60 years of experience, and has created a business model that is studied in universities that he could not access. His life story is inspiring, educational, and full of valuable ideas for future generations of founders. This episode is what I learned from reading This is Amancio Ortega: The Man Who Created Zara by Covadonga O'Shea. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Notes and highlights from the episode: I remembered a comment that Luis Miguel Dominguin made to me years ago, when he was at the peak of his glory and his son, still a child, played in the garden of his house. "This child will never be a bullfighter. To face a bull you have to go hungry.” The important thing is to set goals in life and put all your soul into fulfilling them. I have dreamed of growing the company since I was nobody. We gave it every day. My priority has always been the company, and I have committed myself to it, with full dedication, from day one. Ortega is a man of mission. He is so convinced of what he is and what he has to do. I was convinced that I had to dominate the customer. Ortega starts with the customer and work backwards: “I am going to manufacture what the customer wants.” I met Ortega when Zara did not exist. He only had the factories. In those years when nobody thought about technology within our sector, in which there was almost no computer science or mobile phones, he wanted to have a good team in technology. He built a groundbreaking and avant-garde textile distribution company. Inditex's business is centered around one simple premise – to be quick at responding to the market. Their main advantage: an astonishing ability to detect fashion trends, assimilate them, and make them a reality on the hanger at a bargain price, and all in less than 15 days. Ortega wanted to integrate design and manufacturing first, then complete the chain with distribution and sales in his own stores, turning the customer into his source of privileged information and not just the receiver of a commodity. I refuse to recognize that there are impossibilities.
Mon, November 18, 2024
#371 James J. Hill: The Empire Builder
What I learned from rereading James J. Hill: Empire Builder by Michael P. Malone. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Notes and highlights from the episode: —He had unlimited energy, was stubborn, had a temper, was supremely arrogant and he did more to transform the northern frontier of the United States than any other single individual. —One of the things he learned from history and biography: The power of one dynamic individual: Like so many other nineteenth-century youths, young Jim Hill fell under the spell of Napoleon. He came to believe in the strength of will, the power of one dynamic individual to change the world, the conquering hero . (He says that the railroad entrepreneurs conquered the distance between remote communities in the American west) —He accustomed himself to handle a large workload. —If you want to know whether you are destined to be a success or a failure in life, you can easily find out. The test is simple and it is infallible: Are you able to save money? If not, drop out. You will lose. You may think not, but you will lose as sure as you live. The seed of success is not in you. –James J. Hill —He held people’s attention as he engaged them in characteristic rapid-fire, highly animated conversation, gesturing expansively and driving home his point with jabbing motions of his hands—the embodiment of high energy. —He worked incredibly hard, sometimes laboring late into the night, falling asleep at the desk, then getting up for a swim in the river and a cup of black coffee, then going back to work. —“Rebates existed in other industries. I just applied them to oil.” Rockefeller said. [Don’t copy the what, copy the how] — John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254) —"The very best employee at any job at any level of responsibility is the person who generally believes that this is their last job working for someone. The next thing they'll start will be their own. — Max Levchin in <a href="https://amzn.to/3pa3LF
Tue, November 12, 2024
#370 The Founder of IKEA: Ingvar Kamprad
What I learned from reading Leading By Design: The Ikea Story by Ingvar Kamprad and Bertil Torekull and The Testament of a Furniture Dealer by Ingvar Kamprad. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Notes and highlights from the episode: Ingvar works on IKEA from the time he is 17 until he dies at 91. The Testament of a Furniture Dealer by Ingvar Kamprad (1976) is a sermon on the culture of IKEA IKEA’s common goal: We have decided once and for all to side with the many. IKEA will offer a wide range of well-designed furniture at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. Billy Durant (founder of General Motors) describing Henry Ford’s one single idea: Durant noted that Ford “was in favor of keeping prices down to the lowest possible point, giving to the multitude the benefit of cheap transportation.” — Billy Durant: Creator of General Motors by Lawrence Gustin Something Ingvar repeats: We will do it a different way. This will not be easy. We must demand much from ourselves. IKEA must have low prices. Ingvar’s dedication to that idea is total. Without low costs we can never accomplish our purpose. The principle can never be compromised: Our policy of serving the many can never be changed. If you are not enthusiastic about your job, one-third of your life goes to waste. Wasting resources is a mortal sin at IKEA. Expensive solutions to any kind of problem are usually the work of mediocrity. Planning is often synonymous with bureaucracy. Exaggerated planning is the most common cause of corporate death. Simple routines have a greater impact. Simplicity in our behavior gives us strength. No reports. No committees. Just done. — Elon in the early days of SpaceX
Fri, November 01, 2024
#369 Elon Musk and The Early Days of SpaceX
What I learned from rereading Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX by Eric Berger. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Episode Outline: —Numerous other entrepreneurs had tried playing at rocket science before, Musk well knew. He wanted to learn from their mistakes so as not to repeat them. —Elon announces that he wants to start his own rocket company and I do remember a lot of chuckling, some laughter, people saying things like, ‘Save your money kid, and go sit on the beach.’” The kid was not amused. If anything, the doubts expressed at this meeting, and by some of his confidants, energized him more. —Musk was a siren, calling brilliant young minds to SpaceX with an irresistible song. He offered an intoxicating brew of vision, charisma, audacious goals, resources. —When they needed something, he wrote the check. In meetings, he helped solve their most challenging technical problems. When the hour was late, he could often be found right there, beside them, working away. —The iterative approach begins with a goal and almost immediately leaps into concept designs, bench tests, and prototypes. The mantra with this approach is build and test early, find failures, and adapt. This is what SpaceX engineers and technicians did. —"Here was a man who was not interested in experts. He meets me, he thinks to himself, 'Here is a bright kid, let's employ him.' And he does. He risks little with the possibility of gaining much. It is *exactly* what I now do at Dyson This attitude to employment extended to [Jeremy] Fry's thinking in everything, including engineering. He did not, when an idea came to him, sit down and process it through pages of calculations; *he didn't argue it through with anyone; he just went out and built it.* When I came to him to say, 'I've had an idea,' he would offer no more advice than to say, 'You know where the workshop is, go and do it.' 'But we'll need to weld this thing,' I would protest. Well then, get a welder and weld it.' When I asked if we shouldn't talk to sure someone about, say
Bonus · Sun, October 20, 2024
Steve Jobs and Edwin Land
What I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Episode Outline: — The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer. Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent. Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius. At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land. Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land. — Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction. — Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure. — Books on Edwin Land: Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263) A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134) Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133) The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132) Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Founders #40) — Biography about Steve Jobs: Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli — Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's so
Tue, October 15, 2024
#368 Rockefeller's Autobiography
What I learned from rereading Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- Notes and highlights from the episode : It has not been my custom to press my affairs forward into public gaze. (Bad boys move in silence) My favorite biography on Rockefeller John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254) Secrecy covered all of his operations. Taking for granted the growth of his empire, he hired talented people as found, not as needed. — Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248) We had been frank and aboveboard with each other. Without this, business associates cannot get the best out of their work. Rockefeller said Jay Gould was the best businessman he knew. Jay Gould books and episodes: American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune by Greg Steinmetz (Founders #285) and Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons by Edward J. Renehan Jr. (Founders #258) "If I have to choose between agreement and conflict, I'll take conflict every time. It always yields a better result." — Jeff Bezos It's a pity to get a man into a place in an argument where he is defending a position instead of considering the evidence. His calm judgment is apt to leave him, and his mind is for the time being closed, and only obstinacy remains I like doing deals with the same people. You get to know each other and build a mutual sense of trust. Today, a lot of what I do originates from associations that go back ten, twenty, thirty, even forty years. — Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. Writing a check
Tue, October 08, 2024
#367 Inside the Contrarian Mind of Sam Zell
What I learned from reading Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks: Inside the Contrarian Mind of Billionaire Mogul Sam Zell by Ben Johnson. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, September 27, 2024
#366 Mr. Beast Leaked Memo
What I learned from reading How To Succeed in Mr. Beast Production and how ideas from Sam Zell, Charlie Munger, Nick Sleep, Warren Buffett, Sam Zemurray, Bob Kierlin, Steve Jobs, Li Lu, Edwin Land, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, James Cameron, Anna Wintour, Walt Disney, Bernard Arnault, and Brad Jacobs immediately came to mind. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, September 16, 2024
#365 Nick Sleep's Letters: The Full Collection of the Nomad Investment Partnership Letters to Partners
The best investors are not investors at all. They're entrepreneurs who have never sold. — Nick Sleep Nick Sleep’s letters are a masterclass on the importance of understanding the underlying reality of a business — what he calls the engine of its success. I read all 110,000 words of Nick’s letters (twice!) to make this episode and what I found most important is Nick’s ability to develop a deep understanding of “honestly run compounding machines” (like Costco and Amazon) years before everyone else. Nick explains clearly how Jim Sinegal and Jeff Bezos set up their companies for long term success —from the very beginning — and gives us a few hints along the way on how we can do the same in our business. And the absolute entrepreneurial history nerd in me loved the references to Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Rockefeller and other greats from the past that are sprinkled throughout Nick’s letters. No surprise that someone who was able to make $2 billion for his clients has a deep understanding of the great work that came before him. If you want to read all of Nick Sleep’s partnership letters you can do so here for free You can also read William Green’s book Richer, Wiser, Happier: How The World's Greatest Investors Win In Markets and Life —which both Nick and I recommend. It has an excellent chapter on How Nick and Zak built their firm. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap int
Tue, September 10, 2024
#364 Nick & Zak's Excellent Adventure: How Nick Sleep and Qais Zaharia Built Their Investment Partnership
How Nick Sleep and Qais Zakaria built their radically unconventional investment partnership. From the incredible book Richer, Wiser, Happier: How The World's Greatest Investors Win In Markets and Life by William Green. ---- I’m doing a LIVE podcast in New York next Monday with Patrick from Invest Like The Best. It’s FREE to attend because of the great people at Ramp ! Space is limited so register here fast ! Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, September 06, 2024
#363 Li Lu and Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett
I sent a friend this text: I'm working on another Li Lu episode but this one is about his remarkable investing career. Can be summarized by: 1. Studied Buffett and Munger. 2. Did that. Last episode was about how Li Lu survived one of the most horrific childhoods imaginable. This episode covers how he thinks about investing and entrepreneurship—in his own words. Sources: The forward to the Chinese edition of Poor Charlie’s Almanack written by Li Lu Li Lu's Colombia Business School lecture 2006 Li Lu’s San Francisco State University lecture 2012 Graham & Doddsville interview with Li Lu 13th Colombia Business Conference 2021 Li Lu's Reflections On Reaching Fifty ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's
Mon, August 26, 2024
#362 Li Lu
Charlie Munger said that Li Lu was the only outsider he ever trusted with his money. Decades before Li Lu made Munger half a billion dollars, Li survived one of the most horrific childhoods imaginable: Born into poverty, abandoned, hungry, beaten, surrounded by death. Persistent. Smart. Disciplined. Intensely curious. Obsessed with reading and learning. Determined to escape. This is a story you absolutely cannot miss. What I learned from reading Moving The Mountain: My life in China from the Cultural Revolution to Tiananmen Square by Li Lu. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 18, 2024
#361 Estée Lauder
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger said it was a crime that more business schools didn't study Henry Singleton. I think it's a crime that more entrepreneurs don't study Estée Lauder. She is one of the best founders to ever do it. This is the story of how she went from a childhood obsession, to a single counter in a beauty salon, to a multibillion dollar empire. This is my third time reading this book. It gets better every time I read it. This episode is what I learned from rereading Estée: A Success Story by Estée Lauder. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, August 12, 2024
#360 Robert Kierlin: Founder of Fastenal
Since its founding in 1967 Fastenal has grown from a small fastener store in Winona, Minnesota, into a multibillion-dollar global organization. How did a small town “nuts and bolts” shop become one of the world's most dynamic growth companies? Whenever asked, company founder Bob Kierlin attributes Fastenal's success to the company's high-quality employees and their commitment to a common goal: Growth Through Customer Service. What I learned from reading The Power of Fastenal People by Robert Kierlin. ---- Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- Other books mentioned in this episode: Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg. Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-yung. The Bugatti Story by L’Ebe Bugatti. Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary by Robert Price. How To Make A Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs. ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books fe
Wed, August 07, 2024
#359 The Russian Rockefellers: The Nobel Family Dynasty
The name of Nobel usually calls to mind Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, and the internationally prestigious prizes that bear his name. But Alfred was only one member of a creative and innovative family who built an industrial empire in prerevolutionary Russia. The saga begins with an emigre from Sweden, Immanuel Nobel, who was an architect, a pioneer producer of steam engines, and a maker of weapons. Immanuel's sons included Alfred; Robert, who directed the family's activities in the Caspian oil fields; and Ludwig, an engineering genius and manufacturing magnate whose boundless energy and fierce determination created the Russian petroleum industry. Ludwig's son Emanuel showed similar mettle, shrewdly bargaining with the Rothschilds for control of the Russian markets and competing head-on with Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell for lucrative world markets. Perhaps no family in history has played so decisive a role in building an industrial empire in an underdeveloped but resource-rich nation. Yet the achievements of the Nobel family have been largely forgotten. When the Bolsheviks came to power, Emmanuel had to flee the country disguised as a peasant. The Nobel empire with its 50,000 workers lay in ruins. An empire which had taken eighty years to design and build, was nearly destroyed, bringing a sudden and bitter end to one of the most remarkable industrial odysseys in world history. This episode is what I learned from reading The Russian Rockefellers: The Saga of the Nobel Family and the Russian Oil Industry by Robert Tolf. ---- Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use
Sun, July 28, 2024
#358 I had dinner with John Mackey, Founder of Whole Foods
What I learned from having dinner with John Mackey and reading his autobiography The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism . ---- Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube (Video coming soon!) ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, July 21, 2024
#357 Haruki Murakami
What I learned from reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- (3:01) No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act. (4:00) Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. (4:00) The hurt part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself. (10:00) You can't fake passion — someone else, that really loves the job, will out run you. Somebody else sitting in some other MBA program has a deep passion for whatever career path you're going down, and they are going to smoke you if you don't have it yourself. — Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love (12:00) What’s crucial is whether your writing attains the standards you’ve set for yourself. Failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. (14:00) Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process. You can help this process by going for a long walk, or taking a hot bath, or drinking half a pint of claret. Suddenly, if the telephone line from your unconscious is open, a big idea wells up within you. — David Ogilvy (16:00) If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting. — Jeff Bezos (16:00) So the fact that I’m me and no one else is one of my greatest assets. (19:00) Failure was not an option. I had to give it everything I had. (19:00) My only strength has always been the fact that I work hard and can take a lot physically. I’m more a workhorse than a racehorse. (22:00) I was more interested in having finished it than in whether or not it would ever see the light of day. (26:00) I’m the kind of person who has to totally commit to whatever I do. (29:00) The entrenched professional is always going to resist far longer than the private consumer. — James Dyson (34:00) You really need to prioritize in life, figuring out in what order you should divide up your time and energy. If you don’t get that sort of system set by a certain age, you’ll lack focus and your life will be out of balance. I placed the highest priority on t
Fri, July 12, 2024
#356 How The Sun Rose On Silicon Valley: Bob Noyce (Founder of Intel)
What I learned from reading The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce: How the Sun Rose on Silicon Valley by Tom Wolfe. Read The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company by Michael Malone with me. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- (1:00) America is today in the midst of a great technological revolution. With the advent of the silicon chip, information processing, and communications, the national economy have been strikingly altered. The new technology is changing how we live, how we work, how we think. The revolution didn't just happen; it was engineered by a small number of people. Collectively, they engineered Tomorrow. Foremost among them is Robert Noyce. (2:00) Steve Jobs on Robert Noyce: “He was one of the giants in this valley who provided the model and inspiration for everything we wanted to become. He was the ultimate inventor. The ultimate rebel. The ultimate entrepreneur.” (4:00) When you read biographies of people who've done great work, it's remarkable how much luck is involved. They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up. So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions. — How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. (Founders #314) (7:00) Bob Noyce had a passion for the scientific grind. (10:00) He had a profound and baffling self-confidence. (15:00) They called Shockley’s personalty reverse charisma. — Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age by Joel Shurkin. (Founders #165) (25:00) What the beginning of an industry looks like: Anywhere from 50 to 90% of the transistors produced would turn out to be defective. (33:00) Young engineers were giving themselves over to a new technology as if it were a religious mission. (41:00) Noyce's idea was that every employee should feel that he could go as far and as fast in this industry as his talent would take him. He didn't want any employee to look at the structure of Intel and see a complex set of hurdles. (43:00) This wasn't a corporation. It was a congregation. (43:00) There were
Thu, July 04, 2024
#355 Rare Bernard Arnault Interview
What I learned from reading The House of Arnault by Brad Stone and Angelina Rascouet. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- (3:00) While other politicians were content to get their information from a scattering of newspapers, he devoured whole shelves. — Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden. (Founders #320) (7:00) Arnault had understood before anyone else that it was a true industry. — The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. (Founders #296) (9:00) Arnault is an iron fist in an iron glove. — The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. The public conception of Sam as a good ol’ country boy wearing a soft velvet glove misses the fact that there’s an iron fist within. — Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance Trimble. (12:00) People often ask me, “When are you going to retire?” And I answer, “Retire from what?” I’ve never worked a day in my life. Everything I’ve done has been because I’ve loved doing it, because it was enthralling. — Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. (Founders #269) (16:00) “I am not interested in managing a clothing factory. What you need, and I would like to run, is a craftsman’s workshop, in which we would recruit the very best people in the trade, to reestablish in Paris a salon for the greatest luxury and the highest standards of workmanship. It will cost a great deal of money and entail much risk.” — Christian Dior to Marcel Boussac (17:00) Arnault believed that luxury brands could be larger than anyone at the time imagined. (20:00) Arnault said this 35 years ago: “My ten-year objective is that LVMH's leading position in the world be further strengthened in the luxury goods sector. I believe that there will be fewer and fewer brand names capable of retaining a worldwide presence and that those of our group will be among them as we will provide them with the means for growth.” (25:00) There are huge advantages for the early birds. When you're an early bird, there's a model that I call surfing—when a surfer gets up and catches the wave and just stays there
Sat, June 29, 2024
#354 Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man
What I learned from reading Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance Trimble. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- (2:30) Sam Walton built his business on a very simple idea: Buy cheap. Sell low. Every day. With a smile. (2:30) People confuse a simple idea with an ordinary person. Sam Walton was no ordinary person. (4:30) Traits Sam Walton had his entire life: A sense of duty. Extreme discipline. Unbelievable levels of endurance. (5:30) His dad taught him the secret to life was work, work, work. (5:30) Sam felt the world was something he could conquer. (6:30) The Great Depression was a big leveler of people. Sam chose to rise above it. He was determined to be a success. (11:30) You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you’re too inefficient. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) (15:30) He was crazy about satisfying customers. (17:30) The lawyer saw Sam clenching and unclenching his fists, staring at his hands. Sam straightened up. “No,” he said. “I’m not whipped. I found Newport, and I found the store. I can find another good town and another store. Just wait and see!” (21:30) Sometimes hardship can enlighten and inspire. This was the case for Sam Walton as he put in hours and hours of driving Ozark mountain roads in the winter of 1950. But that same boredom and frustration triggered ideas that eventually brought him billions of dollars. (This is when he learns to fly small planes. Walmart never happens otherwise) (33:30) At the start we were so amateurish and so far behind K Mart just ignored us. They let us stay out here, while we developed and learned our business. They gave us a 10 year period to grow. (37:30) And so how dedicated was Sam to keeping costs low? Walmart is called that in part because fewer letters means cheaper signs on the outside of a store. (42:30) Sam Walton is tough, loves a good fight, and protects his territory. (43:30) His tactics later prompted them to describe Sam as a modern-day combination of Vince Lombardi (insisting on solid execution of the basics) and General George S. Patton. (A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.) (43:30) Hardly a day has passed without Sam reminding an employee: "Remember Wal-Mart's Golden Rule: Number one, the custom
Sun, June 23, 2024
#353 How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty
What I learned from reading How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty. ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- "Learning from history is a form of leverage." — Charlie Munger. Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . You can also ask SAGE (the Founders Notes AI assistant) any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (2:00) My father was a self-made man who had known extreme poverty in his youth and had a practically limitless capacity for hard work. (6:00) I acted as my own geologist, legal advisor, drilling superintendent, explosives expert, roughneck and roustabout. (8:00) Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #212) (12:00) Control as much of your business as possible. You don’t want to have to worry about what is going on in the other guy’s shop. (20:00) Optimism is a moral duty. Pessimism aborts opportunity. (21:00) I studied the lives of great men and women. And I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work. (22:00) 98 percent of our attention was devoted to the task at hand. We are believers in Carlyle's Prescription, that the job a man is to do is the job at hand and not see what lies dimly in the distance. — Charlie Munger (27:00) Entrepreneurs want to create their own security. (34:00) Example is the best means to instruct or inspire others. (37:00) Long orders, which require much time to prepare, to read and to understand are the enemies of speed. Napoleon could issue orders of few sentences which clearly expressed his intentions and required little time to issue and to understand. (38:00) A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers From Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Peter Bevelin. (Founders #202) (41:
Sat, June 15, 2024
#352 J. Paul Getty: The Richest Private Citizen in America
What I learned from reading As I See it: The Autobiography of J. Paul Getty by J. Paul Getty. ---- Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event ---- "Learning from history is a form of leverage." — Charlie Munger. Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . You can also ask SAGE (the Founders Notes AI assistant) any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (2:00) Vice President Nelson Rockefeller did me the honor of saying that my entrepreneurial success in the oil business put me on a par with his grandfather, John D. Rockefeller Sr. My comment was that comparing me to John D. Sr. was like comparing a sparrow to an eagle. My words were not inspired by modesty, but by facts. (8:00) On his dad sending him to military school: The strict, regimented environment was good for me. (20:00) Entrepreneurs are people whose mind and energies are constantly being used at peak capacity. (28:00) Advice for fellow entrepreneurs: Don’t be like William Randolph Hearst. Reinvest in your business. Keep a fortress of cash. Use debt sparingly. (30:00) The great entrepreneurs I know have these traits: -Devoted their minds and energy to building productive enterprises (over the long term) -They concentrated on expanding -They concentrated on making their companies more efficient -They reinvest heavily in to their business (which can help efficiency and expansion ) -Always personally involved in their business -They know their business down to the ground -They have an innate capacity to think on a large scale (34:00) Five wives can't all be wrong. As one of them told me after our divorce: "You're a great friend, Paul—but as a husband, you're impossible.” (36:00) My business interests created problems [in my marriages]. I was drilling several wells and it was by no means uncommon for me to stay on the sites overnight or even for two days o
Tue, June 04, 2024
#351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf
What I learned from reading about Hans Wilsdorf and the founding of Rolex. ---- Build relationships at the Founders Conference on July 29th-July 31st in Scotts Valley, California ---- "Learning from history is a form of leverage." — Charlie Munger. Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Get access to Founders Notes here . You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (0:01) At the age of twelve I was an orphan. (1:00) My uncles made me become self-reliant very early in life. Looking back, I believe that it is to this, that much of my success is due. (9:00) The idea of wearing a watch on one's wrist was thought to be contrary to the conception of masculinity. (10:00) Prior to World War 1 wristwatches for men did not exist. (11:00) Business is problems. The best companies are just effective problem solving machines. (12:00) My personal opinion is that pocket watches will almost completely disappear and that wrist watches will replace them definitively! I am not mistaken in this opinion and you will see that I am right." —Hans Wilsdorf, 1914 (14:00) The highest order bit is belief: I had very early realized the manifold possibilities of the wristlet watch and, feeling sure that they would materialize in time, I resolutely went on my way. Rolex was thus able to get several years ahead of other watch manufacturers who persisted in clinging to the pocket watch as their chief product. (16:00) Clearly, the companies for whom the economics of twenty-four-hour news would have made the most sense were the Big Three broadcasters. They already had most of what was needed— studios, bureaus, reporters, anchors almost everything but a belief in cable. — Ted Turner's Autobiography (Founders #327) (20:00) Business Breakdowns #65 Rolex: Timeless Excellence (27:00) Rolex was effectively
Mon, May 27, 2024
#350 How To Sell Like Steve Jobs
What I learned from reading The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo ---- Learning from history is a form of leverage. —Charlie Munger. Founders Notes gives you the super power to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (1:00) You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology—not the other way around. —Steve Jobs in 1997 (6:00) Why should I care = What does this do for me? (6:00) The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy. (Founders #348) (7:00) Easy to understand, easy to spread. (8:00) An American Saga: Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire by Robert Daley (8:00) The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. (Founders #255) (9:00) love how crystal clear this value proposition is. Instead of 3 days driving on dangerous road, it’s 1.5 hours by air. That’s a 48x improvement in time savings. This allows the company to work so much faster. The best B2B companies save businesses time. (10:00) Great Advertising Founders Episodes: Albert Lasker (Founders #206) Claude Hopkins (Founders #170 and #207) David Ogilvy (Founders #82, 89, 169, 189, 306, 343) (12:00) Advertising which promises no benefit to the consumer does not sell, yet the majority of campaigns contain no promise whatever. (That is the most important sentence in this book. Read it again.) — Ogilvy on Advertising (13:00) Repeat, repeat, repeat. Human nature has a flaw. We forget that we forget. (19:00) Start with the problem. Do not start talking about your product before you describe the problem your product solves. (23:00) <a href="https://amzn.to/3xTO
Mon, May 20, 2024
#349 How Steve Jobs Kept Things Simple
What I learned from reading Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success by Ken Segall. ---- Learning from history is a form of leverage. —Charlie Munger. Founders Notes gives you the super power to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (1:30) Steve wanted Apple to make a product that was simply amazing and amazingly simple. (3:00) If you don’t zero in on your bureaucracy every so often, you will naturally build in layers. You never set out to add bureaucracy. You just get it. Period. Without even knowing it. So you always have to be looking to eliminate it. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) (5:00) Steve was always easy to understand. He would either approve a demo, or he would request to see something different next time. Whenever Steve reviewed a demo, he would say, often with highly detailed specificity, what he wanted to happen next. — Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda. (Founders #281) (7:00) Watch this video. Andy Miller tells GREAT Steve Jobs stories . (10:00) Many are familiar with the re-emergence of Apple. They may not be as familiar with the fact that it has few, if any parallels. When did a founder ever return to the company from which he had been rudely rejected to engineer a turnaround as complete and spectacular as Apple's? While turnarounds are difficult in any circumstances they are doubly difficult in a technology company. It is not too much of a stretch to say that Steve founded Apple not once but twice. And the second time he was alone. — Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and the Creation of Apple by Michael Moritz. (15:00) If the ultimate decision maker is involved every step of the way the qu
Bonus · Sun, May 12, 2024
Michael Jordan In His Own Words
What I learned from reading Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil. ---- Relationships run the world: Build relationships at Founders events ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Episode Outline: Players who practice hard when no one is paying attention play well when everyone is watching. It's hard, but it's fair. I live by those words. To this day, I don't enjoy working. I enjoy playing, and figuring out how to connect playing with business. To me, that's my niche. People talk about my work ethic as a player, but they don't understand. What appeared to be hard work to others was simply playing for me. You have to be uncompromised in your level of commitment to whatever you are doing, or it can disappear as fast as it appeared. Look around, just about any person or entity achieving at a high level has the same focus. The morning after Tiger Woods rallied to beat Phil Mickelson at the Ford Championship in 2005, he was in the gym by 6:30 to work out. No lights. No cameras. No glitz or glamour. Uncompromised. I knew going against the grain was just part of the process. The mind will play tricks on you. The mind was telling you that you couldn't go any further. The mind was telling you how much it hurt. The mind was telling you these things to keep you from reaching your goal. But you have to see past that, turn it all off if you are going to get where you want to be. I would wake up in the morning thinking: How am I going to attack today? I’m not so dominant that I can’t listen to creative ideas coming from other people. Successful people listen. Those who don’t listen, don’t survive long. In all honesty, I don't know what's ahead. If you ask me what I'm going to do in five years, I can't tell you. This moment? Now that's a different story. I know what I'm doing moment to moment, but I have no idea what's ah
Tue, May 07, 2024
#348 The Financial Genius Behind A Century of Wall Street Scandals: Ivar Kreuger
What I learned from reading The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy. ---- Relationships run the world: Build relationships at Founders events ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Make yourself easy to interface with: Scribe helps entrepreneurs, consultants, executives, and other professionals publish a book about their specific knowledge . Mention you heard about Scribe on Founders and they will give you these discounts: Guided Author - $1,000 off Scribe Professional - $1,000 off Scribe Elite Ghostwriting - $3,000 off ---- Vesto helps you see all of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business accounts from one dashboard. Tell Ben (the founder of Vesto) that David sent you and you will get $500 off . ---- Join my personal email list if you want me to email you my top ten highlights from every book I read ---- Buy a super comfortable Founders sweatshirt (or hat) here ! ---- Episode Outline: 1. Ivar was charismatic. His charisma was not natural. Ivar spent hours every day just preparing to talk. He practiced his lines for hours like great actors do. 2. Ivar’s first pitch was simple, easy to understand, and legitimate: By investing in Swedish Match, Americans could earn profits from a monopoly abroad. 3. Joseph Duveen noticed that Europe had plenty of art and America had plenty of money, and his entire astonishing career was the product of that simple observation. — <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazi
Mon, April 29, 2024
#347 How Walt Disney Built His Greatest Creation: Disneyland
What I learned from reading Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Vesto helps you see all of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business accounts from one dashboard. Tell Ben (the founder of Vesto) that David sent you and you will get $500 off . ---- Join this email list if you want early access to any Founders live events and conferences Join my personal email list if you want me to email you my top ten highlights from every book I read ---- Buy a super comfortable Founders sweatshirt (or hat) here ! ---- (8:00) When in 1955 we heard that Disney had opened an amusement park under his own name, it appeared certain that we could not look forward to anything new from Mr. Disney. We were quite wrong. He had, instead, created his masterpiece. (13:00) This may be the greatest product launch of all time: He had run eight months of his television program. He hadn't named his new show Walt Disney Presents or The Wonderful World of Walt Disney. It was called simply Disneyland, and every weekly episode was an advertisement for the still unborn park. (15:00) Disneyland is the extension of the powerful personality of one man. (15:00) The creation of Disneyland was Walt Disney’s personal taste in physical form. (24:00) How strange that the boss would just drop it. Walt doesn’t give up. So he must have something else in mind. (26:00) Their mediocrity is my opportunity. It is an opportunity because there is so much room for improvement. (36:00
Mon, April 22, 2024
#346 How Walt Disney Built Himself
What I learned from rereading Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join this email list if you want early access to any Founders live events and conferences Join my personal email list if you want me to email you my top ten highlights from every book I read ---- Buy a super comfortable Founders sweatshirt (or hat) here ! ---- (2:00) Disney’s key traits were raw ingenuity combined with sadistic determination. (3:00) I had spent a lifetime with a frustrated, and often unemployed man, who hated anybody who was successful. — Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) (6:00) Disney put excelence before any other consideration. (11:00) Maybe the most important thing anyone ever said to him: You’re crazy to be a professor she told Ted. What you really want to do is draw. Ted’s notebooks were always filled with these fabulous animals. So I set to work diverting him. Here was a man who could draw such pictures. He should earn a living doing that. — Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination by Brian Jay Jones. (Founders #161) (14:00) A quote about Edwin Land that would apply to Walt Disney too: Land had learned early on that total engrossment was the best way for him to work. He strongly believed that this kind of concentrated focus could also produce extraordinary results for others. Late in his career, Land recalled that his “whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people resources they didn
Fri, April 12, 2024
#345 George Lucas
What I learned from rereading George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join this email list if you want early access to any Founders live events and conferences Join my personal email list if you want me to email you my top ten highlights from every book I read ---- Buy a super comfortable Founders sweatshirt (or hat) here ! ---- (0:01) George Lucas unapologetically invested in what he believed in the most: himself. (1:00) George Lucas is the Thomas Edison of the modern film industry. (1:30) A list of biographies written by Brian Jay Jones (6:00) Elon Musk interviewed by Kevin Rose (10:15) How many people think the solution to gaining quality control, improving fiscal responsibility, and stimulating technological innovation is to start their own special-effects company? But that’s what he did. (17:00) When I finally discovered film, I really fell madly in love with it. I ate it. I slept it. 24 hours a day. There was no going back. (18:00) Those on the margins often come to control the center. (Game of Thrones) (21:00) As soon as I made my first film, I thought, Hey, I’m good at this. I know how to do this. From then on, I’ve never questioned it. (23:00) He was becoming increasingly cranky about the idea of working with others and preferred doing everything himself. (34:00) Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) (42:00) The film Easy Rider was made for $350,000. It grossed over $60 million at the box office. (45:00) <a href="https://amzn
Bonus · Thu, April 04, 2024
Steven Spielberg
What I learned from reading Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join this email list if you want early access to any Founders live events and conferences Join my personal email list if you want me to email you my top ten highlights from every book I read ---- Buy a super comfortable Founders sweatshirt (or hat) here ! ---- Episode Outline: Whatever is there, he makes it work. Spielberg once defined his approach to filmmaking by declaring, "I am the audience." "He said, 'I want to be a director.' And I said, 'Well, if you want to be a director, you've gotta start at the bottom, you gotta be a gofer and work your way up.' He said, 'No, Dad. The first picture I do, I'm going to be a director.' And he was. That blew my mind. That takes guts." One of his boyhood friends recalls Spielberg saying "he could envision himself going to the Academy Awards and accepting an Oscar and thanking the Academy.” He was twelve. He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own . Spielberg remained essentially an autodidact. Spielberg followed his own eccentric path to a professional directing career. Universal Studios, in effect, was Spielberg's film school. Giving him an education that, paradoxically, was both more personal and more conventional than he would have received in an academic environment. Spielberg devised what amounted to his own private tutorial program at Universal, immersing himself in the aspects of filmmaking he found most crucial to his development. At the time he came to Hollywood, generations of nepotism had made the studios terminally inbred and unwelcoming
Sat, March 30, 2024
#344 Quentin Tarantino
What I learned from reading Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders Some questions other subscribers asked SAGE: I need some unique ideas on how to find new customers. What advice do you have for me? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me more ideas about how to avoid competition from Peter Thiel? Have any of history's greatest founders regretted selling their company? What is the best way to fire a bad employee? How did Andrew Carnegie know what to focus on? Why was Jay Gould so smart? What was the biggest unlock for Henry Ford? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffetts best ideas? If Charlie Munger had a top 10 rules for life what do you think those rules would be? What did Charlie Munger say about building durable companies that last? Tell me about Cornelius Vanderbilt. How did he make his money? Every subscriber to Founders Notes has access to SAGE right now. Get access here . ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- (9:00) Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. (14:00) On the ride home, even if I didn't have questions, my parents would talk about the movie we had just seen. These are some of my fondest memories. (14:00) He has a comprehensive database of the history of movies in his head. (17:00) The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron by Rebecca Keegan and The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron (Founders #311) (25:00) Robert Rodriguez interviews Quentin Tarantino in the Director’s Chair (26:00) Like most men who never knew their father, Bill collected father figures. (Kill Bill 2) (27:00) When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, No, I went to films. (29:00) Invest Like the Best #348 Patrick and John Collision (31:00) Tarantino made his own Founders Notes [Comparinig himself and another director] Nor did he keep scrapbooks, make notes, and keep files on index cards of all the movies he saw growing up like I did. (32:00) Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon a
Sun, March 24, 2024
#343 The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness: David Ogilvy
What I learned from reading Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness: Being Very Good Is No Good,You Have to Be Very, Very, Very, Very, Very Good by David Ogilvy and Ogivly & Mather. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes Some questions other subscribers asked SAGE: I need some unique ideas on how to find new customers. What advice do you have for me? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me more ideas about how to avoid competition from Peter Thiel? Have any of history's greatest founders regretted selling their company? What is the best way to fire a bad employee? How did Andrew Carnegie know what to focus on? Why was Jay Gould so smart? What was the biggest unlock for Henry Ford? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffetts best ideas? If Charlie Munger had a top 10 rules for life what do you think those rules would be? What did Charlie Munger say about building durable companies that last? Tell me about Cornelius Vanderbilt. How did he make his money? ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- (0:01) But what did David actually mean by divine discontent? Here's an interpretation: DON'T BOW YOUR HEAD. DON'T KNOW YOUR PLACE. DEFY THE GODS. DON'T SIT BACK. DON'T GIVE IN. DON'T GIVE UP. DON'T WIN SILVERS. DON'T BE SO EASILY HAPPY WITH YOURSELF. DON'T BE SPINELESS. DON'T BE GUTLESS. DON'T BE TOADIES. DON'T GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT. AND DON'T EVER, EVER ALLOW A SINGLE SCRAP OF RUBBISH OUT OF THE AGENCY (5:00) We have to work equally hard to replace the old patterns of self-defeating behaviors. An old Latin proverb tells us how: a nail is driven out by a nail, habit is overcome by habit. (7:00) Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel. (Founders #278) (7:00) Fear is a demon that devours the soul of a company: it diminishes the quality of our imagination, it dulls our appetite for adventure, it sucks away our youth. Fear leads to self-doubt, which is the worst enemy of creativity. (10:00) Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth. — The NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger . (Founders #329) (13:00) How great we become depends on the size of our dreams. Let's dream humongous dreams, put
Mon, March 18, 2024
#342 The Lessons of History (Will & Ariel Durant)
What I learned from reading The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- (1:00) This is a 100 page biography of the human species (1:00) The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant (Full Set) (2:30) Generations of men establish a growing mastery over the earth, but they are destined to become fossils in its soil. (4:00) Ruthlessly prioritize how you spend your time. (4:00) The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows. (4:30) ALL OF THE NAPOLEON EPISODES: Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. (Founders #294) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon and Col. Lanza. (Founders #337) (8:00) Our job is to make our companies and ourselves better equipped to meet the test of survival. (11:30) Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group. (12:30) The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191) (14:30) In the end, superior ability has its way. (16:30) Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the forces they deposed. (19:00) The imitative majority follows the innovating minority and this follows the originative individual, in adapting new responses to the demands of environment or survival. (20:00) If you can identify an enduring human need you can build a business around that. (21:00) In every age men have been dishonest and governments have been corrupt. (25:00) Survival at all costs: Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under. (25:00) Victory in our industry is spelled survival. — Steve Jobs (25:00) All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. (Founders #224) (26:00) By being so cautious in respect to leverage and having loads of liquidity, we will be equipped both financially and emotionally to play offense while others scramble for survival. — The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham (Founders #227) (27:00) History rep
Mon, March 11, 2024
#341 Cornelius Vanderbilt (Tycoon's War)
What I learned from rereading Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- (0:01) Vanderbilt was only interested in two things: making money and winning (3:00) Cornelius Vanderbilt, the descendant of poor Dutch immigrants, would die in 1877 possessing more money than was held by the United States treasury. (3:00) The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (5:00) T he NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger . (Founders #329) (6:00) “If I had learned education. I would not have had time to learn anything else.” (7:00) Vanderbilt wrote nothing down, keeping every detail of his business dealings in his head, and at any given time he knew his income and expenditures down to the last cent. (10:00) From Founders Notes . I asked the chat feature: Tell me about Cornelius Vanderbilt. How did he make his money? One trait it identified in Vanderbilt was this: Vanderbilt's approach to business was often marked by a sly concealment of his intentions, keeping information close while simultaneously gathering intelligence on competitors. This strategic obfuscation allowed him to make moves that others often couldn't predict or comprehend until it was too late (This feature will be available to Founders Notes subscribers very soon!) (15:00) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields (Founders #292) (24:00) The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni. (Founders #233) (26:00) Gentlemen, you have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you, for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt. (37:00) He's turning everyone against Walker by appealing to their interests. He’s not saying do this for me to get my ships back. He appeals to their interests and aligns their interests with his own. (40:00) Vanderbilt had more money than all the Central American governments combined. (41:00) As far as my nature is concerned, I do not meet competition, I destroy competitors. — The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to His Son by John D. Rockefeller. (Founders #324) (41:00) Vanderbilt said why don’t you pay me to not compete with you? ---- Get access to the
Fri, March 01, 2024
#340 Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant
What I learned from reading Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover and Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness by Tim Grover. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- (3:00) What I am giving you is insight into the mentality of those who have found unparalleled success by trusting their own instincts. (3:00) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) (6:00) Michael was the best because he was relentless about winning. No matter how many times he won he always wanted more and he was always willing to do whatever it took to get it. (6:00) Michael never cared about achieving mere greatness. He cared about being the best ever. (7:00) These are the most driven individuals you'll ever know, with an unmatched genius for what they do: they don't just perform a job, they reinvent it. (8:00) Alex Rodriguez interviews Kobe Bryant (11:00) The most important thing, the one thing that defines and separates him from any other competitor: He's addicted to the exquisite rush of success and he'll alter his entire life to get it. (11:00) The mind will play tricks on you. The mind was telling you that you couldn't go any further. The mind was telling you how much it hurt. The mind was telling you these things to keep you from reaching your goal. But you have to see past that, turn it all off if you are going to get where you want to be. — —Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil. (Founders #213) (12:30) If one thing separated Michael from every other player, it was his stunning ability to block out everything and everyone else. He was able to shut out everything except his mission. (14:00) At some point you made something simple into something complicated. (16:00) Being at the extreme in your craft is very important in the age of leverage. The best person in the world at anything gets to do it for everyone. (20:00) A 600 page biography of Kobe Bryant: The Life of Kobe Bryant by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #272) (21:00) This could be an ad for FOUNDERS NOTES The greats never stop learning. All the hours of work have created an unstoppable internal resource you can draw on in any situation. (22:00) Mostly he tested himself. It seemed that he discovered the secret quite early in his competitive life: the more pressure he heaped on himself the greater his ability to rise to the occa
Bonus · Sun, February 25, 2024
Jay Z's Autobiography
What I learned from reading Decoded by Jay Z. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- (1:39) I would practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep (2:10) Even back then I though I was the best. (2:57) Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography (Founders #219) (4:32) Belief becomes before ability. (5:06) Michael Jordan: The Life (Founders #212) (5:46) The public praises people for what they practice in private. (7:28) Lock yourself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers. (7:50) Sam Walton: Made In America (Founders #234) (9:50) He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own — from Steven Spielberg: A Biography (Founders #209) (12:47) The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50) (13:35) I'm not gonna say that I thought I could get rich from rap, but I could clearly see that it was gonna get bigger before it went away. Way bigger. (21:10) Over 20 years into his career and dude ain’t changed. He’s got his own vibe. You gotta love him for that. (Rick Rubin) (21:41) Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #200) (25:27) I believe you can speak things into existence. (27:20) Picking the right market is essential. (29:29) All companies that go out of business do so for the same reason – they run out of money. —Don Valentine (29:42) There are two things in business that matter, and you can learn this in two minutes- you don’t have to go to business school for two years: high gross margins and cash flow. The other financial metrics you can forget. —Don Valentine (31:54) I went on the road with Big Daddy Kane for a while. I got an invaluable education watching him perform. (33:12) Everything I do I learned from the guys who came before me. —Kobe (34:15) I truly hate having discussions about who would win one on one or fans saying you’d beat Michael. I feel like Yo (puts his hands up like stop. Chill.) What you get from me is from him. I don’t get 5 championships without him because he guided me so much and gave me so much great advice. (34:50) Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography (Founders #214) (37:20) This is a classic piece of OG advice. It's amazing how few people actually stick to it. (38:04) Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success (Founders #56) (39:04) The key to staying on top of things is to treat everything like it's
Tue, February 20, 2024
#339 Joseph Duveen: Robber Baron Art Dealer
What I learned from reading The Days of Duveen by S.N. Behrman. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Founders merch available at the Founders shop ---- Patrick and I are looking for partners. If you are building B2B products get in touch here . ---- (0:01) Duveen noticed that Europe had plenty of art and America had plenty of money, and his entire astonishing career was the product of that simple observation. (2:30) The great American millionaires of the Duveen Era were slow-speaking and slow-thinking, cautious, secretive, and maddeningly deliberate. (3:30) How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. (Founders #325) (4:30) Invest Like The Best #342 Will England: A Primer on Multi-Strategy Hedge Funds (6:00) There is an old two-part rule that often works wonders in business, science, and elsewhere: 1. Take a simple, basic idea and 2. Take it very seriously. — the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger . (Founders #329) (10:00) The art dealer Joseph Duveen insisted on making the paintings he sold as scarce and rare as possible. To keep their prices elevated and their status high, he bought up whole collections and stored them in his basement. The paintings that he sold became more than just paintings—they were fetish objects, their value increased by their rarity. — The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. (14:00) Duveen had enormous respect for the prices he set on the objects he bought and sold. Often his clients tried, in various ways, to maneuver him into a position where he might relax his high standards, but he nearly always managed to keep them. (16:00) Wildcatters: A Story of Texans, Oil, and Money by Sally Helgesen. (Founders #338) (18:00) You don’t need many customers if the few customers you do have are the riches people in the world. (22:00) His enthusiasm was irrepressible. (26:00) Duveen felt that his educational mission was two fold —to teach millionaire American collectors what the great works of art were, and to teach them that they could get those works of art only through him. (27:00) When you pay high for the priceless, you're getting it cheap. (31:00) He was interested in practically nothing except his business. (31:00)
Tue, February 13, 2024
#338 Monty Moncrief Texas Oil Billionaire
What I learned from reading Wildcatters: A Story of Texans, Oil, and Money by Sally Helgesen. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Founders merch available at the Founders shop ---- Vesto shows you all of your company's finances in one view. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you. ---- (0:01) Family and business were the same thing to him. (1:00) We're one-hundred percent family owned, unincorporated, and independent, and we intend to stay that way. (1:00) He possessed the directness and the utter simplicity of the old and the truly great. (2:00) His unquestioning confidence in the worthiness of his enterprise made him seem impervious to doubts. (5:00) The Morgans always believed in absolute monarchy. While Junius Morgan lived, he ruled the family and the business. Until Junius died his massive shadow dominated his son’s life. — The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. (Founders #139) (8:00) Everywhere they looked, they saw opportunity without limits. The land itself was empty, and so these men built cities upon it and founded dynasties. They left behind them a world made in their own image. (9:00) The old wildcatters had neither the time nor the inclination to question their own purposes, or to agonize about what the future consequences of their efforts might be. They just went out and did whatever was there to be done. (10:00) The trouble with this business is that everybody expects to find oil on the surface. If it was up near the top, it wouldn't be any trick to it. You've got to drill deep for oil. — The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes by Bryan Burrough (Founders #149) (14:00) Charlie’s surfing model. One thing I learned from having dinner with Charlie was the importance of getting into a great business and STAYING in it. There’s a tendency in human nature to mess up a good thing because of an inability to sit still: "There are huge advantages for the early birds. When you're an early bird, there's a model that I call surfing—when a surfer gets up and catches the wave and just stays there, he can go a long, long time. But if he gets off the wave, he becomes mired in shallows. But people get long runs when they're right on the edge of the wave, whether it's Microsoft or Intel or all kinds of people." — the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger . (Founders #329) (18:
Mon, February 05, 2024
#337 Napoleon's Maxims and Strategy
What I learned from reading Roots of Strategy by Thomas R. Phillips and Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon and Col. Lanza. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference ---- (0:01) Napoleon fought more battles than Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar combined. (5:00) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (7:00) Insull: The Rise and Fall of A Billionaire Utility Tycoon by Forrest McDonald. (Founders #336) (8:00) No one should believe more in your business than you do. If this is not the case you are in the wrong business. (11:00) If you do everything you will win. (13:00) Napoleon episodes: Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. (Founders #294) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (14:00) What is the bigger number, five or one? One. One army, a real army, united behind one leader, with one purpose. A fist instead of 5 fingers. — Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones (YouTube) (17:00) Keep your forces united. Be vulnerable at no point. Bear down with rapidity upon important points. These are the principles which insure victory. (17:00) Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic. Make them your models. This is the only way to become a great general and to master the secrets of the art of war. With your own genius enlightened by this study, you will reject all maxims opposed to those of these great commanders. [If Napoleon was alive you know he’d listen to Founders podcast] (20:00) The Tao of Charlie Munger by Charlie Munger and David Clark (Founders #295) (20:00) Advance orders tend to stifle initiative. A commander should be left free to adapt himself to circumstances as they occur. (23:00) The art of war consists in a well organized and conservative defense, coupled with an audacious and rapid offensive. (26:00) Ten people who yell make more noise than ten thousand who keep silent. (29:00) Long orders, which require much time to prepare, to read and to understand are the enemies of speed. Napoleon could issue orders of few sentences which clearly expressed his intentions and required little time to issue and to understand. (31:00) A great
Thu, February 01, 2024
#336 How To Lose A Few Billion Dollars: Samuel Insull
What I learned from reading Insull: The Rise and Fall of A Billionaire Utility Tycoon by Forrest McDonald. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference ---- (0:01) Insull had been in the electric business as long as there had been an electric business. (4:00) He awoke early, abruptly, completely, bursting with energy; yet he gained momentum as the day wore on, and long into the night. Sam had near-demonic energy. (5:00) Sam's most obvious attribute was a capacity for racing through large quantities of reading material, effortlessly perceiving its important assumptions and generalizations, and thoroughly assimilating its salient details. (7:00) He eagerly embraced platitudes: • Idle hands are the devil's workshop • Time is money • Things are simply "done" or "not done" • One reveres one's family • Only that which is useful is good • Survival of the fittest (8:00) Opportunity handled well leads to more opportunity. (12:00) He developed an ability to concentrate on a single subject and to completely shut out everything else, no matter how pressing. (13:00) A theme from the robber baron era: How do we turn a luxury product into a necessity? (18:00) If you do everything you will win. — Working by Robert Caro. (Founders #305) and The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (19:00) Insull reread every one of Edison's European contracts, and he took it upon himself to write weekly letters to Johnson, summarizing the fluctuations in the telephone situation and outlining Edison's shifting interests in connection with it. These letters proved to be the best selling points Johnson could have in recommending Insull to Edison. (20:00) One of his most deep-rooted traits was that he was absolutely unable to imagine the possibility of his own failure; he entirely lacked the sense of caution of those who doubt themselves. (21:00) Caution, like relaxation, was unnatural to him. (21:00) We will make electric lights so cheap that only the rich will be able to burn candles. (27:00) Edison had an almost pathological hostility to any form of system, order, or discipline imposed from without. (33:00) Warren Buffett on leverage: Unquestionably, some people have become very rich through the use of borrowed money. However, that's also been a way to get very poor. When leverage works, it magnifies your gains. Your spouse thinks you're clever, and your neighbors get envious. But leverage is addictive. Onc
Tue, January 23, 2024
#335 How To Make A Few Billion Dollars: Brad Jacobs
What I learned from reading How To Make A Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference ---- (0:01) I'm what's called a moneymaker. I've started five companies from scratch—seven if you include two spin-offs and turned them all into billion dollar or multibillion-dollar enterprises. (2:00) I love working with outrageously talented people to deliver outsized returns for shareholders in public stock markets. (5:00) All of the successful people I know have rearranged their brains to prevail at achieving big goals in turbulent environments where conventional thinking often fails. (5:00) The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places and they do this by thinking about business from first principles. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (Founders #335) (7:00) So much of success in business comes from keeping your head in a good place. (8:00) I'm an ambitious person by nature and a dealmaker by inclination. (9:00) Episode #295: I Had Dinner With Charlie Munger (13:00) Listen to Think Big and Move Fast: Brad Jacobs on Invest Like the Best (14:00) Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer. (Founders #20) (15:00) If you want to make money in the business world, you need to get used to problems, because that's what business is. (20:00) I am not surprised when things don’t go perfectly. That is the nature of the universe. (21:00) Listen to this incredible conversation between Charlie Munger and John Collison on Invest Like The Best . (28:00) Invest in technology. The savings compound, it gives you an advantage over a slower moving competitor, and can be the difference between a profit and a loss. (Lesson from Andrew Carnegie) (31:00) How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. (Founders #325) (36:00) While the rental industry overall was slow to computerize, the larger regional players were more tech-savvy. By 1997, nearly all of them were running on software developed by a company called Wynne Systems. I bought Wynne. Owning Wynne accomplished two things. We had an industry-best platform that we could continue
Tue, January 16, 2024
#334 Oprah
What I learned from reading the transcripts of Young Oprah on Her Life and Career and Oprah on Career, Life and Leadership . ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference ---- (1:00) Oprah fired her agent and replaced him with a Chicago lawyer named Jeffrey Jacobs. "I heard Jeff is a piranha. I like that. Piranha is good." (3:00) I will just create. And if it works, it works. And if it doesn’t, I’ll create something else. I don’t have any limitations on what I think I could do or be. (4:30) Dr. Julie Gurner’s Ultra Successful newsletter Dr Julie Gurner's Website (7:00) Imitation precedes creation. — Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. (Founders #210) (9:00) On getting demoted from anchor to talk show host: I was embarrassed by the whole thing because I had never failed before. It was that “failure” that led to the talk show. (Opportunity is a strange beast. It frequently appears after a loss.) (9:00) The talk show immediately felt right to her: This is what I should have been doing because it was like breathing to me. It was like breathing. I knew it was the right thing to do. (10:00) Oprah has an intense, powerful belief in herself. And she has had that since she was 4. (11:00) I truly believe that thoughts are the greatest vehicle to change power and success in the world. Everything begins with thoughts. (12:00) If you actually have to choose between the most experienced person, or the most educated person, or the person who actually wants it the most, you always pick the person who wants it the most. — Josh Kushner on the Invest Like the Best podcast (14:00) Visualize. If in your mind's eye you see a successful venture, a deal made, a profit accomplished, it has a superb chance of actually happening. Projecting your mind into a successful situation is the most powerful means to achieve goals. If you spend time with pictures of failure in your mind, you will orchestrate failure. Countless times, before the event, I have pictured a heroic sale to a large department store every step of the way and the picture in my mind became a reality. I've visualized success, then created the reality from the image. Great athletes, business people, inventors, and achievers from all walks of life seem to know this secret.</p
Mon, January 08, 2024
#333 Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac Founder: Dietrich Mateschitz
What I learned from reading The Red Bull Story by Wolfgang Fürweger and Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac by Duff McDonald. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference ---- (1:30) "In literal financial terms, our sports teams are not yet profitable, but in value terms, they are," he says. "The total editorial media value plus the media assets created around the teams are superior to pure advertising expenditures." (2:30) "It is a must to believe in one's product. If this were just a marketing gimmick, it would never work." (5:00) He doesn't place a premium on collecting friends or socializing: "I don't believe in 50 friends. I believe in a smaller number. Nor do I care about society events. It's the most senseless use of time. When I do go out, from time to time, it's just to convince myself again that I'm not missing a lot." (7:30) The most dangerous thing for a branded product is low interest. (Edwin Land: The test of an invention is the power of an inventor to push it through in the face of the staunch-not opposition, but indifference-in society. (Indifference is your enemy) (9:00) Nike, Adidas and Vans episodes: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. (Founders #186) Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and The Family Feud That Forever Changed The Business of Sports by Barbara Smit. (Founders #109) Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans by Paul Van Doren. (Founders #216) (11:00) The lines between Red Bull, Red Bull athletes, and Red Bull events are blurry on purpose. To Mateschitz, it's just one big image campaign with many manifestations. (12:00) He has no plans to sell or take Red Bull public. "It's not a question of money. It's a question of fun. Can you imagine me in a shareholders' meeting?” (13:00) Red Bull’s Billionaire Maniac https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-05-19/red-bulls-billionaire-maniac (16:00) He is universally described as a person with great charisma. (16:30) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. (Founders 292) (17:00) He has a fierce desire for privacy. He buys a society magazine to make sure he never appears in it. (22:00) There is no market for Red Bull. We will create one. (24:00) Esté
Sun, December 24, 2023
#332 Jesus
What I learned from reading Jesus: A Biography from a Believer by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (3:00) Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. (Founders #226) (10:00) Jesus was: -observant -detail oriented -maintained intense eye contact -confident -decisive -charismatic -gifted communicator (11:00) The most important step when starting anything new is recruiting the people who are going to help you on your mission. (12:00) No prophet is acceptable in his hometown. (16:00) Jesus emphasized the importance of humility, gentleness, non aggression. The importance of the pursuit of justice and righteousness. He encourages acts of compassion and forgiveness towards others. He focuses on inner purity, sincerity, and a genuine heart. He commends those who work towards reconciliation, harmony, and peace. (17:00) Some of Jesus’s maxims: Love your enemies. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. Judge not and you will not be judged. Forgive and you will be forgiven. (18:00) A summary of Jesus’s teaching in two words: Be kind. (18:00) He turned compassion, which all of us feel from time to time for a particular person, into a huge overarching gospel of love. He taught the love of mankind as a whole. (26:00) Jesus taught to change and improve yourself. He led by example and encouraged imitation. Those that changed themselves, changed the world. (27:00) Jesus’s new 10 commandments: 1. Each of us must develop a true personality. Each of us is unique. Develop your character. 2. Abide by universality. See the human race as a whole. 3. Give equal consideration to all. 4. Use love in all your human relationships, at all times, and in every situation. 5. Show mercy. 6. Balance. Keep your head even when others are losing theirs. 7. Cultivate an open mind. 8. Pursue truth. 9. Judiciously use your power. 10. Show courage. (34:00) Join my personal email list to get updates about the new Founders conference ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “ I have listened to ev
Mon, December 18, 2023
#331 Christian Dior
What I learned from reading Dior by Dior: The Autobiography of Christian Dior and Creators by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (4:00) The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. (Founders #296) (5:00) Opportunity is a strange beast. It frequently appears after a loss. (6:00) Dior was a nobody in his forties, with nothing in his design career to suggest genius. (6:00) When you read biographies of people who've done great work, it's remarkable how much luck is involved. They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up. So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions. — How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. (Founders #314) (7:00) Dior told him: “I am not interested in managing a clothing factory. What you need, and I would like to run, is a craftsman’s workshop, in which we would recruit the very best people in the trade, to reestablish in Paris a salon for the greatest luxury and the highest standards of workmanship. It will cost a great deal of money and entail much risk.” (8:00) He spat in the face of postwar egalitarian democracy and said, in so many words, “I want to make the rich feel rich again.” His first collection turned out to be the most successful in fashion history. (18:00) I envisioned my fashion house as a craftsman’s workshop rather than a clothing factory. (19:00) A fortune teller tells Dior he must do found his fashion house in spite of his fears and doubts: She ordered me sternly to accept the Boussac offer at once. You must create the house of Christian Dior, whatever the conditions, she told me. Nothing anyone will offer you later will compare with the chance which is open to you now. (22:00) Dior said Balenciaga was "the master of us all" — Balenciaga (Founders #315) (26:00) Gossip and malicious rumors are worth more than the most expensive publicity campaign in the world. (29:00) The most passionate adventures of my life have been with my clothes. I am obsessed with them. (30:00) When asked what was the best asset a man could have, Albert Lasker replied, ‘Humility in the presence of a good idea.’ It is horribly difficult to recognize a good idea. I shudder to think how many I have rejected. Research can’t help you much, because it cannot predict the cumulative value of an idea. — Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. -
Mon, December 11, 2023
#330 Les Schwab (Charlie Munger recommended this book)
What I learned from rereading Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (8:00) I didn't know how to ride a bike. We never had one. All the other young kids delivered newspapers on a bike. He's got no money. He doesn't have a bike. So he ran his routes for two months in order to get enough money to buy his first bike. He’d run nine or 10 miles a day. (8:00) I was too proud to complain. (10:00) For a poor boy, money was much more important than pride. (10:00) Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. (Founders #269) (13:00) I was young. I was cocky. But the same cockiness helped me a lot in going through life. (15:00) The very first sentence describing his very first day in business is mind blowing: I had never fixed a flat tire in my life. (15:00) the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger (Founders #329) (29:00) Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance H. Trimble (Founders #150) (35:00) I always knew that if we fixed all the flat tires in town, we'd have all the tire business in town. (40:00) If we become complacent, then brother, it's all over with. (52:00) Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc (Founders #293) (56:00) If you’re not serving the customer, or supporting the folks who do, we don’t need you. —Sam Walton (1:00:00) The company paid low wages and had a lower overhead. The flaw was they didn’t get —with the low pay— near the quality of employees we had. (1:01:00) Life is hard for the man who thinks he can take a shortcut. (1:06:00) Decision making should always be made at the lowest possible level. (1:08:00) Whatever you do, you must do it with gusto, you must do it in volume. It is a case of repeat, repeat, repeat. (1:08:00) Charlie Munger analyzes why Les Schwab was successful. (1:11:00) Extreme success is likely to be caused by some combination of the following factors: 1 Extreme maximization or minimization of one or two variables. Think Costco. 2 Adding success factors so that a bigger combination drives success, often in nonlinear fashion, as one is reminded by the concept of breakpoint and the concept of critical mass in physics. Often, results are not linear. You get a little bit more mass and you get a lollapalooza result. And, of course, I've been searching for lollapalooza results all my life, so I'm very interested in models that explain their occurrence. 3 An extreme of good performance over many factors. Ex
Tue, December 05, 2023
#329 Charlie Munger (the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack)
What I learned from reading the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger . ---- Listen to this incredible conversation between Charlie Munger and John Collison on Invest Like The Best . ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (2:00) The practical wisdom of Poor Charlie's Almanack, this ode to curiosity, generosity, and virtue will similarly compound at successive generations of entrepreneurial readers extend his lessons to their own circumstances. (12:00) Education is the process whereby the ability to lead a good life is acquired. — Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) (22:00) Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth. (29:00) Charlie is content to trust his own judgment when it runs counter to the wisdom of the herd. (31:00) Animated: Charlie Munger: The Psychology of Human Misjudgement (31:30) Aim for durability. Durability has always been a first rate virtue in Charlie’s eyes. (32:00) Charlie only focuses on great businesses and great businesses have moats. (33:00) Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin. (Founders #183) (42:00) You can flourish in a niche: People who specialize in the business world —and get very good because they specialize— frequently find good economics that they wouldn't get any other way. (45:00) Being so well known has advantages of scale. This is what you might call an informational advantage. It increases social proof. (46:30) Business Breakdowns episode on Coca Cola (49:00) Occasionally scaling down and intensifying gives you a big advantage. (You can find great profit margins this way) (50:00) Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) (51:00) Scale and fanaticism combined is very powerful. (Think Sam Walton) (57:00) I also believed then, as I do now after more than fifty years as a money manager, that the surest way to get rich is to play only those games or make those investments where I have an edge. — A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #222) (1:08:00) The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more. (1:14:00) Optimism is a moral duty. — Edwin Land (1:17:00) You want to maximize the playing time of your top players. (1:17:00) The game of competitive life often requires maximizing
Bonus · Wed, November 29, 2023
Reflections from my dinner with Charlie Munger
Reflections from my dinner with Charlie Munger. Order the new updated version of Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger Charlie Munger episodes: #295 I had dinner with Charlie Munger #286 Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. #221 Charlie Munger Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe. #90 Charlie Munger Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger #79 Charlie Munger Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor by Tren Griffin #78 Charlie Munger Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth With Commentary by David Clark ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Wed, November 22, 2023
#328 Tom Murphy (Buffett's favorite manager)
What I learned from reading The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike. ---- I use EightSleep to get the best sleep of my life. Find out why EightSleep is loved by founders everywhere and get $500 off at eightsleep.com/founders/ ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (5:00) Tom Murphy] gave me one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received. He said, 'Warren, you can always tell someone to go to hell tomorrow'...You haven't missed the opportunity. Just forget about if for a day. If you feel the same way tomorrow, tell them then-but don't spout off in a moment of anger." All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. (Founders #286) (5:15) Thirty years ago Tom Murphy, then CEO of Cap Cities, drove this point home to me with a hypothetical tale about an employee who asked his boss for permission to hire an assistant. The employee assumed that adding $20,000 to the annual payroll would be inconsequential. But his boss told him the proposal should be evaluated as a $3 million decision, given that an additional person would probably cost at least that amount over his lifetime, factoring in raises, benefits and other expenses (more people, more toilet paper). And unless the company fell on very hard times, the employee added would be unlikely to be dismissed, however marginal his contribution to the business. — A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers From Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Peter Bevelin. (Founders #202) (7:30) The autobiography of the founder of CBS: As It Happened A Memoir by Bill Paley (9:00) The goal is not to have the longest train, but to arrive at the station first, using the least fuel. (10:00) Tom Murphy’s simple formula: 1. Focus on industries with attractive economic characteristics. 2. Selectively use leverage to buy occasional large properties. 3. Improve operations. 4. Pay down debt. 5. Repeat. (13:00) The business of business is a lot of little decisions every day, mixed up with a few big decisions. (16:00) He quickly indoctrinated Burke into the company's lean, decentralized operating philosophy. (17:00) I had an appetite for and a willingness to do things that Murphy was not interested in doing. Burke believed his job was to create the free cashflow and Murphy's job was to spend it. (19:30) Stay in the game long enough to ge
Tue, November 14, 2023
#327 Ted Turner
What I learned from reading Ted Turner's Autobiography. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Listen to Art of Investing #4 David Senra Lessons from the Founder Historian . ---- (9:00) My net worth dropped by about 67 million per week, or nearly 10 million per day, every day for two and a half years. (10:00) Once to drive home a point about the difficulties of attracting good loyal employees he told me: Jesus only had to pick 12 disciples and even one of those didn't turn out well. (10:00) Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise . (11:00) Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141) (13:30) The problem isn't getting rich, it's staying sane. — Charlie Munger (17:00) I learned a lesson that would stick with me throughout my career. When the chips are down in the pressure's on it's amazing to how creative people can be. (20:00) My father always maintained many of the different billboard businesses as separate legal entities. (He didn’t want to dilute ownership of his main company and separate entities allowed for periodic reorganization to offset capital gains liabilities. (20:30) When you own an asset your job is to maximize its value. (23:00) He combines the assets he has in a way his competitors can not. (24:00) The more I learned about TV stations the more I realized that ours was a disaster. Of the 35 people who were on the payroll when we took over only two were still there a year later —the custodian and the receptionist. (25:00) Ted Turner believed in the power of television more than almost anybody else. (30:30) My dad taught me early on that longterm relationships with your customers and partners are very important. You never know how the guy who you're friendly with today might be able to help you tomorrow. (31:00) Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux. (Founders #268) (32:00) What other people in his industry sees as a threat, Ted sees as an opportunity. (37:00) These issues were all unchartered territory. All of us, the regulators, the broadcasters, the program suppliers and the leagues were sorting things out on the fly. I was working as hard as I could. I'd go all out during the day, working on sales, distribution, regulatory issues, whatever the battle happened to be, and I'd worked right up until it was time to fall asleep. I had a pull down Murphy bed in my office and I would literally work until the point of total exhaustion. Then I'd put my head on the pillow at night worried about
Mon, November 06, 2023
#326 Anna Wintour
What I learned from reading Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell. ---- 1. If you need tax prep and bookkeeping check out betterbookkeeping.com/founders. It's like having a full time CFO and super cheap grandpa sitting on your shoulder. 2. Vesto makes it easy for you to invest your businesses idle cash. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you. Here's the legal disclosures to make the lawyers happy: Vesto Advisors, LLC (“Vesto”) is an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. More information about Vesto and our partnership can be found here We are entitled to compensation for promoting Vesto Advisors, LLC. Accordingly, we have an incentive to endorse Vesto and its team and services. We are not current advisory clients of the Vesto. 3. I went to Notre Dame and spoke to the Art of Investing class. You can listen to the full conversation here . ---- (8:00) She knows the ecosystem in which she operates better than anyone. (8:30) If Anna had a personal tag line it would be: I just have to make sure things are done right. (16:00) He had a desk with nothing on it except a buzzer underneath, so that when he was done with you, which was in about five minutes, his assistant could come in and whisk you away. (17:00) What is the number one thing you hope people learn from you? To be decisive and clear. (19:00) The Vogue 100 is a private club whose members pay $100,000 a year just for access to Anna. (29:00) She did not second guess herself. (30:00) She was meticulous about everything. (32:00) Her focus was singular. She was very clear minded about wanting to do work that she thought was the best. (38:00) She knew that killing stories was necessary to let people know that you had standards. (41:00) Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda. (Founders #281) (44:00) Anna ran the magazine with iron fisted discipline. (48:00) With Anna you get two minutes. The second minute is a courtesy. (49:00) It is slothful not to compress your thoughts. — Winston Churchill (52:00) Anna intentionally builds relationships with the most powerful people in her industry. (52:00) Anna saw the potential for the industry and how she can expand the power and the influence that her individually, and Vogue as a brand, by just combining all these people that are already in the ecosystem and then intentionally putting th
Sun, October 29, 2023
#325 Larry Gagosian (Billionaire Art Dealer)
What I learned from reading How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (4:00) The dealer has been so successful selling art to masters of the universe that he has become one of them. (5:45) We think of genius as being complicated, but geniuses have the fewest moving parts. Gagosian is simple. He's basically a shark, a feeding machine. (6:00) A novice is easily spotted because they do too much. Too many ingredients, too many movements. Too much explanation. A master uses the fewest motions required to fulfill their intention. (10:00) His own publicist described him as “A Real Killer” (12:00) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. (Founders #292) (17:30) There is always a blueprint. Joseph Duveen was the art dealer to the Robber Barons. Biographies of Duveen: Duveen: A Life in Art Secrets Of An Art Dealer Duveen The Artful Partners: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen (18:00) Numerous friends of Gagosian caution me not to mistake this merry-go-round of parties and galas and super yacht cruises for a life of leisure. This guy is always working. This motherfucker works 24/7. The parties are marketing showcases in disguise. (19:00) The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. (Founders #296) (19:30) The best way to raise the price of something is to say that you would never sell it. (23:00) If Gagosian possesses one secret weapon that has equipped him for success it might be his disinhibition. (33:00) The niche Gagosian pursued was seen —at the time —as low status. The secondary business was perceived as a backwater by dealers. It was considered a bit distasteful. (42:00) He disdains formal meetings. He finds bureaucracy and protocol dull. There is no hierarchy. There is Larry and then everyone else. (44:00) Gagosian reaps huge profits from asymmetries of information. (51:00) Art is just money on the walls. (54:00) David Geffen is still as liquid as the day is long. (56:00) The competitive drive of self-made billionaires does not go into remission once they’ve made their fortune. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “ I have listened to every ep
Sat, October 21, 2023
#324 John D. Rockefeller (38 Letters Rockefeller Wrote to His Son)
What I learned from reading The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to His Son by John D. Rockefeller. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (5:00) My Influence had been extended to all corners of the oil industry. If I say that I have the power of life and death over oil producers and oil refiners, that is not a lie. I can make them wealthy or I can make them worthless. (7:25) I never thought I would lose. As far as my nature is concerned, I do not meet competition. I destroy competitors. (8:30) Retreat means surrender. Retreat will turn you into a slave. The war is inevitable. Let it come. (9:00) Bring a steel like determination to face all kinds of challenges. (13:45) I firmly believe that our destiny is determined by our actions and not by our origins. (15:45) Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus. (Founders #232) (21:00) The glory and success of the family cannot guarantee the future of a children and grandchildren. (22:30) People of poor backgrounds will actively develop their abilities while also seizing various opportunities because they urgently need to rescue themselves. (26:00) Luck is the remnant of design luck is the remnant of design. — Cyrus McCormick (27:30) Rockefeller explains to his son, in writing, exactly what he was: A conqueror. (28:00) Everyone is a designer and architect of his own destiny. (29:00) If you do everything you will win: All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything. — The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (32:00) Visionary businessmen are always good at finding opportunities in every disaster. And that is how I did it. (36:00) Anything can happen in this world. (38:30) People who climb up in any industry are fully committed to what they are doing. They sincerely love the work that they do. If you sincerely love the work that you do you will naturally succeed. (41:00) Do it now. Opportunity comes from opportunity. (42:00) Action solves everything . (42:00) Always more audacity. — Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. (Founders #319) (43:00) So at this time we’d better push it. We’d better push it. (43:00) Smart people make things happ
Bonus · Tue, October 10, 2023
Mike Bloomberg
What I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [2:08] Answering to no one is the ultimate situation. [3:02] Twitter thread on Michael Bloomberg by Neckar.Substack.com [5:28] We never made the error that so many others have: mistaking their product for the device that delivers it. [6:27] We knew our core product was data and analytics. [7:01] We were motivated by an idea that we could build something new that just might make a difference. [9:04] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger [10:05] I was willing to do anything that they wanted. I would have never left voluntarily. [16:00] Street smarts and common sense were better predictors of career achievements. [17:40] Almost all occupations have a big selling component: selling your firm, your ideas and yourself. [18:20] It is the doers, the lean and hungry ones, those with ambition in their eyes and fire in their bellies, who go the furthest and achieve the most. [21:36] Comparing John to Bill on leadership, I always thought John was more egalitarian, but less effective. [22:55] It was a lowly start. We slaved in our underwear and an un-air conditioned, a bank vault. [23:57] The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb [24:22] Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman [27:20] David Geffen biography: The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood [30:07] It's said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. I believe that. You can never have complete mastery over your existence. You can't choose the advantages you start out with, and you certainly can't pick your genetic intelligence level. But you can control how hard you work. [31:20] Life, I've found, works the following way: Daily, you're presented with many small and surprising opportunities. Sometimes you seize one that takes you to the top. Most, though, if valuable at all, take you only a little way. To succeed, you must string together many small incremental advances-rather than count on hitting the lottery jackpot once. Trusting to great luck is a strategy not likely to work for most people. As a practical matter, constantly enhance your
Tue, October 03, 2023
#323 Jimmy Buffett
What I learned from reading Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way by Ryan White and A Pirate Looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (8:00) Q: What are you going to do with your life? A: Live a pretty interesting one. (10:00) A lesson that his grandfather taught him: The only thing standing between Jimmy and the world would be a lack of imagination an an over abundance of caution. All he had to do was leap and the world would be his. (13:00) There is a lot of Mark Twain in Jimmy Buffett. Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. (Founders #312) (13:30) There was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal. The whole idea of a conventional existence was like Kryptonite to me. — Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141) (15:00) Jimmy Buffett and Warren Buffett: Their lives are illustrations of the power of compounding. (16:30) A hit song was nice. But owning the publishing on a hit song was even better. (17:30) Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) (19:30) You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something. — Steve Jobs (24:00) If you want to create and capture lasting value, don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (Founders #278) (28:00) It is ironic that I was never categorizable and now I’m a category. — Jimmy Buffett (28:00) Billy asked me who I saw myself like in today's music scene. I told him, nobody. I really didn't see myself like anybody. What really set me apart in these days was my repertoire. It was more formidable than the rest of the players. There were a lot of better musicians around but there wasn't anybody close in nature to what I was doing. — Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan. (Founders #259) (29:00) No one is ever eager to fix a cash machine that isn't broken. (29:00) You can’t sell a bagless vacuum cleaner to people that make $500 million a year selling vacuum bags. — <a href="https://amzn.to/
Tue, September 26, 2023
#322 Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)
What I learned from reading Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg and Herb’s Heroes by David Sanders. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (2:30) Reality is chaotic; planning is ordered and logical. The two don’t square with one another. (5:30) You undergo a lot of stress all the time. How do you handle it? I don’t handle it. I like it. (7:30) He smoked 5 packs of cigarettes a day. He drank Wild Turkey Bourbon daily. He said “Wild Turkey and Phillip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life.” (8:00) He built the most successful airline in history. Southwest was profitable for 47 straight years. (9:30) All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle (18:00) Kelleher didn’t mince any words: “I told Lamar, you roll right over the son of a bitch and leave our tire tracks on his uniform if you have to.” (27:30) No carrier knows its niche as well as Southwest. (28:30) While other carriers have been lured by the temptation to step outside their niche, Southwest has maintained the discipline to stay focused on its fundamental reason for being. (29:00) Herb on why he was conservative with debt: When there are bad times you aren't threatened by debt payments and debt payments are what put other airlines in and out of bankruptcy forever. (30:00) Southwest is obsessed with keeping costs low to maximize profitability instead of being concerned with increasing market share. (30:15) Southwest is willing to forgo revenue generating opportunities in markets that would disproportionately increase its costs. (35:00) Keller has said on many occasions that a company is never more vulnerable to complacency than when it's at the height of its success. The number one threat is us he would say. (38:30) When we look back at the last 20 years it is obvious that a number of large companies were so set in their ways that they did not adapt properly and lost out as a result. 20 years from now, we'll look back and we'll see the same pattern. — Bill Gates (39:00) Herb Kelleher illustrates the speed with which Southwest moves by telling a story about Don Valentine, former VP of marketing. Valentine had just joined from Dr. Pepper when the marketing group met in January to discuss a new television campaign. Valentine was ready with his timeline for producing the spots: -script in March -script approval in April -casting in June -shoot in September When Vale
Thu, September 21, 2023
#321 Working with Jeff Bezos
What I learned from reading Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr. --- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . --- (8:00) Principles Jeff Bezos would repeat: customer obsession, innovation, frugality, personal ownership, bias for action, high standards. (10:30) Single threaded leadership: For each project, there is a single leader whose focus is that project and that project alone, and that leader oversees teams of people whose attention is focused on that one project. (11:00) The best thing I did as a manager at PayPal was to make every person in the company responsible for doing just one thing. Every employee’s one thing was unique, and everyone knew I would evaluate him only on that one thing. I had started doing this just to simplify the task of managing people. But then I noticed a deeper result: defining roles reduced conflict. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel. ( Founders #278 ) (12:30) Jeff said many times: We need to eliminate communication, not encourage it. Communication is a sign of dysfunction. (14:30) Jeff is insisted that instead of finding new and better ways to manage our dependencies, we figure out how to remove them. (15:30) Jeff on decision making speed: “Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you're probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you're good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure." (16:30) The best way to fail at inventing something is by making it somebody's part-time job. (21:00) Even though you cannot hear it, with a well-written narrative there is a massive amount of useful information that is being transferred in those 20 minutes. (23:00) A simple tip on how to produce unique insights: Jeff has an uncanny ability to read a narrative and consistently arrive at insights that no one else did, even though we were all reading the same narrative. After one meeting, I asked him how he was able to do that. He responded with a simple and useful tip that I have not forgotten: he assumes each sentence he reads is wrong until he can prove otherwise. He's challenging the content of the sentence, not the motive of the writer. Jeff was usually among the
Thu, September 14, 2023
#320 The Making of Winston Churchill Part 2
What I learned from reading Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (5:00) It was better for the world that he had known failure and suffered moments of self doubt. (6:00) There was something in Churchill's character that simply wouldn't allow him to give up. He was a dangerous optimist. (8:00) History likes winners. (9:30) The adventures and ordeals of those early years were essential to the making of a man who triumphed in the second world war. (10:00) At 40 he was largely written off as a man whose best days were behind him. (Churchill shares a lot of parallels with Steve Jobs) (10:30) He fashioned his career as a grand experiment to prove that he could work his will on his times. Persevering in that approach, despite repeated setbacks and often harsh ridicule of those who didn't share his high opinion of himself. (13:00) At the heart of this story is an irrepressible spirit. (17:30) Little men let events take their course. I like things to happen. And if they don't happen, I like to make them happen. (15:00) In every age there are great men. Why not us? And why not now? (19:30) Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. (22:00) While other politicians were content to get their information from a scattering of newspapers, Churchill devoured whole shelves. (23:00) Winston Churchill wanted to be the dominant political figure of his time. (23:30) Robert Caro's books on Lyndon Johnson (26:30) Listen to Invest Like The Best #343 David Senra (30:00) If a man is sure of himself it only sharpens him and makes him more effective. (35:00) Another thing Steve Jobs and Winston Churchill had in common: High Energy. This story about Steve Jobs in incredible . (36:00) The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) (44:00) Churchill to his son: “Your idle and lazy life is very offensive to me. You appear to be leading a perfectly useless existence." — The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
Bonus · Mon, September 11, 2023
Sam Zemurray (The Fish That Ate the Whale)
What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- [4:47] This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does. But I found it invigorating, too. It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making grandees in funny hats but also by street-corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real. [8:56] Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55) [10:00] Unlike Vanderbilt's other adversaries William Walker was not afraid of Cornelius when he should have been. [12:21] The immigrants of that era could not afford to be children. [12:42] The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen [12:54] He was driven by the same raw energy that has always attracted the most ambitious to America, then pushed them to the head of the crowd. Grasper, climber-nasty ways of describing this kid, who wants what you take for granted. From his first months in America, he was scheming, looking for a way to get ahead. You did not need to be a Rockefeller to know the basics of the dream: Start at the bottom, fight your way to the top. [14:01] There is no problem you can't solve if you understand your business from A to Z. [17:08] Sam spotted an opportunity where others saw nothing. [18:17] As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit and similar firms were too slow-footed to cover ground. It was a calculation based on arrogance. I can be fast where others have been slow. I can hustle where others have been satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade. [18:42] The kid on the streets is getting a shot at a dream. He sees the guy who gets rich and thinks, yep, that'll be me. He ignores the other stories going around. // There's no way to quantify all that on a spreadsheet, but it's that dream of being the exception, the one who gets rich and gets out before he gets got that's the key to a hustler's motivation. — Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) [26:36] He was pure hustle. [28:15] Preston later spoke of Zemurray with admiration. He said the kid from Russia was closer in spirit to the banana pioneers than anyone else working. "He's a risk taker," Preston explained, “he's a thinker, and he's a doer.” [30:33] They don't write books about people that st
Tue, September 05, 2023
#319 The Making of Winston Churchill Part 1
What I learned from reading Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:30) He was meant not just to fight for his country, but one day to lead it. Although he believed this without question, he still had to convince everyone else. (3:30) He didn't even have a plan. Just the unshakeable conviction that he was destined for greatness. (4:00) Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) (4:30) Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden (5:00) The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. (Founders #175) (8:00) In his open pursuit of fame and popular favor, Churchill seemed far less Victorian than Rooseveltian. (8:30) Winston advertises himself as simply and as unconsciously as he breathes. Churchill was widely criticized for being a self advertiser. (9:30) “I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod." (9:30) Churchill did not need encouragement. He only needed a chance. (11:00) "I have faith in my star. That I am intended to do something in the world." (12:30) "I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending." (13:30) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (17:30) Winston had spent the best years of his life composing his impromptu speeches. (18:00) He had no one who believed in him quite as much as he believed in himself. (20:30) He was defiantly determined to decide for himself where he would go and what he would do. (27:00) From studying the outcome of past expeditions, he believed that those that burdened themselves with equipment to meet every contingency had fared much worse than those that had sacrificed total preparedness for speed. — Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. (Founders #144) (31:00) Nothing but being shot at will ever teach men the art of using cover. (32:00) The greater the obstacle, the greater the triumph. (34:00) He had hated his captivity with an intensity that surprised even him. He could not bear the thought of being in another man's control. (35:00) Who shall say what is possible or impossible, in these spheres of action one cannot tell without a trial. (36:00) Always
Bonus · Sun, September 03, 2023
The best interview I've ever done about Founders
What I learned from the first 6 years of making Founders. I recorded a new episode with Patrick. It should be out soon. Follow Invest Like the Best in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss it. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 27, 2023
#318 Alistair Urquhart (Listen to this when you’re stressed)
What I learned from reading The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific by Alistair Urquhart. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (4:00) I hope that this book will be inspirational and offer hope to those who suffer adversity in their daily lives. (10:00) You might as well send a cow in pursuit of a rabbit. The Indians were accustomed to these woods. — Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. (Founders #251) (13:30) When you reach a large goal or finally get to the top, the distractions and new assumptions can be dizzying. First comes heightened confidence, followed quickly by overconfidence, arrogance, and a sense that “we’ve mastered it; we’ve figured it out; we’re golden.” But the gold can tarnish quickly. Mastery requires endless remastery. In fact, I don’t believe there is ever true mastery. It is a process, not a destination. — The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. (Founders #106) (15:30) Invaders are always organized. (23:00) Stay at the front and do not look back. (29:00) Every morning I would tell myself over and over: Survive this day. Survive this day. Survive this day. (32:00) On countless occasions I've seen two men with the same symptoms and same physical state and one will die and one will make it. I can only put that down to sheer willpower. (35:00) Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts (41:00) Dan Carlin's Nightmares of Indianapolis podcast episode (48:00) Alistair Urquhart was conscripted into the British military to fight during World War II. He was 19 years old. He was sent to Singapore. The Japanese invaded and he was taken hostage. He survived 750 days in the jungle working as a slave on The Death Railway and the bridge on the River Kwai. Most of the time he worked completely naked. He contracted dysentery, malaria, and tropical ulcers. A lot. He was transferred to a Japanese hellship. The ship was torpedoed. Almost everyone on the ship died. He survived. He spent 5 days adrift at sea until he was picked up by a Japanese whaling ship. He was sent to Nagasaki and forced to work in a mine. Two months later he was struck by the blast from the Atomic bomb. He was freed by the US Marines shortly thereafter. He returns home to Scotland and finds out his best friend died in the war and the girl he loved got married and moved to Canada. At 90 years of age he wrote the book to inspire others to persevere when th
Mon, August 21, 2023
#317 Ed Catmull (Founder of Pixar)
What I learned from rereading Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:00) Walt Disney created a made-up world, used cutting-edge technology to enable it, and then told us how he’d done it. (7:30) Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #187) (7:30) Both Einstein and Disney inspired me, but Disney affected me more because of his weekly visits to my family's living room. (7:45) Every time some technological breakthrough occurred, Walt Disney incorporated it. (9:30) His dad was the son of an Idaho dirt farmer. His dad was one of 14 kids. 5 of his dad's siblings died as infants. His dad was the first person in his family ever to go to college. He had to work while he was going to college and pay his own way. His dad built the family house with his own hands. (10:30) When you read biographies of people who've done great work, it's remarkable how much luck is involved. They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up. So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions. — How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. (Founders #314) (12:30) The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis (Founders #274) (14:00) George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones (Founders #35) (15:00) We [Ed Catmull and George Lucas] worked with a blinders on intensity. George had relentless practicality. He wasn't some hobbyist trying to bring technology into filmmaking for the heck of it. His interest in computers began and ended with their potential to add value to his filmmaking process. (19:00) George Lucas believed in the future and his ability to shape it. (20:30) The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world. — Steve Jobs (20:30) The art of storytelling is critically important. Most of the entrepreneurs who come talk to us can't tell a story. Learning to tell a story is incredibly important because that's how the money works. The money flows as a function of the stories — Don Valentine (22:30) Steve used the phrase insanely great products to explain what he believed in. (26:30) This guy told me that the way to establish his authority in the room was to arrive last. His thinking was this would establish him as the most powerful player in the room since he could afford to keep everyone else waiting. All i
Mon, August 14, 2023
#316 Bugatti
What I learned from reading The Bugatti Story by L’Ebe Bugatti. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:01) If there was a prototype operation for what Enzo Ferrari envisioned it had to be what the legendary Ettore Bugatti built in Molsheim. — Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates. (Founders #220) (7:00) Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. (Founders #97) (14:30) I determined to build a car of my own. I had realized by then that I was completely taken by mechanics. My ideas gave me no rest. (16:00) The two inventors described to each other a singular experience: Each had imagined a perfect new product, whole, already manufactured and sitting before him, and then spent years prodding executives, engineers, and factories to create it with as few compromises as possible. — Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264) (22:00) Faster progress would be made in all fields if conceit did not cause us to forget or disdain the work done by others before us. There is a tendency to believe that nothing worthy of note has been done in the past, and this has an unfortunate bearing on our judgment; thus the present trend toward mediocrity. (23:45) I was hypnotized, drawn more and more to the mechanics of motors. These exciting problems had me completely under their sway, and so began for me the hard uphill task, the thankless labor of constructing and destroying and beginning again, without a break or rest, and for days, months, years even, until success finally rewarded all my efforts. (27:00) Bugatti made no attempt to compete with the low price models already on the market. The price of the Bugatti was higher than any other car of equal horsepower. (37:00) Bugatti is the personification of Paul Graham’s essay How To Do Great Work (Founders #314) -Work on what you have a natural aptitude for and a deep curiosity about. -Make a commitment to be the best in the world at what you do. -Care deeply about making truly great work. (42:00) All the finest trophies were won easily by engaging in every important race without pause. (44:00) Nothing is too good. Nothing is too dear. You've got to win whatever the cost. You work day and night if necessary. (44:30) There was a factory. However Molsheim was more than that. It was a house and a family. It was a little world where the attitude to things and the relations between people were out of the ordinary. (45:30) The personality of its founder continued to show in e
Mon, August 07, 2023
#315 Balenciaga
What I learned from reading Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:20) Among the masters of Parisian fashion, Balenciaga was the greatest. (3:00) Christian Dior called Balenciaga “the master of us all" and Coco Chanel said that Balenciaga was "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word. The others are simply fashion designers". (3:30) Jay Gould episodes #258 and #285 (5:00) For the next seventy-four years Balenciaga did a piece of sewing every day of his life. (5:20) Being prolific is underrated. — Paul Graham (Founders #314) (8:45) From the age of three to his mid-twenties he learned thoroughly every aspect of his trade. (17:00) Bernard Arnault (Founders #296) (23:00) What Dior told Boussac: What you need, and I would like to run, is a craftsman’s workshop, in which we would recruit the very best people in the trade, to reestablish in Paris a salon for the greatest luxury and the highest standards of workmanship. It will cost a great deal of money and entail much risk.” (26:00) Balenciaga never commented on other designers. (28:00) Balenciaga had a religious like devotion to his craft: Balenciaga regarded making dresses as a vocation, like the priesthood, and an act of worship. He felt that he served God by suitably adorning the female form, which God had made beautiful. (29:00) Customers were called patrons. (30:00) His remoteness was not a pose but part of his dedication to his art. He worked fanatically hard. (31:00) His fundamental principles as a dressmaker: Make women happy. Make dresses the customer never wants to take off. Permanence. You should bequeath your dress to your daughter. And her to her daughter. Best material from the best textile creators. (33:00) You don’t wear a Balenciaga dress, you present it. (Make up your own terms!) (35:00) The essence of his creations was the work of human hands, bringing into existence the images projected on paper from his powerful and inventive brain. The archives of his firm survive intact, and they reveal the extent to which everything was done by hand: (37:00) Cut against the bias. ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers .” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, July 31, 2023
#314 Paul Graham (How To Do Great Work)
What I learned from reading How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:00) All you need to do is find something you have an aptitude for and great interest in. (2:10) Doing great work means doing something important so well that you expand people's ideas of what's possible. (4:15) How many even discover something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand, perhaps, out of billions. — How to Do What You Love by Paul Graham (5:10) Always preserve excitingness. (Let what you are excited about guide you) (8:15) If you're excited about some possibility that everyone else ignores, and you have enough expertise to say precisely what they're all overlooking, that's as good a bet as you'll find. (9:15) How To Work Hard by Paul Graham (10:05) When you follow what you are intensely interested in this strange convergence happens where you're working all the time and it feels like you're never working. (10:20) You can't tell what most kinds of work are like except by doing them. You may have to work at something for years before you know how much you like it or how good you are at it. (13:00) When it comes to figuring out what to work on, you're on your own. (14:00) Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. (Founders #312) (17:15) One sign that you're suited for some kind of work is when you like even the parts that other people find tedious or frightening. (17:50) Make what you are most excited about. (19:00) If you're interested, you're not astray. (19:30) Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300) (20:15) At each stage do whatever seems most interesting and gives you the best options for the future. I call this approach "staying upwind." This is how most people who've done great work seem to have done it. (22:50) In many projects a lot of the best work happens in what was meant to be the final stage. (25:00) A Mathematician’s Apology by G.H. Hardy (26:00) Great work usually entails spending what would seem to most people an unreasonable amount of time on a problem . (26:30) The reason we're surprised is that we underestimate the cumulative effect of work. Writing a page a day doesn't sound like much, but if you do it every day you'll write a book a year. That's the key: consistency. People who do great things don't get a lot done every day. They
Tue, July 25, 2023
#313 Christopher Nolan
What I learned from reading The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan by Tom Shone. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:00) The only way I know how to work is to sort of burrow in on one project very obsessively. (7:25) People will say to me, "There are people online who are obsessed with Inception or obsessed with Memento.” They're asking me to comment on that, as if I thought it were weird or something, and I'm like, Well, I was obsessed with it for years. Genuinely obsessed with it. So it doesn't strike me as weird. . . I feel like I have managed to wrap them the up in it way I try to wrap myself up. (8:30) The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron by Rebecca Keegan and The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron. (Founders #311) (11:00) I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m a craftsman. I don’t make a work of art; I make a movie. — George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. (15:30) Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride. (Founders #209) (22:45) Nolan is relentlessly resourceful. He wants to spend as as little money as possible so he can maintain as much control over the project as possible. (23:30) He makes his first movie on the weekends while he working a full-time job! (29:30) The efficiency of filmmaking is for me a way of keeping control. The pressure of time, the pressure of money. Even though they feel like restrictions at the time, and you chafe against them, they're helping you make decisions. They really are. If I know that deadline is there, then my creative process ramps up exponentially. (34:00) The result of making a billion dollar blockbuster: Suddenly his position at Warner Brothers went from solid to unassailable. (37:00) Stories can add to your own thinking but you need your own foundation to add them to first. (38:00) I know it's more fun when we're all together and we can do the thing together. That's why we keep it as a family business. (39:00) Rolls-Royce: The Magic of a Name: The First Forty Years of Britain s Most Prestigious Company by Peter Pugh. (Founders #287) (43:30) Every time a new feature or product was proposed, he decreed that the narrative should take the shape of a mock press release. The goal was to get employees to distill a pitch into its purest essence, to start from something the customer might see—the public announcement—and w
Wed, July 19, 2023
#312 Mark Twain
What I learned from reading Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. --- One of the best podcasts I've heard this year: Listen to Invest Like The Best #336 Jeremy Giffon Special Situations in Private Markets --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:20) A great way to think about power law people: Their absence leaves of void that no one else can fill. (8:00) His death would not have lengthened the life of the Confederacy or the Union, by a single day. It would, however, have reduced the literary inheritance of the United States by an incalculable amount. (11:20) Opportunity is a strange beast. It frequently appears after a loss. (13:00) In another life Mark Twain would be a cocaine dealer. (17:30) I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating. (21:15) The ad itself became legendary: “Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.” Hundreds of adventure-seeking young men quickly responded. (24:30) Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides (27:45) The purest veins were usually the deepest. (28:00) The trouble with this business is that everybody expects to find oil on the surface. If it was up near the top, it wouldn't be any trick to it. You've got to drill deep for oil. — The Big Rich (Founders #149) (32:30) Get the facts first, then you can distort them as much as you like. (33:30) People are attracted to confidence and repelled from nuance. (37:00) The whole point of the performance was not so much what was being said, as how it was being said. (47:30) Ambassador Burlingame gave the author a well-meaning piece of advice. “You have great ability; I believe you have genius,” Burlingame said. “What you need now is refinement of association. Seek companionship among men of superior intellect and character. Refine yourself and your work. Never affiliate with inferiors; always climb.” It was an admonishment Twain would take to heart and follow, virtually to the letter, for the next forty-four years. (53:00) When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it. — Jeff Bezos (57:30) Mark Twain produced a remarkable stream of novels, short stories, essays, and travel pieces that today stands as one of the great bodies of work in English literature. ---- “ I have listened t
Wed, July 12, 2023
#311 James Cameron
What I learned from reading The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron by Rebecca Keegan and The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron. (4:00) I watched Titanic at the Titanic. And he actually replied: Yeah, but I made Titanic at the Titanic. (7:10) I like difficult. I’m attracted by difficult. Difficult is a fucking magnet for me. I go straight to difficult. And I think it probably goes back to this idea that there are lots of smart, really gifted, really talented filmmakers out there that just can’t do the difficult stuff. So that gives me a tactical edge to do something nobody else has ever seen, because the really gifted people don’t fucking want to do it. (7:20) At 68 years old, Cameron wakes up at 4:45 AM and often kick boxes in the morning. (7:45) Self doubt is not something Cameron has a lot of experience with. His confidence preceded his achievements. (9:00) I was going through this stuff, chapter and verse, and making my own notes and all that. I basically gave myself a college education in visual effects and cinematography while I was driving a truck. (16:00) Every idea is a work in progress. (17:30) He's been on a planet of his own making ever since. (18:00) The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron (22:00) Cameron's career has been built on questioning accepted wisdom and believing in the power of the individual. His outlook is that we can take fate in our own hands. (27:00) All creative individuals build on the works of their predecessors. No one creates an a vacuum. — Walt Disney and Picasso (Founders #310) (31:00) Cameron would go to the library at the University of Southern California, photocopying graduate student theses on esoteric filmmaking subjects. He filled two fat binders with technical papers. For the cost of a couple hundred dollars in photocopying, he essentially put himself through a graduate course in visual effects at the top film school in the country without ever meeting a single professor. (34:00) Cameron had only been at Corman's for a matter of days, but he was already taking charge. He seems constitutionally incapable of doing otherwise. (What a line!) He had a very commanding presence. (35:30) Your mediocrity is my opportunity. (37:40) Cameron finds writing torture. He does it anyway. (43:00) Cameron is willing to let ideas marinate for decades. (43:45) "I like doing things I know others can’t.” That's part of what attracts him to shooting movies in water. "Nobody likes shooting in water. It's physically taxing, frustrating, and dangerous. But when you have a small team of people as crazy as you are, that are good at it, there is deep satisfaction
Tue, July 04, 2023
#310 Walt Disney and Picasso
What I learned from reading Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. --- (3:30) Disney made use of the new technologies throughout his creative life. (4:45) Lists of Paul Johnson books and episodes: Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson.(Founders #226) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) (5:55) Picasso was essentially self-taught, self-directed, self-promoted, emotionally educated in the teeming brothels of the city, a small but powerfully built monster of assured egoism. (7:30) Most good copywriters fall into two categories. Poets. And killers. Poets see an ad as an end. Killers as a means to an end. If you are both killer and poet, you get rich. — Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. (Founders #306) (10:00) Whatever you do, you must do it with gusto, you must do it in volume. It is a case of repeat, repeat, repeat. — Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. (Founders #105) (11:30) Picasso averaged one new piece of artwork every day of his life from age 20 until his death at age 91. He created something new every day for 71 years. (15:30) Power doesn't always corrupt. But what power always does is reveal. — Working by Robert Caro (Founders #305) (17:30) Many people find it hard to accept that a great writer, painter, or musician can be evil. But the historical evidence shows, again and again, that evil and creative genius can exist side by side in the same person. In my judgment his monumental selfishness and malignity were inextricably linked to his achievement. He was all-powerful as an originator and aesthetic entrepreneur precisely because he was so passionately devoted to what he was doing, to the exclusion of any other feelings whatever. He had no sense of duty except to himself, and this gave him his overwhelming self-promoting energy. Equally, his egoism enabled him to turn away from nature and into himself with a concentration which is awe-inspiring. (21:30) It shows painfully how even vast creative achievement and unparalleled worldly success can fail to bring happiness. (24:00) Walt Disney (at age 18) wanted to run his own business and be his own master. He had the American entrepreneurial spirit to an unusual degree. (27:00) Recurring theme: Knowing what you want to do but not knowing how to do it—yet. (26:20) All creative individuals build on the works of their
Bonus · Fri, June 30, 2023
Michael Jordan (The Life)
What I learned from reading Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. --- (5:07) His competence was exceeded only by his confidence. (5:58) He worked at the game, and if he wasn't good at something, he had the motivation to be the best at it. (6:33) It seemed that he discovered the secret quite early in his competitive life: the more pressure he heaped on himself, the greater his ability to rise to the occasion. (14:06) At each step along his path, others would express amazement at how hard he competed. At every level, he was driven as if he were pursuing something that others couldn't see. (16:10) Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I'd close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it, and that got me going again. (19:29) Jordan could sense immediately that he had something the others didn't. (59:53) The Jordan Rules succeeded against the Bulls so well that they became textbook for guarding athletic scorers. The scheme helped Detroit win two NBA championships, but it also helped in the long run, by forcing Jordan to find an answer . "I think that 'Jordan Rules' defense, as much as anything else, played a part in the making of Michael Jordan," Tex Winter said. (1:16:35) Jordan had been surprised to learn how lazy many of his Olympic teammates were about practice, how they were deceiving themselves about what the game required . (1:19:56) I have always liked practice and I hate to miss it. When you miss that one day, you feel like you missed a lot. You take extra work to make up for that one day. I've always been a practice player. I believe in it . (1:29:47) Jordan presented a singleness of purpose that was hard to dent. ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers .” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast </
Mon, June 26, 2023
#309 Arnold Schwarzenegger (Before He Was Successful)
What I learned from reading Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak by Barbara Outland Baker. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (6:30) He forced his sons to eat with silverware at perfect right angles. They had to keep their elbows to their waists. If the boys did not obey, the back of his hand was quick to strike their cheeks. (7:30) His life began to flourish through the art and science of bodybuilding. Arnold ate it, slept it, worked it, imagined it, thought it, believed it, and trusted it. Bodybuilding became his existence. (8:10) He had no time to waste on naysayers. He aligned only with those who shared his passion. (8:15) He knew that to succeed according to his manic standards he needed to master an individual sport. (8:30) His intelligence did not show on his report cards yet he mastered his goals like a wizard. (If you do everything you will win) (8:50) His singular concentration provided a rock solid belief in his potential. (9:30) Not even his peers could understand the enormity of his lifetime dreams. (11:00) Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Founders #193) (11:15) Gradually a conflict grew up in our relationship. She was a well-balanced woman who wanted an ordinary, solid life, and I was not a well-balanced man and hated the very idea of ordinary life. She had thought I would settle down, that I would reach the top in my field and level off. But that's a concept that has no place in my thinking. For me, life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer. (13:40) If you do everything you will win. (13:45) And I then saw very clearly what I could achieve, and that gave me a tremendous amount of motivation. (13:55) Instead of training two hours a day like most kids did, I would train twice a day, two hours. Totally abnormal. Sometimes three times a day and sometimes four times a day. I would go home during my lunch time, and then do, for an hour straight, just sit-ups to get that extra hour that no one else has gotten in, just to be ahead of everyone else. (16:20) Arnold was not a man of many surprises. He was clear in his focus, firm in his decisions, and egocentric at all costs. (17:55) Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners. — The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. (Founders #106) (21:20) He made it clear that his world was huge and I must learn to accept that other people and activities demanded his attention. (23:30) H
Mon, June 19, 2023
#308 The Founder of Glock
What I learned from reading Glock: The Rise of America's Gun by Paul Barrett. Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain . --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (5:22) What struck me is how his inexperience was a great advantage. He didn't assume anything about how to design a handgun because he's never designed one before. Consequently he designed the best one ever. He didn't know what was out of bounds. (8:20) Gaston Glock himself put it in an interview: "That I knew nothing was my advantage.” (8:55) He began disassembling the guns, putting them back together, and noted the contrasting methods used to make them. (9:00) More on Glock’s initial research process: I started intensive studies in such a manner that I visited the Austrian patent offices for weeks examining generations of handgun in innovation. (9:10) Learning from history of a form of leverage. (10:25) Crucially, the gun should have no more than 40 parts. This is one of the most important ideas in the book. He designed a product —and a company— based on limiting the amount of moving parts. (12:00) My intention was to learn as much as possible as fast as possible. (12:30) Move fast: I worked for two years, day and night, to bring the sample to the Army on time. (12:45) Difference for the sake of it and retention of total control. — Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300) (15:00) The important thing that gave him his big price advantage was that he designed the pistol for complete production on computer controlled tools. (15:20) The book is all simplicity, focus, and differentiation. (15:30) Glock produced the simplest handgun with only 34 components. (18:30) He's got all these very unique and unusual forms of distribution. (18:35) How did a pistol produced by an obscure engineer in Vienna, a man who barely spoke English and had no familiarity with America, become in the space of a few years, an American icon? The answer to that question is distribution. (20:20) There's a lot of money to be made if we could convert U.S police departments from revolvers to pistols. (22:50) The only conventional thing about the Glock was the method of operation he adopted for his handgun. Glock borrowed his basic mechanics from John Moses Browning, the greatest gun designer of the late 19th century. (24:08) He objected to the Pentagon's insistence that the rights to manufacture the winning gun design would be open to competitive bidding. Glock intended to collect all profit from the production of
Mon, June 12, 2023
#307: The World's Great Family Dynasties: Rockefeller, Rothschild, Morgan, & Toyada
What I learned from reading Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses by David Landes. ---- Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain . Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (4:25) Success causes failure. As the family develops power and prestige, the heirs find many interesting and amusing things to do rather than run their business. (6:00) Those on the margins often come to control the center. (9:00) Great industrial leaders are always fanatically committed to their jobs. They are not lazy, or amateurs. — Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. (Founders #306) (9:50) For many of the great founders “Appetite comes with eating.” (11:00) Rothschild episodes: Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild by Amos Elon. (Founders #197) The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets by Niall Ferguson. (Founders #198) JP Morgan episodes: The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. (Founders #139) The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield. (Founders #142) Rockefeller episodes: Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. (Founders #148) Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248) John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254) (13:30) Mayer Rothschild thought that long term relationships were more valuable than immediate profit. (15:45) Nathan Rothschild has extreme levels of self belief: When his prospective father-in-law asked for proof of his prospects, Nathan told him that if he was concerned about having his daughters provided for, he might just as well give them all to Nathan, and be done with it. (19:00) The Rothschilds developed the technique of absolute direction to perfection. (21:15) Wal-Mart stock is staying right where it is. We don’t need the money. We don’t need to buy a yacht. And thank goodness we never thought we had to go out and buy anything like an island. We just don’t have those lands of needs or ambitions, which wreck a lot of companies when they get along in years. Some families sell their stock off a little at a time to live high, and then—boom
Mon, June 05, 2023
#306 David Ogilvy (Confessions of an Advertising Man)
What I learned from reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. ---- Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (4:15) When Fortune published an article about me and titled it: "Is David Ogilvy a Genius?," I asked my lawyer to sue the editor for the question mark. (4:45) The people who built the companies for which America is famous, all worked obsessively to create strong cultures within their organizations. Companies that have cultivated their individual identities by shaping values, making heroes, spelling out rites and rituals, and acknowledging the cultural network, have an edge (5:30) We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles. A blind pig can sometimes find truffles, but it helps to know that they grow in oak forests. (5:48) We hire gentlemen with brains. (6:16) Only First Class business, and that in a First Class way. (6:25) Search all the parks in all your cities; you'll find no statues of committees. (9:45) Buy Ogilvy on Advertising (10:45) One decent editorial counts for a thousand advertisements. + You simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. A consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two, or even several. — Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300) (15:22) It was inspiring to work for a supreme master. M. Pitard did not tolerate incompetence. He knew that it is demoralising for professionals to work alongside incompetent amateurs. (16:66) You have to be ruthless if you want to build a team of A players. It's too easy, as a team grows, to put up with a few B players, and they then attract a few more B players, and soon you will even have some C players. The Macintosh experience taught me that A players like to work only with other A players, which means you can't indulge B players. (18:12) In the best companies, promises are always kept, whatever it may cost in agony and overtime. (18:33) I have come to the conclusion that the top man has one principal responsibility: to provide an atmosphere in which creative mavericks can do useful work. (19:38) I admire people who work hard, who bite the bullet. (19:58) I admire people with first class brains. (20:23) I admire people who work with gusto. If you don't enjoy what you are doing, I beg you to find another job. Remember the Scottish proverb, "Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead." (20:50) I admire self-confident professionals, the craftsmen who do their jobs with superlative excellence.
Mon, May 29, 2023
#305 Robert Caro on power, poverty, ruthlessness, & obsession
What I learned from reading Working by Robert Caro. ---- Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best: Sam Hinkie: Find Your People ---- [3:40] You can't get very deep into Johnson's life without realizing that the central fact of his life was his relationship with his father. [8:00] It was the hill country and his father's failures that taught him how terrible could be the consequences of a single mistake. [8:45] Lyndon Johnson wouldn't understand. He would refuse to understand. He would threaten you, would cajole you, bribe you or charm you. He would do whatever he had to do, but he would get that vote. [9:00] What mattered to him was winning because he knew what losing could be. What its consequences could be. [9:50] Robert Caro books I've read: The Power Broker The Path to Power Means of Ascent Master of The Senate (currently reading) [11:00] About what I wanted to do with my life and my books (which are my life) [11:40] I am a reflection of what I do. — Steve Jobs [23:20] There are certain moments in your life when you suddenly understand something about yourself. I loved going through those files, making them yield up their secrets to me. [24:10] Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamn page. [27:50] Robert Caro snaps: No, that's not why highways get built where they get built. They get built there because Robert Moses wants them there . [28:15] Robert Moses had power that no one understood. Power that nobody else was even thinking about. [29:50] There are sentences that are said to you in your life that are chiseled into your memory. [34:00] Three of the editors took me to some fancy restaurant and told me they could make me a star. Bob Gottlieb said, Well, I don't go out for lunch but we can have a sandwich at my desk and talk about your book. So of course I picked him. [37:15] Robert Moses was a ruthless genius with savage energy. [38:30] Ambitious people are rare , so if everyone is mixed together randomly, as they tend to be early in people's lives, then the ambitious ones won't have many ambitious peers. When you take people like this and put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water. Probably most ambitious people are starved for the sort of encouragement they'd get from ambitious peers , whatever their age. — Paul Graham’s essays . (Founders #275-277) [42:30] in a couple of sentences these two men —idols of mine — had
Mon, May 22, 2023
#304: Sol Price (The Founder Who Taught Jim Sinegal, Sam Walton, Jeff Bezos, Bernie Marcus)
What I learned from reading Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary by Robert Price. ---- [6:50] He believed in developing strong operating efficiencies, and he continually emphasized passing on savings to customers. [8:48] It's pretty incredible to think about that Sol's ideas have created trillions of dollars of value. [11:18] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. — Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) [14:00] Stephen King on the belief and support he received from his wife: “Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference”— Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. (Founders #210) [16:00] True education is gained through the discipline of life. —Henry Ford [19:45] Sol kept a small sign in his office: “Do it now.” [24:00] Sol finds an idea future generations of entrepreneurs will use: A membership retail store targeted to a specific niche. [24:45] When you have people driving far distances to save money that is a very good sign. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) [26:45] Daniel Ek interview on the Acquired podcast . [39:10] If you’re not spending 90% of your time teaching, you’re not doing your job. —Jim Sinegal. [39:45] You train an animal, you teach a person. [40:00] He was not a fan of training manuals because he believed that manuals were a substitute for thinking. [43:00] What does limited selection have to do with efficiency? Because payroll and benefits represent 80% of a retailer’s cost of operations, pricing advantage follows labor productivity. Fewer items result in reduced labor hours throughout all of the product supply channels. Put simply, the cost to deal with 4,500 items is a lot less than the cost to deal with 50,000 items. [50:21] The operating efficiencies of the warehouse concept and the direct delivery of products from the suppliers to Price Club made it possible to sell merchandise for less. [55:00] Costco and Sam's were expanding aggressively while Price Club remained tentative. [1:03:30] Sol was a poster child for the American dream. His immigrant parents were born in a small Russian village. Sol was the first in his family to graduate college. He earned a law degree. He became an exceptionally successful businessman and philanthropist, celebrated 70 years of marriage, was a good father who instilled high values in his sons, and he never walked away from responsibility. It do
Sun, May 14, 2023
#303 Rose Blumkin (Warren Buffett's Favorite Founder)
What I learned from reading The Women of Berkshire Hathaway: Lessons from Warren Buffett's Female CEOs and Directors by Karen Linder. ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas—A New Blueprint for Homebuilding ---- Episode outline: Mr. Buffett, we're going to put our competitors through a meat grinder. — Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. (Founders #182) There are several "Going Out of Business" advertisements from competitors' stores framed and hanging on the wall. As a general rule, bet on the quality of the business, not on the quality of the management-unless, of course, you've got a Mrs. B. in your hand. If that is the case, go all in. She was a business genius . — The Tao of Charlie Munger (Founders #295) Retirement is fatal. — David Ogilvy (Founders #189) Business like raising a child, you want a good one. A child needs a mother and a business needs a boss. What is your favorite thing to do on a nice evening? Drive around to check the competition and plan my next attack. He was 52 and famous. I was 33 and a junior account executive. Early on, he wrote a letter to one of my clients. After listing eight reasons why some ads prepared by the company’s design department would not be effective, he delivered his ultimate argument: The only thing that can be said in favor of the layouts is that they are “different.” You could make a cow look different by removing the udder. But that cow would not produce results. So began my “David” file. Almost everyone who worked at the agency kept one. — The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising by Kenneth Roman. (Founders #169) Buffet said: If she ran a popcorn stand I’d wanna be in business with her. She's just plain smart. She's a fierce competitor and she's a tireless worker. Buffett “on how Mrs. B ran her business: One question I always ask myself in appraising a business is how I would like, assuming I had ample capital and skilled personnel, to compete with it. I'd rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Mrs. B. They buy brilliantly, they operate at expense ratios on to t competitors don't even dream about, and they then pass on to their customers much of the savings. It's the ideal business—one built upon exceptional value to the customer that in turn translates into exceptional economics for its owners ." She hired a chauffeur who drove her around Omaha each day. The driver took her to other stores. She looked in the windows and checked to see how many cars were in their parking lots. It didn't take long for her to plan her r
Mon, May 08, 2023
#302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon)
What I learned from reading The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas ---- (3:45) A man who combined energy of thought and energy of action to an exceptional degree. (4:45) He knows that men have always been the same, that nothing can change their nature. It is from the past that he will draw his lessons in order to shape the present. (5:15) Destiny must be fulfilled. That is my chief doctrine. (6:05) Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell (Founders #294) (9:25) To aim at world empire seemed to Napoleon a most natural thing. (10:00) To have lived without glory, without leaving a trace of one's existence, is not to have lived at all. (10:55) The greatest improvisation of the human mind is that which gives existence to the nonexistent. (11:45) The best way to understand a person is to listen to that person directly. — Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words (Founders #299) (12:55) The great majority of men attend to what is necessary only when they feel a need for it—the precise time when it is too late. (16:10) The worst way to live according to Napoleon: When on rising from sleep a man does not know what to do with himself and drags his tedious existence from place to place; when, scanning his future, he sees nothing but dreadful monotony, one day resembling the next; when he asks himself, "Why do I exist?”—then, in my opinion, he is the most wretched of all. (17:45) Instead his (Steve Jobs) ego needs and personal drives led him to seek fulfillment by creating a legacy that would awe people. A dual legacy, actually: building innovative products and building a lasting company. He wanted to be in the pantheon with, indeed a notch above, people like Edwin Land, Bill Hewlett, and David Packard. — Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #214) (19:15) He must know himself. Until then, all endeavors are in vain, all schemes collapse. (20:15) Napoleon on George Washington: Britain refused to acknowledge either him or the independence of his country; but his success obliged them to change their minds and acknowledge both. It is success which makes the great man. (21:15) Washington saw the conflict as a struggle for power in which the colonists, if victorious, destroyed British pretentions of superiority and won control over half of a continent. —
Mon, May 01, 2023
#301 Tiger Woods
What I learned from reading Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas ---- [3:00] He was someone no one had ever seen or will ever see again. [5:20] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. — Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) [7:15] His output was enormous, much greater than that of nine tenths of other composers. He was a mature artist in most forms at the age of twelve. There was never a month, often scarcely a week, when he did not produce a substantial score. — Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) [7:50] Tiger's opponents were never people; it was always history. [14:05] I've always been a practice player. I believe in it. — Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #212) [17:00] Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc. (Founders #293) [18:30] Tiger was filling his mind with words that were intended to make him great. He wrote some of the messages from the self-help cassettes on a sheet of paper that he taped to his bedroom wall: I believe in me I will own my own destiny I smile at obstacles I am first in my resolve I fulfill my resolutions powerfully My strength is great I stick to it, easily, naturally My will moves mountains I focus and give it my all My decisions are strong I do it with all my heart Tiger listened to those tapes so often that he wore them out. [31:50] People would ask him how did you get so good Tiger? And he would answer, practice, practice, practice. [32:10] The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think. — The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen. [36:45] The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. (Founders #106) [40:15] That’s all training is. Stress. Recover. Improve. You’d think any damn fool could do it. But you don’t. You work too hard and rest too little and get hurt. — Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Cofounder by Kenny Moore. (Founders #153) [46:15] Money didn't motivate him. Nor did fame. He played for the hardware. He played for the win. [53:45] <a href="https://a
Mon, April 24, 2023
#300 James Dyson (Against the Odds)
What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson for the 4th time. You can also find the book on Book Finder . ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra: Passion and Pain ---- Episode Outline: [4:30] Invention: A Life by James Dyson (Founders #205) [2:41] I am a creator of products, a builder of things, and my name appears on them. That is how I make a living and they are what have made my name at least familiar in a million homes. [11:00] Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Definitive Biography of The Engineer, Visionary, and Great Briton by L.T.C. Rolt. (Founders #201) [13:10] After the idea there is plenty of time to learn the technology. My first cyclonic vacuum cleaner was built out of cereal packets and masking tape long before I understood how it worked. [14:15] Difference for the sake of it. In everything. Because it must be better. From the moment the idea strikes, to the running of the business. Difference, and retention of total control. [18:00] I would not be dragged into something I didn't want to do. [22:40] They were all running round and round the track like a herd of sheep and not getting any quicker. Difference itself was making me come in first. [23:34] As I grew more and more neurotic about being caught from behind I trained harder to stay in front. To this day it is the fear of failure, more than anything else, which makes me keep working at success. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was unable to think small, and nothing was a barrier to him. The mere fact that something had never been one before presented, to Brunel, no suggestion that the doing of it was impossible. He was fired by an inner strength and self-belief almost impossible to imagine in this feckless age. While I could never lay claim to the genius of a man like that —I have tried to be as confident in my vision as he was. And at times in my life when I have encountered difficulty and self-doubt I have looked to his example to fire me on. [30:33] The vision of a single man pursued with dogged determination that was nothing less than obsession. [36:30] The root principle was to do things your way. It didn't matter how other people did it. [41:38] You simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. A consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two, or even several. [49:30] A direct relationship with the customer is the holy grail. Do not abandon it. [52:00] One of the strains of this book is about control. If you have the intimate knowledge of a product that comes with dreaming it up and then designing it, I have been trying to say, then you will be the better able t
Mon, April 17, 2023
#299 Steve Jobs (Make Something Wonderful)
What I learned from reading Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words . ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra: Passion and Pain ---- (3:48) He gave an extraordinary amount of thought to how best to use our fleeting time. (4:24) He imagined what reality lacked and set out to remedy it. (7:27) Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview Video and My Notes . (10:02) Edwin Land episodes: Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264) Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263) A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134) Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133) The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132) Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Founders #40) (13:23) Think of your life as a rainbow arcing across the horizon of this world. You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear. (14:10) One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock. (Founders #260) (15:42) Read Jeff Bezos's sh
Mon, April 10, 2023
#298 I had lunch with Sam Zell
What I learned from having lunch with Sam Zell and reading Zeckendorf: The Autobiography of The man Who Played a Real-Life Game of Monopoly and Won the Largest Real Estate Empire in History by William Zeckendorf. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com You can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs? Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent? What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors? Get access to Founders Notes here . Episode Outline: [27:31] Start of episode on Zeckendorf’s autobiography [27:44] 26 years of work was now moving down the chute. [28:36] The secret of any great project is to keep it moving, keep it from losing momentum. [34:55] If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. — Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. (Founders #297) [36:21] Zeckendorf: Revisiting the legacy of a master builder [45:08] This ruthless industry has created far more bankruptcies than it has billionaires. — Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur by Francis Greenburger. (Founders #243) [48:49] If you want to know whether you are destined to be a success or a failure in life, you can easily find out. The test is simple and it is infallible: Are you able to save money? If not, drop out. You will lose. You may think not, but you will lose as sure as you live. The seed of success is not in you. — James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest by Michael P. Malone. [53:20] I brought energy and drive. I became the chief enthusiast. [1:08:42] I was also deeply in debt. Never, except for rare moments, have I ever had my head very far above the financial water and never have I Iet this trouble me. [1:10:51] The importance to me of being on the heights was that in an hour I could achieve what previously would've taken a year or more of effort to perform. [1:11:13] One way to succeed i
Mon, April 03, 2023
#297 Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia)
What I learned from rereading Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! ---- [3:45] One of my favorite sayings about entrepreneurship is: If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing.” [4:32] The original intent for writing Let My People Go Surfing was for it to be a philosophical manual for the employees of Patagonia. We have always considered Patagonia an experiment in doing business in unconventional ways. [7:48] MeatEater Podcast #188 Yvon Chouinard on Belonging to Nature [7:55] The first part of our mission statement, “Make the best product,” is the cornerstone of our business philosophy. “Make the best” is a difficult goal. It doesn’t mean “among the best” or the “best at a particular price point.” It means “make the best,” period . [9:58] When I die and go to hell, the devil is going to make me the marketing director for a cola company. I’ll be in charge of trying to sell a product that no one needs, is identical to its competition, and can’t be sold on its merits . I’d be competing head-on in the cola wars, on price, distribution, advertising, and promotion, which would indeed be hell for me. I’d much rather design and sell products so good and unique that they have no competition . [14:32] We were like a wild species living on the edge of an ecosystem: adaptable, resilient, and tough. [14:49] I believe the way towards mastery of any endeavor is to work towards simplicity. The more you know, the less you need. [15:49] The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry [17:59] Complexity is often a sure sign that the functional needs have not been solved. Take the difference between the Ferrari and the Cadillac of the 1960s. The Ferrari’s clean lines suites its high-performance aims. The Cadillac really didn’t have any functional aims . It didn’t have steering, suspension, aerodynamics, or brakes appropriate to its immense horsepower. All it had to do was convey the idea of power, creature comfort, of a living room floating down the highway to the golf course. So, to a basically ugly shape were added all manner of useless chrome: fins at the back, breasts at the front. Once y
Bonus · Wed, March 29, 2023
A conversation with David and Ben from the Acquired podcast
David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert — of the Acquired podcast — invited me to San Francisco for a discussion on our mutual obsession: spending every waking hour studying the history of entrepreneurship and sharing those lessons on our podcasts. ---- Follow Acquired in your podcast player here or at Acquired.fm This episode is brought to you by: Tiny : Tiny is the easiest way to sell your business. Tiny provides quick and straightforward exits for Founders. Get in touch with Tiny by emailing hi@tiny.com. [3:00] David’s time with Charlie Munger [5:30] Henry Flagler after Standard Oil [8:30] What makes a great biography, and how to capture all sides of complex characters? [11:00] Studying history is a form of leverage to achieve success [13:00] How do we figure out what the true story is for an episode we're doing? [20:30] Silicon Valley should focus more on durability than growth [21:30] How David got into reading biographies and podcasting [25:40] What were each of their influences before starting Acquired and Founders? [35:30] How to suck less over time [37:30] What motivates, Ben, David, and David to get better? [45:00] Dead ends: business model changes, paid podcasts, changing the name to “Adapting”, and Senra's “Autotelic” [51:30] “You’re not advertising to a standing army, you’re advertising to a moving parade” [56:00] Comparison of podcasting business models [1:00:10] Senra’s insane Readwise "healthy twitter" habit [1:04:30] Is it possible for the ultra-wealthy not to mess up their kids? [1:14:30] The fleeting moments you get to spend with your kids [1:17:00] The value of building relationships with best-in-class peers [1:19:30] How the book publishing industry works [1:28:45] How to differentiate yourself as an investor in 2023? [1:38:30] The greatest historical examples as content marketing [2:02:00] The best businesses are cults (and Senra starts one on the episode) [2:07:00] Senra gives feedback to Ben and David on Acquired episode format [2:15:30] Steve Jobs’ 1997 product matrix [2:17:00] The moral imperative to market products that help people [2:23:00] Ray Kroc and Steve Jobs: deeply flawed founders [2:23:30] The founders we idolize are world-builders [2:28:00] When yachts and jets are underpriced assets [2:32:00] How to compete when money is cheap vs. when there are real interest rates [2:39:30] When Ben and David have fixed broken episodes in post-production [2:44:30] Why masters of craft are so interesting to study [2:45:30] Should you listen to advice? [2:51:00] David’s first job detailing cars [2:52:30] The Cuban experience immigrating to Miami [3:01:00] College entrepreneurship programs [3:
Mon, March 27, 2023
#296 Bernard Arnault (The Richest Man in the World)
What I learned from reading The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! ---- [1:16] I am the boss. I shall be here on Monday morning and I shall be running the company in person. [4:30] The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai [5:01] I highly recommend listening to Acquired’s episode on LVMH . It is excellent. [5:16] Business Breakdowns episode LVMH: The Wolf in Cashmere’s Conglomerate [6:16] Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. (Founders #294) [6:18] Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words by Napoleon and J. Christopher Herold. [7:20] I’m not so dominant that I can’t listen to creative ideas coming from other people. Successful people listen. Those who don’t listen, don’t survive long. — Driven From Within by Michael Jordan (Founders #213) [9:00] “I am very competitive. I always want to win.” —Bernard Arnault [10:39] What I'm interested is in doing. [11:43] He believed in extreme discretion. [11:56] I Had Dinner With Charlie Munger (Founders #295) [16:17] Beneath his civilized appearance there lurked the spirit of an adventurer. He wanted more. [17:45] He wanted to go far. He had an iron will. At a laboriously won tennis match he said “I may lose once but I never lose twice.” —Bernard Arnault [19:45] Problems are just opportunities in work clothes. [23:30] Arnault remained inflexible. He wanted control. There was no question of his becoming the Willots’ partner. [24:15] Far from discouraging him, this consensus of opinion (that this would lead to failure) acted as a stimulus. [24:25] “I remember people telling me, it does not make sense to put together so many brands. And it was a success, it was a recognized success, and for the last 10 years now, every competitor is trying to imitate. I think they are not successful, but they try.” —Bernard Arnault [30:43] “In business, I think the most important thing is to position yourself for long-term and not be too impatient, which I am by nature, and I have to control myself.” —Bernard Arnault [33:35] He had such an appetite for victory and such a capacity for work that he was bound to succeed. [35:26] “People think of politicians
Tue, March 21, 2023
#295 I had dinner with Charlie Munger
What I learned from having dinner with Charlie Munger and rereading The Tao of Charlie Munger . ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! (5:45) The blueprint he gave me was simple: Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices. (8:48) He has never forgotten the importance of having friends in high places. (9:04) Most people systematically undervalue their time. — Peter Thiel (11:08) Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. Founders #251) (12:23) Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America by Les Standiford. (Founders #284) (15:02) Charlie took the excess capital out of Blue Chip Stamp and invested it in profitable businesses. (16:56) Charlie started seeing the advantages of investing in better businesses that didn't have big capital requirements and did have lots of free cash that could be reinvested in expanding operations or buying new businesses. (17:38) Go for great. (21:33) In everything I’ve done it really pays to go after the best people in the world. —Steve Jobs (27:15) If you're in a good business just know that it's human nature to mess it up. Don't mess it up. Just stay there and let time do its work. (27:34) One truly great business will make your unborn grandchildren wealthy. (28:08) All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. (Founders #286) (34:39) I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span. (34:54) Charlie Munger on how he made $400 or $500 million by reading Barron’s for 50 years . (35:11) One of the reasons Charlie and Warren have never worried about anyone mimicking their investment style is because no other institution or individual has the discipline are the patience to wait as long as they can. (35:47) Wisdom is prevention. (36:50) Only play games where you have an edge. — A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #222) (38:31) Wise people step on big and growing troubles early. (44:51) I am continually amazed at the number of people who are presented with an opportunity and pass
Mon, March 13, 2023
#294 Napoleon
What I learned from reading Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! [3:00] He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines than any of them. [4:00] John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254) [4:14] Miami meetup with Shane Parrish [7:31] His life was enormously important, endlessly fascinating, and connected to some of the most controversial and constantly reinterpreted events in the world history. [8:37] Paul Johnson’s books: Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) [10:54] Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. (Founders #226) [12:20] He knew the importance of actively crafting his image in all available media. [15:08] Napoleon found comfort and companionship in books [17:02] The revolution was overturning age old hierarchies and giving worldwide prominence to previously obscure figures. [17:24] Napoleon was ruthless. [18:36] Only after that battle did I believe myself to be a superior man. And did the ambition come to me of executing the great things, which so far had been occupying my thoughts only as a fantastic dream. [20:00] Many are the historical opportunities that have been lost for lack of talent or vision. In Napoleon's case, the man met his hour. [20:13] He could see in a moment how to maneuver everything for maximum effect. [21:03] Napoleon was a man of stone and iron. [26:27] Napoleon was something new and the keenest observers understood it. [29:06] I wanted to rule the world, who wouldn't have in my place? [29:26] If papa could see us now. [29:45] Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. (Founders #251) [32:15] You might as well send a cow in pursuit of a rabbit. The Indians were accustomed to these woods. [35:30] The Empire was increasingly coming to resemble a skyscraper built in haste without a proper foundation. [35:58] Driven: An Autobiography by Larry Miller. (Founders #168) [39:24] The key to victory was to plan
Mon, March 06, 2023
#293: Ray Kroc (The Making of McDonald's)
What I learned from rereading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! [2:00] I have always believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems. [4:00] I was fascinated by the simplicity and effectiveness of the system they described that night.Each step in producing the limited menu was stripped down to its essence and accomplished with a minimum of effort. [5:00] When I flew back to Chicago that fateful day in 1954, I had a freshly signed contract with the McDonald brothers in my briefcase. I was a battle-scarred veteran of the business wars, but I was still eager to go into action. I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid gland in earlier campaigns. But I was convinced that the best was ahead of me. [6:00] It’s not what you do it’s how you do it: Ralph Lauren: The Man Behind the Mystique by Jeffrey Trachtenberg. (Founders #288) Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Founders #290) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. (Founders #292) [8:00] I never considered my dreams wasted energy. They were invariably linked to some form of action. [10:00] For me, work was play. [13:00] I vowed that this was going to be my only job. I was going to make my living at it and to hell with moonlighting of any kind. I intended to devote every ounce of my energy to selling, and that's exactly what I did. [14:00] Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) [20:00] This was the first phase of grinding it out—building my personal monument to capitalism. I paid tribute, in the feudal sense, for many years before I was able to rise with McDonald's on the foundation I had laid. [21:00] Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect. [26:00] I was putting every cent I had and all I could borrow into this project. [28:00] Perfection is very difficult to achieve and perfection was what I wanted in McDonald's. Everything else was secondary. [29:00] If my competitor was drowning, I'd put a hose in his mouth. [44:00] Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248) John D: T
Mon, February 27, 2023
#292 Daniel Ludwig (The Invisible Billionaire)
What I learned from rereading The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! ---- [2:00] Obsessed with privacy, Ludwig pays a major public relations firm fat fees to keep his name out of the papers. [4:00] An associate speaks of his unlimited ingenuity in dreaming up new ways of doing things. [5:00] Ludwig’s most notable characteristic, besides his imagination and pertinacity, is a lifelong penchant for keeping his mouth shut. [5:00] I'm in this business because I like it. I have no other hobbies. [6:00] Holding strongly to an opinion, purpose, or course of action, stubbornly or annoyingly persistent. [8:00] Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur by Francis Greenburger (Founders #243) [10:00] At his peak, he owned more than 200 companies in 50 countries. [23:00] War makes the demand for Ludwig's products and services skyrocket. [25:00] Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Founders #290) [28:00] He did not mellow as he grew richer and older. [28:00] Some years later, the captain of a Ludwig ship made the extravagant mistake of mailing in a report of several pages held together by a paper clip. He received a sharp rebuke for his prodigality: "We do not pay to send ironmongery by air mail!" [29:00] Ludwig’s tightfistedness, however, persisted after the Depression, putting him in sharp contrast to such free spenders as Onassis and Niarchos. It also was largely responsible for many of his innovations in the shipbuilding industry. [29:00] Onassis: An Extravagant Life by Frank Brady. (Founders #211) [30:00] Ludwig’s ridding his ships of any feature that did not contribute to profits pleased his own obsessive sense of economy and kept him a step ahead of the competition. When someone asked why he didn't put a grand piano aboard his ships, as Stavros Niarchos did, Ludwig snapped, "You can't carry oil in a grand piano." [31:00] Stay in the game long enough to get lucky. [32:00] The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think. The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50) [37:00] The yacht was as much a business craft as any of his tankers and probably earned him more money than any of them. [40:00] Like the
Mon, February 20, 2023
#291 David Packard (Founder of HP)
What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by signing up for Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! ---- Do our products offer something unique? Customer satisfaction second to none is the only acceptable goal. What I learned from rereading Jeff Bezos' Shareholder Letters for the 3rd time (Founders #282) In Silicon Valley, the ultimate career standard was set by David Packard: start a company in a garage, grow it into the leading innovator in its field, then take it public, then take it into the Fortune 500 (or better yet, the Fortune 50), then become the spokesman for the industry, then go to Washington, and then become an historic global figure. Only Packard had accomplished all of this; he had set the bar , and the Valley had honored his achievement by making him the unofficial "mayor" of Silicon Valley. — The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company by Michael Malone Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #214) Gates read the encyclopedia from beginning to end when he was only seven or eight years old. — Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Founders #290) My father wouldn't let me quit. Given equally good players and good teamwork, the team with the strongest will to win will prevail . Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel. (Founders #278) That was a very important lesson for me —that personal communication was often necessary to back up written instructions. Insisting On The Impossible: The Life Of Edwin Land by Victor McElheny More businesses die from indigestion than starvation. I found, after much trial and error, that applying steady, gentle pressure from the worked best. Bill and I knew we didn't want to be a “me too” company merely copying products already on the market. Netbooks accounted for 20% of the laptop market. But Apple never seriously considered making one. “Netbooks aren’t better than anything,” Steve Jobs said at the time. “They’re just cheap laptops.” Jony proposed that the tablets in his lab could be Apple’s answer to the netbook. —— Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney. (Founders #178) Gains in quality come from meticulous atten
Mon, February 13, 2023
#290 Bill Gates
What I learned from rereading Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 292 The Business of Gaming with Mitch Lasky and 293 David Senra Passion and Pain ! ---- Gates read the encyclopedia from beginning to end when he was only seven or eight years old. Gates had an obsessive personality and a compulsive need to be the best. Everything Bill did, he did to the max . What he did always went well, well beyond everyone else. You want to maneuver yourself into doing something in which you have an intense interest. — Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger . Gates devoured everything he could get his hands on concerning computers and how to communicate with them, often teaching himself as he went. A young man with no money and tons of enthusiasm. — The Dream of Solomeo: My Life and the Idea of Humanistic Capitalism by Brunello Cucinelli. (Founders #289) He consumed biographies to understand how the great figures of history thought. The idea that some people were super successful was interesting. What did they know? What did they do? What drove those kinds of successes? Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft by Paul Allen. (Founders #44) “I’m going to make my first million by the time I'm 25.” It was not said as a boast, or even a prediction. He talked about the future as if his success was predestined. Gates and Allen were convinced the computer industry was about to reach critical mass, and when it exploded it would usher in a technological revolution of astounding magnitude. They were on the threshold of one of those moments when history held its breath... and jumped, as it had done with the development of the car and the airplane. They could either lead the revolution or be swept along by it. Bill had a monomaniacal quality. He would focus on something and really stick with it. He had a determination to master whatever it was he was doing. Bill was deciding where he was going to put his energy and to hell with what anyone else thought. Don’t do anything that someone else can do. — Edwin Land You've got to remember that in those days, the idea that you could own a computer, your own computer, was about as wild as the idea today of owning your own nuclear submarine. It was beyond comprehension. There would be no unnecessary overhead or extravagant spending habits with Microsoft.</p
Tue, February 07, 2023
#289 Brunello Cucinelli
What I learned from reading The Dream of Solomeo: My Life and the Idea of Humanistic Capitalism by Brunello Cucinelli. ---- This episode is brought to you by: Tiny : Tiny is the easiest way to sell your business. Quick and straightforward exits for Founders. ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra Passion and Pain ! [4:00] I am reminded of Machiavelli: during his exile, he too spent his afternoons playing board games and drinking wine, while at night, in the austere silence of his studio, he engaged in solitary, literary conversations with the ancient scholars. [6:00] The true meaning of my life seems to be a spontaneous drive and energy. [7:00] I am driven by an immense desire: that my life, when it reaches its end, will not have been useless. [7:00] Brunello Cucinelli by Om Malik [8:00] God assigns to all of us a mission to fulfill. Our task is first to discover the nature of our summons, then to follow it. [11:00] We schedule time to think. Most people schedule themselves like a dentist. It's so easy to get so busy that you no longer have time to think- and you pay a huge price for that. —— All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. (Founders #286) [14:00] Try to be your son's teacher until he's ten years old; his father, until he's twenty; and his friend, for the rest of his life. [14:00] The problem is not getting rich, it's staying sane. —Charlie Munger [18:00] What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic. —Carl Sagan [23:00] Postponing the reward increases the appreciation, a fact that has been forgotten in the current culture of impatience. [29:00] I could see the humiliation in my father's eyes. His teary eyes were the source of inspiration for my life. [33:00] I have always been firmly convinced that in order to successfully stand out you need to focus on one single project representing the dream of your life. [36:00] A young man with no money and tons of enthusiasm. [41:00] Ralph Lauren: Th
Tue, January 31, 2023
#288 Ralph Lauren
What I learned from reading Ralph Lauren: The Man Behind the Mystique by Jeffrey Trachtenberg. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 311 John Fio — Creating Magic for Consumers, episode 307 Jeremiah Lowin: Explaining the New AI Paradigm, and episode 293 The Business of Gaming. ---- [2:01] When I lumped him together with a handful of other designers during casual conversation, he snapped: “Don't put me with those designers. My business is not compared to anybody else's." [3:00] In practice Ralph Lauren is a tough, intensely ambitious businessman. [3:00] Ralph has always possessed immense self-confidence; it is central to his character, an asset as valuable as his sense of color, fabric, style. [4:00] Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie. (Founders #199) [7:00] Few outsiders understood fully how lucrative the licensing business had become. Ralph would have been a successful designer in his own right. However, he would never have qualified as one of the world's richest men without licensees willing to pay him 5 to 7 percent of sales. [7:00] His privately held fashion empire was on the brink of bankruptcy. Geffen surmised that the company should be transformed from a manufacturing firm to a design, marketing, and licensing company. "You guys stink at manufacturing," he said. "You need to get out of that business." Instead, Geffen continued, the company needed to focus on what it really knew: how to design and market the Calvin Klein brand name. — The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells The New Hollywood by Tom King [14:00] When my customers come to me, they like to cross the threshold of some magic place; they feel a satisfaction that is perhaps a trace vulgar but that delights them: they are privileged characters who are incorporated into our legend. For them this is a far greater pleasure than ordering another suit.” —Coco Chanel, 1935 [16:00] What he lacked in experience he compensated it for an energy and enthusiasm. [17:00] Differentiation is survival. — Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos' Shareholder Letters (Founders #282) [19:00] Mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it. [22:00] From the beginning I've been aware of the need to sell everybody. — Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys by Joe Coulombe. (Founders #188) [26:00] Difference for the sake of it. In everything. Because it must be better. From the moment the idea strikes, to the running of the business. Diffe
Mon, January 23, 2023
#287 The Founder of Rolls-Royce
What I learned from rereading Rolls-Royce: The Magic of a Name: The First Forty Years of Britain s Most Prestigious Company by Peter Pugh. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode Mitch Lasky—The Business of Gaming ---- [2:31] Henry Royce had known poverty and hardship all his life. The only university he had graduated from was the one of hard knocks. [3:00] Rolls on Royce: I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of Mr. Royce and in him I found the man I had been looking for for years. [5:00] A great product has to be better than it has to be. Relentlessness wins because, in the aggregate, unseen details become visible. All those unseen details combine to produce something that's just stunning, like a thousand barely audible voices all singing in tune. — Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham (Founders #277) [6:00] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. — Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) [9:00] This ability to observe, think about and then improve on existing machines (products) was to be a consistent theme throughout Royce’s life. [10:00] Many times our position was so precarious that it seemed hopeless to continue. [12:00] Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #287) [12:00] Some have tried to give the impression that it was almost by chance that Royce became involved in designing a motor car. Royce was not a man to rely on chance. He saw that the motor car had a great future and that it would be an ideal product for his business. [12:00] This part is excellent: There was nothing revolutionary about Royce’s car. He had taken the best of current automobile design and improved on every aspect of it. I do not think that Royce did anything of a revolutionary nature in his work on motor cars. He did, however, do much important development and a considerable amount of redesigning of existing devices so that his motor cars were far and away better than anyone else’s motor cars. He paid great attention to the smallest detail and the result of his personal consideration to every little thing resulted in the whole assembly being of a very high standard of perfection. It is rather to Royce’s thoroughness and attention to even the smallest detail than to any revolutionary invention that his products have the superla
Mon, January 16, 2023
#286 Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger
What I learned from reading All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode Mitch Lasky—The Business of Gaming Follow the podcast Gamecraft to learn more about the history of the video game industry. ---- [2:01] Buffett and Munger have a remarkable ability to eliminate folly, simplify things, boil down issues to their essence, get right to the point, and focus on simple and timeless truths. [3:00] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191) [4:00] Warren Buffet or Charlie Munger are the very wise grandfather figure that I never had. [5:00] To try to live your life totally free of mistakes is a life of inaction. —Warren Buffett [5:00] The sign above the players' entrance to the field at Notre Dame reads ´Play Like a Champion Today.' I sometimes joke that the sign at Nebraska reads 'Remember Your Helmet.' Charlie and I are 'Remember Your Helmet' kind of guys.' We like to keep it simple. (You must structure your life and business to be able to survive the inevitable bad decisions you’re going to make.) [5:00] Wisdom is prevention. —Charlie Munger [6:00] We make actual decisions very rapidly, but that's because we've spent so much time preparing ourselves by quietly sitting and reading and thinking. —Charlie Munger [7:00] If you get into the mental habit of relating what you're reading to the basic underlying ideas being demonstrated, you gradually accumulate some wisdom. —Charlie Munger [7:00] At Berkshire, we don't have any meetings or committees, and I can think of no better way to become more intelligent than sit down and read. I hate meetings, frankly. I have created something that I enjoy: I happen to enjoy reading a lot, and I happen to enjoy thinking about things. —Warren Buffett [7:00] We both hate to have too many forward commitments in our schedules. We both insist on a lot of time being available to just sit and think. —Charlie Munger [8:00] I need eight hours of sleep. I think better. I have more energy. My mood is better. And think about it: As a senior executive, what do you really get paid to do? You get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions. — Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos , With an Introduction
Tue, January 10, 2023
#285 Jay Gould (How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune)
What I learned from reading American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune by Greg Steinmetz. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- [0:01] A series of spectacular financial triumphs had made Gould fabulously rich. At age thirty-six, he was the most notorious businessman in the country. [1:00] Vanderbilt told a newspaper that Gould was "the smartest man in America." Rockefeller, when asked who he thought had the best head for business, answered "Jay Gould" without pausing to think. They recognized Gould as a master of his craft. No one disputed that he was an extraordinary problem solver, an unparalleled negotiator, an expert communicator, a lightning-fast thinker, and a masterful tactician with a staggering memory. [2:00] Railroads changed America in the nineteenth century much as automobiles changed the country in the twentieth century and the internet has changed the twenty first century. [5:00] American Rascal shows the complex and quirky character of the nineteenth century's greatest robber baron. He was at once praised for his brilliance by Rockefeller and Vanderbilt and condemned for forever destroying American business values by Mark Twain. He lived a colorful life, trading jokes with Thomas Edison, figuring in Thomas Nast's best sketches, paying Boss Tweed's bail, and commuting to work in a 200-foot yacht. [6:00] I consider this part two in a two part series on Jay Gould. Make sure you listen to part 1: Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons by Edward J. Renehan Jr. (Founders #258) [9:00] He read whatever he could get his hands on. Jay was often nowhere to be found. He was off hiding somewhere with his books. [10:00] He would wake up at three to study by firelight. [10:00] My Life and Work by Henry Ford. (Founders #266) [12:35] “As you know. I’m not in the habit of backing out of what I undertake, and I shall write night and day until it is completed.” [13:00] Relentless and self-confident: Gould toyed with the idea of college. He visited Rutgers, Yale, Harvard, and Brown. He concluded college was an expensive indulgence. Why bother with college when he could teach himself from books? [13:00] I am determined to use all my best energies to accomplish this life's highest possibilities. [22:00] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191) [22:00] All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simpli
Mon, January 02, 2023
#284 Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick
What I learned from rereading Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America by Les Standiford. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and check out these great episodes: #137 Bill Gurley: All Things Business and Investing #88 Sam Hinkie: Data, Decisions, and Basketball #204 Sam Hinkie: Find Your People — [0:01] Frick had been the man Carnegie trusted above all others to manage the affairs of Carnegie Steel. [2:00] Carnegie had delegated the job of holding the line on wages and other demands to Frick—a Patton to Carnegie's FDR. [3:00] The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie. (Founders #283) [5:00] Here's a starter pack of essentials for Day 1 defense: customer obsession, a skeptical view of proxies, the eager adoption of external trends, and high-velocity decision making. —Jeff Bezos’s Shareholder Letters (Founders #282) [7:00] In less than half a century the United States had been transformed―from a largely agrarian and underdeveloped federation of competing interests, to a relatively cohesive economic juggernaut. The age of the Founding Fathers was over. The Age of the Titans had begun. [12:00] By 1863 Carnegie was earning more than $45,000 a year from this and all his other investments, compared with a mere $2,400 from his railroad salary. Yet he understood that it was the contacts he made and the information he derived from his association with the railroad that made everything else possible. [13:00] More control. Less costs. More profit. [15:00] Technology is just a better way to do something: As a result of the process for transforming iron to steel that bore his name (Bessemer), a quantity of steel that might formerly have taken as long as two weeks to produce could now be made in fifteen minutes. [17:00] Carnegie starts his company during a financial panic. The best time to expand is when no one else dares to take the risk. [20:00] Already the best but still wants to do better: Even his key employees were not spared Carnegie's heavy-handed management style. To almost every positive report Carnegie's response was "Good, but let us do better." [21:00] Cut the prices, scoop the market, watch the costs, and the profits will take care of themselves. [21:00] Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson (Founders #140) [22:00] He could make steel more efficiently than any of them. [24:00] Henry Clay Frick: The Life of the Perf
Mon, December 26, 2022
#283 Andrew Carnegie
What I learned from rereading The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ---- (1:01) 3 part series on Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick: Meet You In Hell: Andrew Carnegie Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America by Les Standiford. (Founders #73) The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie (Founders #74) Henry Clay Frick: The Life of the Perfect Capitalist by Quentin Skrabec Jr. (Founders #75) (2:00) What these guys all had in common is they were hell bent on knowing their business down to the last cent. They were obsessed with having the lowest cost structure in their industry. (2:00) Highlights from Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America : —Cut the prices, scoop the market, watch the costs, and the profits will take care of themselves. —Frick knows his business down to the ground. —Frick’s rise from humble beginnings was obviously intriguing to him. It signaled to Carnegie that Frick was another of the fellow “fittest,” and those were the individuals with whom Carnegie sought to align himself. —Carnegie would repeat the mantra time and again: profits and prices were cyclical, subject to any number of transient forces of the marketplace. Costs, however, could be strictly controlled, and in Carnegie’s view, any savings achieved in the costs of goods were permanent. —On this issue the two men were of one mind. Frick had made his way in coke by the same reckoning that Carnegie had in rail and steel: if you knew your costs down to the penny, you were always on firm ground. (6:00) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #115) (7:00) A sunny disposition is worth more than a fortune. Young people should know that it can be cultivated; that the mind like the body can be moved from the shade into sunshine. (7:00) The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. (Founders #100) (8:00) The most important judge of your life story is yourself. (9:00) You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. — Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #
Mon, December 19, 2022
#282 Jeff Bezos Shareholder Letters
What I learned from rereading Jeff Bezos' Shareholder Letters (for the 3rd time!) Read Jeff's letters in book form: Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos or for free online: Amazon Investor Relations ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best [2:30] Amazon hopes to create an enduring franchise [3:00] Because of our emphasis on the long term, we may make decisions and weigh trade-offs differently than some companies. [4:00] We will continue to focus relentlessly on our customers. [4:00] We will work hard to spend wisely and maintain our lean culture. We understand the importance of continually reinforcing a cost-conscious culture. [4:00] We set out to offer customers something they simply could not get any other way. [5:00] Word of mouth remains the most powerful customer acquisition tool that we have. [5:00] We are working to build something important, something that matters to our customers, something that we can all tell our grandchildren about. Such things aren't meant to be easy. [6:00] " To read Bezos’ shareholder letters is to get a crash course in running a high-growth internet business from someone who mastered it before any of the playbooks were written ." — From CB Insights [7:00] Common themes repeated in Jeff’s letters: More innovation is ahead of us. It is still early. The opportunity —if we execute well — is enormous. We will move quickly. We will endure. Amazon will be a durable, long-lasting company. We will focus on cash flow. Once in a lifetime opportunities will be risky. Jeff gave himself a 30% chance of success— at best. Customer obsession is our North Star. It is what we will bet the company on. We will be BOLD. We will have a frugal, lean culture that Sam Walton would approve of. This will be hard. All valuable things are. We will have to learn along the way. [8:00] Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) [11:00] I would love to ask Jeff the question, “If you could only have one word to describe you on your tombstone, what would it be?” My guess is he would pick “relentless.” [16:00] We believe we have reached a "tipping point," where this platform allows us to launch new ecommerce businesses faster, with a higher quality of customer experience, a lower incremental cost, a higher chance of success, and a faster path to scale and profitability than any other company. (A company that builds companies) [17:00] <a
Mon, December 12, 2022
#281 Working with Steve Jobs
What I learned from rereading Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best [2:01] We're going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because perfection is not attainable. But we are going to relentlessly chase it because, in the process, we will catch excellence. [2:01] I'm not remotely interested in being just good. [3:00] Gentlemen, this is the most important play we have. It's the play we must make go. It's the play that we will make go. It's the play that we will run again, and again, and again. [4:00] In any complex effort, communicating a well-articulated vision for what you're trying to do is the starting point for figuring out how to do it. [4:00] A significant part of attaining excellence in any field is closing the gap between the accidental and intentional, to achieve not just a something, or even an everything, but a specific and well-chosen thing. [6:00] Every day at Apple was like going to school, a design-focused, high-tech, product-creation university. [8:00] A story about Steve’s clarity of thought. [9:00] Although Steve's opinions and moods could be hard to anticipate, he was utterly predictable when it came to his passion for products. He wanted Apple products to be great. [11:00] The decisiveness of Steve Jobs. [16:00] Steve wasn't merely interested in paying lip service to this goal. He demanded action. Steve found the time to attend a demo review so he could see it. His involvement kept the progress and momentum going. [17:00] Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Hack away the unessential. [17:00] People do not care about your product as much as you do. You have to make it simple and easy to use right from the start. [18:00] Steve Jobs believed that stripping away nonessential features made products easier for people to learn from the start and easier to use over time. [19:00] Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success by Ken Segall [22:00] Don’t rest on your laurels. Steve said: “I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next.” [24:00] The sooner we started making creative decisions the more time there was to refine and improve those decisions. (The sooner you start the more time you will have to get it right.) [26:00] The simple transaction of buying a song, and of handing over a credit card number to Apple in order t
Bonus · Fri, December 09, 2022
The Founder of Kinkos — Paul Orfalea
What I learned from reading Copy This!: How I turned Dyslexia, ADHD, and 100 square feet into a company called Kinkos by Paul Orfalea. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow Invest Like The Best in your favorite podcast player here Two episodes I recommend: Paul Orfalea - It's About the Money episode 299 David Senra - Passion & Pain episode 292 [5:23] I've never met a more circular, out-of-the-box thinker. It's often exhausting trying to keep up with him. [6:21] I graduated from high school eighth from the bottom of my class of 1,200. Frankly, I still have no idea how those seven kids managed to do worse than I did. [9:29] I also have no mechanical ability to speak of. There isn't a machine at Kinko's I can operate. I could barely run the first copier we leased back in 1970. It didn't matter. All I knew was that was I could sell what came out of it. [11:24] Building an entirely new sort of business from a single Xerox copy machine gave me the life the world seemed determined to deny me when I was younger. [14:04] The A students work for the B students, the C students run the companies, and the D students dedicate the buildings. [24:02] I learned to turn a lot of busywork over to other people. That's an important skill. If you don't develop it, you'll be so busy, busy, busy that you can't get a free hour, not to mention a free week or month, to sit back and think creatively about where you want to be heading and how you are going to get there. [25:07] There's no better way to stay "on" your business than to think creatively and constantly about your marketing: how you are marketing, who you are marketing to, and, always, how you could be doing a better job at it. You'd be amazed what kind of business you can generate by a seemingly simple thing like handing out flyers. [27:18] The phone rang. It was one of our store managers calling to ask me how to handle a bounced check. I held the receiver away from my face and looked at it, flabbergasted. If every store manager needed my help to deal with a bounced check, then we really had problems. [40:55] I never walked in the back door used by coworkers. I walked in the front door so I could see things from the customer's perspective. [49:06] You had to remember he'd been picking up the best ideas from all around the country. [55:14] I believe in getting out of as much work as I possibly can. [55:45] By now, you’d have to be as bad a reader as I am not to figure out that I have a dark side. You rarely hear people talk about their dark sides, especially business leaders, which is a shame because successful businesses aren't usually started by
Tue, December 06, 2022
#280 Jimi Hendrix
What I learned from reading Starting At Zero: His Own Story by Jimi Hendrix. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- [0:01] He was also a compulsive writer, using hotel stationery, scraps of paper, cigarette cartons, napkins—anything that came to hand. [0:01] Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) [1:00] He always claimed that for him life and music were inseparable. [5:00] I liked to be different. [5:00] The Autobiography of Bob Dylan Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan. (Founders #259) [6:00] Bob Dylan: Billy asked me who I saw myself like in today's music scene. I told him, nobody. I really didn't see myself like anybody. What really set me apart in these days was my repertoire. It was more formidable than the rest of the players . There were a lot of better musicians around but there wasn't anybody close in nature to what I was doing . [7:00] Anthony Bourdain on Jimi Hendrix: I often compare the experience of going to Japan for the first time, going to Tokyo for the first time, to what Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend must have gone through, the reigning guitar gods of England, what they must have gone through the week that Jimi Hendrix came to town. You hear about it, you go see it.A whole window opens up into a whole new thing.And you think what does this mean? What do I have left to say? What do I do now? [12:00] The first guitarist I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I heard one of his records when I was a little boy, and it scared me to death . Wow! What was all that about? [15:00] I loved my music, man. You see, I wasn't ever interested in any other things, just the music. I was trying to play like Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. Trying to learn everything and anything . [16:00] My first gig was at an armory, a National Guard place, and we earned thirty-five cents apiece and three hamburgers. [16:00] It was so hard for me at first. I knew about three songs, and when it was time for us to play onstage I was all shaky, so I had to play behind the curtains. I just couldn't get up in front. And then you get so very discouraged. You hear different bands playing around you, and the guitar player always seems like he's so much better than you are. Most people give up at this point, but it's best not to. Just keep on; just keep on. Sometimes you are going to be so frustrated you'll hate the guitar, but all of this is just a part of learning. If you stick with it you're going to be rewarded. If you're very stubborn you can make it . [18:00] I had very strange feelings
Tue, November 29, 2022
#279 What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett
What I learned from reading What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Developing a Highly Successful Company by Barnett Helzberg Jr. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- [5:00] Then, right there on the sidewalk I told one of the most astute businessmen in America why he ought to consider buying our family's 79-year-old jewelry business. "I believe that our company matches your criteria for investment, I said. To which he replied, simply, "Send me the information. It will be confidential.” My conversation with Buffett lasted no more than half a minute . [8:00] My dream buyer for the family business all along was Warren Buffet. [11:00] "This can be the fastest deal in history," Buffett said. "But what about due diligence?" I asked, surprised at how fast the negotiations were moving. Most suitors demand to see every scrap of paper you've ever generated and to interview every top manager. That wasn't Buffett's way. "I can smell these things, Buffett said. "This one smells good.” [12:00] First A Dream by Jim Clayton. (Founders #91) [13:00] Buffett on his management technique: “Managers run their own shows. They don't have to report to central management. When we get somebody who is a .400 hitter we don't start telling them how to swing .” [14:00] I was always taught that many, many people were out there developing ideas I could use. I have found that to be true throughout my life. These thoughts and ideas have all been borrowed or stolen from many wise people. Think of the world as your garden of marvelous people and ideas with unlimited picking rights for you. [17:00] Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux. (Founders #268) [23:00] Despite missteps, entrepreneurs are a special breed who do not give up on the larger goals. [24:00] It's not hard to express the quality we're looking for in metaphors. The best is probably a running back. A good running back is not merely determined, but flexible as well. They want to get downfield, but they adapt their plans on the fly. — Relentlessly Resourceful by Paul Graham [25:00] Entrepreneurs are driven to succeed. They possess an almos
Tue, November 22, 2022
#278 Peter Thiel
What I learned from rereading Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- [4:01] Jobs's return to Apple 12 years later shows how the most important task in business-the creation of new valuecannot be reduced to a formula and applied by professionals. [5:00] A really important sentence to understand one of the main points in Peter’s book: Apple's value crucially depended on the singular vision of a particular person. [5:00] A unique founder can make authoritative decisions, inspire strong personal loyalty, and plan ahead for decades. [6:00] Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Founders #31) [7:00] Properly understood, any new and better way of doing things is technology. [8:00] By creating new technologies we rewrite the plan of the world. [9:00] The paradox of teaching entrepreneurship is that such a formula necessarily cannot exist; because every innovation is new and unique, no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative. The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places , and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas. [10:00] The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing. It's to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. —Steve Jobs [11:00] Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius. [13:00] A startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. A new company's most important strength is new thinking. [14:00] What follows is not a manual or a record of knowledge but an exercise in thinking. Because that is what a startup has to do: question received ideas and rethink business from scratch. [14:00] The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni. (Founders #233) [17:00] Their casual way of conducting affairs did not appeal to me. — Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller (Founders #148) [18:00] My number one repeated learning in life: There Are No Adults . Everyone's making it up as they go along. Figure it ou
Thu, November 17, 2022
#277 Paul Graham's Essays Part 3
What I learned from reading Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas From The Computer Age by Paul Graham ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [4:00] How To Make Wealth by Paul Graham [4:01] Wealth is stuff we want: food, clothes, houses, cars, gadgets, travel to interesting places, and so on. You can have wealth without having money. If you had a magic machine that could on command make you a car or cook you dinner or do your laundry, or do anything else you wanted, you wouldn't need money. Whereas if you were in the middle of Antarctica, where there is nothing to buy, it wouldn't matter how much money you had. [6:00] All a company is is a group of people working together to do something people want. [7:00] It turns out, though, that there are economies of scale in how much of your life you devote to your work. In the right kind of business, someone who really devoted himself to work could generate ten or even a hundred times as much wealth as an average employee . [8:00] And the people you work with had better be good, because it's their work that yours is going to be averaged with . [9:00] In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World by Rama Dev Jager and Rafael Ortiz. (Founders #208) [10:00] A very able person who does care about money will ordinarily do better to go off and work with a small group of peers. [10:00] Paul Graham’s Essays (Founders #275) [11:00] What is technology? It's technique . It's the way we all do things. [12:00] Sam Walton got rich not by being a retailer, but by designing a new kind of store . [12:00] Sam Walton epiosdes #150 Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance H. Trimble. #234 Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. [13:00] Use difficulty as a guide not just in selecting the overall aim of your company, but also at decision points along the way. At Viaweb one of our rules of thumb was run upstairs. Suppose you are a little, nimble guy being chased by a big, fat, bully. You open a door and find yourself in a staircase. Do you go up or down? I say up. The bully can probably run downstairs as fast as you can. Going upstairs his bulk will be more of a disadvantage. Running upstairs is hard for you but even harder for him. [14:00] So few businesses really pay attention to making customers happy. [15:00] What people will give you money for depends on them, not you. [16:00] Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham [20:00] The
Wed, November 09, 2022
#276 Paul Graham’s Essays Part 2
What I learned from reading Paul Graham’s essays . ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [4:01] You don't want to start a startup to do something that everyone agrees is a good idea, or there will already be other companies doing it. You have but that you know isn't to do something that sounds to most other people like a bad idea. [5:20] The independent-minded are often unaware how different their ideas are from conventional ones, at least till they state them publicly. [6:20] Founders find themselves able to speak more freely with founders of other companies than with their own employees. [7:40] There are intellectual fashions too, and you definitely don't want to participate in those. Because unfashionable ideas are disproportionately likely to lead somewhere interesting. The best place to find undiscovered ideas is where no one else is looking. [8:30] How much does the work you're currently doing engage your curiosity? If the answer is "not much," maybe you should change something. [9:00] How To Think For Yourself by Paul Graham [9:00] How To Work Hard by Paul Graham [10:00] Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham [11:00] Paul on Twitter: "Maybe better founders could have..." Presumably Patrick knows what he means by that, but in case it's not clear, he's describing the empty set. If Patrick and John Collison had to work long hours to build something great, you will too. Link to tweet [13:00] Less is more but you have to do more to get to less. — Rick Rubin: In the Studio by Jake Brown. (Founders #245) [13:00] If great talent and great drive are both rare, then people with both are rare squared. [14:30] Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins [15:30] Aliens, Jedis, & Cults [16:30] How To Do What You Love by Paul Graham [19:00] Fear's a powerful thing. I mean it's got a lot of firepower. If you can figure out a way to wrestle that fear to push you from behind rather than to stand in front of you, that's very powerful. I always felt that I had to work harder than the next guy, just to do as well as the next guy. And to do better than the next guy, I had to just kill. And you know, to a certain extent, that's still with
Thu, November 03, 2022
#275 Paul Graham
What I learned from reading Paul Graham’s essays . ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [4:52] My father told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up, so long as I enjoyed it. [5:49] Do what you love doesn't mean, do what you would like to do most this second . [7:41] To be happy I think you have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire. You have to be able to say, at the end, wow, that's pretty cool. [8:00] You should not worry about prestige. This is easy advice to give. It’s hard to follow. [10:22] You have to make a conscious effort to keep your ideas about what you want from being contaminated by what seems possible. [12:18] Whichever route you take, expect a struggle. Finding work you love is very difficult. Most people fail. [16:46] How To Do What You Love by Paul Graham [16:34] What Doesn’t Seem Like Work by Paul Graham [17:16] If something that seems like work to other people doesn't seem like work to you, that's something you're well suited for. [17:42] Michael Jordan said what looked like hard work to others was play to him. Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #212) and Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil. (Founders #213) [20:53] How Not to Die by Paul Graham [23:00] All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson (Founders #224) [24:49] You have to assume that running a startup can be demoralizing. That is certainly true. I've been there, and that's why I've never done another startup. [27:31] If a startup succeeds, you get millions of dollars, and you don't get that kind of money just by asking for it. You have to assume it takes some amount of pain. [28:17] So I'll tell you now: bad shit is coming. It always is in a startup. The odds of getting from launch to liquidity without some kind of disaster happening are one in a thousand. So don't get demoralized. When the disaster strikes, just say to yourself, ok, this was what Paul was talking about. What did he say to do? Oh, yeah. Don't give up. [28:45] Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy by Paul Graham [30:23] If we've learned one thing from funding so many startups, it's that they succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders. [31:15] If you're worried about threats to the survival of your company, don't look for them i
Thu, October 27, 2022
#274 Jim Clark (Silicon Graphics, Netscape)
What I learned from rereading The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [1:23] Maybe somewhere in a footnote, it would be mentioned that he came from nothing, grew up poor, dropped out of high school, and made himself three or four billion dollars. [7:41] She explained that the shares in Netscape that Clark had given them had made them rich. "And you have to understand," she said, “that when this happened, we were poor. I was ready to cook the cat." I assumed this was a joke, and laughed. I assumed wrong. [12:48] He was expelled from school and left town. One time he came home talking about nothing but computers. No one in Plainview had even seen a computer except in the movies. [13:21] I remember him telling me when he came back from the Navy, ‘Mama, I’m going to show Plainview.’ [14:42] In under eight years this person, considered unfit to graduate from high school, had earned himself a Ph.D. in Computer Science. [15:05] I grew up in black and white. I thought the whole world was shit, and I was sitting in the middle of it. [17:17] If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing. — Yvon Chouinard [17:56] The most powerful paragraph in the book: One day I was sitting at home and, I remember having the thought ‘You can did this hole as deep as you want to dig it.’ I remember thinking ‘My God, I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this fucking hole.’ You can reach these points in life when you say, ‘Fuck, I’ve reached some sort of dead-end here. And you descend into chaos. All those years you thought you were achieving something. And you achieved nothing. I was thirty-eight years old. I’d just been fired. My second wife had just left me. I had somehow fucked up. I developed this maniacal passion for wanting to achieve something . [19:00] Two part series on Vannevar Bush Pieces of the Action by Vannevar Bush. (Founders #270) and Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century by G. Pascal Zachary. (Founders #271) [21:38] New Growth Theory argued that wealth came from the human imagination. Wealth wasn’t chiefly having more of old things; it was having entirely new things. [22:54] On creating new wealth/companies: A certain tolerance for nonconformism is really critical to the process. [24:31] The internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers, and most people haven't figu
Wed, October 26, 2022
#273 Kobe Bryant (Mamba Mentality)
What I learned from rereading The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Episode outline: If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it. A lot of people say they want to be great, but they're not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness. They have other concerns and they spread themselves out. That's totally fine. After all, greatness is not for everybody. Greatness isn't easy to achieve. It requires a lot of time. You can't achieve greatness by walking a straight line. Respect to those who do achieve greatness and respect to those who are chasing that elusive feeling . May you find the power in understanding the journey of others to help create your own. He dedicates a lot of time in this book to the importance of learning from and studying the great people that came before you. Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant by Roland Lazenby (Founders #272) His dissection of the game was at another level. In my entire career, I’ve never seen a player as dedicated to being the best. His determination is unparalleled. He unquestionably worked harder than anyone else I have ever played with . Kobe knew that to be the best you need a different approach from everyone else. If I wanted to implement something new into my game, I'd see it and try incorporating it immediately. I wasn't scared of looking bad or being embarrassed. I had a constant craving, a yearning, to improve and be the best. I never needed any external forces to motivate me. If something has worked for other greats before you, and if something is working for you, why change it up and embrace some new fad? Stick with what works, even if it's unpopular. Kobe mentions reading: Jackie Robinson’s autobiography Reading is forced meditation. I never thought about my daily preparation. It wasn't a matter of whether it was an option or not. It was, if I want to play, this is what I have to do, so l'd just show up and do it. I always found that short 15 minute cat naps gave me all the energy I would need for peak performance. Your routine can change but your obsession can not. You can find an edge by doing things your competitors are not doing. I revere the players who made the game what it is, and cherish the chances I had to pick their brains. Anything that I was seeing or g
Wed, October 19, 2022
#272 Kobe Bryant (The Life)
What I learned from reading Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant by Roland Lazenby. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [9:15] Notes from The Redeem Team documentary : 30 seconds into the first practice Kobe is diving for loose balls. That set the tone. Players go clubbing. Come back at 5:30am and see Kobe working out. "This motherfucker Kobe was already drenched in sweat. Yeah he’s different"— LeBron James. By the end of the week the whole team was on Kobe’s schedule. Understand the responsibility. I know I’m not going to fucking lose. I am not going to fucking lose. Not when I’m wearing this (team USA jersey) and not at this time in my career. You’re going to have to fucking shoot me. That’s how I want you to play. — Coach K At one point you will have a grandkid on your lap and they will ask you weren’t you in the Olympics ? What did you do? You wanna say: Well son, we lost to that fucking Greek team? —Coach K When you’re in the Olympic village you're around people who are the best in the world at what they do. That is more special that celebrities in LA because this is athlete to athlete — I understand what they put their body through to get here. There’s so much respect and mutual admiration. —Kobe What Kobe told team USA going into the 4th quarter: Just think about the play in front of you. [12:07] At every turn his declarations of future greatness have been met with head shaking and raised eyebrows . [14:33] It's almost like Kobe's insane level of dedication was like compensation for the bad decision making of his father. [15:15] 4 parts to Kobe’s blueprint: Master the fundamentals Improve your weaknesses Study the greats Concentrate [15:12] Listening to Founders is like watching game tape of history's greatest entrepreneurs . [15:40] I used to watch their moves and then I'd add them to my game. It was the beginning of a career-long focus on studying game recordings. [15:48] He would invest long hours each day in breaking down his own performances and those of opponents— far more than what any other NBA player would ever contemplate undertaking. [17:08] Jay Z’ autobiography: Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) [21:22] If you’re not good, Jeff will chew you up and spit you out. And if you’re good, he will jump on your back and ride you into the ground. — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
Wed, October 12, 2022
#271 Vannevar Bush (Engineer of the American Century)
What I learned from reading Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century by G. Pascal Zachary. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [7:31] Acts of importance were the measure of his life and they are the reason that his life deserves study today. [8:10] Suspicious of big institutions Bush objected to the pernicious effects of an increasingly bureaucratic society and the potential for mass mediocrity. [8:20] He believed the individual was still of paramount importance. "The individual to me is everything," he wrote "I would restrict him just as little as possible." He never lost his faith in the power of one. [8:57] Pieces of the Action by Vannevar Bush (Founders #270) [9:32] Dee Hock — founder of VISA episodes: One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock (Founders #260) Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 1 and Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 2 by Dee Hock. (Founders #261) [9:55] Edwin Land episodes: Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264) Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263) A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134) Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133) The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132) Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Founders #40) [10:00] Vannevar Bush and Edwin Land both had a profound belief in the individual capacity for greatness. [12:15] Bush came from an American line of can do engineers and tinkerers, a line beginning with Franklin, and including Eli Whitney, Alexander, Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. (Founders #62) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #115
Thu, October 06, 2022
#270: Vannevar Bush (Pieces of the Action)
What I learned from reading Pieces of the Action by Vannevar Bush. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Outline: Pieces of the Action offers his hard-won lessons on how to operate and manage effectively within complex organizations and drive ambitious, unprecedented programs to fruition. Stripe Press Books: The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985-1993 by Jordan Mechner.] Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century by G. Pascal Zachary — Any exploration of the institutions that shape how we do research, generate discoveries, create inventions, and turn ideas into innovations inevitably leads back to Vannevar Bush. — No American has had greater influence in the growth of science and technology than Vannevar Bush. — That’s why I'm going to encourage you to order this book —because when you pick it up and you read it —you're reading the words of an 80 year old genius. One of the most formidable and accomplished people that has ever lived— laying out what he learned over his six decade long career. — A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (Founders #95) — Bootstrapping: Douglas Engelbart, Coevolution, and the Origins of Personal Computing by Thierry Bardini — I don’t know what Silicon Valley will do when it runs out of Doug Engelbart’s ideas. — The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #157) — Bush points out that tipping points often rest with far-seeing, energetic individuals. We can be those individuals. — I went into this book with little more than a name and came out with the closest thing to a mentor someone you've never met can be. — We are not the first to face problems, and as we face them we can hold our heads high. In such spirit was this book written . The essence of civilization is the transmission of the findings of each generation to the next. This is not a call for optimism, it is a call for determination . It is pleasant to turn to situations where conservatism or lethargy were overcome by farseeing, energetic individuals . People are really a power law and that the best ones can change everything. —Sam Hinkie
Thu, September 29, 2022
#269 Sam Zell
What I learned from reading Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [6:37] I have an embedded sense of urgency. What I can’t figure out is why so many other people don’t have it. [6:50] I was willing to trade conformity for authenticity. [8:26] Problems are just opportunities in work clothes. — Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West by Mark Foster. (Founders #66) [9:36] Once I have formed my opinion, I have to trust my perspective enough to act on it. That means putting my own money behind it. My level of commitment is usually high. And I stay with my decision even when everyone is telling me I’m wrong, which happens a lot. [10:37] Long term relationships reflect the most important lesson imparted to me by my father. He taught me simply how to be. He often told me that nothing was more important than a man’s honor. A good name. Reputation is your most important asset. [11:10] When I was younger my career competed with my role as a husband and father and my career often won. [11:37] Childhood does not allow itself to reconquered. — Leading By Design: The Ikea Story (Founders #104) [12:20] The personality types that stay in the game for as long as Sam has —and he's been in the game for 50 years — usually describe entrepreneurship as a calling and an obsession. [12:35] The great thing about entreprenuership is that you get to spend your time building something you enjoy. Most people don’t get to do this. They are stuck in jobs they hate. I had the time of my life. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) [13:29] Business is not a battle to be waged — it’s a puzzle to be solved. [14:33] Optimize for irreverence. [16:54] Swimming Across by Andy S. Grove (Founders #159) [18:11] His family narrowly escapes the Holocaust: His train arrived at 2:00 p.m. It was a ten minute walk home and when he got there he told my mother to pack what she could carry; they were boarding the 4:00 train out that afternoon. [19:21] Every year for the rest of their lives they celebrated the date of their arrival with the toast to America. My sister and I grew up keenly aware of how fortunate we were to be in this country. [15:58] You've got to understand that the world is a hard place. [19:13] My tendency to go against conventional wisdom would later end up defining my career. [26:55] <a href="https://youtu.be/Id
Wed, September 21, 2022
#268 John Malone (Cable Cowboy)
What I learned from reading Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- Outline: Thread of highlights from Cable Cowboy by @Loadlinefinance Malone was stalwart about building long term value through leveraged cash flow. Earnings didn’t count. He wasn’t constrained by quarterly expectations. Malone built the pipes, then bought the water that flows through them. Malone took spartan operations to another level. Absolutely no bureaucracy. No waste. We don’t believe in staff. Staff are people who second-guess people. Malone averaged one M&A deal every two weeks over 15 years. That’s insane. These guys were slinging billion dollar deals like bowls of breakfast cereal. One of the best parts of the book is Robichaux’s exploration of Malone’s complex personality. It’s not just a fawning glow piece. The beginning of industries are always filled with cowboys, pirates, and misfits. This book— by far — has been the most requested book for me to cover on Founders for years. Founders episodes on Andrew Carnegie: Meet You In Hell: Andrew Carnegie Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America by Les Standiford. (Founders #73) The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie. (Founders #74) Founders episodes on JP Morgan: The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow (Founders #139) The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield (Founders #142) Mavericks Lecture: John Malone Two Rockefeller podcasts: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow (Founders #248) John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke (Founders #254) Bob when recruiting John: You've got a great future here. If you can create it. Malone's top executives were rough riders. In 1972 TCI had $19 million in annual revenue and its debt load was an obscene $132 million. Magness learned to listen instead of talk. Successful people listen. Those who don’t listen, don’t survive long. —Michael Jordan Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil (Founders #213) That $2,500 loan turns into hundreds of millions of dollars
Wed, September 14, 2022
#267 Thomas Edison
What I learned from reading Edison: A Biography by Matthew Josephson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- Outline: He had known how to gather interest, faith, and hope in the success of his projects. I think of this episode as part 5 in a 5 part series that started on episode 263: #263 Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. #264 Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. #265 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli #266 My Life and Work by Henry Ford. Follow your natural drift. —Charlie Munger Warren Buffett: “Bill Gates Sr. posed the question to the table: What factor did people feel was the most important in getting to where they’d gotten in life? And I said, ‘Focus.’ And Bill said the same thing.” — Focus and Finding Your Favorite Problems by Frederik Gieschen Focus! A simple thing to say and a nearly impossible thing to do over the long term. We have a picture of the boy receiving blow after blow and learning that there was inexplicable cruelty and pain in this world . He is working from the time the sun rises till 10 or 11 at night. He is 11 years old. He reads the entire library. Every book. All of them . At this point in history the telegraph is the leading edge of communication technology in the world. My refuge was a Detroit public library. I started with the first book on the bottom shelf and went through the lot one by one. I did not read a few books. I read the library . Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill Gurley Blake Robbins Notes on Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love Greatness isn't random. It is earned. If you're going to research something, this is your lucky day. Information is freely available on the internet — that's the good news. The bad news is that you now have zero excuse for not being the most knowledgeable in any subject you want because it's right there at your fingertips. Why his work on the telegraph was so important to everything that happened later in his life: The germs of many ideas and stratagems perfected by him in later years were implanted in his mind when he worked at the telegraph. He desc
Thu, September 08, 2022
#266 Henry Ford's Autobiography
What I learned from rereading My Life and Work by Henry Ford. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [7:45] True education is gained through the discipline of life. [8:00] Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. (Founders #263) [9:40] Reading this book is like having a one-sided conversation with one of the greatest entrepreneurs to ever live who just speaks directly to you and tells you, “Hey this is my philosophy on company building.” [12:40] His main idea is that business exists for one reason and one reason only —to provide service for other people . [12:50] Everything I do is serving my true end — which is to make a product that makes other people's lives better. [13:47] A sale is proof of utility. [15:00] The sense of accomplishment from overcoming difficulty is satisfying in a way that a life of leisure and ease will never be. [16:00] I think Amazon's culture is largely based on one thing. It's not based on 14. It's based on customer obsession. That is what Bezos would die on the hill for. — Invest Like The Best: Ravi Gupta [20:04] Later Bezos recalled speaking at an all-hands meeting called to address the assault by Barnes & Noble. “Look, you should wake up worried, terrified every morning,” he told his employees. “But don’t be worried about our competitors because they`re never going to send us any money anyway. Let’s be worried about our customers and stay heads-down focused.” — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone (Founders #179) [20:40] Henry Fords philosophy: Get rid of waste, increase efficiency through thinking and technology, drop your prices and make more money with less profit per car, watch your costs religiously, when needed bring that business process in house, and always focus on service. [21:15] Money comes naturally as the result of service. —Henry Ford [21:56] Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) [22:10] Churchill tells his son “Your idle and lazy life is very offensive to me. You appear to be leading a perfectly useless existence.” [23:45] 3 part series on the founder of General Motors Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan: Billy Durant Creator of General Motors: The Story of the Flamboyant Genius Who Helped Lead America into the Automobile Age by Lawrence Gustin. (Founders #120) Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, A Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History
Tue, August 30, 2022
#265 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
What I learned from rereading Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:11] His mind was never a captive of reality. [5:16] A complete list of every Founders episode on Steve Jobs and the founders Steve studied: Steve Jobs’s Heroes [7:15] Steve Jobs and The Next Big Thing by Randall Stross (Founders #77) [9:05] Steve Job’s Commencement Address [9:40] Driven and curious, even when things were tough, he was a learning machine. [10:20] He learned how to manage himself. [12:45] Anything could be figured out and since anything could be figured out anything could be built. [14:10] It was a calculation based on arrogance. — The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen (Founders #255) [18:00] We were no longer aiming for the handful of hobbyists who liked to assemble their own computers. For every one of them there were a thousand people who would want the machine to be ready to run. [17:40] He was a free thinker whose ideas would often run against the conventional wisdom of any community in which he operated . [19:55] He had no qualms about calling anyone up in search of information or help . [20:40] I've never found anybody who didn't want to help me when I've asked them for help. I've never found anyone who's said no or hung up the phone when I called. I just asked. Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask. [21:50] First you believe. Then you work on getting other people to share your belief. [24:55] All the podcasts on Edwin Land: Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263) A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134) Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133) The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132) Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Founders #40) [25:00] <a href="h
Wed, August 24, 2022
#264 The Story of Edwin Land and Polaroid
What I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- (0:01) The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer. Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent. Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius. At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land. Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land. (1:22) Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction. (1:37) Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure. (3:12) All the podcasts on Edwin Land: Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263) A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134) Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133) The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132) Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Founders #40) (4:07) Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli (5:51) Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. — <a href="https://amzn.
Thu, August 18, 2022
#263 Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It
What I learned from rereading Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:01] Why is Polaroid a nutty place? To start with, it’s run by a man who has more brains than anyone has a right to. He doesn’t believe anything until he’s discovered it and proved it for himself. Because of that, he never looks at things the way you and I do. He has no small talk. He has no preconceived notions. He starts from the beginning with everything. That’s why we have a camera that takes pictures and develops them right away. [1:33] More books on Edwin Land: Insisting on The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land by Victor McElheny The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Chris Bonanos [2:18] “Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.” — Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Founders #214) [5:17] This guy started one of the great technology monopolies and ran it for 50 years. [7:35] He lived his life more intensely than the rest of us. [8:53] His interest in our reactions was minimal — polite, sometimes kind, but limited by the great drain of energy necessary to sustain his own part. [9:30] He never argued his ideas. If people didn’t believe in them, he ignored those people. — A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (Founders #95) Loomis was not someone you could argue with. He would listen patiently to an opposing opinion. But his consideration was nothing more than that-an act of politeness on his part.” — Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and The Secret Palace of Science That Changed The Course of World War II by Jennet Conant (Founders #143) [11:40] Right before he introduces the most important product he ever makes — he is in a fight for his life. There's a good chance that Polaroid is going to be bankrupt. [14:29] The parallel to Steve Jobs is striking. Edwin Land —like jobs — had to turn around the company he founded before they ran out of money!
Thu, August 11, 2022
#262 Herbie Cohen (World's Greatest Negotiator)
What I learned from reading The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:20] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen (Founders #255) [2:42] You Can Negotiate Anything: How to Get What You Want by Herb Cohen. [3:57] Even our heroes falter. [6:01] Once you see your life as a game, and the things you strive for as no more than pieces in that game, you'll become a much more effective player. [7:20] He was proving what would become a lifelong principle: Most people are schmucks and will obey any type of authority. [7:34] Power is based on perception; if you think you got it, you got it, even if you don't got it. [7:54] Nolan Bushnell to a young Steve Jobs: “I taught him that if you act like you can do something, then it will work. I told him, ‘Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.” from Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #214) [10:30] Life is a game and to win you must consider other people as players with as much at stake as yourself. If you understand their motivations, you can control the action and free yourself from every variety of jam. Focus less on yourself and more on others. Everyone has something at stake. If you address that predicament you can move anyone from no to yes. [14:01] Those who can live with ambiguity and still function do the best. [14:21] Ambiguity is the constant companion of the entrepreneur . [15:26] Don't bitch. Don't complain. Just play the cards that you've been dealt. [20:12] Most people try to blend in. Herbie went the other way. When they zig, I zag. [21:49] It meant Sharon had failed to understand an essential part of an ancient code. If you have a problem with your brother, you deal with it inside the family. Don't rat. Don't turn your brother in to the cops. It was another one of his big lessons. Loyalty. Without that you have nothing. [27:03] Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl [30:11] When it comes to negotiating you'd be better off acting like you know less, not more. [32:18] How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know by Byron Sharp [35:56] He believed it was good, possibly very good, and it was this belief, which never wavered, that would give him the confidence to persist despite the rejections that were coming. Quoting Harry Truman, he'd say, "I make a decision once." And he'd made his decision about the book. In case of rejection, t
Thu, August 04, 2022
#261 Dee Hock's Autobiography of a Restless Mind Volume One and Two
What I learned from rereading Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 1 and Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 2 by Dee Hock. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [4:39] Quotes: Abraham Lincoln | Pythagoras | Mark Twain | Socrates | Napoleon | Leonardo da Vinci [6:15] One should not read like a dog obeying its master, but like an eagle hunting its prey. [6:48] Humility and generosity have no enemies. [7:12] Powerful writing should take one side and stick to it tenaciously, ignoring the other even though it may have merit. Objective writing is impotent. [8:02] The essential reward of anything well done is to have done it. [8:07] What becomes known is worthless until it is shared. [9:25] No dream is so great as the person you might become by remaining true to it. [11:04] The wise make great use of adversity. The foolish whine about it. [12:02] Impatience is a perpetual barrier between desire and realization. [12:46] There are two ways to look at opposition: I want to do it and they will not let me or they want to prevent me and I won’t let them. [13:54] When we fully attend to management of self, excellent management of all else is unavoidable. [14:43] A meaningful life cannot be made from denial. It must be made from affirmation. [15:16] We are each the author of our own life. Whatever we write, masterpiece or trash, it will be published and widely read throughout our life and for decades thereafter. [16:21] The wise do not feel demeaned by asking for advice or diminished by following it. [16:37] A wise man goes forth to meet difficulty on rather than agonizing at its approach. [21:27] Superb design and sluggish effort can never compete with modest design and diligent effort. [21:45] It is both foolish and weak to defer confronting what cannot be avoided. [22:04] I have done many great things perfectly—the ones I imagined but never attempted. [22:09] Delaying what we must do eventually does nothing but lengthen the time and distance we must carry the burden. [22:30] The most interesting people are always the most interested people. [22:54] Complaining about life is like hurling sand against the wind. [23:31] Beginning of Volume 2 [27:29] Certainty is not a property of the universe. It is a construct of the mind. [28:09] Any idiot can impose and exercise control. It takes genius to en
Wed, August 03, 2022
#260 One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
What I learned from rereading One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:00] I feel compelled to open my life to new possibilities. [2:54] Life is a magnificent, mysterious Odyssey to be experienced. [3:12] One From Many (Founders #42) [3:30] Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 1 by Dee Hock and Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 2 by Dee Hock [5:12] Patrick Collison tweet on Dee Hock [7:51] He thought from first principles and questioned everything, even down to the nature of money itself. [8:26] He saw a better way of doing things and he didn't listen to folks who said it couldn't be done. [9:32] Today's magic was yesterday's dream. [13:27] Chaordic 1. The behavior of any self-organizing, self-governing, organ, organization, or system that harmoniously exhibits characteristics of both order and chaos. 2. Patterned by chaos and order in a way not dominated by either. 3. Blending of diversity, chaos, complexity and order characteristic of the fundamental organizing principles of evolution and nature. [17:05] That Hock boy is a little strange, he'll read anything . [23:01] None of it seemed demeaning. It was life. It was making a living. It was what proud men did without whining. [24:14] 76 year old Dee Hock describing the 20 year old version of Dee Hock: Thus, at twenty, newly married, unemployed, eager to learn but averse to being taught, emerged an absurdly naive, idealistic, young man—an innocent lamb hunting the lion of life. The hungry lion was swift to pounce. [30:39] If you don’t zero in on your bureaucracy every so often, you will naturally build in layers. You never set out to add bureaucracy. You just get it. Period. Without even knowing it. So you always have to be looking to eliminate it. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton (Founders #234) [31:57] In industrial age organizations purpose slowly erodes into process. [34:29] Excellence is the capacity to take pain. [38:41] You can't make a good deal with a bad person. [39:48] Stubborn opinionated, unorthodox, rebellious. [41:31] With three young children, a heavily mortgaged house, no job, little money in reserve, it was impossible to stay out of a dismal swamp of depression. Day after day, I walked the woods in misting No
Wed, July 27, 2022
#259 Bob Dylan
What I learned from reading Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:51] No one could block his way and he didn't have any time to waste. [2:38] Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. —Bob Dylan [3:01] The best talk on YouTube for entrepreneurs: Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill Gurley [3:21] Estée: A Success Story by Estée Lauder (Founders #217) [7:52] Billy asked me who I saw myself like in today's music scene. I told him, nobody. I really didn't see myself like anybody . [8:12] We may be in the same genre but we don't put out the same product. [16:34] What really set me apart in these days was my repertoire. It was more formidable than the rest of the players. There were a lot of better musicians around but there wasn't anybody close in nature to what I was doing . [18:00] Bob spends a lot of time thinking about and studying history. [20:34] I'd come from a long ways off and had started from a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else. [21:27] I walked over to the window and looked outside. The air was bitter cold but the fire in my mind was never out. It was like a wind vane that was constantly spinning. [21:45] It is incredible how much reading this guy is going to do. He takes ideas from everything that he reads and applies it to his work. [22:30] Towering figures that the world would never see the likes of again, men who relied on their own resolve, for better or worse, every one of them prepared to act alone, indifferent to approval—indifferent to wealth or love , all presiding over the destiny of mankind and reducing the world to rubble. Coming from a long line of Alexanders and Julius Caesars, Genghis Khans, Charlemagnes and Napoleons, they carved up the world. They would not be denied and were impossible to reckon with —rude barbarians stampeding across the earth and hammering out their own ideas of geography. [26:29] Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus. (Founders #232) [29:37] I don't think there's been another human invention that can evoke deeper emotions than a great book —than great writing. [31:17] “What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind
Fri, July 22, 2022
#258: Jay Gould (Dark Genius of Wall Street)
What I learned from reading Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons by Edward J. Renehan Jr. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:40] John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254) [3:46] From the back cover: Though reviled for more than a century as Wall Street's greatest villain, Jay Gould was in fact its most original creative genius. Gould was the most astute financial and business strategist of his time and also the most widely hated. He was the undisputed master of the nation's railroads and telegraph systems at a time when these were the fastest-growing new technologies of the age. His failed scheme to corner the gold market in 1869 caused the Black Friday panic. He created new ways of manipulating markets, assembling capital, and swallowing his competitors. Many of these methods are now standard practice; others were unique to their circumstances and unrepeatable; some were among the first things prohibited by the SEC when it came into being in the 1930s. [5:59] If he was exceptional, it was as a strategist. He had a certain genius. Time and time again, Wall Street never saw him coming. [7:22] Jay was in fact the Michelangelo of Wall Street: a genius who crafted financial devices and strategies, and who leveraged existing laws, in stunningly original ways. [7:45] His success was profound, his productivity was astonishing, and his motivations and tactics were fascinating. [10:54] Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) [11:11] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. [11:43] All ambitious men want either to please their fathers or to punch them in the goddamn face. [15:05] Persistent. Deliberate in his study. Disciplined. [16:30] Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-yung (Founders #117) [20:07] Jay stated his outright belief that happiness consisted not so much in indulgence as in self-denial. [20:28] I am determined to use all my best energies to accomplish this life's highest possibilities. [21:12] I'm going to be rich. I've seen enough to realize what can be accomplished by means of riches, and I tell you I'm going to be rich. I have no immediate plan. I only see the goal. Plans must be formed along the way. [23:09] One decent editorial counts for 1000 advertisements. — Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson and reading A History of Great Inventions by James Dyson. (Founders #200) [27:
Fri, July 15, 2022
#257 Richard Garriott (Video Games and Space Exploration)
What I learned from reading Explore/Create My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark by Richard Garriott. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [6:49] Richard Garriott’s house [7:39] Past episodes on video game creators Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games by Sid Meier (Founders#195) Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner (Founders #21) [9:31] I was lucky to learn early on that a deep understanding of the world around you makes you its master . [9:52] The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think. — The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50) [10:08] Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. And that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use. —Steve Jobs [10:33] The tagline of his company: We create worlds. [13:13] My heroes are people who took epic journeys into the unknown often at substantial personal risk. I am simply following the path that they carved into history . [13:33] Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (Founders #144) [13:49] Two books coming soon: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know by Ranulph Fiennes Shackleton: The Biography by Ranulph Fiennes [14:57] By endurance we conquer. —Ernest Shackleton [17:01] Insisting On the Impossible : The Life of Edwin Land by Victor McElheny [17:45] In his acceptance speech, Land chose to pay tribute to the process of invention by analogy to the basic American sense of adventure and exploration: We are becoming a country of scientists, but however much we become a country of scientists, we will always remain first of all that same group of adventurous transcontinental explorers pushing our way from wherever it is comfortable into some more inviting, unknown and dangerous region. Now those regions today are not geographic, they are not the gold mines of the west; they are the gold mines of the intellect. And when the great scientists, and the innumerable scientists of today, respond to that ancient American urg
Sat, July 09, 2022
#256 Edward L. Bernays (Public Relations, Advertising, & Persuasion)
What I learned from reading The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations by Larry Tye. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:54] The very substance of American thought was mere clay to be molded by the savvy public relations practitioner. [1:48] Bernays saved every scrap of paper he sent out or took in and provided them to be made public after his death. [4:15] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. (Founders #255) [6:43] Thinking unconventionally, operating at the edge, and pushing the boundaries became his trademark over a career that lasted more than 80 years. [10:13] Problems are just opportunities in work clothes. [12:06] Eddie was convinced that understanding the instincts and symbols that motivate an individual could help him shape the behavior of the masses. [12:32] 1. Get hired to promote a product. 2. Attach that product to a cause that gives the consumption of that product a deeper meaning. 3. Use the cause to get a small newspaper/media organization to write about the product. 4. Use that media to get larger media to promote the cause indirectly promoting your product. [15:36] Set yourself to becoming the best-informed person in the agency on the account to which you are assigned. If, for example, it is a gasoline account, read books on oil geology and the production of petroleum products. Read the trade journals in the field. Spend Saturday mornings in service stations, talking to motorists. Visit your client’s refineries and research laboratories. At the end of your first year, you will know more about the oil business than your boss. — Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy (Founders #82) [17:13] Humans love if other humans will do their work for them. [19:01] A lesson he is learning promoting: Public visibility had little to do with real value. [24:13] The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing (but True!) Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and Arthur W. Schultz (Founders #206) [24:35] He never, never, never, never has just one plan of attack. It is always many, many, attack vectors, relentlessly . [28:29] Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. (Founders #186) [37:23] The outcome was one that most publicity men can only dream about. An irresistible script for a stunt flawlessly executed, covered in nearly every paper in America, with no one detecting the fingerprints of either Bernays or his tobacco company client. [38:18] <a href="https://amzn.to/39RTyZR"
Sat, July 02, 2022
#255 Sam Zemurray (Banana King)
What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:47] This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does. But I found it invigorating, too. It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making grandees in funny hats but also by street-corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real. [4:56] Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55) [6:00] Unlike Vanderbilt's other adversaries William Walker was not afraid of Cornelius when he should have been. [8:21] The immigrants of that era could not afford to be children. [8:42] The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen [8:54] He was driven by the same raw energy that has always attracted the most ambitious to America, then pushed them to the head of the crowd. Grasper, climber-nasty ways of describing this kid, who wants what you take for granted. From his first months in America, he was scheming, looking for a way to get ahead. You did not need to be a Rockefeller to know the basics of the dream: Start at the bottom, fight your way to the top. [10:01] There is no problem you can't solve if you understand your business from A to Z. [13:08] Sam spotted an opportunity where others saw nothing. [14:17] As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit and similar firms were too slow-footed to cover ground. It was a calculation based on arrogance. I can be fast where others have been slow. I can hustle where others have been satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade. [14:42] The kid on the streets is getting a shot at a dream. He sees the guy who gets rich and thinks, yep, that'll be me. He ignores the other stories going around. // There's no way to quantify all that on a spreadsheet, but it's that dream of being the exception, the one who gets rich and gets out before he gets got that's the key to a hustler's motivation. — Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) [22:36] He was pure hustle. [24:15] Preston later spoke of Zemurray with admiration. He said the kid from Russia was closer in spirit to the banana pioneers than anyone else working. "He's a risk taker," Preston explained, “he's a thinker, and he's a doer.” [26:33] They don't write books about people that stopped there. [28:48] <a href="https://amzn.to/3t1W
Mon, June 27, 2022
#254 John D. Rockefeller: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers
What I learned from reading John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:07] He transmitted messages in code and secrecy covered all of his operations. [0:39] Rockefeller compared himself to Napoleon. [2:20] He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines than any of them. [2:35] It is always hard to successfully control what you don't understand. [3:32] Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248) [7:27] By the time I was a man — long before it —I had learned the underlying principles of business and the rules of business as well as many men acquire them by the time they are 40. I needed no one to advise me about the nature of transactions with which I had been carrying on since childhood. [8:59] Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. (Founders #148) [10:55] You should try to expose yourself to experiences that are slightly ahead of your skillset or understanding and you should do so constantly. [13:48] A veteran of long-distance provider MCI, Price came to Amazon in 1999. He blundered early by suggesting in a meeting that Amazon executives who traveled frequently should be permitted to fly business-class. Bezos often said he wanted his colleagues to speak their minds, but at times it seemed he did not appreciate being personally challenged. “You would have thought I was trying to stop the Earth from tilting on its axis,” Price says, recalling that moment with horror years later. “Jeff slammed his hand on the table and said, ‘That is not how an owner thinks! That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.’ — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone (Founders #179) [18:42] He saw that posted rates, supposedly fixed, could also be negotiated. All was not as it seemed on the outside . [20:45] He was the greatest borrower I ever saw. [22:12] What if the president of a bank refused to make me a loan? That was nothing. That made no difference to me; simply meant that I must look elsewhere until I got what I wanted. [26:07] Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson (Founders #140) [26:41] Lost from view is the Rockefeller that Cleveland knew in the 1860s— a vigorous, alert gentleman with a quiet, but extraordinary personality. [29:10] Small egos do not build giant companies. [30:23] When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street by June Breton Fishe
Wed, June 22, 2022
#253 Henry Goldman (Goldman Sachs)
What I learned from reading When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street by June Breton Fisher. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:30] The Uses of Adversity by Malcolm Gladwell [2:40] Business Breakdowns: Goldman Sachs: Fortune Favors The Old [3:00] Men can learn from the past, and I've been shocked how little some of the younger executives in the present firm know about its origins. They don't even know that my grandfather, whose picture is on the wall there, founded the firm. [3:46] My grandfather, Henry Goldman, was the son of a poor German immigrant named Marcus Goldman. Marcus Goldman is the founder of Goldman Sachs. [5:45] Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World by Lynn Downey (Founders #33) [7:10] The job Marcus Goldman was grateful to have: Walking the streets peddling goods seven days a week. Working regardless of rain, or snow, or the humid summer heat. [9:13] Henry had been slow learning to read. It was finally determined that the youngster suffered from astigmatism, and his chores in the shop were limited to fetching and carrying articles from the storeroom or fastening the shutters at closing time. His mother was convinced he would never succeed in a competitive world and was inclined to coddle and baby him. (The “slow learner” is the one that fuels much of Goldman Sachs growth!) [12:03] At the time no qualifications or special training were needed to enter the banking business. [13:36] Marcus was anxious to capitalize on every waking hour. [14:19] Henry was an attentive listener who committed everything he heard to memory. [18:40] Successful people listen. Those who don’t listen, don’t survive long. — Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby (Founders #212) [25:12] This part about the Railroads reminded me of the Internet: As new businesses started up every day and the distribution of their goods was being revolutionized by the rapid spider webbing of railroads across the country, Henry was itching to get into the action. [26:05] Goldman Sachs partners with Kleinwort Sons & Co [27:36] Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild by Amos Elon. (Founders #197) and The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets by Niall Ferguson. (Founders #198) [30
Fri, June 17, 2022
#252 Socrates
What I learned from reading Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:54] I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates. — Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm. (Founders #249) [1:20] Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. (Founders #226) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) [2:07] It’s fascinating how great entrepreneurs would arrive at similar conclusions even though they lived at different times in history, they lived in different parts of the world, and they worked in different industries. [3:43] It was Confucius's view that education was the key to everything. [4:57] Socrates was in no doubt that education was the surest road to happiness. [7:05] Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus (Founders #232) [8:43] It is immoral to play at earning one's living. — Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie (Founders #199) [9:40] Socrates was never a bore—far from it. [11:12] Excellence is the capacity to take pain. — Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp. (Founders #184) [11:25] No discomfort seemed to dismay him. [12:36] A healthy body is the greatest of blessings. [14:50] Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Commonwealth and its empire last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour. —Winston Churchill [15:18] An incredible paragraph: It was Pericles' gift to transmute Athenian optimism into a spirit of constructive energy and practical dynamism that swept through this city like a controlled whirlwind. Pericles believed that Athenians were capable of turning their brains and hands to anything of which human ingenuity was capable-running a city and an empire, soldiering, naval warfare, founding a colony, drama, sculpture, painting, music, law, philosophy, poetry, oratory, education, science and do it better than anyone else. [16:26] Robber barons like Henry Flagler (Founders #247) and Rockefeller (#248) believed you could be a master of fate too. [18:41] Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. (Founders #251) [21:20] His d
Mon, June 13, 2022
#251 Ben Franklin and George Washington: The Founding Partnership
What I learned from reading Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:59] Both men have been called The First American but they were friends first and never rivals. [1:32] Leadership at this level is a rare quality and well-worth study. [1:53] The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. (Founders #62) and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #115) [3:53] He was bookish and inquisitive. Franklin quickly displayed a seemingly inexhaustible capability for hard work and was self-taught by reading. [5:36] Franklin was convinced that acts mattered more than beliefs. [6:06] Franklin advised fellow tradesmen. The way to wealth depends chiefly on two words: Industry and Frugality. Waste neither time nor money. Make the best use of both. [7:06] The years roll around and the last one will come. When it does I would rather have it said he lived usefully than he died rich. [8:25] He found electricity a curiosity and left it a science. [8:50] When Franklin proposed the ideal prayer it was for “Wisdom that discovers my truest interests.” [9:26] George Washington was a vigorous and active man, an early riser about his business all day. And by no means intellectually idle, he accumulated a library of 800 books. — Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. (Founders #226) [10:08] His (Washington) strategy was clear, intelligent, absolutely consistent, and maintained with an iron will from start to finish. [16:09] The pictures that we primarily know them as: Washington on the $1 bill and Franklin on the $100 bill — Washington was 64 years old in that picture and Franklin was almost 80 — that is not what they look like at this point. Washington is an extremely young man (21 or 22 years old) and Franklin (48 years old) still has almost 40 years left of life. [18:44] Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy [21:09] Think about this. Franklin is almost 50. He's already a successful entrepreneur, successful scientist, successful writer and now he focuses his talent on the most important project of his life. Something he will be working on in one form or another for the next 34 years —until he dies. [24:28] Never underestimate your opponent. It’s all downside and no upside. [26:39] You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don't, you're going to lose. And that's as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have
Wed, June 08, 2022
#250 Jacob Fugger (The Richest Man Who Ever Lived)
What I learned from reading The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger by Greg Steinmetz. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:55] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191) [5:05] It is well known that without me your majesty might not have acquired the Imperial crown. You will order that the money which I've paid out, with the interest, shall be paid without further delay. [6:20] There's many examples in the book where Jacob is constantly pushing the pace and going further than you would expect when the consequences of making certain mistakes at this time in history was death. [6:51] He wanted to see how far he could go even if it meant risking his freedom and his soul. [7:01] He is the German Rockefeller. He thought that he was blessed with a talent for money-making by God. And so he couldn't retire. He couldn't live a life of leisure because God told him to make as much money as possible. [8:38] Fugger wrote the playbook for everyone who keeps score with money. A must for anyone interested in history or wealth creation . —Bryan Burrough Barbarians At The Gate [9:33] Jacob was the first documented millionaire in history. [10:43] His objective was neither comfort nor happiness. It was to stack up money until the end. [12:18] Venice was the most commercially minded city on Earth at the time. I wonder what the most commercially minded city on Earth is today? I don't know the answer. [13:31] Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248) [17:42] The spectacle of the Emperor begging for help startled Jacob. Any belief he may have had in the Emperor’s superhuman qualities could not have survived the fact that mere shopkeepers had denied credit to the supposedly most powerful figure in Europe. [19:11] Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History WW1 series [23:16] There was nothing pioneering or innovative about the loan. His competitors could have made it as easily as Jacob did. All Jacob did was put up his money when no one else had the guts. Such out of favor investments became a hallmark of his investing career . [23:37] The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach (Founders #103) [28:47] Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild by Amos Elon (Founders #197) and The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets by Niall Ferguson (Founders #198) [30:4
Bonus · Thu, June 02, 2022
Steve Jobs's Heroes
---- Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here ! ---- On Steve Jobs #5 Steve Jobs: The Biography #19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader #76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple #77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing #204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain #214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography #235 To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Bonus Episodes on Steve Jobs Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success (Between #112 and #113) Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs (Between #110 and #111) On Jony Ive and Steve Jobs #178 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products On Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs #34 Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration On Steve Jobs and several other technology company founders #157 The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution #208 In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World STEVE JOBS'S INFLUENCES Edwin Land #40 Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid #132 The Instant Image: Edwin Land and The Polaroid Experience #133 Land's Polaroid: A Company and The Man Who Invented It #134 A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War Bob Noyce and Andy Grove #8 The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company #159 Swimming Across #166 The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley Nolan Bushnell #36 Finding The Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent Akio Morita #102 Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony Walt Disney #2 Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination #39 Walt Disney: An American Original #158 Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World J. Robert Oppenheimer #215 The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb Henry Ford #9 I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford #26 My Life and Work: The Autobiography of Henry Ford #80 Today and Tomorro
Wed, June 01, 2022
#249 Steve Jobs In His Own Words
What I learned from reading I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:05] On Steve Jobs #5 Steve Jobs: The Biography #19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader #76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple #77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing #204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain #214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography #235 To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Bonus Episodes on Steve Jobs Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success (Between #112 and #113) Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs (Between #110 and #111) On Jony Ive and Steve Jobs #178 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products On Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs #34 Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration On Steve Jobs and several other technology company founders #157 The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution #208 In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World [3:13] We're not going to be the first to this party, but we're going to be the best. [4:54] Company Focus: We do no market research. We don't hire consultants. We just want to make great products. [5:06] The roots of Apple were to build computers for people, not for corporations. The world doesn't need another Dell or Compaq. [5:52] Nearly all the founders I’ve read about have a handful of ideas/principles that are important to them and they just repeat and pound away at them forever. [7:00] You can oftentimes arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don't put in the time or energy to get there. [8:09] I think of Founders as a tool for working professionals. And what that tool does is it gets ideas from the history of entrepreneurship into your brain so then you can use them in your work. It just so happens that a podcast is a great way to achieve that goal. [8:48] Tim Ferriss Podcast #596 with Ed Thorp [8:50] A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders 222) [10:43] In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental s
Sat, May 28, 2022
#248 John D. Rockefeller (Titan)
What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:15] Rockefeller trained himself to reveal as little as possible [4:22] Once Rockefeller set his mind to something he brought awesome powers of concentration to bear. [4:44] My whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people resources they didn’t know they had. —Edwin Land [9:00] When playing checkers or chess, he showed exceptional caution, studying each move at length, working out every possible countermove in his head. "I'll move just as soon as I get it figured out," he told opponents who tried to rush him. "You don't think I'm playing to get beaten, do you?" [9:20] To ensure that he won, he submitted to games only where he could dictate the rules. Despite his slow, ponderous style, once he had thoroughly mulled over his plan of action, he had the power of quick decision. [14:49] When John was child, Bill would urge him to leap from his high chair into his waiting arms. One day he dropped his arms letting his astonished son crash to the floor. Remember, Bill lectured him, never trust anyone completely. Not even me. [15:32] The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst by David Nasaw (Founders #145) He didn't care what people thought of him and despised society. [16:13] Rockefeller analyzed work, broke it down into component parts, and figured out how to perform it most economically. [18:49] He was a confirmed exponent of positive thinking. [19:10] Rockefeller was the sort of stubborn person who only grew more determined with rejection. [25:14] Rockefeller wasn't one to dawdle in an unprofitable concern. His career had few wasted steps, and he never vacillated when the moment ripened for advancement. [26:20] He's constantly praising adversity in early life as giving him strength to deal with all the stuff he had to deal with later on his life. [26:49] Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power by James McGrath Morris. (Founders #135) He was so industrious that he became a positive annoyance to others who felt less inclined to work. [27:17] Your future hangs on every day that passes. [36:13] If it is of critical importance to your business you have to do it yourself. [36:42] In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman. (Founders #244) [38:36] He would never experience a single year of loss. [39:30] Two quotes from Charlie Munger: The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They
Thu, May 19, 2022
#247 Henry Flagler (Rockefeller's partner)
What I learned from reading Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:14] The building of the railroad across the ocean was a colossal piece of work born of the same impulse that made individuals believe that pyramids could be raised cathedrals, erected and continents Tamed the highway [1:31] All that remains of an error where men still lived, who believed that with enough will and energy and money that anything could be accomplished. [2:13] Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr by Ron Chernow (Founders #16) [2:35] Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America by Les Standiford. (Founders #73) The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie (Founders #74) Henry Clay Frick: The Life of the Perfect Capitalist by Quentin Skrabec Jr. (Founders #75) [5:51] The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (Founders #62) [6:24] Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #115) “This industry visible to our neighbors began to give us character and credit," Franklin noted. One of the town's prominent merchants told members of his club, "The industry of that Franklin is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work when I go home from club, and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed." Franklin became an apostle of being-and, just as important, of appearing to be-industrious. Even after he became successful, he made a show of personally carting the rolls of paper he bought in a, wheelbarrow down the street to his shop, rather than having a hired hand do it . [8:54] Ogilvy on Advertising (Founders #82) Set yourself to becoming the best-informed person in the agency on the account to which you are assigned. If, for example, it is a gasoline account, read books on oil geology and the production of petroleum products. Read the trade journals in the field. Spend Saturday mornings in service stations, talking to motorists. Visit your client’s refineries and research laboratories. At the end of your first year, you will know more about the oil business than your boss, and be ready to succeed him . [10:50] The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham. (Founders #227) Over the years, a number of very smart people have learned the
Fri, May 13, 2022
#246 Mark Leonard's Shareholder Letters
What I learned from reading Constellation Software Inc. President's Letters by Mark Leonard. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:10] Business lessons from Mark Leonard by Tren Griffin [2:11] Newsletter: Liberty’s Highlights The Serendipity Engine: Investing & business, science & technology, and the arts . [2:59] I don’t like anyone telling me what to do. I don’t like anyone saying I am an authority figure and you will do it this way. I can’t think of anything that annoys me more. I was stuck by the principal. I challenged teachers. I left home early. I had a bootleg radio license. I built a flamethrower. I did things that weren’t accepted by lots of people. That ability to choose what I think is right is something I prize highly. [4:49] Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It (Founders #110) and The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success (Founders #94) [4:53] Teledyne grows bigger by dividing businesses into smaller parts wherever possible. Singleton claims that this keeps his managers creative and not wasteful. [5:12] Our preference is to acquire businesses in their entirety and to own them forever. [8:57] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King (Founders #37) [9:18] There are times when certain cards sit unclaimed in the common pile, when certain properties become available that will never be available again. A good businessman feels these moments like a fall in the barometric pressure. A great businessman is dumb enough to act on them even when he cannot afford to. [12:20] Customer relationships that endure for more than two decades are valuable. [13:08] The longer we have owned a small software business, the larger and better it has become. [15:32] Jeff Bezos’s Shareholder Letters. All of them! (Founders #71) [23:22] We didn't get to that point with central edicts or grand plans. We just had a hunch that our internal ventures could be better managed, and started measuring them. The people involved in the Initiatives generated the data, and with measurement came adjustment and adaptation . It took 6 years, but we have fundamentally changed the mental models of a generation of our managers and employees. [23:56] A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market (Founders #93 and #222) [28:06] Our business uni
Sun, May 08, 2022
#245 Rick Rubin (In the Studio)
What I learned from reading Rick Rubin: In the Studio by Jake Brown. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- Rick Rubin on Lex Fridman Podcast #275 Rick Rubin on The Peter Attia Drive Podcast #57 Shangri-La Documentary Rick’s podcast Broken Record [1:39] Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) [3:19] Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. [3:31] His goal is to record music in its most basic and purest form. No extra bells and whistles. All wheat, no chaff. [5:42] Dr. Land was saying: “I could see what the Polaroid camera should be. It was just as real to me as if it was sitting in front of me before I had ever built one.” And Steve said: “Yes, that’s exactly the way I saw the Macintosh.” He said if I asked someone who had only used a personal calculator what a Macintosh should be like they couldn’t have told me. There was no way to do consumer research on it so I had to go and create it and then show it to people and say now what do you think?” Both of them had this ability to not invent products, but discover products. Both of them said these products have always existed — it’s just that no one has ever seen them before. We were the ones who discovered them. The Polaroid camera always existed and the Macintosh always existed — it’s a matter of discovery. [7:31] My goal is to just get out of the way and let the people I'm working with be the best versions of themselves. [7:50] Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders 1965-2018 by Warren Buffett (Founders #88) [11:26] In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman. (Founders #244) [14:13] “Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways.” —Steve Jobs [16:00] Less is more but you have to do more to get to less. [16:25] Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson and reading A History of Great Inventions by James Dyson. (Founders #200) [17:56] Rubin's most valuable quality is his own confidence. [20:57] If we're going to do this, let's aim for greatness. You have to believe what you were doing is the most important thing in the world. [21:29] Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe. (Founders #221) “Everybody engaged in compl
Tue, May 03, 2022
#244 Harry Snyder (In-N-Out Burger)
What I learned from reading In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:03] This is an absorbing case study on how a family business came to be at the center of its own cheerful cult. [2:42] Aliens, Jedi, & Cults: A Mental Model for Potential [5:05] Stripe gave me a mental model for potential. An alien founder assembles a group of Jedi to start a cult and go on a mission together. [5:28] The developers raving about Stripe formed the cult. [6:37] If you are searching for a project with potential, watch out for the alien founder, Jedi team, and cult following of people on a messianic mission. [7:58] A few years ago I started notice that people were getting Tesla tattoos. It is very hard to ever short something where people are tattooing the brand on their body. — Josh Wolfe [8:38] Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys (Founders #188) Word of mouth is the most effective advertising of all. I have been known to say that there's no better business to run than a cult. Trader Joe's became a cult of the overeducated and underpaid, partly because we deliberately tried to make it a cult once we got a handle on what we were actually doing, and partly because we kept the implicit promises with our clientele. [9:12] List of David Ogilvy podcasts: Ogilvy on Advertising (Founders #82) Confessions of an Advertising Man (Founders #89) The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising (Founders #169) The Unpublished David Ogilvy (Founders #189) [9:17] Word of mouth is the most effective advertising of all. In and Out has that, Tesla has that, Stripe has that, Bitcoin has that, Trader Joe's has that, Apple has that. [10:35] Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Founders #31) The best startups might be considered slightly less extreme kinds of cults. The biggest difference is that cults tend to be fanatically wrong about something important. People at a successful startup are fanatically right about something those outside it have missed. [11:33] In and Out was fanatically right about something that companies like McDonald’s, Wendy's and others, missed. [11:43] T
Mon, April 25, 2022
#243 Francis Greenburger (Real Estate Billionaire)
What I learned from reading Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur by Francis Greenburger. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:26] I can be extremely stubborn when I have a hunch about something. [3:31] I knew all too well that markets can turn on a dime. [5:40] Money that had once flowed freely dried up over night. [6:41] I always listened to other people's ideas because that is how you happen upon the good ones. [6:46] Logic is no match for bureaucracy. [7:33] This ruthless industry has created far more bankruptcies than it has billionaires. Saying no is the most important judgment that you make. [9:00] Time to Make the Donuts: The Founder of Dunkin Donuts Shares an American Journey (Founders #231) [9:09] Sometimes the best lessons that you learn in life are from what you discover in the weaknesses of otherwise very good people. [15:54] My father was terrible with money. His knack of mismanaging it, losing it, or not making it in the first place was an incredible source of stress within our family. [19:09] The constant question mark that was my parents's checkbook balance made a lasting impression. [24:31] His pride in my abilities formed the basis of the self-confidence that allowed me to start businesses, sell books, make crazy friends, and love women at an age when most others were busy with their homework. [29:40] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King (Founders #37) [30:12] I see opportunity where others saw nothing. [31:34] He doesn't dilly-dally. This guy moves fast. It's not like I proved it once, let me try two or three times. He is like it worked once, it's gotta work over and over again, and he immediately starts to scale it. [37:40] Don’t interrupt the compounding: I was skating on razor thin margins that a busted toilet could threaten. But I prefer to remain on the edge as I kept my buildings running rather than sell any of them before they grew to the much higher value that I had a hunch they would one day achieve. [40:45] The idea that builds his empire: By co-oping I would be dealing with tens of thousands of dollars in sales, rather than hundreds of dollars in rents. [41:58] Once something works don't dilly dally. Go as fast as you possibly can. [43:08] Lots of folks thought what I was doing was insane. [43:17] I knew something that the market had not yet fully embraced. [47:06] My advice to those with expanding businesses is that they must first make a decision about how they want to allocate their time and structure their business so that the balance reflects that. [49:33] Children require attention and involvement. This take
Thu, April 21, 2022
#242 Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life
What I learned from reading Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:49] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. [5:33] I had spent a lifetime with a frustrated, and often unemployed man, who hated anybody who was successful. [7:01] And he said, “Yeah, but there can only be one genius in the family. And since I'm already that, what chance do you have? “What kind of father says something like that to his son? [8:21] He is incredibly talented and incredibly pretentious. He doesn't know what he's doing half the time and the other half of the time he's brilliant. [9:46] There is no speed limit . The standard pace is for chumps. [10:04] Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power (Founders #135) [11:54] George Lucas: A Life (Founders #35) [12:45] Steven Spielberg: A Biography (Founders #209) [14:10] Coppola displayed a remarkable ability to do whatever was necessary to get the job done. [16:30] I had an overwhelming urge to make films. [19:11] I deliberately worked all night so when he'd arrive in the morning he would see me slumped over the editing machine. [20:36] Say yes first, learn later. [21:00] My peculiar approach to cinema is I like to learn by not knowing how the hell to do it. I’m forced to discover how to do it. [23:10] His willingness to seize the moment was one of the main characteristics separating him from his other fellow students and aspiring filmmakers. [30:44] The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley (Founders #233) [37:43] You have to control the money or you don't have control. [38:53] At his absolute lowest point comes his greatest opportunity. [41:59] It only takes a couple of these gigantic flops to permanently erase any positive financial outcome that you had previously. [44:55] Either control your emotions or other people are going to control you. [47:35] In many cases, the people we study are dead. We can't talk to them, but they can still counsel us through their life stories. [50:00] Excellence took time and patience. [51:56] Even in the vortex of the storm some outstanding work was being accomplished. Something strong and powerful was being forged in struggle. [52:46] Vito Corleone had shown a rough-hewn old-world wisdom, the kind gained through experience rather than from a textbook. [56:29] A great story about loyalty and friendship. If you have a frien
Thu, April 14, 2022
#241 The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies
What I learned from reading Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies by Lawrence Goldstone. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:07] The Wright Brothers (Founders #239) [3:47] Avoid any activity that distracts you from improving the quality of your product and the quality of your business. [5:58] Completely self-taught, he made spectacular intellectual leaps to solve a series of intractable problems that had alluded some of history's most brilliant men. [9:46] The Wright-Curtiss feud was at its core a study of the unique strengths and flaws of personality that define a clash of brilliant minds. Neither Glenn Curtiss nor Wilbur Wright ever came to understand his own limits, that luminescent intelligence in one area of human endeavor does not preclude gross incompetence in another. And because genius often requires arrogance, both men continuously repeated their blunders. [13:38] P.T. Barnum: An American Life (Founders #137) [13:49] John Moisant had three failed attempts to overthrow the government of El Salvador. [17:44] Master of Precision: Henry Leland (Founders#128) [19:32] Sacrifices must be made. [20:18] The science of flight has attracted the greatest minds in history—Aristotle, Archimedes, Leonardo, and Newton, —but achieving the goal stumped all of them. [23:19] If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic-being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago. —Elon Musk [23:57] If the process was to move forward with any efficiency, experimenters would need some means to separate what seemed to work from what seemed not to–data and results would have to be shared. The man who most appreciated that need was someone who, while not producing a single design that resulted in flight, was arguably the most important person to participate in its gestation. [28:46] He found his first breakthrough by doing the exact opposite of his competitor. [30:08] The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (Founders #145) [39:04] His passion was speed. He had tremendous endurance, he was never a quitter, and he would do anything to win. [42:25] My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Founders #170) [43:46] No lead is insurmountable if you stop running before you've reached the finish line. [47:03] Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and In
Thu, April 07, 2022
#240 Mozart: A Life
What I learned from reading Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:52] Churchill by Paul Johnson (Founders #225) [2:15] A life of constant hard work, lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration. [3:05] Mozart worked relentlessly. [3:56] He started earlier than anyone else and was still composing on his deathbed. [5:34] He soon came to the conclusion that he had fathered a genius— and being a highly religious man, that he was responsible for a gift of God to music. [7:05] I think the idea here is if you truly believe that what you're doing is good for the world— and you approach it with the same kind of religious zeal— you have a massive advantage over a competitor that doesn't have the same missionary mindset. [8:09] My Turn: A Life of Total Football by Johan Cruyff (Founders #218) [8:42] Leading By Design: The Ikea Story (Founders #104) [9:09] He loved humor, and laughter was never far away in Mozart's life, together with beauty—and the unrelenting industry needed to produce it. [13:36] Decoded by Jay Z (Founders #238) [15:36] Russ ON: Delusional Self-Confidence & How To Start Manifesting Your Dream Life and Steve Stoute & Russ Explain Why Every Creator Should Consider Themselves A Business [19:46] You don't tell Babe Ruth how to hold a bat. [20:43] I will take your demand and I'll use it as a constraint to increase my creativity. [21:27] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King (Founders #37) [22:37] You need to tell potential customers what work and effort goes into the product that you produce because they will have a deeper appreciation for what you do. [24:52] Inside Steve’s Brain (Founders #204) [25:06] He's made and remade Apple in his own image. Apple is Steve Jobs with 10,000 lives. [25:30] Mozart wanted to talk to A players. [26:32] The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50) [26:57] You should only work in industries where— for the important companies of that industry —the founders are still in charge at those companies. [31:13] As a child and teenager Mozart was the most hardworking and productive composer in musical history. [34:17] Find something that is being done on a basic level and then realize its potential by re-imagining it. [36:13] It was all hard, intense applic
Bonus · Fri, April 01, 2022
Steve Jobs and His Heroes
---- Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here ! ---- On Steve Jobs #5 Steve Jobs: The Biography #19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader #76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple #77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing #204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain #214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography #235 To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Bonus Episodes on Steve Jobs Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success (Between #112 and #113) Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs (Between #110 and #111) On Jony Ive and Steve Jobs #178 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products On Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs #34 Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration On Steve Jobs and several other technology company founders #157 The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution #208 In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World STEVE JOBS'S INFLUENCES Edwin Land #40 Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid #132 The Instant Image: Edwin Land and The Polaroid Experience #133 Land's Polaroid: A Company and The Man Who Invented It #134 A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War Bob Noyce and Andy Grove #8 The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company #159 Swimming Across #166 The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley Nolan Bushnell #36 Finding The Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent Akio Morita #102 Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony Walt Disney #2 Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination #39 Walt Disney: An American Original #158 Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World J. Robert Oppenheimer #215 The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb Henry Ford #9 I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford #26 My Life and Work: The Autobiography of Henry Ford #80 Today and Tomorro
Tue, March 29, 2022
#239 The Wright Brothers
What I learned from rereading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:40] Relentlessly Resourceful by Paul Graham [4:11] If I were running a startup, this would be the phrase I'd tape to the mirror. "Make something people want" is the destination, but "Be relentlessly resourceful" is how you get there. [5:35] Everybody engaged in complicated work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. —Charlie Munger [6:44] No bird soars in a calm. [10:30] Neither ever chose to be anything other than himself. [11:36] Wilbur was a little bothered by what others might be thinking or saying. [11:46] What the two had in common above all was a unity of purpose and unyielding determination. [15:09] Every mind should be true to itself —should think, investigate and conclude for itself. [17:53] My Life in Advertising (Founders #170) [19:33] Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace (Founders #174) [19:39] Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire (Founders #140) [23:56] I wish to avail myself of all that is already known. [30:32] Like the inspiring lectures of a great professor, the book had opened his eyes and started him thinking in ways he never had. [34:29] In no way did any of this discourage or deter Wilbur and Orville Wright, any more than the fact that they had had no college education, no formal technical training, no experience working with anyone other than themselves, no friends in high places, no financial backers, no government subsidies, and little money of their own. Or the entirely real possibility that at some point, like Otto Lilienthal, they could be killed. [36:07] When once this idea has invaded the brain it possesses it exclusively. [38:23] I’ve never found anybody that didn’t want to help me if I asked them for help. I called up Bill Hewlett when I was 12 years old. He answered the phone himself. I told him I wanted to build a frequency counter. I asked if he had any spare parts I could have. He laughed. He gave me the parts. And he gave me a summer job at HP working on the assembly line putting together frequency counters. I have never found anyone who said no, or hung up the phone. I just ask. Most people never pick up the phone and call. And that is what separates the people who do things, versus the people who just dream about them. You have to act. —Steve Jobs [41:47] You wanted to start a company. You knew that it was going to be hard. What are you complaining for?</
Wed, March 23, 2022
#238 Jay Z: Decoded
What I learned from reading Decoded by Jay Z. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:39] I would practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep [2:10] Even back then I though I was the best. [2:57] Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography (Founders #219) [4:32] Belief becomes before ability. [5:06] Michael Jordan: The Life (Founders #212) [5:46] The public praises people for what they practice in private. [7:28] Lock yourself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers. [7:50] Sam Walton: Made In America (Founders #234) [9:50] He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own — from Steven Spielberg: A Biography (Founders #209) [12:47] The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50) [13:35] I'm not gonna say that I thought I could get rich from rap, but I could clearly see that it was gonna get bigger before it went away. Way bigger. [21:10] Over 20 years into his career and dude ain’t changed. He’s got his own vibe. You gotta love him for that. (Rick Rubin) [21:41] Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #200) [25:27] I believe you can speak things into existence. [27:20] Picking the right market is essential. [29:29] All companies that go out of business do so for the same reason – they run out of money. —Don Valentine [29:42] There are two things in business that matter, and you can learn this in two minutes- you don’t have to go to business school for two years: high gross margins and cash flow. The other financial metrics you can forget. —Don Valentine [31:54] I went on the road with Big Daddy Kane for a while. I got an invaluable education watching him perform. [33:12] Everything I do I learned from the guys who came before me. —Kobe [34:15] I truly hate having discussions about who would win one on one or fans saying you’d beat Michael. I feel like Yo (puts his hands up like stop. Chill.) What you get from me is from him. I don’t get 5 championships without him because he guided me so much and gave me so much great advice. [34:50] Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography (Founders #214) [37:20] This is a classic piece of OG advice. It's amazing how few people actually stick to it. [38:04] Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success (Founders #56) [39:04] The key to staying on top of things is to treat everything like i
Wed, March 16, 2022
#237 Julio Lobo (Cuba's Last Sugar Tycoon)
What I learned from reading The Sugar King of Havana: The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba's Last Tycoon by John Paul Rathbone. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:02] Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime (Founders #236) [3:22] This is a cautionary tale. [6:18] One of the main lessons of the book is just how fast things can change. [6:25] The History of Cuba in 50 Events [10:14] Lobo walked with a limp due to a murder attempt 14 years before that had blown a four inch chunk out of his skull. [12:29] One of the most human of all desires is to perpetuate what you have created. [12:55] Lobo thinks he has leverage when he really doesn’t. [18:39] He dies in poverty. Imagine having $5 billion and then at the end of your life having to rely on an allowance from your adult daughters. [20:30] I think about what Charlie Munger says: Don't try to be really smart. Just try to be consistently not dumb over a long period of time. [20:58] Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams (Founders #146) [22:59] Chico, I was born naked. I will probably die naked. And some of the happiest moments of my life happened when I was naked. [29:01] From an early age it was apparent that Lobo sought not only wealth but glory too. [30:21] He was an individualist who did not spare himself any sacrifice to attain his objectives. [31:26] The clearest path to wealth is building a business that benefits somebody else's life. Make a product or service that makes somebody else's life better. Do that for a long period of time and keep improving it. [33:45] His father told him I would much rather you make your mistakes now than later when I may not be around to pick up your pieces. [38:16] It turns out that almost being executed makes you impatient for large success. [40:32] If you instead focus on the prospective price change of a contemplated purchase, you are speculating. There is nothing improper about that. I know, however, that I am unable to speculate successfully, and I am skeptical of those who claim sustained success at doing so. Half of all coin-flippers will win their first toss; none of those winners has an expectation of profit if he continues to play the game. And the fact that a given asset has appreciated in the recent past is never a reason to buy it. —Warren Buffett from The Essays of Warren Buffett (Founders #227) [45:09] Think about the type of funeral you want. There is a story about a person who died. The minister said it is now time to say something ni
Fri, March 11, 2022
#236 Nims Purja (Mountain Climber)
What I learned from reading Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime by Nims Purja. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:36] Walking out on my career felt risky, but I was prepared to gamble everything for my ambition. [4:20] Your extremes are my normal. [12:04] Wow, this is my shit. I'd been working without much thought, operating in the flow state that athletes often describe when they set world records or win championships. I was in the zone. Brother, I thought. You're a badass at high altitude. [13:27] I was poor from the beginning. We didn't have any money, and the thought of owning a car was unimaginable. But we were a loving family, and I was a happy kid. It didn't take a lot to keep me amused. [14:57] From an early age, I believed in the power of positive thinking. [18:17] I also like the idea of being on top. [19:00] Sam Walton: Made In America (Founders #234) [19:03] I understood that to become a special forces operator, it was important to adapt to an increased workload. [19:25] One thing I don’t even have on my list is “work hard.” If you don’t know that already, or you’re not willing to do it, you probably won’t be going far enough to need my list anyway. —Sam Walton [19:44] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Founders #141) [20:58] This is insane: On weekends, my daily routine involved running for hours at a time. I'd haul my ass around the streets with two or three Gurkha buddies; we operated in a relay system, where I was the only soldier prevented from taking a break. One guy would accompany me for six miles, leading me along at a strong pace. Once he completed his distance, another running partner took over, and together we'd go six more miles. This went on for hours, and left me physically and psychologically pummeled. [21:43] Emotional control was only one of the many traits I'd need to possess to become elite. [22:22] Read the first 113 pages of this book Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Founders #193) [24:14] I focused only on the 24 hours ahead. Today I will give 100 percent and survive, I thought at the beginning of each day. I'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes. [26:47] You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t start by saying, ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ If you do that every single day, soon you will have a wall. —Will Smith [28:52] I always smiled my way through the mud. [29:03] E
Mon, March 07, 2022
#235 Steve Jobs (The Pixar Story)
What I learned from reading To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:34] The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley (Founders #233) [3:42] Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Founders #34) [3:52] Readwise App [7:22] George Lucas: A Life (Founders #35) [7:48] Steve jobs had been a Silicon Valley's most visible celebrity but that made it all the more glaring that he had not had a hit in a long time —a very long time. [8:49] Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing (Founders #77) [13:35] Why would I join a company that had been struggling for sixteen years and whose payroll was paid every month out of the personal checkbook of its owner? I had not realized how dire Pixar's financial situation was. It had no cash, no reserves, and it depended for its funds on the whim of a person whose reputation for volatility was legendary . [14:05] There is no a better advertisement than a demo. [15:57] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (Founders #141) [16:03] There was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal. The whole idea of a conventional existence was like Kryptonite to me. —Arnold [16:31] I looked at my start-up clients and to me they were on an adventure. I yearned for the kind of adventure they were on. [17:28] Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life (Founders #229) [17:46] I regard myself as guardian of the company's soul. [19:06] Pixar has this amazing collection of talent doing work that no one has seen before. Now it's time to turn that into a business. —Steve Jobs [22:01] Steve had an almost permanent intensity about him, like he was always in top gear. [28:25] Pixar was embarked on a lonely courageous quest through terrain, into which neither it nor anyone else had ever ventured. [28:52] Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader (Founders #19) [31:37] Home video was turning animated feature films into big business. Bigger than we had ever imagined. [32:24] There was no modern precedent for taking an independent animation company public. [36:54] Look at the value of the major Hollywood studios and you'll see their library of fil
Mon, February 28, 2022
#234 Sam Walton: Made In America
What I learned from rereading Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:56] The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. (Founders #179) [5:45] We just got after it and stayed after it. [6:06] Foxes and Hedgehogs [6:39] Hedgehogs may not be as clever as foxes but they obsessively measure and track everything about their business, and over time, they acquire deep, relevant knowledge and expertise. Their single minded approach may appear risky at times but they are conservative by nature. Hedgehogs don’t speculate or make foolish bets. If all their eggs are in that one proverbial basket, they follow Mark Twain’s advice – and watch that basket very carefully. [7:17] The thing with Hedgehogs is that they never give up. They keep at it – and they don’t ever get bored because they just love what they do – and they have a lot of fun along the way. [7:28] Hedgehogs are the ones who build great, lasting companies. As entrepreneurs, they are the rarest of breeds – those who can start something anew, make it work, stick with it, and build something special, and ultimately, inspire others along the way, with their determination, dedication and commitment. [8:49] At first, we amazed ourselves. And before too long, we amazed everybody else too. [9:26] Think about how crazy this is. He died weeks after that writing this. His last days were spent categorizing and organizing his knowledge so future generations can benefit. [12:32] Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger (Founders #90) [12:56] "It's quite interesting to think about Walmart starting from a single store in Arkansas – against Sears, Roebuck with its name, reputation and all of its billions. How does a guy in Bentonville, Arkansas, with no money, blow right by Sears? And he does it in his own lifetime – in fact, during his own late lifetime because he was already pretty old by the time he started out with one little store. He played the chain store game harder and better than anyone else. Walton invented practically nothing. But he copied everything anybody else ever did that was smart – and he did it with more fanaticism. So he just blew right by them all. —Charlie Munger [17:11] What motivates the man is the desire to absolutely be on the top of the heap. [17:32] Practice your craft so much that you're the best in the world at it and the money will take care of itself. [18:44] We exist to provide value to our customers. [21:18] A Conversation with Paul Graham [22:32] It never occurred to me tha
Wed, February 23, 2022
#233 Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin (PayPal)
What I learned from reading The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:50] Your life will be shaped by the things that you create and the people you make them with. [2:45] A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age (Founders #95) [3:17] Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Founders #1 and #30) [4:48] It is hard to find a lukewarm opinion about PayPal's founders. [5:29] To skip PayPal's creation is to neglect the most interesting stuff about its founders. It is to miss the defining experiences of their early professional lives —one that defined so much of what came later. [6:39] There's just so many times I put down the book and I'm like, “That is really, really smart, what they just did there.” [6:59] It perfectly captures when they [Musk, Thiel, Sacks, Hoffman, Levchin, Rabois] were just hustlers trying to figure it out. [8:31] For the next several years, the company’s survival was an open question. They were sued, defrauded, copied, mocked— from the outset. PayPal was a startup under siege. Its founders took on multi-billion dollar financial firms, a critical press and skeptical public, hostile regulators, and even foreign fraudsters. [10:14] From Henry Ford’s autobiography : That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom. If ever I wanted to kill opposition by unfair means I would endow the opposition with experts. They would have so much good advice that I could be sure they would do little work. [11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Founders #115) Overnight Success: Federal Express and Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator by Vance Trimble (Founders #151) [12:03] A wall in the engineering office had two banners. One was titled The World Domination Index. The World Domination Index was a total count of PayPal's users that day. The other was a banner bearing the words Memento Mori —Latin for remember that you will die. PayPal's oddball team was out to dominate the world, or die trying. [15:37] At PayPal disharmony produced discovery. [16:22] Steve Jobs The Lost Interview Notes [17:36] Properly understood PayPal story is a four year odyssey of near failure followed by near failure. [20:22] He showed early signs of his hallmark intensity. He wante
Wed, February 16, 2022
#232 Alexander the Great
What I learned from reading Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:28] Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson (Founders #226) [2:16] Each was brave, highly intelligent, almost horrifically self-assured, whose ambitions knew no bounds. [2:46] He was a man of formidable achievements. He was highly creative. He woke up early. His diet was spare. He was skilled with the sword and the spear and an expert at all forms of arms drills. He dressed to be seen. [3:50] He had supernatural self confidence and persistence. There is no substitute for will. [4:26] Churchill by Paul Johnson (Founders #225) [5:50] Addiontal research: Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Addenum Glimpses of Olympias [6:03] The Macedonians were a rugged people. [7:23] Think about this— At 19 years old you think it is your place in history to take revenge on something that happened 150 years previous. That is unapologetically extreme. [9:42] There’s a rule they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School. It is: If anything is worth doing, it’s worth doing to excess.” —Edwin Land [12:11] Alexander had excessive tolerance of fatigue [13:14] Combine an excessive tolerance of fatigue with an intolerance of slowness. [14:06] Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp (Founders #184) "Excellence is the capacity to take pain." [14:17] All the things you want in life are on the other side of difficulty and discomfort. [17:12] The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey (Founders #175) [21:59] He considered that the task of training and educating his son was too important to be true and trusted to the ordinary run of teachers. [22:14] Knowledge Project: Inside the Mind of A Famous Investor | Marc Andreessen [25:03] Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination by Brian Jay Jones (Founders #161) Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life by Sidney Harman (Founders #229) Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg . (Founders #228) [27:40] Learning is nonlinear. [31:38] I meant to say Alexander, not Aristotle. Alexand
Sat, February 12, 2022
#231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts)
What I learned from reading Time to Make the Donuts: The Founder of Dunkin Donuts Shares an American Journey by William Rosenberg. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [5:18] The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley [5:30] A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age (Founders #93) [10:28] When I opened my first Dunkin Donuts store I focused on making the first store a success. Then after I did that I could move on to the second and the third and the fourth, but I gave all my heart and my soul to making that first store a winner. [12:13] From an early age these working experiences taught me that if I put my mind to it and worked hard, I could do whatever I was doing as well or better than most other people. I learned to strive for excellence. [14:05] Odd as it may sound I think one of the best lessons I ever learned from my Dad is what he didn't do properly. He taught me what I never wanted to have happen to my family. [15:02] I decided I wanted to quit school, go to work and help support my family. I knew they desperately needed help. We didn't have enough money to live. [19:25] I learned an important lesson about sales. You don't sell to people. You get people to buy from you. You say to yourself, if I were in their position why would I want to buy this product? If I was in their position why would it be to my benefit? [19:48] The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing (but True!) Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century (Founders #206) My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising (Founders #170) Ogilvy on Advertising (Founders #82) Confessions of an Advertising Man (Founders #89) [22:58] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (Founders #141) [27:00] They were not interested in building a long-term business. They were only interested in a fast buck, buying their wives mink coats, and driving Cadillacs. They did not have the same ideas that I had about building a business. These guys didn't care about gaining respect, about being honest and honorable. I didn't want to be in business with people of that nature. [27:29] Adversity is a great teacher. Little did I know that this downturn of events would catapult me to a higher ground. [30:25] Copy This!: Lessons from a Hyperactive Dyslexic who Turned a Bright Idea Into One of America's Best Companies (Founders #181) [32:18] I came from within inches of qu
Mon, February 07, 2022
#230 Lucille Ball (TV's biggest star)
What I learned from reading Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:19] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Founders #141) [3:28] Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Founders #193) [4:37] Lucille Ball gave me advice about Hollywood. “Just remember, when they say, ‘No,’ you hear ‘Yes,’ and act accordingly. Someone says to you, ‘We can’t do this movie,’ you hug him and say, ‘Thank you for believing in me. [6:21] I like reading about people that do things that they're not supposed to do. [9:45] Create a comprehensive family history. [14:43] People with happy childhoods never overdo; they don't strive or exert themselves. They're moderate, pleasant, well liked, and good citizens. Society needs them. But the tremendous drive and dedication necessary to succeed in any field-not only show business-often seems to be rooted in a disturbed childhood. [19:27] This is a school that teaches acting, telling what is going to wind up being one of the most successful actresses that ever lives, that she can't do it. [20:29] I soon learned that to survive you have to be very strong, very healthy, and damned resilient. Rarely does anyone give you an encouraging word. [20:52] I'd show up early for rehearsals and stay until they had to sweep me off the stage. . .I didn't give up. I wore out my soles trudging to casting offices. [21:08] I can't say that I was discouraged. For some incomprehensible reason, knew that someday I'd make it. [21:15] Remember that there are practically no “overnight" successes. Before that brilliant hit performance came ten, fifteen, sometimes twenty years in the salt mines, sweating it out. [25:08] I was determined to stay in Hollywood. I would do what I could to make sure I'd survive the long haul. [27:34] What would you give to be a star in two years?’’ Lela asked me when I first was getting to know her. “What d’ya mean?’’ "Would you give me every breath you draw for two years? Will you work seven days a week? Will you sacrifice all your social life?" “I certainly will," I promised. "Okay," she said, "let's start. Lela was the first person to see me as a clown with glamour. [28:43] Lela taught us never to see anyone as bigger or more important than ourselves. [30:07] Buster Keaton used to tell me about dozens of Hollywood people who ran into trouble. This was comforting, like reading an autobiography and thinking, “Well, that happened to them, too. I'm not the only one.” [35:51] He soon learned that in striking out on your own, you have to
Sun, January 30, 2022
#229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon)
What I learned from reading Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life by Sidney Harman ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:46] Foxes and Hedgehogs [7:17] The thing with Hedgehogs is that they never give up. They keep at it – and they don’t ever get bored because they just love what they do – and they have a lot of fun along the way. [8:27] In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World [9:38] “The essence of commitment is making a decision. The Latin root for decision is to ‘cut away from,’ as in an incision. When you commit to something, you are cutting away all your other possibilities, all your other options” From the book The Lombardi Rules: 26 Lessons from Vince Lombardi—The World's Greatest Coach [11:16] The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis [13:12] I regard myself as guardian of the company’s soul. [15:05] Steve Jobs liked to say the Beatles were his management model—four guys who kept each other in check and produced something great. [15:50] Avoid recklessness, encourage daring. [18:08] His main point here is the fact that he started the company in defiance of conventional wisdom [24:08] Bloomberg by Bloomberg [26:16] I believe that refusing to accept business orthodoxy uncritically can open your eyes to opportunity. [34:56] We were free to follow our best instincts. We were free to bring totally new thinking to what we were doing. [38:44] Treat hard work and your smarts respectfully, but recognize that they are neither decisive nor do they guarantee anything. Most of all, I told myself, don’t underestimate determination and persistence, and never quit. [40:25] Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys [41:51] I loved building a business. What could be better? The products were wonderful. They employed technology wisely. They made beautiful music. My instinct for marketing—for selling, for emotive advertising—was not only indulged, but rewarded. [43:00] Mavericks do not play well with others. [55:12] It did not require a genius to recognize that I was looking at the future. [58:34] Reducing business matters to their essence, whittling away that which obscures or is unnecessary, has served me well. I admire greatly those who practice the art. [59:48] A company requires an articulated mission, a philosophical base, a moral compass, critical judgment, and the realization that it is a dynamic, living
Thu, January 27, 2022
#228 Michael Bloomberg
What I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:08] Answering to no one is the ultimate situation. [3:02] Twitter thread on Michael Bloomberg by Neckar.Substack.com [5:28] We never made the error that so many others have: mistaking their product for the device that delivers it. [6:27] We knew our core product was data and analytics. [7:01] We were motivated by an idea that we could build something new that just might make a difference. [9:04] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger [10:05] I was willing to do anything that they wanted. I would have never left voluntarily. [16:00] Street smarts and common sense were better predictors of career achievements. [17:40] Almost all occupations have a big selling component: selling your firm, your ideas and yourself. [18:20] It is the doers, the lean and hungry ones, those with ambition in their eyes and fire in their bellies, who go the furthest and achieve the most. [21:36] Comparing John to Bill on leadership, I always thought John was more egalitarian, but less effective. [22:55] It was a lowly start. We slaved in our underwear and an un-air conditioned, a bank vault. [23:57] The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb [24:22] Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman [27:20] David Geffen biography: The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood [30:07] It's said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. I believe that. You can never have complete mastery over your existence. You can't choose the advantages you start out with, and you certainly can't pick your genetic intelligence level. But you can control how hard you work. [31:20] Life, I've found, works the following way: Daily, you're presented with many small and surprising opportunities. Sometimes you seize one that takes you to the top. Most, though, if valuable at all, take you only a little way. To succeed, you must string together many small incremental advances-rather than count on hitting the lottery jackpot once. Trusting to great luck is a strategy not likely to work for most people. As a practical matter, constantly enhance your skills, put in as many hours as possible, and make tactical plans for the next few steps. Then, based on what actually occurs, look one more
Bonus · Mon, January 24, 2022
I read 66 biographies last year— Here are my top 10!
Here are 10 episodes to start with: #168 Driven: An Autobiography by Larry Miller #171 The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune #219 Anthony Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography #223 Unstoppable: Siggi Wilzig's Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend #216 Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans #212 Michael Jordan: The Life #210 Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft #193 Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder #185 Ritz & Escoffier: The Hotelier, The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class #170 My Life in Advertising ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, January 20, 2022
#227 The Essays of Warren Buffett
What I learned from reading The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:39] Founders #88 Warren Buffett’s shareholder letters — All of them! [2:36] Buffet and Charlie Munger built this sprawling enterprise by investing in businesses with excellent economic characteristics and run by outstanding managers. [5:21] Founders #224 Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson [5:41] Books on Henry Singleton: The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success and Distant Force A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It [7:06] Founders #226 Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson [8:03] Founders #34 Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull [9:19] Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. [9:58] Founders #208 In The Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World [11:11] Run your business as if: You own 100% of it It's the only asset that you hold You can’t sell it for 50 years [14:04] Buffett’s essays are sprinkled with historical reference points, especially economic history. He reflects the importance of understanding the past to handle the present and navigate the future. [16:04] A main theme of Buffett: Identify good ideas and then concentrate your resources around them. [16:54] Buffett’ Shareholder Letters on Kindle [23:44] Founders #104 Leading By Design: The IKEA Story [24:53] Founders #93 and Founders #222 A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market [27:19] Businesses seldom operate in a tranquil, no surprise environment and earnings simply don't advance smoothly. [29:28] Founders #143 Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II Loomis had one important characteristic. His ability to concentrate completely on a chief objective, even at the cost of neglecting matters that appear to other people to be of equal importance. [31:19] The competitive position of each of our business grows either weaker or strong
Wed, January 12, 2022
#226 Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
What I learned from reading Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:55] I have always had a soft spot for those who speak out against the conventional wisdom and who are not afraid to speak the truth, even if it puts them in a minority of one. [1:20] 4 traits of heroes: 1. Absolute independence of mind. Think everything through yourself. 2. Act resolutely and consistently. 3. Ignore the media. 4. Act with personal courage at all times regardless of the consequences to yourself. [2:25] Churchill by Paul Johnson [2:47] Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky by Paul Johnson and Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. [3:34] Founders #196 Book link: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. “ It’s slothful not to compress your thoughts .” —Churchill [4:58] They carved out vast empires for themselves and hammered their names into the history of the earth. [5:04] Each was brave, highly intelligent, and almost horrifically self-assured. [6:09] Founders #208 In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World " People are packaged deals. You take the good with the confused. In most cases, strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same thing ." —Steve Jobs [10:22] Alexander the Great read Homer all of his life and knew the passages by heart. It was to him, a Bible, a guide to heroic morality, a book of etiquette and a true adventure story. The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer. [11:50] Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins [12:15] The most important factor, as always with men of action, was sheer will. [15:56] Caesar appreciated the importance of speed and the terrifying surprises speed made possible. [16:15] Founders #155 Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos “You can drive great people by making the speed of decision making really slow. Why would great people stay in an organization where they can't get things done? They look around after a while, and they're, like, "Look, I love the mission, but I can't get my job done because our speed of decision making is too slow." [18:33] Caesar was a man of colossal energy and farsighted cunning. He aimed to conquer
Sun, January 09, 2022
#225 Winston Churchill
What I learned from reading Churchill by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:09] Churchill never allowed mistakes, disaster, illnesses, unpopularity, and criticism to get him down. [4:19] The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) [4:57] He wrote best-selling biographies on Napoleon , Churchill , Eisenhower , Socrates , and Mozart . [6:39] 3 part series on Larry Ellison: Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle (Founders #124), The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the Americas Cup, Twice (Founders #126), The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison (Founders #127) [7:40] How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets by Felix Dennis (Founders #129) [8:35] On the importance of belief: I am not asking you to be Winston Churchill. None of us could be. But I do ask that you begin, right now, right at this very moment, to ask yourself whether you believe in yourself. Truly. Do you believe in yourself? Do you? If you do not, and, worse still, if you believe you never can believe, then, by all means, go on reading this book. But take it from me, your only chance of getting rich will come from the lottery or inheritance. If you will not believe in yourself, then why should anyone else? [10:15] How did one man do so much, for so long, and so effectively? [11:29] Reading is not a chore. Reading is theft. It is a robbery. Someone smarter than you has spent 20 years beating their head against the wall trying to solve the problem you're dealing with. You can steal that hard won knowledge and make it yours. That is power. [12:57] Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life by Richard Branson (Founders #49) [15:27] Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela [16:44] My personal email list: My top 10 highlights from Churchill . [21:51]
Wed, January 05, 2022
#224 Charles de Gaulle
What I learned from reading Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [6:45] The Winston Churchill episode is #196 based on the book The Splendid and The Vile [7:07] Don’t turn your back on he who will not accept defeat . [7:54] The greatest founders in history have identified a series of ideas that are extremely important to them and they repeat these ideas over and over again. Repetition is persuasive. [12:24] De Gaulle was a voice before he was a face. [16:45] Whatever happens the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished, and it will not be extinguished. [19:15] De Gaulle spoke about the army the way Enzo Ferrari spoke of his cars. Founders #97 Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans [23:30] Nothing dented his belief in victory. [23:38] The victor is the one that wants victory most energetically . [32:17] “Henry Singleton always tries to work out the best moves and maybe he doesn't like to talk too much because when you're playing a game, you don't tell anyone else what your strategy is.” —Claude Shannon [32:51] A country (or a person, or a company) is defeated only when it has lost the will to fight. [36:19] Excellence is the capacity to take pain. [42:13] To be passive is to be defeated . [48:18] Leadership is a solitary exersize of the will. [53:23] “I don't want any messages saying 'I'm holding my position.' We're not holding a goddamned thing. We're advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding anything except the enemy's balls. We're going to hold him by his balls and we're going to kick him in the ass. We are going to kick the living shit out of him all the time. Our plan of operation is to advance and keep on advancing.” —General Patton [53:45] That central is completely opposite of what the French* generals thought. [54:34] Founders #208 In The Company of Giants [59:15] The history of entrepreneurship is extremely clear about the need to be able to concentrate. [1:00:38] All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. [1:04:55] He pushed himself to the limits and he expected the same from his men. [1:05:53] All those who have done something valuable and durable have done so alone and in silence. [1:07:07] Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime by Nims Purja [1:14:31] What everyone seems to ignore is the incredible mixture of patience, of obstinate creativity, the dizzying succession of calculations,
Wed, December 29, 2021
#223 Unstoppable: Siggi Wilzig's Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend
What I learned from reading Unstoppable: Siggi Wilzig's Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend by Joshua M. Greene. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- Never give up. Only death is permanent. Everything else can be fixed. I couldn't take such talk about not coming out alive. I didn't want to hear it. Whenever my mind told me I was not going to survive, the Almighty told me to keep going. So I stayed away from the others. Because I could outwit the guards, I always felt superior to them. I hated them. I hated their brutality, their inhuman behavior. I felt stronger, more intelligent, and I had confidence in myself from childhood. So even though they had the guns and did all the killing, I felt superior. It was obviously a touch of arrogance, and some of it was justified and some not justified, but even in that totally hopeless condition I looked down on all of them. It was clear that Americans were alive in every sense, moving purposefully toward some vision of tomorrow. He liked that. He would do that, too: grasp opportunities and not allow the darkness of the past to rob him of a bright future. Even smart chickens shit on their own feathers! When Naomi found out her husband was purchasing shares of Wilshire on a regular basis, she chided him. "More stock? We can barely pay the bills and you're buying more stock?" Siggi made excuses, but he didn't stop buying. "I didn't see how this was going to change our life," Naomi said, remembering other stocks her husband had bought and other career moves he had made. "But that's how it turned out." You are looking at a man who had the foxlike instincts to survive history's darkest hour, a man who has no fear of adversity and who cannot be intimidated by overwhelming odds. Siggi had grown his bank from $180 million in assets to more than $4 billion. Siggi was the first person in history to sue the Federal Reserve. He's just happy to be alive. People thought he was nuts and laughed at him, but he didn't care. Less than a year after his death, his estate was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “Not bad," as Siggi once said, "for a short, bowlegged Jew with flat feet who never graduated kindergarten and started with only $240 in his pocket." ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: <a h
Mon, December 20, 2021
#222 Ed Thorp (My personal blueprint)
What I learned from rereading A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- 1. The book reveals a thorough, rigorous, methodical person in search of life, knowledge, financial security, and, not least of all, fun. 2. I learned at an early age to teach myself. This paid off later on because there weren’t any courses in how to beat blackjack, build a computer for roulette, or launch a market-neutral hedge fund. 3. Even though the Goliath I was challenging had always won, I knew something no one else did: He was nearsighted, clumsy, slow, and stupid, and we were going to fight on my terms, not his. 4. I admired the heroes who, through extraordinary abilities and resourcefulness, achieved great things. I may have been inspired to mirror this in the future by using my mind to overcome intellectual obstacles. 5. Rather than subscribing to widely accepted views—such as you can’t beat the casinos—I checked for myself. 6. What matters in life is how you spend your time . 7. Life is like reading a novel or running a marathon. It’s not so much about reaching a goal but rather about the journey itself and the experiences along the way. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Time is the stuff life is made of,” and how you spend it makes all the difference. 8. I also believed then, as I do now after more than fifty years as a money manager, that the surest way to get rich is to play only those gambling games or make those investments where I have an edge. 9. Since much of what we were doing was being invented as we went along, and our investment approach was new, I had to teach a unique set of skills. I chose young smart people just out of university because they were not set in their ways from previous jobs. Better to teach a young athlete who comes fresh to his sport than to retrain one who has learned bad form. 10. Whatever you do, enjoy your life and the people who share it with you, and leave something good of yourself for the generations to follow. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of
Mon, December 13, 2021
#221 Charlie Munger
What I learned from reading Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [16:02] I had a considerable passion to get rich. Not because I wanted Ferraris—I wanted the independence. I desperately wanted it. [26:49] I met the towering intellectuals in books, not in the classroom, which is natural. My family was into all that stuff, getting ahead through discipline, knowledge, and self-control. [37:44] He talked about business in a way that was animated and interesting though now I see he was almost broke. I knew he drove an awful car. But I never thought he was anything but a big success. Why did I think that? He just had this air-everything he did was going to be first class, going to be great. He had these enthusiasms for his projects and his future. [38:48] Charlie drummed in the notion that a person should always "Do the best that you can do. Never tell a lie. If you say you're going to do it, get it done. Nobody gives a shit about an excuse . Leave for the meeting early, Don't be late, but if you are late, don't bother giving people excuses. Just apologize. They're due the apology, but they're not interested in an excuse.” [42:22] The rabbit runs faster than the fox, because the rabbit is running for his life while the fox is only running for his dinner. [49:15] He wouldn't accept anything on face value. His interest in almost everything can be so intense, he will have a perspective that others will not have. [49:29] Do things that other people aren't doing. [1:07:55] I am a biography nut myself and I think when you're trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them. I think that you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among the eminent dead, but if you go through life making friends with the emìnent dead who had the right ideas, I thìnk it will work better in life and work better in education. It's way better than just giving the basic concepts. [1:15:15] It is Charlie's philosophy that a first-rate man should be willing to take at least some difficult jobs with a high chance of failure. [1:21:28] Though few companies last forever, all of them should be built to last a long time, says Munger. The approach to corporate control should be thought of as "financial engineering." Just as bridges and airplanes are constructed with a series of back-up systems and redundancies to meet extreme stresses, so too should corporations be built to withstand the pressures from competition, recessions, oil shocks, or other calamities. Excess leverage, or debt, makes the corporation especi
Thu, December 09, 2021
#220 Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine
What I learned from reading Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:01] Editorial writers around the world groped for words to express what Enzo Ferrari had meant. Many tried to describe him as an automotive pioneer, which he was not; others called him a great racing driver and engineer, which he was not. He was, however, exactly what he had repeatedly said he was: an agitator of men. And he remained true to his credo to the day he died. [0:43] If there was one essential quality about the man it was his ironbound tenacity, his fierce devotion to the single cause of winning automobile races with cars bearing his name. For nearly sixty years, hardly a day passed when this thought was not foremost in his mind. Win or lose, he unfailingly answered the bell . In that sense his devotion to his own self-described mission was without precedent. For that alone he towered over his peers. [44:26] Enzo Ferrari was a man with a diamond-hard will to win at all costs. [45:08] If they were to survive, it would be thanks to their wits and their ability to play the ancient game of life. Few men understood this game better than Ferrari. [48:49] Enzo Ferrari was born with simple tastes, and even after he became rich and prominent, he retained the ways of a simple, uncluttered man. During the 1930s, when every ounce of his energies and every lira in his pocket were being plowed back into the business, he lived a modest, frugal life. [1:05:50] It is often said that his greatest skill was his ability to recognize talent. [1:06:13] Ferrari appeared to be happier when he was losing, which jibes with mechanics' observations that the race shop on Monday was more serene following a defeat than a victory. But why? Was not winning the central object of the exercise? Ferrari explained: “There is always something to learn. One never stops learning. Particularly when one is losing. When one loses one knows what has to be done. When one wins one is never sure.” [1:08:08] The source of much of Ferrari's success over the years was not technological brilliance or tactical cleverness, but dogged, gritty, unfailing persistence in competing—a willingness to appear at the line no matter what the odds and run as hard as possible. [1:15:44] Those who knew him best understood that Enzo Ferrari would never retire. There was little else in his life besides automobile racing. It was that simple. [1:19:34] His view of racing remained constant; the event itself was essentially meaningless. For him the stimulation came in the planning and preparation, in the creation of the machines, in the organization of the human beings who would man the team. ---- Get access to the Worl
Tue, November 30, 2021
#219 Tony Bourdain: The Definitive Biography
What I learned from reading Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [28:32] All the energy he'd put into trying to destroy himself, he put that into building himself back up. All that negative energy became something else. He became so serious, and so driven and focused. He worked really hard. It takes a lot of determination to wake up early in the morning and write, and then go to a job in the kitchen, and come home at god knows what hour, and get up the next morning and do it again. He was a fiend. One time, he said about his disciplined writing regimen, "Such was my lust to see my name in print." He threw himself into his work in a manner that I found astonishing. [41:17] He gave me really good advice: "Stay public. You gotta promote, promote, promote, or it all dies. You just gotta be out there all the time." Tony embraced that. [56:17] He proceeded to tell everyone to ignore the network. He said, "Completely ignore everything they're saying about music, about story, about shots. Let me deal with it all. I'm gonna make the show I want to make, across all fronts.” I had already been editing for ten years, and this was the first time I'd heard anything like this. Everyone is always just trying to make the network happy. [1:01:51] The line between Tony and the show was very thin, if it existed at all. [1:07:07] This life isn't a greenroom for something else. He went for it. [1:20:50] He demanded excellence, and he never settled for shit. He just wanted the show to be the greatest thing ever, all the time. [1:22:48] It was his life's work, and he never slacked. [1:34:56] Tony gorged himself on being alive. [1:46:13] The world is not better off with him not here. It's just not. [1:45:46] I liked him better when he was just kind of living his best life and looking in the rearview mirror like he stole something. This beautiful life that he had, something people would dream of, and no one else could do it but him. A "slit my wrist" love story is just the shittiest ending to it all. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest en
Thu, November 25, 2021
#218 Johan Cruyff (A Life of Total Football)
What I learned from reading My Turn: A Life of Total Football by Johan Cruyff. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [0:01] I always say you play football with your head; you just use your legs to run. [1:09] I'm not capable of doing something at a low level. [8:45] I'm definitely cunning. I'm always on the lookout for the best advantage. [13:16] To be able to touch the ball perfectly once, you need to have touched it a hundred thousand times in training. [14:00] My father died in 1959, when he was forty-five and I was twelve. His death has never let go of me. [21:07] Winning was the consequence of the process that we had concentrated on. [45:30] It doesn't work without full commitment. [55:17] The experiences I have been through have given me a vast store of knowledge that needs to be shared so that others can profit from my experiences. [56:09] I've led a full life and can look back on it the way you're supposed to. It's been so incredibly intense that I feel like I've lived for a hundred years. [56:21] A setback is probably a sign that you need to make some adjustments. If you learn to think that way, all experiences are translated into something positive. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, November 18, 2021
#217 Estée Lauder
What I learned from rereading Estée Lauder: A Success Story by Estée Lauder. Watch Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill Gurley. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [21:14] I sometimes wonder if I had set my heart on selling tassels, cars, furniture, or anything else but beauty, would I have risen to the top of a profession? Somehow I doubt it. I believed in my product. I loved my product. [32:07] Risk taking is the cornerstone of empires. No one ever became a success without taking chances. [39:24] I was single-minded in the pursuit of my dream. [44:38] Despite all the naysayers, there was never a single moment when I considered giving up. That was simply not a viable alternative. [55:59] We took the money we had planned to use on advertising and invested it instead in enough material to give away large quantities of our products. [1:02:20] Never underestimate the value of an ally. Today they call it networking—this sharing between colleagues. It is one of the most powerful tools in the business. [1:12:22] It's not enough to have the most wonderful product in the world. You must be able to sell it. [1:15:03] Love your career or else find another. [1:19:05] Visualize. If in your mind's eye you see a successful venture, a deal made, a profit accomplished, it has a superb chance of actually happening. Projecting your mind into a successful situation is the most powerful means to achieve goals. If you spend time with pictures of failure in your mind, you will orchestrate failure. Countless times, before the event, I have pictured a heroic sale to a large department store every step of the way and the picture in my mind became a reality. I've visualized success, then created the reality from the image. Great athletes, business people, inventors, and achievers from all walks of life seem to know this secret. [1:21:34] I've always believed that if you stick to a thought and carefully avoid distraction along the way, you can fulfill a dream. I kept my eye on the target. I've never allowed my eye to leave the particular target of the moment. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I
Sun, November 14, 2021
#216 Paul Van Doren (Founder of Vans)
What I learned from reading Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans by Paul Van Doren. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- The way we deal with hardship is our legacy. You can accept defeat, or you can overcome it. Quitting Randy's had probably been the biggest stroke of luck in my life. Opportunity is a strange beast. Whenever a situation went sideways and things looked dire, I always called up my one superpower: focus. I believe honest self-evaluation and the ability to listen to others has been one of my greatest strengths, one that has served me well over the years. If someone had a better idea than mine, of course I would adopt that. I really didn’t care if I didn’t get credit. I didn’t need credit; I needed success . The very best thing that occurred during that first decade of Vans was that we truly became a family business. Without exception, family has always been the most important thing in my life. Most of the kids in the early skater crews came from single-parent households, from the wrong side of the tracks. They were idiosyncratic, creative, independent—they were seen as the “freaks” of the sport. In so many ways, they were our people. If you do something no one else can do, or do something better than most, the odds are in your favor for success. Shit happens—it really does. Letting yourself get stuck in it doesn’t do any good. Acknowledge it and then move on. Don’t let it weigh you down—just cope. Tackling things in a positive way will help you succeed more often than not. Shit happens: these two words fully acknowledge the difficulties in life, but you can put them firmly in the rearview mirror, without letting them mess with your head or your path in life. To me, the more critical the situation, the better I’ll perform. I don’t create clutch situations just to feel the rush—I’d prefer to eliminate risk than encourage it—but I for one have always found defeat intoxicating, especially when it's someone else's. And when it's mine, I can’t say it's ever done anything but make me think smarter and behave differently, even courageously. Hell, it's only after I lost something or when something didn’t go my way that I was afforded the opportunity to shine . I’ve learned that what makes a successful entrepreneur is the same thing that makes a good skateboarder or good surfer: you need grit and determination to get back up every time you’re knocked off the board. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on
Tue, November 09, 2021
#215: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves (The General and the Genius)
What I learned from reading The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- It is clear that nothing short of a full-speed, all-out attempt would be worthwhile . Once Leslie Groves accepted his new assignment, he embraced it completely. From his appointment in September 1942 until the end of the war, he worked at full speed, often fourteen hours a day or more. His remarkable energy and stamina frequently exhausted those who worked and traveled with him. Groves's style was to delegate whatever he could and then put the screws to the delegees. He was a taskmaster. The instructions to the project were that any individual in the project who felt that the ultimate completion was going to be delayed by as much as a day by something that was happening, it was his duty to report it direct to me. Urgency was on us right from the start. When Marshall asked him if he ever praised anyone for a job well done, Groves said no. "I don't believe in it. No matter how well something is being done, it can always be done better and faster.” Oppenheimer insisted that Los Alamos should have one director. He had learned enough about management from studying Groves to believe that while consensus was important, an organization needed a single leader. The dual approaches reflected Groves's belief in pursuing multiple solutions to a problem until the problem is solved . In a frank assessment of his boss after the war, he called him, "the biggest S.O.B. I have ever worked for. He is the most demanding. He is the most critical. He is always a driver, never a praiser. He is abrasive and sarcastic. He disregards all normal organizational channels. He is extremely intelligent. He has the guts to make timely, difficult decisions. He is the most egotistical man I know. He knows he is right and so sticks by his decision. He abounds with energy and expects everyone to work as hard or even harder than he does. If I had to do my part of the atomic bomb project over again and had the privilege of picking my boss I would pick General Groves." Groves had a reputation for competence. He was demanding, rough, and sometimes brutal with his staff, intolerant of delay and mental slowness. On the other hand, he never swore, rarely lost his temper, and never raised his voice. He was also prepared to let subordinates disagree if their arguments were sound. He disliked people who groveled. Groves remained unflappable, accepting the unanticip
Wed, November 03, 2021
#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
What I learned from rereading Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- 1. He had the attitude that he could do anything, and therefore so can you. 2. He refused to accept automatically received truths, and he wanted to examine everything himself. 3. Picasso had a saying—‘good artists copy, great artists steal’—and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. 4. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. 5. The way we're running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let's make it simple. Really simple. 6. Jobs’s intensity was also evident in his ability to focus. He would set priorities, aim his laser attention on them, and filter out distractions. 7. The thing that struck me was his intensity. Whatever he was interested in he would generally carry to an irrational extreme. 8. One of Jobs's talents was spotting markets that were filled with second-rate products. 9. Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. 10. His mind was never a captive of reality. He possessed an epic sense of possibility. He looked at things from the standpoint of perfection. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to bu
Wed, October 27, 2021
#213 Michael Jordan: Driven From Within
What I learned from reading Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [4:55] Players who practice hard when no one is paying attention play well when everyone is watching. [9:47] It's hard, but it's fair. I live by those words. [12:49] To this day, I don't enjoy working. I enjoy playing, and figuring out how to connect playing with business. To me, that's my niche. People talk about my work ethic as a player, but they don't understand. What appeared to be hard work to others was simply playing for me. [24:00] You have to be uncompromised in your level of commitment to whatever you are doing, or it can disappear as fast as it appeared. [24:26] Look around, just about any person or entity achieving at a high level has the same focus. The morning after Tiger Woods rallied to beat Phil Mickelson at the Ford Championship in 2005, he was in the gym by 6:30 to work out. No lights. No cameras. No glitz or glamour. Uncompromised. [37:01] I knew going against the grain was just part of the process. [53:20] The mind will play tricks on you. The mind was telling you that you couldn't go any further. The mind was telling you how much it hurt. The mind was telling you these things to keep you from reaching your goal. But you have to see past that, turn it all off if you are going to get where you want to be. [57:41] I would wake up in the morning thinking: How am I going to attack today? [1:06:04] I’m not so dominant that I can’t listen to creative ideas coming from other people. Successful people listen. Those who don’t listen, don’t survive long. [1:06:22] In all honesty, I don't know what's ahead. If you ask me what I'm going to do in five years, I can't tell you. This moment? Now that's a different story. I know what I'm doing moment to moment, but I have no idea what's ahead. I'm so connected to this moment that I don't make assumptions about what might come next, because I don't want to lose touch with the present. Once you make assumptions about something that might happen, or might not happen, you start limiting the potential outcomes. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because
Sat, October 23, 2021
#212 Michael Jordan: The Life
What I learned from reading Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [5:07] His competence was exceeded only by his confidence. [5:58] He worked at the game, and if he wasn't good at something, he had the motivation to be the best at it. [6:33] It seemed that he discovered the secret quite early in his competitive life: the more pressure he heaped on himself, the greater his ability to rise to the occasion. [14:06] At each step along his path, others would express amazement at how hard he competed. At every level, he was driven as if he were pursuing something that others couldn't see. [16:10] Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I'd close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it, and that got me going again. [19:29] Jordan could sense immediately that he had something the others didn't. [59:53] The Jordan Rules succeeded against the Bulls so well that they became textbook for guarding athletic scorers. The scheme helped Detroit win two NBA championships, but it also helped in the long run, by forcing Jordan to find an answer . "I think that 'Jordan Rules' defense, as much as anything else, played a part in the making of Michael Jordan," Tex Winter said. [1:16:35] Jordan had been surprised to learn how lazy many of his Olympic teammates were about practice, how they were deceiving themselves about what the game required . [1:19:56] I have always liked practice and I hate to miss it. When you miss that one day, you feel like you missed a lot. You take extra work to make up for that one day. I've always been a practice player. I believe in it . [1:29:47] Jordan presented a singleness of purpose that was hard to dent. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sat, October 16, 2021
#211 Aristotle Onassis: An Extravagant Life
What I learned from reading Onassis: An Extravagant Life by Frank Brady. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- He became one of the richest men in U.S. history ever to be arrested. The epic life of Aristotle Onassis is as mysterious as a tale from ancient Greek mythology and is a study of paradoxes, altogether gripping because of their seeming inconsistencies. Onassis had long since begun to formulate a personal business philosophy. The key to success was boldness, boldness, and more boldness. He was constantly visiting and inspecting ships, talking to ship owners and other importers and quietly absorbing everything, making a very conscious attempt to learn as much as he could before going into ship-owning seriously. He was quite observant about what, to others, were trifles but, to him, were important details. He often quoted Napoleon: “ The pursuit of detail is the religion of success .” Onassis was a man of the pier, but with the cocksureness of a king. She simply never knew anyone quite as free or exotic as Aristotle Onassis, a paradoxical blend of raconteur and ruffian. Onassis was a born orator. He could keep a dinner party of some of the world's most sophisticated conversationalists spellbound. Onassis spent almost all of his time working. He would pore over shipping journals from Antwerp, Vancouver, Hamburg, and New York, looking for intelligence, trends, and opportunities. He would scan, study and memorize tonnage, prices, insurance rates and schedules of the world's great and small steamship companies and then attempt to outbid his competitors. He read the maritime sections of at least six foreign language daily newspapers each day. And I, of course, will do exactly as I please. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, October 10, 2021
#210 Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
What I learned from reading Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- My earliest memory is of imagining I was someone else. By the time I was fourteen the nail in wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all. I'm not editorializing, just trying to give you the facts as I see them. There was also a work-ethic in the poem that I liked, something that suggested writing poems (or stories, or essays) had as much in common with sweeping the floor as with mythy moments of revelation. The realization that stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit. If I ever came close to despairing about my future as a writer, it was then. I could see myself thirty years on, wearing the same shabby tweed coats with patches on the elbows, potbelly rolling over my Gap khakis from too much beer. I'd have a cigarette cough from too many packs, thicker glasses, more dandruff, and in my desk drawer, six or seven unfinished manuscripts which I would take out and tinker with from time to time, usually when drunk. And of course. I'd lie to myself, telling myself there was still time, it wasn't too late. You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair – the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page . “When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "One word at a time," and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time. But I've read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope.” Talent renders the whole
Wed, October 06, 2021
#209 Steven Spielberg: A Biography
What I learned from reading Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Whatever is there, he makes it work. Spielberg once defined his approach to filmmaking by declaring, "I am the audience." "He said, 'I want to be a director.' And I said, 'Well, if you want to be a director, you've gotta start at the bottom, you gotta be a gofer and work your way up.' He said, 'No, Dad. The first picture I do, I'm going to be a director.' And he was. That blew my mind. That takes guts." One of his boyhood friends recalls Spielberg saying "he could envision himself going to the Academy Awards and accepting an Oscar and thanking the Academy.” He was twelve. He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own . Spielberg remained essentially an autodidact. Spielberg followed his own eccentric path to a professional directing career. Universal Studios, in effect, was Spielberg's film school. Giving him an education that, paradoxically, was both more personal and more conventional than he would have received in an academic environment. Spielberg devised what amounted to his own private tutorial program at Universal, immersing himself in the aspects of filmmaking he found most crucial to his development. At the time he came to Hollywood, generations of nepotism had made the studios terminally inbred and unwelcoming to newcomers. The studio system, long under siege from television, falling box-office receipts, and skyrocketing costs, was in a state of impending collapse. When Steven was very discouraged trying to sell a script and break in, he always had a positive, forward motion, whatever he may have been suffering inside. In the two decades since Star Wars and Close Encounters were released, science-fiction films have accounted for half of the top twenty box-office hits. But before George Lucas and Spielberg revived the genre there was no real appetite at the studios for science fiction. The conventional wisdom was science-fiction films never make money. Your children love you. They want to play with you. How long do you think that lasts? We have a few special years with our children, when they're the ones who want us around. So fast, it’s a few years, then it's over. You are not being careful. And you are missing it. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here .
Wed, September 29, 2021
#208 Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Andy Grove, Bill Hewlett
What I learned from reading In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World by Rama Dev Jager and Rafael Ortiz. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players. —Steve Jobs There are no shortcuts around quality, and quality starts with people. —Steve Jobs Usually people never think that much about what they're doing or why they do it. They just do it because that's the way it has been done and it works. That type of thinking doesn't work if you're growing fast and if you're up against some larger companies. You really have to outthink them and you have to be able to make those paradigm shifts in your points of view. —Steve Jobs ———— Steve Jobs answer to What advice would you give someone interested in starting their own company? A lot of people ask me, "I want to start a company. What should I do?" My first question is always, "What is your passion? What is it you want to do in your company?" Most of them say, "I don't know." My advice is go get a job as a busboy until you figure it out. You've got to be passionate about something. You shouldn't start a company because you want to start a company. Almost every company I know of got started because nobody else believed in the idea and the last resort was to start the company. That's how Apple got started. That's how Pixar got started. It's how Intel got started. You need to have passion about your idea and you need to feel so strongly about it that you're willing to risk a lot. Starting a company is so hard that if you're not passionate about it, you will give up. If you're simply doing it because you want to have a small company, forget it. It's so much work and at times is so mentally draining. The hardest thing I've ever done is to start a company. It's the funnest thing, but it's the hardest thing, and if you're not passionate about your goal or your reason for doing it, you will give up. You will not see it through. So, you must have a very strong sense of what you want. You have to need to run such a business and know you can do it better than anyone else. ———— There are no safe harbors. The only safe harbor is competency. Competency at doing something. —T.J. Rodgers founder of Cypress Semiconductor The first time someone says, “The product you've made has changed my life," is the biggest sense of satisfaction you get. It motivates me more than anything else, by far. —Charles Geschke, founder of Adobe Being detached from the customer is the ultimate death
Sun, September 26, 2021
#207 Claude Hopkins (Scientific Advertising)
What I learned from reading Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Individuals come and go, but they leave their records and ideas behind them. These become a guide to all who follow. Genius is the art of taking pains. The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. The best ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They site advantages to users. Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. The care nothing about your interests or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising. Ads say in effect, “Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money." That doesn't work. We learn that people judge largely by price. We often employ this factor. Perhaps we are advertising a valuable formula. To merely say that would not be impressive. So we state as a fact that we paid $100,000 for that formula. That statement when tried has won a wealth of respect. The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific. Makers of safety razors have long advertised quick shaves. One maker advertised a 78-second shave. The difference is vast. If a claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way. The product itself should be its own best salesman. Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, and atmosphere, which you place around it. Samples are of prime importance. However expensive, they usually form the cheapest selling method. Samples serve numerous valuable purposes. They enable one to use the word "Free" in ads. That often multiplies readers. Samples pay for themselves in multiplying the readers of your ads. Mail order advertising tells a complete story if the purpose is to make an immediate sale. You see no limitations there on the amount of copy. The motto is, "The more you tell the more you sell." And it has never failed to be proven wrong in any test we know. Show health, not sickness. Don't show the wrinkles you propose to remove, but the face as it will appear. Your customers know all about the wrinkles. Show pretty teeth, not bad teeth. Talk of coming good conditions, not conditions that exist. We are attracted by sunshine, beauty, happiness, health, and success. Point the way to them, not the way out of the opposite. I spend far more time on headlines than on writing. I often spend hours on a single headline. The identical ad run with various headlines differs tremendously in its returns. It is not uncommon for a change in headlines to m
Thu, September 23, 2021
#206 Albert D. Lasker (the creation of the advertising industry)
What I learned from reading The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing (but True!) Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and Arthur W. Schultz. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Advertising is a very simple thing. I can give it to you in three words: Salesmanship in print. Before he arrived on the scene, advertising agencies were mostly brokers of space in newspapers and magazines. With Lasker's prodding, the industry became a creative force and began earning substantial commissions. His rare ability to put troubled geniuses to work on challenging problems grew in part from the fact that he himself had been driven by "a thousand devils.” Albert measured himself against the man who had braved the privations and horrors of the Civil War, epidemics, and hurricanes and made several fortunes in a foreign and sometimes hostile land. Thomas was often taken aback by his young colleague's unconventional views and methods. He decided that he could represent as well as anybody, because at least as far as he could tell, nobody in his office really knew anything much about the business they were in. He was beginning to suspect that advertising agencies were leaving an enormous amount of money on the table. Lasker felt sure that he could build the business, and boost commissions if he could improve the agency's copywriting. You are insufferably egotistical on the things you know nothing about, and you are painfully modest about those things about which you know everything. Hopkins began imparting his theory of copywriting. We should never brag about a client's product, he said, or plead with consumers to buy it. Instead, we must figure out how to appeal to the consumer's self-interest. Lasker argued that rather than maintaining many modestly successful small brands, the company needed to create one overwhelmingly powerful product. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast</st
Sat, September 18, 2021
#205 James Dyson (Invention: A Life)
What I learned from reading Invention: A Life by James Dyson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- This is a story told through a life of creating and developing things, as well as expressing a call to arms for young people to become engineers, creating solutions to our current and future problems. I have tried to seek out those young people who can make the world a better place. I have seen what miracles they can achieve. This book is aimed at encouraging them. Some may well become heirs to my heroes—inventors, engineers, and designers—who make their appearance in these pages. Like them, they will not find it easy and they will need oodles of determination and stamina along the way . That was the last time I saw him. His brave cheerfulness chokes me every time I recall the scene. It is impossible to imagine my father's emotions as he waved goodbye knowing that he might be on his way to London to die. Sixty years have not softened these memories , nor the sadness that he missed enjoying his three children growing up. I felt the devastating loss of my dad, his love, his humor, and the things he taught me. I feared for a future without him. Running also taught me to overcome the pain barrier: when everyone else feels exhausted, that is the opportunity to accelerate, whatever the pain, and win the race. Stamina and determination, with creativity, are needed to overcome seemingly impossible difficulties. I admire Soichiro Honda greatly for his addiction to the continuous improvement of products. Craziest of all, during the first thirty years of our marriage, she agreed unselfishly to keep putting her signature to endless bank guarantee forms in front of solicitors, signing away our possessions. If we had defaulted on the bank loans, we would have been evicted from our home. At Dyson, we don't particularly value experience. Experience tells you how things should be done when we are much more interested in how things shouldn't be done. Jeremy Fry encouraged me to think for myself and to "just do it." Jeremy Fry taught me, without saying a word, that each day is a form of education. I wanted to make new things—things that might seem strange—and not things you make because you know they will sell. I was left with a burning ambition to emulate designer-engineers like Issigonis and Citroën in my own small way. I happen to find factories and production lines romantic places. They are truly exciting. Selling goes with manufacturing as wheels do with a bicycle
Tue, September 14, 2021
#204 Steve Jobs (Inside Steve's Brain)
What I learned from reading Inside Steve's Brian by Leander Kahney. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- 1. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don't take the time to do that. 2. He remade Apple in his own image. Apple is Steve Jobs with ten thousand lives. 3. I'm looking for a fixer-upper with a solid foundation. Am willing to tear down walls, build bridges, and light fires. I have great experience, lots of energy, a bit of that 'vision thing' and I'm not afraid to start from the beginning. 4. Good storytelling lasts for decades. I don't think you'll be able to boot up any computer today in 20 years. But Snow White has sold 28 million copies, and it's a 60-year-old production. 5. Jobs has said the starting point is the user experience. 6. In everything I've done it really pays to go after the best people in the world. 7. My dream is that every person in the world will have their own Apple computer. To do that, we've got to be a great marketing company. 8. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. 9. Unless you have a lot of passion about this, you're not going to survive. You're going to give it up. So you've got to have an idea or a problem you're passionate about; otherwise you're not going to have the perseverance to stick it through. I think that's half the battle right there. 10. The older I get, the more I'm convinced that motives make so much difference. Our primary goal here is to make the world's best PCs—not to be the biggest or the richest. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Wed, September 08, 2021
#203 Georges Doriot (Birth of Venture Capital)
What I learned from reading Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital by Spencer Ante. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- 1. He was very important because he was the first one to believe there was a future in financing entrepreneurs in an organized way. 2. He brought a unique style to everything he did. 3. He called his course Manufacturing, but it was really his philosophy of life and of business. 4. At Harvard, Doriot became a Yoda-like figure, dispensing wisdom to an ever-growing group of disciples. 5. He got me motivated to start a business. 6. A real courageous man is a man who does something courageous when no one is watching him. 7. If any information is to be exchanged over whiskey, let us get it rather than give it. 8. You will get nowhere if you do not inspire people. 9. Always remember that someone somewhere is making a product that will make your product obsolete. 10. Decades before economists appreciated the value of technology, Doriot realized that innovation was the key to economic progress. 11. He upset the conventional wisdom by proving that there was big money to be made from patient investing in and the nurturing of small, unproven companies. 12. He believed in building companies for the long haul. 13. I don’t consider a speculator constructive. I am building men and companies. 14. A creative man merely has ideas; a resourceful man makes them practical. I look for the resourceful man. 15. When ARD liquidated its stake in Digital, the company was worth more than $400 million—yielding a return on their original investment of more than 70,000 percent. It was the young venture capital industry’s first home run. 16. Doriot never figured out a way to appease government regulators, who repeatedly threatened to put ARD out of business. 17. More than any other person, Doriot pioneered the transition to an economy built on entrepreneurship and innovation. 18. Celebrating anything less than the best possible result smacked of contentment 19. A commercial bank lends only on the strength of the past. I want money to do things that have never been done before. 20. Every successful man can usually point to a mentor that helped guide his career. 21. One of things that profoundly affected Georges was his father getting wiped out financially. 22. Doriot would go on to mentor thousands of other students, giving them advice, finding them jobs, guiding them in their careers, and taking an extraordi
Thu, September 02, 2021
#202 A Few Lessons From Warren Buffett
What I learned from reading A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers From Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Peter Bevelin. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Big opportunities come infrequently. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble. Speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest. Now it is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it. —W. Somerset Maugham "Moats" —a metaphor for the superiorities they possess that make life difficult for their competitors. Business history is filled with "Roman Candles," companies whose moats proved illusory and were soon crossed . When a company is selling a product with commodity-like economic characteristics, being the low-cost producer is all-important . In a business selling a commodity-type product, it's impossible to be a lot smarter than your dumbest competitor . As a wise friend told me long ago, "If you want to get a reputation as a good businessman, be sure to get into a good business." The truly big investment idea can usually be explained in a short paragraph . Our managers have produced extraordinary results by doing rather ordinary things—but doing them exceptionally well. If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs and improving our products and services, we gain strength. On a daily basis, the effects of our actions are imperceptible; cumulatively, though, their consequences are enormous. When our long-term competitive position improves as a result of these almost unnoticeable actions, we describe the phenomenon as "widening the moat." We always, of course, hope to earn more money in the short-term. But when short-term and long-term conflict, widening the moat must take precedence. Charlie and I are not big fans of resumes. Instead, we focus on brains, passion and integrity. It's difficult to teach a new dog old tricks . Investors should understand that for certain companies, and even for some industries, there simply is no good long-term strategy. Most of our directors have a major portion of their net worth invested in the company. We eat our own cooking. Our trust is in people rather than process. A “ hire well, manage little " code suits both them and me. Just run your business as if: (1) You own 100% of it; (2) It is the only asset in the world that you and your family have or will ever have; and (3) You c
Mon, August 30, 2021
#201 Isambard Kingdom Brunel (James Dyson's Hero)
What I learned from reading Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Definitive Biography of The Engineer, Visionary, and Great Briton by L.T.C. Rolt. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- 1. His career was to him a tremendous adventure. 2. I have always made it a rule, which I have found by some years experience a safe and profitable one, to have nothing to do with newspaper articles. 3. It is consoling to be thus reminded that the lunatic fringe is a hardy perennial and not a phenomenon peculiar to our day and age. 4. The livelihood of anybody relying upon their penmanship is generally precarious. 5. One whose high spirits seemed quite impervious to cold and discomfort. 6. The ready wit and the gaiety concealed a fire and a power which would drive him, undeterred by repeated disappointments, to achieve fame and fortune. 7. The name of Isambard Brunel would not mean what it does today if he had not displayed the same characteristics of dogged persistence and an unlimited capacity for hard work which distinguish the self-taught engineers. 8. A great man achieves eminence by his capacity to live more fully and intensely than his fellows and in so doing his faults as well as his virtues become the more obvious. 9. It is not in freedom from faults but in the ability to transcend and master them that greatness lies. 10. Isambard Brunel threw into the work all that unsparing energy which was to distinguish his whole life. For as much as thirty-six hours at a time he would not leave the tunnel, pausing only for a brief cat-nap. 11. The Brunels were not men to sit down with folded hands and bewail their misfortune. 12. Spurred on by Brunel's unconquerable determination, the work went forward. 13. Iť's a gloomy perspective and yet bad as it is I cannot with all my efforts work myself up to be down hearted. 14. Never Despair has always been my motto – we may succeed yet. Persevere. 15. This time he was going to win, but it would be a great struggle. 16. He never lost faith in himself. 17. He determined then to make perfection of his work the supreme goal and from that resolve he never subsequently wavered. 18. He knew that it would be so because, as any artist or craftsman must, he had alrcady conccived the completed work in his imagination 19. For it was an inviolable rule of Brunel's that he would never, under any circumstances, accept an appointment which involved divided responsibility. In any work upon which he engaged there could be only one engineer and he must have the ful
Fri, August 27, 2021
#200 James Dyson (Against the Odds)
What I learned from rereading Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson and reading A History of Great Inventions by James Dyson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- 1. I am a creator of products, a builder of things, and my name appears love on them. That is how I make a living and they are what have made nom my name at least familiar in a million homes. 2. This is also the exposition of a business philosophy, which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. 3. It has all happened, I really believe, because of the intrinsic excellence of the machine; because it is a better vacuum cleaner than anything that has gone before; and because it looks better than anything like it has ever looked. 4. Perhaps millions of people, in the last few thousand years, have had ideas for improving it. All I did was take things a little further than just having the idea. 5. My own success has been in observing objects in daily use which, it was always assumed, could not be improved. 6. Anyone can become an expert in anything in six months, whether it is hydrodynamics for boats or cyclonic systems for vacuum cleaners. After the idea, there is plenty of time to learn the technology. My first cyclonic vacuum cleaner was built out of cereal packets and masking tape long before I understood how it worked. 7. The best kind of business is one where you can sell a product at a high price with a good margin, and in enormous volumes. For that you have to develop a product that works better and looks better than existing ones. That type of investment is long term and high risk. Or at least, it looks like a high-risk policy. In the longer view, it is not half so likely to prove hazardous to one's financial health as simply following the herd. 8. Difference for the sake of it. In everything. Because it must be better. From the moment the idea strikes, to the running of the business. Difference, and retention of total control. 9. This is not even a business book. It is, if anything, a book against business, against the principles that have filled the world with ugly, useless objects, unhappy people, and brought the country to its economic knees. We all want to make our mark. We all want to make beautiful things and a little money. We all have our own ideas about how to do it. What follows just happens to be my way. 10. I have been a misfit throughout my professional life, and that seems to have worked to my advantage. Misfits are not born or made; they make themselves. 11. I took on the big boys at their
Fri, August 20, 2021
#199 Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life
What I learned from reading Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- 'When my customers come to me, they like to cross the threshold of some magic place; they feel a satisfaction that is perhaps a trace vulgar but that delights them: they are privileged characters who are incorporated into our legend. For them this is a far greater pleasure than ordering another suit. Legend is the consecration of fame.” —Coco Chanel, 1935 Her father soon left them, discontented with marriage and fatherhood. The dead are not dead as long as we think of them. I like talking to myself and I don't listen to what I'm told. Gabrielle spent seven years in the orphanage, until she was 18. Her father never returned to see her or her siblings. I was thoroughly unhappy. I fed on sorrow and horror. I wanted to kill myself I don't know how many times. And having to hear people call me an orphan! They felt sorry for me. All this was humiliating. She was one of the charity pupils who were provided with a free place, and therefore treated differently to those whose family could afford to pay for their education. It was here, too, that she was given further instruction in how to sew. She sought to define herself by her idiosyncratic choice of clothes. She distanced herself from the past in storytelling. For telling stories is a way in which to imagine a happy-ever-after. What she did want was to earn her own living. They didn't understand how important this was to me. Coco made hats that were stripped of embellishments, of the frills that she dismissed as weighing a woman down. Coco began to edge her way to the centre of attention, elbowing past her rivals and competitors. Paul Poiret, whose fame at the time was such that he dubbed himself the 'King of Fashion', said of Chanel's early days as a milliner, 'We ought to have been on guard against that boyish head. It was going to give us every kind of shock, and produce, out of its little conjuror's hat, gowns and coiffures and jewels and boutiques.’ I often fainted. I had too much emotion, too much excitement, I lived too intensely. My nerves couldn't stand it. The House of Chanel seemed to give her stability. I am not here to have fun, or to spend money like water. I am here to make a fortune. She rejoiced in her independence. I was my own master and I depended on myself alone. Chanel was neither slave girl nor wife, but something of her own making. The little black dress wasn't formally identified as the shape of the future until 1926, when American Vogue pub
Wed, August 18, 2021
#198 Nathan Rothschild (Rothschild Family Dynasty)
What I learned from reading The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets by Niall Ferguson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- A business can only be managed well if one pays as much attention to the smaller business transactions as one does to the larger ones. All banks have histories, only the Rothschilds have a mythology. Ever since the second decade of the nineteenth century, there has been speculation about the origins and extent of the family's wealth; about the social implications of their meteoric upward mobility; about their political influence, not only in the five countries where there were Rothschild houses but throughout the world. Unlike modern multinationals, however, this was always a family firm. Perhaps the most important point to grasp about this multinational partnership is that, for most of the century between 1815 and 1914, it was easily the biggest bank in the world. In terms of their combined capital, the Rothschilds were in a league of their own. The twentieth century no equivalent. What exactly was the business the Rothschilds did? To answer these questions properly it is necessary to understand something of nineteenth-century public finance; for it was by lending to governments or by speculating in existing government bonds-that the Rothschilds made a very large part of their colossal fortune. It was war and the preparation for war which generally precipitated the biggest increases in expenditure. It was in this highly volatile context that the Rothschilds made the decisive leap from running two modest firms—a small merchant bank in Frankfurt and a cloth exporters in Manchester—to running a multinational financial partnership. The system they developed enabled British investors (and other rich "capitalists” in Western Europe) to invest in the debts of those states by purchasing internationally tradeable, fixed-interest bearer bonds. The significance of this system for nineteenthcentury history cannot be over-emphasised. For this growing international bond market brought together Europe's true “capitalists": that elite of people wealthy enough to be able to tie up money in such assets, and shrewd enough to appreciate the advantages of such assets as compared with traditional forms of holding wealth (land, venal office and so on). Bonds were liquid. The Rothschilds spent so much time, energy and money maintaining the best possible relations with the leading political figures of the day. They constantly strove to accelerate the speed with which information could be relayed from their agents to them. They reli
Wed, August 11, 2021
#197 Founder of the Rothschild Family Dynasty
What I learned from reading Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild by Amos Elon. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Riches cover a multitude of woes. Only a few crumbling bricks are left today of the dark, foul-smelling alley in Frankfurt where, in the second half of the eighteenth century, a disenfranchised Jew named Meyer Rothschild founded a European banking dynasty. Rothschild was a man of seemingly inexhaustible energy and ingenuity. He raised five famously gifted sons, veritable money-making machines, to carry on his work after him. Their names overshadowed his own and became synonymous with colossal wealth, extravagant living and hidden political power. A century after his death they would still ask, in all seriousness, if a great war was still possible in Europe if the House of Rothschild set their face against it. Rothschild's origins were certainly modest. There was little reason to foresee his destiny. The personal circumstances of his life were difficult throughout. They suggest a saga not only political and financial but also human and dramatic – more dramatic, perhaps, than that of his flamboyant sons. The sons were not persecuted human beings, legally confined to the squalor of a congested ghetto. The old ghetto where Rothschild lived his entire life was a narrow lane, more slum-like and overcrowded than any other tenements in Frankfurt. A closed compound, it was shut off from the rest of the city by high walls and three heavy gates. The gates were guarded by soldiers and were locked at night, and all day on Sundays. In it lived the largest Jewish community in Germany in conditions of almost total isolation, and apartheid. How they managed to survive under these circumstances and at times even to prosper was a mark of human enterprise and ingenuity. Every petty principality minted its own currency. The only coins from outside the city that were accepted as payment were those which had the same silver content as the Frankfurt gulden. All others had to be exchanged before a purchase could be made. Constant variations in the exchange rates offered knowledgeable moneychangers ample opportunity to profit. The spirit of the place was workaday and businesslike. A city ruled "by the God of this world – Money". At home, from an early age, he was apprenticed in the family business. Everybody in the family, boys and girs, were expected to help. As a thirteen-year-old orphan, with a few coins in his pocket, the future tycoon launched out alone into the world. Besides learning the rudiments of the financial busine
Sat, August 07, 2021
#196 Winston Churchill (Leadership during WW2)
What I learned from reading The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- I wondered how on earth anyone could have endured it: fifty-seven consecutive nights of bombing, followed by an intensifying series of nighttime raids over the next six months. In particular I thought about Winston Churchill: How did he withstand it? It is one to say "Carry on," quite another to do it. History is a lively abode, full of surprises. The only effective defense lay in offense. The king harbored a general distrust of Churchill's independence. He had lived his entire life for this moment. That it had come at such a dark time did not matter. If anything, it made his appointment all the more exquisite. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial. Churchill brought a naked confidence that under his leadership Britain would win the war, even though any objective appraisal would have said he did not have a chance. Churchill knew that his challenge now was to make everyone else believe it too . He considered Churchill to be inclined toward dynamic action in every direction at once . "If I had to spend my whole life with a man," she wrote, "I'd choose Chamberlain, but I think I would sooner have Mr Churchill if there was a storm and I was shipwrecked.” Churchill was flamboyant, electric, and wholly unpredictable. Churchill issued directives in brief memoranda. No detail was too small to draw his attention. Churchill was particularly insistent that ministers compose memoranda with brevity and limit their length to one page or less. "It is slothful not to compress your thoughts," he said. Anything that was not of immediate importance and a concern to him was of no value. Churchill wanted Germans to "bleed and burn." I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. In the Churchill household defeatist talk inspired only rage. "It would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour," Churchill said. "It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage.” Churchill said, "We shall not hesitate to take every step-even the most drastic-to call forth from our people the last ounce and inch of effort of which they are capable.” Recognizing that confidence and fearlessness w
Sat, July 31, 2021
#195 Sid Meier (Computer game designer)
What I learned from reading Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games by Sid Meier. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Sometimes it takes a misstep to figure out where you should be headed. Each game taught me something, each game was both painful and gratifying in its own way, and each game contributed to what came after it. We are surrounded by decisions, and therefore games, in everything we do. If my gravestone reads "Sid Meier, creator of Civilization" and nothing else, I'll be fine with that. It's a good game to be known for, and I'm proud of the positive impact it's had on so many players' lives. There was no such thing as a retail computer game, only free bits of code passed between hobbyists, so it would have been difficult for me to harbor secret dreams of becoming a professional computer game designer. "I could design a better game in two weeks." “Then do it," he insisted, "If you can do it, I can sell it." At the time it felt like a fun project, but not any sort of life-changing decision. The big moments rarely do, I think, and the danger of retroactive mythologizing is that it makes people want to hold out for something dramatic, rather than throwing themselves into every opportunity. — As soon as the articles were published, Bill began placing calls to hobby stores that were farther than driving distance away. "Hello, I'm looking to buy a copy of Hellcat Ace. "Hmm, I don't think we carry that one" "What?" he would fume. "What kind of computer store are you? Didn't you see the review in Antic?" Then he would hang up in a huff, muttering about taking his business elsewhere. A week later he would call again, pretending to be somebody else. And a third time a week after that. Finally, on the fourth week, he'd use his professional voice. "Good afternoon, I'm a representative from MicroProse Software, and I'd like to show you our latest game, Hellcat Ace." Spurred by the imaginary demand, they would invite him in. — My appetite for making games was growing stronger. I never forgot that moment. My mother had become emotionally invested in this little game, so profoundly that she'd had to abandon it entirely. Games could make you feel. If great literature could wield its power through nothing but black squiggles on a page, how much more could be done with movement, sound, and color? The potential for emotional interaction through this medium struck me as both fascinating and enticing. Were there people who got paid for making games? Could I be one of
Tue, July 27, 2021
#194 Ernest Hemingway (Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy)
What I learned from reading Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961 by Nicholas Reynolds. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, July 22, 2021
#193 Arnold Schwarzenegger (Arnold's first autobiography)
What I learned from reading Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- I knew I was going to be a bodybuilder. It wasn't simply that either. I would be the best bodybuilder in the world, the greatest. I'm not exactly sure why I chose bodybuilding, except that I loved it. I loved it from the first moment my fingers closed around a barbell and I felt the challenge and exhilaration of hoisting the heavy steel plates above my head. The only time I really felt rewarded was when I was singled out as being best. I had it tougher than a lot of my companions because I wanted more, I demanded more of myself. I was literally addicted. I learned that this pain meant progress. Each time my muscles were sore from a workout, I knew they were growing. I could not have chosen a less popular sport. My school friends thought I was crazy. But I didn't care. My only thoughts were of going ahead, building muscles and more muscles. I remember certain people trying to put negative thoughts into my mind, trying to persuade me to slow down. But I had found the thing to which I wanted to devote my total energies and there was no stopping me . My drive was unusual, I talked differently than my friends; I was hungrier for success than anyone I knew . Reg Park looked so magnificent in the role of Hercules I was transfixed. And, sitting there in the theater, I knew that was going to be me. I would look like Reg Park. I studied every move he made. From that point on, my life was utterly dominated by Reg Park. His image was my ideal. It was fixed indelibly in my mind. I had this insatiable drive to get there sooner . Whereas most people were satisfied to train two or three times a week, I quickly escalated my program to six workouts a week. With my desire and my drive, I definitely wasn't normal. Normal people can be happy with a regular life. I was different. I felt there was more to life than just plodding through an average existence. I'd always been impressed by stories of greatness and power. Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon were names I knew and remembered. I wanted to do something special, to be recognized as the best. My dreams went beyond a spectacular body. Once I had that, I knew what it would do for me. I'd get into the movies and build gymnasiums all over the world. I'd create an empire . This inspired me to work even harder. When I felt my lungs burning as though they would burst and my veins bulging with
Mon, July 19, 2021
#192 Jim Casey (Founder of UPS)
What I learned from reading Big Brown: The Untold Story of UPS by Greg Niemann. ---- Casey pursued a Spartan business philosophy that emphasized military discipline, drab uniforms, and reliability over flash. I had heard stories about the company's tireless founder. He was a living legend. Jim Casey started working from the age of eleven to support a family of five . Casey began at the bottom. He speedily delivered messages and packages on foot . Casey learned about efficiency by doing. Seconds saved become minutes over the day and a few minutes each day mean big dollars. To outsiders the UPS regime has always seemed excessive . People have always bought more than they could carry, and a hundred years ago they had no cars to help them out. When Jim Casey and his partners began their delivery service, it served only department stores, and the UPS role was to complete the stores' retail transactions. Humility was one of Jim Casey's most strongly held values. Our real, primary objective is to serve. To render perfect service to our stores and their customers. If we keep that objective constantly in mind, our reward in money can be beyond our fondest dreams. Service is the sum of many little things done well. Good management is taking a sincere interest in the welfare of the people you work with. It is the ability to make individuals feel that you and they are the company–not merely employees of it. Jim Casey watched the streets carefully. He watched movement. He watched what people sold and what people bought. He was an eternal puzzle solver, his mind constantly preoccupied by every sensory detail involving his core business, packages. He gravitated to them, mesmerized by how they were wrapped and how they were delivered. When traveling between meetings Casey would frequently tell his driver to stop when he saw a UPS delivery in progress. Without identifying himself, Casey would ask UPS drivers what they thought of their job. He'd listen carefully and consider their answers seriously. These informal "man on the street" interviews became an invaluable way for him to assess the efficiency of UPS delivery operations in a way that a UPS manager's filtered version could not. Jim Casey's office was a small stark room, occupied only by a desk, several chairs, and a coat tree. His door was never closed. His answer for sluggish layers of management was decentralization, and his attitude toward employees was an unwavering belief in and respect for the individual. Money and prestige did not push him. Excellence did . Casey's personal code was discipline . Hardly a shining star, Jim Casey was more a steadily burning flame. Distill Jim Case
Tue, July 13, 2021
#191 Naval Ravikant (A Guide to Wealth and Happiness)
What I learned from reading The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. Read the book online for free here . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Naval has changed my life for the better, and if you approach the following pages like a friendly but highly competent sparring partner, he might just change yours. Books make for great friends, because the best thinkers of the last few thousand years tell you their nuggets of wisdom. If you don't know yet what you should work on, the most important thing is to figure it out. Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy. Ignore people playing status games, They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games. You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale. The internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers, Most people haven't figured this out yet . Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable. Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage. Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now. Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others. Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated. Fortunes require leverage. Code and media are permissionless leverage. They're the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep. An army of robots is freely available-it's just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it. If you can't code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts. Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment. Set and enforce an aspirational personal hourly rate. If fixing a problem will save less than your hourly rate, ignore it. If outsourcing a task will cost less than your hourly rate, outsource it. Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work. Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true. Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve. Wh
Sat, July 10, 2021
#190 Henry Ford and Thomas Edison
What I learned from reading The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten-Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Ford generally accepted the responsibilities of his celebrity-he'd worked diligently to cultivate it, realizing early on that his personal fame heightened demand for Model Ts. Ford's Model T changed everything. Thanks in great part to Ford's innovative assembly line, Model Ts were mass-produced on a previously unimaginable scale. In competitors factories, it took workers several hours to assemble an individual car. At the Ford plant, a completed Model T rolled off the line every two and a half minutes. Ford continued tinkering with the manufacturing process, aggressively seeking ways to cut production expenses and Model T prices even more. The best example fostered a popular joke that you could buy any color Model T that you liked, so long as the color was black. Few realized that Ford insisted the cars come in that color because black paint dried quickest, meaning Model Ts could be whipped through the assembly line and off to dealerships at an even faster pace, saving additional time and labor related dollars. The Model T alone would have established Henry Ford as a household name, but he'd further cemented his reputation as a friend of the working man with a stunning announcement. In an era when factory line workers were lucky to earn $2 a day for their labor and toiled through ten-hour shifts six days a week, Ford pledged to pay $5 a day, and to reduce workdays to eight hours. Everyone in America was talking about it. Over the years, as Ford founded and failed with two auto manufacturing companies before succeeding with his third, he endlessly reminisced about the meeting and Edison's words of encouragement: “Young man, that's the thing. You have it. Keep at it.” Ford was a cannier businessman than his hero, much wealthier. They found themselves in complete agreement about the evils of Wall Street and the crass men there who cared only for profit and not for the public. Both were poor boys who made good. Neither had a college degree, and both were disdainful of those who believed classroom education was superior to hands-on work experience and common sense. Like Edison, Ford didn't have many friends. Ford was a prickly man and also a complicated one, burning to make the world better for humanity as a whole while not enjoying personal contact with most individuals. Ford never doubted his own beliefs and decisions, forbidding disagreement from employees and ignoring any from outsiders. Ford's hobby was work. H
Mon, July 05, 2021
#189 David Ogilvy (The book I've given as a gift the most)
What I learned from reading The Unpublished David Ogilvy by David Ogilvy. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [0:01] Will Any Agency Hire This Man? He is 38, and unemployed. He dropped out of college. He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer. He knows nothing about marketing, and has never written any copy. He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is ready to go to work for $5,000 a year. I doubt if any American agency will hire him. However, a London agency did hire him. Three years later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world . The moral: it sometimes pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring . [2:39] Words were what made him. Reading this collection, one is struck, piece after piece by how David's words surprise and seduce, tease and provoke. [2:58] His writing is opinionated, forceful, and urgent. [4:24] David was building his first-class business in a first-class way. [5:37] Every advertisement must tell the whole sales story. [5:41] The copy must be human and very simple.Every word in the copy must count. Concrete figures must be substituted for atmospheric claims; clichés must give way to facts, and empty exhortations to alluring offers. [6:08] Permanent success has rarely been built on frivolity. People do not buy from clowns. [7:38] The worst fault a salesman can commit is to be a bore. [11:49] I have a new metaphor. Great hospitals do two things: They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people. Ogilvy & Mather is the teaching hospital of the advertising world. And, as such, to be respected above all other agencies. [12:44] I plead for charm, flair, showmanship, taste, distinction. [16:42] Dear Ray: Nineteen years ago you wrote me the best job application letter I have ever received. I can still recite the first paragraph. The first paragraph read: "My father was in charge of the men's lavatory at the Ritz Hotel. My mother was a chambermaid at the same hotel. I was educated at the London School of Economics. [18:04] I find extravagance esthetically repulsive. I find the New England Puritan tradition more attractive. And more profitable. [21:14] So the time had come to give the pendulum a push in the other direction. If that push has puzzled you, caught you on the wrong foot and confused you, I can
Mon, June 28, 2021
#188 Joe Coulombe (Founder of Trader Joes)
What I learned from Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys by Joe Coulombe. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [0:01] I wrote this book to help entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs. That's why there's a lack of miracles and a surplus of marketing details including buying, advertising, distributing, and running stores; and lots of discussion of how we built a successful business on high wages. [18:09] Chapter 11 was a possibility. But I was reading The Guns of August , by Barbara W. Tuchman, with its implicit concept of multiple solutions to non-convex problems. [19:07] This is my favorite of all managerial quotes: If all the facts could be known, idiots could make the decisions . —Tex Thornton, cofounder of Litton Industries, quoted in the Los Angeles Times in the mid-1960s. [22:33] The most basic conclusion I drew from her book was that, if you adopt a reasonable strategy, as opposed to waiting for an optimum strategy, and stick with it, you'll probably succeed. Tenacity is as important as brilliance. [24:31] The one core value that I chose was our high compensation policies. This is the most important single business decision I ever made: to pay people well. [30:30] The basic problem is that convenience store retailing is a commodity business that is hard to differentiate. What I needed was a good but small opportunity for my good but small company: a non-commodity, differentiated kind of retailing. [33:38] As we evolved Trader Joe's, its greatest departure from the norm wasn't its size or its decor. It was our commitment to product knowledge, something which was totally foreign to the mass-merchant culture, and our turning our backs to branded merchandise. [38:25] Most of my ideas about how to act as an entrepreneur are derived from The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset, the greatest Spanish philosopher of the twentieth century. I believe this book still offers the clearest explanation of the times in which we live. And I believe it offers a master “plan of action" for the would-be entrepreneur, who usually has no reputation and few resources. [40:22] From the beginning, thanks to Ortega, I've been aware of the need to sell everybody. . . I took a cue from General Patton, who thought that the greatest danger was not that the enemy would learn his plans, but that his own troops would not. [47:32] We assumed that our readers had a thirst for knowledge, 180 degrees opposite from supermarket ads. We emphasized "informative advertising," a term borrowed from the fa
Tue, June 22, 2021
#187 Albert Einstein
What I learned from reading Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [0:01] In a drama that would seem fake were it not so horrifying, Einstein’s brain ended up being, for more than four decades, a wandering relic. [4:22] Einstein remained consistent in his willingness to be a serenely amused loner who was comfortable not conforming. [6:49] “In teaching history,” Einstein replied, “there should be extensive discussion of personalities who benefited mankind through independence of character and judgment.” [8:33] It is important to foster individuality, for only the individual can produce the new ideas. [11:39] He had an allergic reaction against all forms of dogma and authority. [14:37] It made me clearly realize how much superior an education based on free action and personal responsibility is to one relying on outward authority. [20:24] It would be an astonishing nine years after his graduation and four years after the miracle year in which he upended physics before he would be offered a job as a junior professor. [26:24] How To Win With People You Don't Like [35:22] Had he given up theoretical physics at that point, the scientific community would not have noticed. There was no sign that he was about to unleash a remarkable year the like of which science had not seen since 1666, when Isaac Newton, holed up at his mother’s home to escape the plague developed calculus, an analysis of the light spectrum, and the laws of gravity. [41:41] To dwell on the things that depress or anger us does not help in overcoming them. One must knock them down alone. [44:30] He responded by saying that he planned to “smoke like a chimney, work like a horse, eat without thinking, go for a walk only in really pleasant company.” [54:25] The whole affair is a matter of indifference to me, as is all the commotion, and the opinion of each and every human being. [55:56] I am truly a lone traveler and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude. [1:10:47] When shown his office, he was asked what equipment he might need. "A large wastebasket so I can throw away all my mistakes.” [1:18:57] I do not know how the Third World War will be fought but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks. [1:22:26] Brief is this existence, as a fleeting visit in a strange house. The path to be pursued is poorly lit by a flickering consciousness. <br
Wed, June 16, 2021
#186 Phil Knight (Nike)
What I learned from rereading Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [2:02] I had an aching sense that our time is short, shorter than we ever know, short as a morning run, and I wanted mine to be meaningful. And purposeful. And creative. And important. Above all...different. [6:18] So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy... just keep going. Don't stop. Don't even think about stopping until you get there, and don't give much thought to where "there" is. Whatever comes, just don't stop. That's the precocious, prescient, urgent advice I managed to give myself, out of the blue, and somehow managed to take. Half a century later, I believe it's the best advice-maybe the only advice-any of us should ever give. [10:32] They greeted my passion and intensity with labored sighs and vacant stares. [16:48] Carter never did mess around. See an open shot, take it. I told myself there was much to learn from a guy like that. [20:25] If I didn't, if I muffed this, I'd be doomed to spend the rest of my days selling encyclopedias, or mutual funds, or some other junk I didn't really care about. [27:45] Bowerman was a genius coach, a master motivator, a natural leader of young men, and there was one piece of gear he deemed crucial to their development. Shoes. He was obsessed with how human beings are shod. [32:30] Bowerman didn’t give a damn about respectability. He possessed a prehistoric strain of maleness. Today it’s all but extinct. He was a war hero, too. Of course he was. [32:49] The most famous track coach in America, Bowerman never considered himself a track coach. He detested being called coach. He called himself a “Professor of Competitive Responses,” and his job, as he saw it, and often described it, was to get you ready for the struggles and competitions that lay ahead. [35:40] In my mind he was Patton with a stopwatch. That is, when he wasn't a god. [38:17] "Buck," he said, "how long do you think you're going to keep jackassing around with these shoes?" I shrugged. "I don't know, Dad." [40:00] So why was selling shoes so different? Because, I realized, it wasn't selling. I believed in running. [1:00:57] My life was out of balance, sure, but I didn't care. In fact, I wanted even more imbalance. Or a different kind of imbalance. I wanted to dedicate every minute of every day to Blue Ribbon. I'd never been a multitasker, and I didn't see any reason to start now. I wanted to be present, always. I wanted to focus constantly on the one task that really mattered. [1:05:40] I spent a fair portion of each
Thu, June 10, 2021
#185 César Ritz and Auguste Escoffier (The Hotelier and The Chef)
What I learned from reading Ritz and Escoffier: The Hotelier, The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class by Luke Barr. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [1:00] The words echoed in his head, even now. The idea that they should be seen as servants was the cruelest of insults. César Ritz, Auguste Escoffier, servants ? [11:28] He hasn't the least idea how much work and care, how much imagination and effort, go into the proper running of a hotel. [20:44] This was the very heart of a world that had shaped him, a world of privilege and luxury in which he had forged a place for himself, against all odds. Ritz had not been born to this life. Raised in a tiny village (population 123) in the foothills of the Swiss Alps, he was the last of eleven children, and had left home at the age of twelve. [21:04] He was a self-made man. And beneath his placid, imperturbable Swiss poise lay enormous ambition. [22:26] Ritz knew better than anyone the importance of the kitchen in creating a truly luxurious hotel experience. He had built his success in the hotel business in tandem with the brilliant chef Auguste Escoffier. [26:48] Ritz had spent years working for others and was now, finally, a hotel owner himself. Yes, his hotels were small, but they were his. [27:48] Ritz was proud, but also full of insecurities: about his Swiss peasant family background, his lack of education. [30:20] "You'll never make anything of yourself in the hotel business," his boss at one of his very first jobs had told him. "It takes a special knack, a special flair, and it's only right that I should tell you the truth: you haven't got it." Well, he'd got it now. [40:18] Escoffier was not an educated man, but he had quickly discovered that he had a real talent for cooking, which he saw as both a science and an art. [40:37] He had begun to establish a new ethos for the professional kitchen, one that depended on respect: respect for the chefs, respect for the ingredients, respect for the artistry of cooking. [44:41] The food itself was less complicated than it had been, shorn of unnecessary ornamentation, inedible decoration, and too many sauces. "Above all, make it simple." was his motto. [49:40] He was the elegant and cultivated César Ritz, mastermind of luxury, but he couldn't escape the feeling that he might be revealed, at any moment, to be an impostor, nothing more than a servant. The truth, he feared, was detectable in the size of his hands and feet. They were large, peasant-size hands and feet, he was convinced, and he did everything possib
Sun, June 06, 2021
#184 Isadore Sharp (Four Seasons)
What I learned from reading Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [0:01] When I built my first hotel I knew nothing about the hotel business. [4:28] He refused to settle for the pragmatic dictum of maturity. Issy also skipped skepticism and "Let's be sensible." People said he was naïve, with a kind of glandular optimism. Perhaps. But as it turned out naïveté served him well. [6:32] Early on he made some audacious statements that sounded like pipe dreams. He told me once that his aim was to make the name Four Seasons a worldwide brand, synonymous with luxury, like Rolls-Royce . [8:39]Once, when Dad was excavating a basement with horse and plough, he broke his shoulder. But he shrugged it off and uncomplainingly kept on working , something I never forgot. [26:52] I decided to go ahead. I foresaw only one difficulty, but it loomed large: How do you build a two-hundred-room resort without any money? This was literal fact . My earnings barely covered my rising family costs. [35:23] I asked Sir Gerald Glover, "How do you keep your lawn so perfect?" “No problem”, he replied. “You just cut it every week for three hundred years.” [43:48] I owe my success to my freedom. I think for me independence has an incalculable value. [44:44] All business proceeds on belief: Trying to run a company without a set of beliefs is like trying to steer a ship without a rudder. [56:03] The experience made me realize what I would really like to do: create a group of the best hotels in the world. And what we really want to do is usually what we do best . [56:51] We will not be all things to all people. We will specialize. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, June 04, 2021
#183 Johnny Carson
What I learned from reading Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [13:50] He often told me that all it took to turn the most electrifying film stars into dullards was to be around them for a while. But he felt that way around everybody. There were very few social scenes in which he was ever really comfortable. [14:07] Johnny was comfortable in front of twenty million but just as uncomfortable in a gathering of twenty. [15:44] Carson grasped that he owned the camera the way Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra had grasped that they owned the microphone. That understanding made him more natural, more relaxed, cooler. [21:29] Johnny continued. “If a doctor opened up my chest right now, he couldn’t find a heart, or any goddamn thing. Just a lot of misery. My mother made sure of that. She deprived us all of any real goddamn warmth." [23:20] Facts revealed themselves. Curious facts. Disturbing facts. Like the fact that Johnny Carson wasn’t wealthy. Indeed, he had very little money. He had little money because the people around him, whom he trusted, were serving him poorly. [28:43] I was shocked to realize that he owned no equity interest in the new company. Instead, half was owned by the manufacturer and half by Sonny Werblin. Carson, in effect, was paid a salary to wear clothes from the company that bore his name, while the man he had entrusted with his affairs lined his own pockets. [29:39] “Look what’s going on,” I said. “His wife is cheating on him. His manager is screwing him, his agents are exploiting him, and his producer’s wife has been conspiring with Joanne to cuckold him. What a goddamn mess.” [32:46] Johnny Carson lived comfortably in his own skin. He may have been troubled in certain areas, but he was never tormented by insecurity. [42:57] Carson’s show was earning NBC between $50 and $60 million a year . [45:45] Being a star in Hollywood was a fabulous thing, but the real money and power went to those who owned the companies that produced the programs. It was Aaron Spelling who called the shots and raked in the dough and lived like the sultan of Brunei. Or to put it another way, Merv Griffin, who was a rival of Carson’s but never his peer, was so much richer than Johnny because he owned the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune . [49:14] He had too keen an appreciation for how much work and talent and discipline went into success to be flattered by praise and adulation . [50:27] Like most oracles, Wasserman gave an opinion that was simple and sensible (but unambiguously presented,
Sat, May 29, 2021
#182 Warren Buffett (The Making of an American Capitalist)
What I learned from reading Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- His talent sprang from his unrivaled independence of mind and ability to focus on his work and shut out the world, yet those same qualities exacted a toll. He emerged from those first hard years with an absolute drive to become very, very rich. He thought about it before he was five years old. And from that time on, he scarcely stopped thinking of it. Most of us were trying to be like everyone else. I think he liked being different. He was what he was and he never tried to be anything else . Warren disgustedly reported that he knew more than the professors. His dissatisfaction-a forerunner of his general disaffection for business schools-was rooted in their mushy, overbroad approach. His professors had fancy theories but were ignorant of the practical details of making a profit that Warren craved. It seemed too good to be true; if the stocks were so cheap, Buffett figured, somebody ought to be buying them. But slowly, it dawned on him. The somebody was him. Nobody was going to tell you that an investment was a steal; you had to get there on your own. Buffett knew more about stocks than anyone . He was working virtually all the time, and loving every minute. His talent lay not in his range—which was narrowly focused on investing—but in his intensity. His entire soul was focused on that one outlet. He did not draw the usual line between "work" and other activities. Wall Street's chorus, all reading the same lyrics, was chanting, "Sell." Buffett decided to buy. He put close to one-quarter of his assets on that single stock. Buffett visited Walt Disney himself on the Disney lot. The animator was as enthusiastic as ever. Buffett was struck by his childlike enchantment with his work-so similar to Buffett's own . It was virtually impossible to poke through the fog of his concentration. Jack asked, "How do you do it?" Buffett said he read "a couple of thousand" financial statements a year . He would go home and read a stack of annual reports. For anyone else it would have been work. For Buffett it was a night on the town. He did not merely do this nine-to-five. If he was awake, the wheels were turning. As Buffett explained, Berkshire was something he intended never to sell. “I just like it. Berkshire is something that I would be in the rest of my life. It is public, but it is almost like the family business now.” Not long-term, but the rest of his life. His care
Sun, May 23, 2021
#181 Paul Orfalea (Kinkos)
What I learned from reading Copy This!: How I turned Dyslexia, ADHD, and 100 square feet into a company called Kinkos by Paul Orfalea. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [4:23] I've never met a more circular, out-of-the-box thinker. It's often exhausting trying to keep up with him. [5:21] I graduated from high school eighth from the bottom of my class of 1,200. Frankly, I still have no idea how those seven kids managed to do worse than I did. [8:29] I also have no mechanical ability to speak of. There isn't a machine at Kinko's I can operate. I could barely run the first copier we leased back in 1970. It didn't matter. All I knew was that was I could sell what came out of it . [10:24] Building an entirely new sort of business from a single Xerox copy machine gave me the life the world seemed determined to deny me when I was younger. [13:04] The A students work for the B students, the C students run the companies, and the D students dedicate the buildings. [23:02] I learned to turn a lot of busywork over to other people. That's an important skill. If you don't develop it, you'll be so busy, busy, busy that you can't get a free hour, not to mention a free week or month, to sit back and think creatively about where you want to be heading and how you are going to get there. [24:07] There's no better way to stay "on" your business than to think creatively and constantly about your marketing: how you are marketing, who you are marketing to, and, always, how you could be doing a better job at it. You'd be amazed what kind of business you can generate by a seemingly simple thing like handing out flyers. [26:18] The phone rang. It was one of our store managers calling to ask me how to handle a bounced check. I held the receiver away from my face and looked at it, flabbergasted. If every store manager needed my help to deal with a bounced check, then we really had problems. [39:55] I never walked in the back door used by coworkers. I walked in the front door so I could see things from the customer's perspective . [48:06] You had to remember he'd been picking up the best ideas from all around the country . (Founders is doing the same thing from the history of entrepreneurship) [54:14] I believe in getting out of as much work as I possibly can. [54:45] By now, you’d have to be as bad a reader as I am not to figure out that I have a dark side. You rarely hear people talk about their dark sides, especially business leaders, which is a shame because successful businesses aren't usually started by laid-back personalities. I don't hide the fact that
Mon, May 17, 2021
#180 Jeff Bezos (Invention of a Global Empire)
What I learned from reading Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- [1:47] Every interesting thing I've ever done, every important thing I've ever done, every beneficial thing I've ever done, has been through a cascade of experiments and mistakes and failures. I'm covered in scar tissues as a result of this. [6:19] I absolutely know it's hard, but we'll learn how to do it. [8:30] Thinking small is a self fulfilling prophecy. [12:13] Begin any conversation about a new product in terms of the benefit it creates for customers. [19:08] Bezos deployed his playbook for experiments that produced promising sparks: he poured gasoline on them . [22:41] You can regulate yourself quite easily or think about what you're going to do with your existing resources. Sometimes, you don't know what the boundaries are. Jeff just wanted us to be unbounded. [25:48] If I have to choose between agreement and conflict, I'll take conflict every time. It always yields a better result. [27:19] Don't come to me with a plan that assumes I will only make a certain level of investment. Tell me how to win. [35:50] He preached the wholesale embrace of technology, rapid experimentation, and optimism about the opportunities of the internet instead of despair. [45:17] Bezos’ one constant edict: Go faster . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Bonus · Thu, May 13, 2021
Jeff Bezos (Insights, Stories, and Secrets)
What I learned from Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr. ---- [3:58] What is best for the customer? Do that : "Amazon believes that long-term growth is best produced by putting the customer first. If you held this conviction, what kind of company would you build?" [7:05] Jeff skips the conferences and dinners: "95 percent of the time I spent with Jeff was focused on internal work issues rather than external events like conferences, public speeches, and sports matches." [25:08] Don't encourage communication—eliminate it: "Jeff said many times that if we wanted Amazon to be a place where builders can build, we needed to eliminate communication, not encourage it. When you view effective communication across groups as a "defect," the solutions to your problems start to look quite different from traditional ones." (There is nothing conventional about Jeff) [27:29] Why companies must run experiments: "Time and time again, we learned that consumers would behave in ways we hadn't imagined especially for brand-new features or products." [30:16] Jeff on the importance of making decisions quickly: "Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you're probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you're good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure." [30:48] Great anything is rare: "Great Two-Pizza team leaders proved to be rarities. Although we did identify a few such brilliant managers, they turned out to be notoriously difficult to find in sufficient numbers, even at Amazon." [34:30] A simple tip from Jeff on how to produce unique insights: "Jeff has an uncanny ability to read a narrative and consistently arrive at insights that no one else did, even though we were all reading the same narrative. After one meeting, I asked him how he was able to do that. He responded with a simple and useful tip that I have not forgotten: he assumes each sentence he reads is wrong until he can prove otherwise. He's challenging the content of the sentence, not the motive of the writer.” [35:12] Why Amazon works backwards: "Working Backwards is a systematic way to vet ideas and create new products. Its key tenet is to start by defining the customer experience, then iteratively work backwards from that point until the team achieves clarity of thought around what to build." [40:00] Working backwards on Kindle: "We were working forward, trying to invent a product that would be good for Amazon, the company, not the customer. Wh
Mon, May 10, 2021
#179 Jeff Bezos
What I learned from The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. This is part one of a three part series on Jeff Bezos. The next two books are Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon and Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire . ---- (0:54) It may very well be that the absolute intensity of drive and focus is essential and incompatible with all of the nice management thought about consensus and gentle demeanor. (2:07) Jeff’s clarity, intensity of focus, and ability to prioritize is unusual. (4:05) As I read the Steve Jobs biography I even had an insight and question about myself, that maybe I haven’t begun to really find my own limits. (10:49) You have to be able to think what you're doing for yourself. (11:42) There is probably no limit to what he can do. (12:34) People forget that most people believed Amazon was doomed because it would not scale at a cost structure that would work. It kept piling up losses. It lost hundreds of millions of dollars. But Jeff was very smart. He’s a classic technical founder of a business, who understands every detail and cares about it more than anyone . (13:45) Bezos has proved quite indifferent to the opinions of others . (13:58) Bezos is extremely difficult to work for. (15:58) Amazon's internal customs are deeply idiosyncratic. (16:15) He is highly circumspect about deviating from well established, very abstract talking points. (18:08) The financial community knew very little about D. E. Shaw, and its polymath founder wanted to keep it that way. (20:15) Jeff was not concerned about what other people were thinking. (20:26) Bezos had closely studied several wealthy businessmen . (21:13) Bezos was disciplined and precise. (22:14) Bezos seemed to love the idea of the nonstop workday. (22:23) The rest of Wall Street saw D. E. Shaw as a highly secretive hedged fund. David Shaw didn't view the company as a hedge fund but as a versatile technology laboratory who could apply computer science to different problems. (25:51) Web activity had grown that year by 230,000%. Things just don't grow that fast Bezos said. It's highly unusual and that started me thinking what kind of business might make sense in the context of that growth? (31:59) He swept me off my feet. He was so convinced that what he was doing was basically the work of God and that somehow the money would materialize. The real wild card was, could he really run a business? That wasn’t a gimme. Of course, about two years later I was going, Holy shit, did we back the right horse! (34:05) Bezos plowe
Mon, May 03, 2021
#178 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products
What I learned from reading Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney. ---- [4:43] Mike Ive influence on his son’s talent was purely nurturing. They were constantly keeping up a conversation about made-objects and hw they could be made better. [6:39] I came to realize that what was really important was the care that was put into it. What I really despise is when I sense some carelessness in a product. [9:24] Take big chances. Pursue a passion. Respect the work. [11:47] His designs were incredibly simple and elegant. They were usually rather surprising but made complete sense once you saw them. You wondered why we had never seen such a product like that before. [15:52] Grind it out. You can make something look like magic by going further than most reasonable people would go . [17:34] The more I learned about this cheeky, almost rebellious company (Apple) the more it appealed to me, as it unapologetically pointed to an alternative in a complacent and creatively bankrupt industry. Apple stood for something and had a reason for being that wasn’t just about making money. [24:06] He was completely interested in humanizing technology. What something should be was always the starting point for his designs. [33:29] Jony was very serious about his work. He had a ferocious intensity about it . [41:52] It is very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better . [51:38] Jobs didn't want to compete in the broader market for personal computers. These companies competed on price, not features or ease of use. Jobs figured theirs was a race to the bottom. Instead, he argued, there was no reason that well-designed, well-made computers couldn’t command the same market share ad margins as a luxury automobile. A BMW might get you to where you are going in the same way a Chevy that costs half the price, but there will always be those who will pay for the better ride in the sexier car. Why not make only first class-products with high margins so that Apple could continue to develop even better first-class products? [1:19:25] A great prompt for your thinking: What is your product better than? Are you just making a cheap laptop? Or are you making an iPad? Netbooks accounted for 20% of the laptop market. But Apple never seriously considered making one. “Netbooks aren’t better than anything,” Steve Jobs said at the time. “They’re just cheap laptops.” Jony proposed that the tablets in his lab could be Apple’s answer to the netbook. [1:20:32] It’s great if you can find what you love to do. Finding it is one thing but then to be able to practice that and be preoccupied with it is another. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supple
Mon, April 26, 2021
#177 Robert Campeau (Junk Bonds and Retail Bankruptcy)
What I learned from reading Going for Broke: How Robert Campeau Bankrupted the Retail Industry, Jolted the Junk Bond Market, and Brought the Booming Eighties to a Crashing Halt by John Rothchild. ---- [0:01] A stranger comes to Wall Street, borrows nearly $4 billion to acquire a company that six months earlier he'd never even heard of. This transaction is scarcely settled before he's allowed to borrow $7 billion more to acquire a bigger company, making him a major force in retailing, an industry he knows nothing about . [11:16] Just a few weeks back, Randall had figured that Bob might be interested in attracting a single Brooks Brothers store into one of his malls. Now in a great imaginary leap, Bob had vaulted himself into the ownership of all forty-five Brooks Brothers stores. [15:01 Neither Bob nor his advisers really knew one investment bank from another. "It was basically a matter of looking up names in the Yellow Pages." [19:42] Lehman Brothers was impressed by two things: the man's obvious, if naive, enthusiasm; and the absurdity of his proposition. Those who doubted Bob could acquire Allied had grown into a large crowd that included Bob's brain trust, his advisers in Toronto, his Toronto bankers, his advisers from Paine Webber and his lawyer. [21:45] This was Citicorp's first clue they were dealing with a volatile character, who soon acquired the in-house nickname Mad Bomber. [29:26] The M&A department they established at First Boston helped the firm to a record $125 million in earnings in 1985, a long way from the $1 million it had earned in 1978. [33:45] He think's he's destined to take over Allied. His fortune-teller says so. [41:28] Bob understood that Citicorp and First Boston, who together had invested in $1.8 billion in the Street Sweep and who were going to make hundreds of millions in fees if this deal closed, were not about to let the deal fall apart because he didn't pony up his equity. They had more of a vested interest in this deal than he did. [42:53] His $4.1 billion acquisition included a whopping $612 million in fees, expenses, and financing charges. [50:00] The purpose of business is profit, not a platform for your ego . [53:24] Bob said, "Don't worry. If somebody lends a dollar, you take it. The ramifications can be handled later. There's always some way out." He goes bankrupt shortly thereafter. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usuall
Sun, April 18, 2021
#176 Linus Torvalds (Creator of Linux)
What I learned from reading Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond. ---- [0:01] From a party of one it now counted millions of users on every continent, including Antartica, and even outer space, if you count NASA outposts. Not only was it the most common operating system, but its very development model—an intricate web of its own, encompassing hundreds of thousands of volunteer computer programmers—had grown to become the largest collaborative project in the history of the world. [1:08] Revolutionaries aren’t born. Revolutions can’t be planned. Revolutions can’t be managed. Revolutions happen. And sometimes, revolutionaries just get stuck with it. [9:05] The Swedish language has no equivalent to the term “dysfunctional family.” As a result of the divorce, we didn’t have a lot of money. Mom would have to pawn her only investment—the single share of stock in the Helsinki telephone company. I remember going with her once and feeling embarrassed about it. Now I’m on the board of directors of the same company. [10:13] Linus has no handlers, doesn’t listen to voice mail, and rarely responds to email. [10:40] I found Linus to be unexpectedly knowledgable about American business history . [13:19] Some of the smartest programmers out there are fifteen-year-old kids playing around in their rooms. It’s what I thought sixteen years ago, and I still suspect it’s true . [13:46] Everybody has a book that has changed his or her life . As I read the book I started to understand. I got a big enthusiastic jolt. Frankly, it never subsided. I hope you can say the same about something. [16:01] An ugly system is one in which there are special interfaces for everything you want to do. Unix is the opposite. It gives you the building blocks that are sufficient for doing everything. That’s what having a clean design is all about. It’s the same with languages. The English language has twenty-six letters and you can build up everything from those letters. Unix comes with a small-is-beautiful philosophy. It has a small set of simple basic building blocks that can be combined into something that allows for infinite complexity of expression. [17:39] You should absolutely not dismiss simplicity for something easy . It takes design and good taste to be simple. [27:42] You can do something the brute force way, the stupid, grind-the-problem-down-until-it’s-not-a-problem-anymore way, or you can find the right approach and suddenly the problem just goes away. You look at the problem another way, and you have this epiphany: It was only a problem because you were looking at it the wrong way. [29:00] That was the point where I almost gave up, thinking it would be too much work and not worth it . [50:52] I
Sun, April 11, 2021
#175 Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
What I learned from reading The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, April 05, 2021
#174 Bill Gates (Overdrive)
What I learned from reading Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace by James Wallace. ---- There would be an industry breakthrough unimagined at the time, and it would be made by a company that didn’t yet exist. [7:55] Another corollary to Joys Law of Innovation was that the number of bright people in any company went down as the size went up. [10:47] As Apple founder Steve Jobs liked to say: When you are at simplicity, there ain’t no complexity . [12:49] Gates looks at everything as something that should be his. He acts in any way he can to make it his. It can be an idea, market share, or a contract. There is not an ounce of conscientiousness or compassion in him. The notion of fairness means nothing to him. The only thing he understands is leverage. [17:21] I became convinced that Microsoft was building the last minicomputer. That the Microsoft Network was based on the notion that your competitors were the model — proprietary online services like America Online — and that the reality was that the Internet was going to be such a fundamental paradigm shift, that you needed to think about your strategies fundamentally differently. [28:08] The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas. — Zero to One [29:25] Most college kids knew much more than we did because they were exposed to it. If I had wanted to connect to the Internet, it would have been easier for me to get into my car and drive over to the University of Washington than to try and get on the Internet at Microsoft. [31:12] For years , Gates had Kahn in his sights. Kahn recalled that he once had found Gates at an industry conference in the late 1980s sitting alone in a corner, looking at a photograph in his hands. “It was a picture of me,” said Kahn . [41:16] It’s not in Microsoft’s bones to cooperate with other companies. [42:47] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, March 28, 2021
#173 Louis B. Mayer (MGM Studios)
What I learned from reading Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer by Bosley Crowther. ---- The reason so many people showed up at his funeral was because they wanted to make sure he was dead . [0:50] He is in that phalanx of men of aggressive bent who seized on the opportunities that an expanding civilization exposed. With them, he ascended to high places along an upwardly spiraling route that was there to be ascended by those who had the necessary stamina and drive. And, with some of them , he was unsettled and rendered dizzy by the heights, so that he could not control his footing when the road itself began to narrow and fall. [2:07] His own recollections of his early childhood were mercifully meager and dim. They were mainly recollections of being hungry. That was the only memory Mayer had of himself as a little boy. [7:01] How powerful and violent were the urges in the depths of the growing boy to break out of his immigrant encasement. [10:27] One of his favorite maxims had to do with behavior in adversity. “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." [11:55] He wanted to be a film producer. He wanted to get into that realm of fabrication and creation where glamour and excitement were. [27:00] My unchanging policy will be great star, great director, great play, great cast. You are authorized to get these without stint or limit. Spare nothing, neither expense, time, nor effort. Results only are what I am after. [33:00] It was not all sunshine and profits with Mayer’s company during these embryonic days. Mayer was far from being one of the top producers of Hollywood. He was a small, enterprising operator. There were many others like him, clawing to get minor stars and unattached directors to make their pictures and help them to get ahead. On some films they picked up profits, on others they definitely did not. The business was always a gamble for them, as it was for Mayer. [39:13] The radical and profound transition (sound in movies) was spread over two or three years. Compulsion more than planning impelled it, against resistance within the industry. [49:57] The system (sound) was not regarded as anything more than a novelty by the remainder of the industry . [54:45] Mayer was no doubt a brilliant man, with vision and understanding in the business of manufacturing films as well as a fervor for investing in talent in every phase of production, to the point of extravagance, he was also a careless manager, a favorer with stubborn likes and dislikes, and a braggart who wasted his time and the time of others telling them what a great man he was. [1:01:33] Mayer had a psychopathic need for power. [1:07:40] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneu
Sun, March 21, 2021
#172 Elon Musk (Early Days of SpaceX)
What I learned from reading Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX by Eric Berger. ---- [12:38] Numerous other entrepreneurs had tried playing at rocket science before, Musk well knew. He wanted to learn from their mistakes so as not to repeat them . [20:55] He could be difficult to work for, certainly. But his early hires could immediately see the benefits of working for someone who wanted to get things done and often made decisions on the spot. When Musk decided that Spincraft could make good tanks for a fair price, that was it. No committees. No reports. Just, done. [22:05] Most of all he channeled a preternatural force to move things forward . Elon Musk just wants to get shit done. [27:42] The iterative approach begins with a goal and almost immediately leaps into concept designs , bench tests, and prototypes. The mantra with this approach is build and test early, find failures, and adapt. This is what SpaceX did. [41:24] It is perhaps worth noting that those launch companies that succeeded also took their lumps along the way, Musk wrote in a postmortem. SpaceX is in this for the long haul and, come hell or high water, we are going to make this work. [42:24] Musk’s management style: Don’t talk about doing things, just do things . [43:15] If you’re trying to do something no other commercial company has ever done, you had better have some confidence . [44:00] I make the spending decisions and the engineering decisions in one head. Normally those are at least two people. There’s some engineering guy who’s trying to convince a finance guy that this money should be spent. But the finance guy doesn’t understand engineering, so he can’t tell if this is a good way to spend money or not. Whereas I’m making the engineering decisions and spending decisions. So I know, already, that my brain trusts itself. [45:37] He didn’t want to fail, but he wasn’t afraid of it. [50:50] It’s not like other rocket scientists were huge idiots who wanted to throw their rockets away all the time. It’s fucking hard to make something like this . One of the hardest engineering problems known to man is making a reusable orbital rocket. Nobody has succeeded. For a good reason. Our gravity is a bit heavy. On Mars this would be no problem. Moon, piece of cake. On Earth, fucking hard. Just barely possible. It’s stupidly difficult to have a fully reusable orbital system. It would be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of humanity. That’s why it’s hard. Why does this hurt my brain? It’s because of that. Really, we’re just a bunch of monkeys. How did we even get this far? It beats me. We were swinging through the trees, eating bananas not long ago. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of
Mon, March 15, 2021
#171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away)
What I learned from reading The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune by Conor O'Clery. ---- He celebrated having divested himself personally of the vast wealth with which fate and his genius for making money had burdened him. [0:01] Feeney was already showing a trait that would assert itself throughout his life: thinking big and aiming to achieve the best result, even if it seemed unattainable. [3:27] I all of a sudden realized, shit, you can sell this to anybody, anywhere. [12:45] Feeney believed that there could be more lucrative opportunities in the less crowded Pacific. [21:53] Chuck lived out of his briefcase. Everything was connected with business. We did a lot of screwy things. I became part of what he called his ‘teen age frontier’ approach to business, because he surrounded himself with smart college youngsters, mostly single and aggressive ‘conquerors of the world.’ I was the oldest, always the damper, saying to him, "Are you out of your mind?" [25:44] We hadn’t spent any time on corporate structuring or anything like that, we were just simply busy selling cars, duty — free liquor, making the cash, putting the cash in the bank, cash in, and cash out. [28:06] They were on the verge of going bankrupt, perhaps already were. Feeney and Miller were almost back where they started. They could perhaps boost the cash flow from the duty free shops in Hong Kong and Hawaii to clear off the debts. Feeney had moments of despair. “Of course. It goes with the territory. But there wasn’t much we could do. It was something we had started, and we thought we were going to make a million dollars out of it. We had no choice but to salvage the company or go over the cliff.” [31:21] The duty free shops began to make substantial profits, the owners agreed to take 90 percent of the dividends in cash, a practice that would continue for a quarter of a century. [44:54] Paradoxically, while Feeney became more frugal, he was pushing himself ever harder to build up the business that was making him even richer . [48:26] He brings a focus on business that I hadn’t experienced before. If something doesn’t work, he has four or so different thoughts. He has a multifaceted way of looking at business. He is detail oriented in his approach. [48:51] His definition of success was not having all the money one desired, but being able to raise a happy, healthy family. “There has to be a balance in life. A balance of business, family, and the opportunity to learn and teach." [49:41] They were offering to pay the State of Hawaii some $2 million every three days, for the next five years, just for the right to run a couple of stores . [58:38] What only the four owners knew was that during that period (1978–1988), they had received cash dividends of $
Mon, March 08, 2021
#170 Claude Hopkins (A Life in Advertising)
What I learned from reading My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins. ---- Any man who by a lifetime of excessive application learns more about anything than others owes a statement to successors. The results of research should be recorded. Every pioneer should blaze his trail. That is all I have tried to do. [0:19] There are few pages in “My Life in Advertising” which do not repay careful study—and which do not merit rereading . Before your eyes, a successful advertising life is lived—with all that went to make it successful. The lessons taught are taught exactly as they were learned. They are dished up dripping with life. It is not a book, it is an experience—and experience has always been the great teacher. [2:49] The man who does two or three times the work of another learns two or three times as much. He makes more mistakes and more successes, and he learns from both. If I have gone higher than others in advertising, or done more, the fact is not due to exceptional ability, but to exceptional hours. [11:00] To poverty I owe the fact that I never went to college. I spent those four years in the school of experience. [15:16] If a thing is useful they call it work, if useless they call it play. One is as hard as the other. One can be just as much a game as the other. [20:27] A young man can come to regard his life work as the most fascinating game that he knows. And it should be. The applause of athletics dies in a moment. The applause of success gives one cheer to the grave. [23:16] A good product is its own best salesman. It is uphill work to sell goods, in print or in person, without samples. [27:02] I consider business as a game and I play it as a game. That is why I have been, and still am, so devoted to it. [33:44] I sold more carpet sweepers by my one-cent letters than fourteen salesmen on the road combined. [45:31] No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration . [50:10] We must treat people in advertising as we treat them in person. Center on their desires . [53:46] Again and again I have told simple facts, common to all makers in the line—too common to be told. The maker is too close to his product. He sees in his methods only the ordinary. He does not realize that the world at large might marvel at those methods, and that facts which seem commonplace to him might give him vast distinction. [56:57] Serve better than others, offer more than others, and you are pretty sure to win . [57:45] There are other ways, I know, to win in selling and in advertising. But they are slow and uncertain. Ask a person to take a chance on you, and you have a fight. Offer to take a chance on him, and the way is easy. [57:52] So far as I know, no ordinary human being has ever resisted Albert Lasker. He has commanded what
Mon, March 01, 2021
#169 David Ogilvy (The King of Madison Avenue)
What I learned from reading The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising by Kenneth Roman. ---- One characteristic of geniuses, said Einstein, is they are passionately curious. Ogilvy’s great secret was an inquiring mind.In conversation, he never pontificated; he interrogated. There were piles of books all over his house, most about successful leaders in business and government. He was interested in how they used their leadership. How they made their money. He was interested in people — people who had accomplished remarkable things . Reading Ogilvy’s short autobiography is like having dinner with a charming raconteur . His Scottish grandfather is portrayed as cold — hearted, formidable , and successful — and his hero. When you write a book about advertising, you’re competing with midgets. When you write an autobiography, you’re competing with giants . He took the occasion to remind everyone that he was not a big shot at school. I wasn’t a scholar. I detested the philistines who ruled the roost. I was an irreconcilable rebel — a misfit. In short, I was a dud. Fellow duds, take heart! There is no correlation between success at school and success in life. If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope do you have of being able to advertise anything else? Although he entered advertising to make money, Ogilvy had become interested — obsessively interested — in the business itself. He said he had read every book that had been written on the subject, and, as a young man, had reason to believe he would be good at it and would enjoy it. Since American advertising was years ahead of advertising anywhere else, he decided to study the trade where it was done best. Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times (Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins). Every time I see a bad advertisement, I say to myself, “The man who wrote this copy has never read Claude Hopkins.” In print, it should lead with a headline that offers a consumer benefit. Often it should rely on long text packed with facts. “The more you tell, the more you sell,” as he would later preach. David also learned something about writing from his time in the intelligence service. Stephenson was a master of the terse note. Memos to him were returned swiftly to the sender with one of three words written at the top of the page: YES, NO, or SPEAK, meaning to come see him. Here Ogilvy describes himself as of the day he started the agency: “He is 38 and unemployed. He dropped out of college. He has been a cook, a salesman and a diplomat. He knows nothing about marketing and has never written any copy. He professes to be interested in advertising as a career and is ready to go to work for $5,0
Sun, February 21, 2021
#168 Larry Miller (Driven: An Autobiography)
What I learned from reading Driven: An Autobiography by Larry Miller. ---- [1:01] I decided I had to be extremely good at something. [2:47] I’m sorry to say, neglecting my family to do all of the above. I worked and worked and worked, day after day, night after night, dawn to bedtime. [5:23] He owned movie theaters, auto dealerships, a motorsports park with a world-class racetrack, a movie production company, an advertising agency, ranches, restaurants, TV and radio stations, a real-estate development company, an NBA franchise, a professional baseball team, an NBA arena, sports apparel stores—nearly 90 companies in all, in six states, with 7,000 employees, all under the umbrella of The Larry H. Miller Group, which produces $3.2 billion in sales annually, ranking it among the 200 largest privately owned companies in the United States. [7:23] The chain of events that began my entrepreneurial career was sparked by three failures: I dropped out of college, got laid off, and got demoted. [35:22] It’s excellence for the sake of excellence. It just feels good being excellent, doing your best, learning everything you can about anything to which you apply yourself and then doing that thing well . [38:40] The insanely long hours that I worked were driven by fear, but then the success became intoxicating . Clearly, my motivation to work like that shifted from fear-driven to success-driven. [40:36] A bunch of people say, “I wanna have . . .” and “I wanna be . . .” but they’re not willing to pay the price. The price is time and effort and being a student of what you’re doing . [48:15] https://patrickcollison.com/fast . [56:15] Working all the time made me successful. It made me a failure, too. I missed most of my children’s youth. I missed ball games and science fairs and back-to-school nights. I missed the first day of kindergarten and playing catch in the yard. I missed dinner at home with my wife and kids. [1:00:53] I try to pass these painful lessons to others who might be tempted by the allure of professional success. Mine is a cautionary tale . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, February 19, 2021
#167 Jackie Cochran (Aviation)
What I learned from reading Jackie Cochran: An Autobiography by Jackie Cochran. ---- [4:37] At the time of her death on August 9, 1980, Jacqueline Cochran held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other pilot, male or female, in aviation history. Her career spanned 40 years, from the Golden Age of the 1930s as a racing pilot, through the turbulent years of World War Il as founder and head of the Women's Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) program, into the jet age, when she became the first female pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound . She was a 14-time winner of the Harmon trophy for the outstanding female pilot of the year and was accorded numerous other awards and honors in addition to the trophies she won with her flying skills. [6:15] Jackie was an irresistible force. Time and time again in the many, many interviews I was so kindly granted, the repeated theme was "Jackie just could not be stopped." And indeed, this driving, cussed determination is signally evident in Jackie's own writings. Her unremitting persistence is clear in everything she did , from regaining the doll of which she was robbed at the age of six to her need to be the world's top aviatrix. Generous, egotistical, penny-pinching, compassionate, sensitive, aggressive -indeed, an explosive study in contradictions—Jackie was consistent only in the overflowing energy with which she attacked the challenge of being alive. Always passionately convinced of any viewpoint she happened to hold ( nothing Jackie ever did was by halves ), she raced through life, making lifelong friends and unforgetting enemies, surely breaking all records in the sheer volume of her living on this earth—as she did in the air. [8:07] To live without risk for me would have been tantamount to death. [14:16] Whenever I turned on a light, I'd think of how my foster family had been able to sit back and sit around that goddamn mojo lamp. Not me . [16:39] I always knew I was different from the others . [24:02] "What are you going to be when you grow up, Jackie?" they'd ask me. I never wavered in my response. "I'm going to be rich," I'd say, knowing even then that they thought I was silly or crazed. "I'll wear fine clothes, own my own automobile, and have adventures all over the world." They'd laugh. I was certain that's where I was going, I felt no embarrassment about my big dreams. No dreams, no future. They could laugh, but most of my mill friends wanted as little from life as they were destined to get. [26:51] To get the best performance, to do better than anyone has ever done before, you've got to take chances. [30:21] You almost had to have been there to know what such a range of existences did for me. Because of where I came from and then where I went, I ended up understanding intimately one very sustaining line of
Mon, February 08, 2021
#166 Robert Noyce (Intel)
What I learned from reading The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley by Leslie Berlin. ---- [0:01] Bob Noyce took me under his wing,” Steve Jobs explains. “I was young, in my twenties. He was in his early fifties. He tried to give me the lay of the land, give me a perspective that I could only partially understand.” Jobs continues, “ You can’t really understand what is going on now unless you understand what came before .” [2:00] He inspired in nearly everyone whom he encountered a sense that the future had no limits , and that together they could , as he liked to say, “Go off and do something wonderful.” [3:15] Warren Buffett , who served on a college board with Noyce for several years said: “Everybody liked Bob. He was an extraordinarily smart guy who didn’t need to let you know he was that smart. He could be your neighbor, but with lots of machinery in his head.” [12:01] Noyce was slowly gathering experiences that would anchor his adult approach to life, which was not so much an approach as a headlong rush into any challenge with the unshakable assumption that he would emerge not only successful, but triumphant. [14:18] Every night before he fell asleep, Noyce would mentally rehearse each of his dives in slow motion until he could see himself executing them perfectly. He called this habit “envisioning myself at the next level,” and he carried it with him throughout his life. In his mind’s eye, he could always see himself achieving something more . [21:16] Bob was not the type to slow down for much of anything . [33:02] His approach was to know the science cold and then “forget about it.” He did not slog or grind his way to ideas; he felt they just came to him. When he heard Picasso’s famous line about artistic creativity — “I do not seek; I find” — Noyce said that he invented in the same way. [35:31] “I don’t have any recollection of a ‘ Boom! There it is!’ light bulb going off, ”Noyce later said of his ideas. Instead, he conceived of the integrated circuit in an iterative method he described thus: “[ I thought,] let’s see, if we could do this, we can do that. If we can do that, then we can do this. [It was] a logical sequence. If I hit a wall, I’d back up and then find a path, conceptually, all the way through to the end. [Once you have that path], you can come back and start refining, thinking in little steps that will take you there. Once you get to the point that you can see the top of the mountain, then you know you can get there.” [45:48] We were a hard, young, hungry group. Our attitude was ‘We don’t give a damn what money you have to offer, buddy. We’re going to do this ourselves.’ [1:08:55] Noyce was invited to dinner at the home of an entrepreneur whose company the his fund had supported. After the dishes had been cleare
Mon, February 01, 2021
#165 William Shockley (Creator of the Electronic Age)
What I learned from reading Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age by Joel Shurkin. ---- [1:19] Why would a man as unquestionably brilliant as he knowingly and deliberately destroy himself? [5:04] Dear Jean: I am sorry that I feel I can no longer go on. Most of my life I have felt. that the world was not a pleasant place and that people were not a very admirable form of life. I find that I am particularly dissatisfied with myself and that most of my actions are the consequence of motives of which I am ashamed. Consequently, I must regard myself as less well suited than most to carry on with life and to develop the proper attitudes in our children. I hope you have better luck in the future. —Bill. He took out his revolver, put a bullet in one of the six chambers, put the gun to his head and pressed the trigger. Nothing happened. He put the gun away and wrote a second note. [13:36] “My elation with the group’s success was balanced by the frustration of not being one of the inventors. I experienced frustration that my personal efforts had not resulted in a significant inventive contribution of my own.” Apparently his involvement was too passive to provide Shockley with the credit he craved. [16:29] I am overwhelmed by an irresistible temptation to do my climbing by moonlight and unroped. This is contrary to all my rock climbing teaching and does not mean poor training but only a strong headedness. [24:21] The rise and fall of Bill Shockley’s company took less than a year and a half. It profoundly affected Shockley, but had even more impact on the world around him and on our lives today. In all of the history of business, the failure of Shockley Semiconductor is in a class by itself. [35:26] Shockley was often insulting, treating his employees the way he treated his sons, with no glimmer of sensitivity. His favorite crack, when he thought someone was wrong, was: ‘Are you sure you have a PhD?’ Worse of all, he could not keep himself from believing he was in competition with his employees. The very people he hired because they were so bright. He just didn’t want them to be as bright as he was. That his employees could come up with their own ideas did not register with him. [46:07] Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore decided it was time to go and set up their own company. They raised the capital, based entirely on Noyce’s reputation, with one telephone call to Arthur Rock. They called the new company Intel. They lived Bill Shockley’s fantasy. They directed the flow of the technology and made billions. [52:12] A genealogy of Silicon Valley showed that virtually every company in the valley could show a line leading directly to someone who worked at and eventually left Fairchild Semiconductor. Everyone from Fairchild originally came from Shockley Semiconductor. Shockley’s company was the seed of Silicon V
Mon, January 25, 2021
#164 Robert Goddard (Rocket Man)
What I learned from reading Rocket Man: Robert Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age by David A. Clary. --- [18:16] For even though I reasoned with myself that the thing was impossible, there was something inside me which simply would not stop working. [20:08] Anything is possible with the man who makes the best use of every minute of his time. [20:18] There are limitless opportunities open to the man who appreciates the fact that his own mind is the sole key that unlocks them. [32:55] It’s appalling how short life is and how much there is to do. We have to be sports, take chances, and do what we can. [35:57] There were limits to Goddard’s ability as a salesman, beginning with his failure to determine the interests of his potential customers. [44:18] Goddard must be given his due. The first flight of a liquid-propelled rocket may not have looked like much but nothing like it had ever happened on Earth before. [50:28] He explained his work was aimed at high-altitude research, not outer space. The Wright Brothers, he reminded his audience, did not try to cross The Atlantic the first time up. [52:32] Emerson says, “If a man paint a better picture, preach a better sermon, or build a better mousetrap than anyone else, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” I have had the misfortune not to be an artist, a preacher, or a manufacturer of mousetraps. I have never had any great talent for selling ideas . [59:27] A boy of exceptional brilliance, of humble origins and poor health, who dreamed great dreams and pursued them throughout a dedicated life. He was a distinguished but absentminded professor, a saintly man of rich humor, an enthusiastic piano player and painter, loved by everybody who knew him. Although his own country failed to appreciate the importance of what he did, he continued in his work despite widespread ridicule and the attempts of others to steal it. He never complained, never evinced discouragement or frustration. Above all, he never gave up. [1:04:04] Goddard was a complex and inscrutable individual. He had many admirable qualities, chief among them the patience, persistence, and iron will that helped him to overcome tuberculosis, then to pursue rocketry for three decades. Seldom expressing frustration or discouragement, he accepted failure as part of invention, and kept on working. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that afte
Mon, January 18, 2021
#163 Alfred Nobel
What I learned from reading Alfred Nobel: A Biography by Kenne Fant. ---- [16:24] The self-awareness that would become so characteristic of him was awakening and with it the determination to be the master of every situation. He was not going to throw himself into the world and let luck or chance lead the way. [26:26] When it comes to serious matters, I have adopted the rule of acting seriously. [28:09] Alfred never forgot poverty . [30:04] Financial pressure was accelerating his development as an inventor. [39:15] Alfred asked her what she wished as a wedding present. The quick-witted young woman astonished him by replying without hesitation, “As much as Monsieur Nobel himself earns in one day.” Impressed and amused, Alfred agreed. The girl received a monetary gift of such size that she and her husband could enjoy it as long as their marriage lasted. The bank draft Alfred signed was for $110,000. [47:33] It would take many years for Alfred to accept the idea that sometimes business failures were inevitable, that steps forward in one market were very often followed by a decline in another. Alfred learned to steel himself so that the disappointments would not depress him into inaction. [51:18] Never do yourself what others could do better or equally well . [57:26] Nobel had a soul of fire. He worked hard, burned with ideas, and spurred his collaborators on with his contagious energy . [58:04] When he went somewhere he liked to get there fast. [59:17] Whatever a human being manages to accomplish during his or her lifetime, there are so utterly few whose names will remain on the pages of history for any extended amount of time. Rarer still are those whose renown grows after their death. Alfred Nobel belongs among these. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 11, 2021
#162 Chuck Yeager
What I learned from reading Yeager: An Autobiography by General Chuck Yeager. ---- [10:14] I was a competitive kid. I always tried to do my best. I never thought of myself as being poor or deprived in any way. We managed to scrape by. Kids learned self-sufficiency. Mom and Dad taught us by example. They never complained. I had certain standards that I lived by. Whatever I did, I determined to do the best I could at it. [13:22] The sense of speed and exhilaration makes you so damned happy that you want to shout for joy. [17:15] In nearly every case the worst pilots die by their own stupidity. [26:04] I sensed that he was a very strong and determined person, a poor boy who had started with nothing and would show the world what he was really made of . [38:48] Every muscle in my body is hammering at me. I just want to let go of his guy and drop in my tracks—either to sleep or to die. I don’t know why I keep hold of him and struggle to climb. It’s the challenge, I guess, and a stubborn pride knowing that most guys would’ve let go of Pat before now. [40:57] Chuck is the most stubborn bastard in the world, who doesn’t dabble in gray areas. He sees in black and white. He simply said, “I’m not going home.” [45:26] The Germans began to come up to challenge us and ran into a goddamn West Virginia buzzsaw. [50:30] If you love the hell out of what you’re doing, you’re usually pretty good at it, and you wind up making your own breaks. I wasn’t a deep, sophisticated person, but I lived by a basic principle: I did only what I enjoyed. I wouldn’t let anyone derail me by promises of power or money into doing things that weren’t interesting to me. [55:38] Yeager would rely on himself. I couldn’t teach him enough. [1:03:31] My life was flying and pilots. I didn’t spend a whole helluva lot of time doing or thinking about anything else. We were an obsessed bunch, probably because we were so isolated. [1:17:29] Living to a ripe old age is not an end in itself; the trick is to enjoy the years remaining. And unlike flying, learning how to take pleasure from living can’t be taught. Unfortunately, many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda. For me, that was always high priority in whatever I was doing. [1:18:22] I’ve never lost the curiosity about things that interest me. I’m very good at the activities I most enjoy, and that part has made my life that much sweeter. I haven’t yet done everything, but by the time I’m finished, I won’t have missed much. If I auger in tomorrow, it won’t be with a frown on my face. I’ve had a ball. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make
Mon, January 04, 2021
#161 Dr. Seuss
What I learned from reading Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination by Brian Jay Jones. ---- [6:32] Both his parents would inspire and encourage Ted’s love for books. Reading was a pastime the entire family took seriously. [9:24] Ted came to appreciate the considerable discipline and commitment it took to hone expertise . [10:15] He was an inspiration. Whatever you do, he taught me, do it to perfection. [10:53] No matter what discipline you are in there’s a common denominator in how we approach our craft. The attention to detail, the level of commitment. Those things are the same across the board. That is my message. Don’t look at what I did but how I did it. The how. And then you can transfer that over to any profession and any discipline. —Kobe Bryant. [20:07] Unlike many of his classmates, Ted wasn’t entirely certain what to do next. [22:51] You’re not very interested in the lecture she told him plainly —then leaned in and pointed at one of his drawings. I think that is a very good flying cow. [23:04] Maybe the most important thing anyone ever said to him: You’re crazy to be a professor she told Ted. What you really want to do is draw. [23:48] Ted’s notebooks were always filled with these fabulous animals. So I set to work diverting him. Here was a man who could draw such pictures. He should earn a living doing that. [26:57] I don’t know. But I know one thing. My policy is to laugh my god damned head off. Occasionally I depress myself and work myself into one of those delightful funks. And I seek out subway tracks on which to toss myself. And then it strikes me as very comical and I laugh instead. [30:08] The money he earned through his advertising work would buy him his artistic freedom. What would eventually become the Dr. Suess empire would be laid on a foundation built and paid for with Standard Oil money. [33:01] To his increasing distress, the responses were all negative. He would later recall being rejected by 27 publishers. [45:12] We can live on $100 a week. If I could get $5,000 a year in royalties I’d be set for life. [46:58] If you want to write good books spend a little time studying the bad ones . [48:02] Your capacity for healthy, silly, friendly laughter was smothered. You’d really grown up. You’d become adults. Adults—which is a word that means obsolete children. [49:28] Even after 9 books he still wasn’t earning enough from them to make a living . [54:29] I’m subversive as hell! I’ve always had a mistrust of adults. And one reason I dropped out of Oxford was that I thought they were taking life too damn seriously, concentrating too much on nonessentials. [1:02:47] For me, success means doing work that you love, regardless of how much you make. I g
Mon, December 28, 2020
#160 Peter Cundill
What I learned from reading Routines and Orgies: The Life of Peter Cundill, Financial Genius, Philosopher, and Philanthropist by Christopher Risso-Gill. ---- Excellence as a goal in itself had been drummed into him from early boyhood. I’m convinced that to achieve real greatness a person needs above all to have passion but at the same time immense discipline, concentration, patience and an unshakeable determination to become a master of his craft. There is a choice of courses in life: either to seek equilibrium or to enjoy the heights and suffer the depths. You need to get into some situations which make your gut tight and your balls tingle. Do the unappealing things first. Once you have done your homework properly and are absolutely convinced that an investment is right you should not hesitate or wait for others to share the adventure. The price at which you start buying will almost invariably be imperfect but that should never discourage you. Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit. (Aristotle) The more that I think about the way the Greeks, especially the Spartans, regarded the subject of exercise and the necessity of maintaining peak levels of physical fitness, the more I am convinced that the health of the mind and the spirit are either bolstered or hampered by the condition of the body. Concentrate with absolute clarity on one thing at a time. The mantra is patience, patience, and more patience. Think long term and remember that the big rewards accrue with compound annual rates of return. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, December 21, 2020
#159 Andy Grove (Intel)
What I learned from reading Swimming Across by Andrew S. Grove. ---- [0:01] I was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1936. By the time I was twenty, I had lived through a Hungarian Fascist dictatorship, German military occupation, the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” the siege of Budapest by the Soviet Red Army, a period of chaotic democracy in the years immediately after the war, a variety of repressive Communist regimes, and a popular uprising that was put down at gunpoint. [3:02] Some 200,000 Hungarians escaped to the West. I was one of them . [8:05] A subtle and compelling commentary on the power to endure. [10:03] He dedicates this book to his mom. He says: To my mother, who gave me the gift of life more than once. [13:03] People avoided looking at us. Even people whom we knew wouldn’t meet our eyes. It was as if a barrier was growing between us and everyone else. [14:01] My mother returned in a couple of hours, shaken up. She told me that the man who came for her was a policeman who arrested her along with the superintendent’s wife. Feeding Jewish people was against the law. The policeman told her that she should have bid me a more proper good-bye because she probably would not see me again. [18:35] There was so much pressure in my chest that I could barely breathe. After a while, my mother came back for me. She was very tense and angry. She carried me to bed and we went to sleep. Later on that night, some more Russians came into our cellar. My mother yelled at them something about how all three of the women had already done it today. [23:02] An emaciated man, filthy and in a ragged soldier’s uniform, was standing at the open door. I thought: This must be my father. His arms and legs were like sticks. [25:49] There was nothing to be done. The Communist government called all the shots. They increasingly interfered with our daily life. They took away my parents’ business, they uprooted me from my school. [28:09] I always had a tight feeling in my chest when we went by because by now I knew my relatives had been taken from that house to be killed. [33:30] Life is like a big lake. All the boys get in the water at one end and start swimming. Not all of them will swim across. But one of them, I’m sure will. That one is Grove. [37:28] In the middle of one bitterly cold winter night, my father’s battalion was made to strip naked and climb trees, and the guards sprayed them with water and watched and laughed as one after another fell out of the trees frozen to death . [43:52] I thought I had made an important discovery. I realized that it’s good to have at least two interests in your life. If you have only one interest and that goes sour, there’s nothing to act as a counterbalance to lift your mood. But if you have more than one interest, chances are something will always go okay. [52:11]
Mon, December 14, 2020
#158 Walt Disney (Disneyland)
What I learned from reading Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow. ---- [1:29] In Disney's Land, popular historian Richard Snow brilliantly presents the entire spectacular story, a wild ride from vision to realization that reflects the uniqueness of the man determined to build “the happiest place on earth” with a watchmaker's precision, an artist's conviction, and the desperate, high-hearted recklessness of a riverboat gambler. [4:13] When he reached middle age it seemed that we were going to witness an all too familiar process—the conversion of the tired artist into the tired businessman. When in 1955 we heard that Disney had opened an amusement park under his own name, it appeared certain that we could not look forward to anything new from Mr. Disney. We were quite wrong. He had, instead, created his masterpiece. [4:58] Walt Disney was an obsessive with soul in the game. [5:26] Disney’s father didn’t believe children should have toys. [14:50] One small enterprise did please him, though, and it had little to do with the art he had done so much to invent and of which he was the undisputed master. [15:09] He was dismayed to find the man whose work he had long admired “seemed totally uninterested in movies and seemed wholly, almost weirdly concerned with the building of a miniature railroad engine and a string of cars. All of his zest for invention, for creative fantasies, seemed to be going into this plaything.” [17:15] Disney on his nervous breakdown: “I had a hell of a breakdown. I went to pieces. I kept expecting more from the artists and when they let me down, I got worried. Costs were going up and it was always way over what they figured the picture would bring in. I just got very irritable. I got to a point that it couldn't talk on the telephone. I would begin to cry.” [17:49] The money wasn't coming in. His last successful feature, Bambi, was six years in the past . [22:19] Why would you want to get involved in an amusement park? They're so dirty, and not fun at all for grownups. Why would you want to get involved in a business like that? He fielded the question the way he would countless times during Disneyland's germination. "That's exactly the point. Mine isn't going to be that way." [25:25] Disney’s friend’s reaction to hearing the plans for Disneyland: While he talked, becoming more and more enthusiastic by the minute, I began to grow more and more concerned. I hardly knew how to tell him that, for once, he was making what would probably be the biggest, most ruinous mistake of his life. What could I say? I knew he was wrong. [28:00] He never lost his calm understanding that the company's prosperity, rested not on the rock of conventional business practices, b
Mon, December 07, 2020
#157 The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
What I learned from reading The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. ---- [0:29] This is the story of those pioneers hackers, inventors, and entrepreneurs. Who they were, how their minds worked, and what made them so creative. [8:41] She developed a somewhat outsize opinion of her talents as a genius. In her [Ada Lovelace] letter to Babbage, she wrote, “Do not reckon me conceited but I believe I have the power of going just as far as I like in such pursuits.” [14:10] The reality is that Ada’s contribution was both profound and inspirational. More than any other person of her era, she was able to glimpse a future in which machines would become partners of the human imagination. [16:37] Alan Turing was slow to learn that indistinct line that separated initiative from disobedience. [20:15] If a mentally superhuman race ever develops its members will resemble John Von Neumann. [23:40] His [William Shockley] tenacity was ferocious. In any situation, he simply had to have his way. [28:38] Bob Noyce described his excitement more vividly: “The concept hit me like the atom bomb. It was simply astonishing. Just the whole concept. It was one of those ideas that just jolts you out of the rut, gets you thinking in a different way. [29:06] Some leaders are able to be willful and demanding while still inspiring loyalty. They celebrate audaciousness in a way that makes them charismatic Steve Jobs, for example; his personal manifesto dressed in the guise of a TV ad, began, “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes.” Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos has the same ability to inspire. The knack is to get people to follow you, even to places that they may not think they can go, by motivating them to share your sense of mission . [38:26] As Grove wrote in his memoir, Swimming Across , “By the time I was twenty, I had lived through a Hungarian Fascist dictatorship, German military occupation, the Nazi’s final solution, the siege of Budapest by the Soviet Red Army, a period of chaotic democracy in the years immediately after the war, a variety of repressive Communist regimes, and a popular uprising that was put down at gunpoint. [39:10] Grove had a blunt, no-bullshit style. It was the same approach Steve jobs would later use: brutal honesty, clear focus, and a demanding drive for excellence. [39:40] Grove’s mantra was “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” [40:24] Engineering the game was easy. Growing the company without money was hard . [42:40] Vannevar Bush was a man of strong opinions, which he expressed and applied with vigor, yet he stood in all of the mysteri
Mon, November 30, 2020
#156 Theodore Roosevelt
What I learned from reading Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt ---- [0:20] He was scratched, bruised, and hungry, but gritty and determined as a bulldog. [2:44] Not the least extraordinary part of the story is that during these same six days after catching the thieves, Theodore in odd moments read the whole of Anna Karenina . [3:56] He impressed me and puzzled me. And when I went home I told my wife that I'd met the most peculiar, and at the same time, the most wonderful man I'd ever come to know. I could see that he was a man of brilliant ability and I could not understand why he was out there on the frontier. [4:35] Roosevelt has been a supporting character in a lot of the biographies that I've read for this podcast: #135 Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power #139 The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance #142 The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J. P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism #145 The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst That piqued my interest and I knew I had to read a biography of him. [7:53] The underlining theme would be the same as that of my earlier work—the creative effort, the testing, and the struggle, the elements of chance and inspiration involved in any great human achievements. [9:22] Teddy Roosevelt had a life motto: Get Action! [15:17] He is brimming full of mischief and has to be watched all the time. [16:15] I felt great admiration for men who were fearless and I had a great desire to be like them. [16:44] There runs a theme of the pleasure and pride in being the first to see or do something, an eagerness to set himself apart from the others, to distinguish himself, to get out ahead of them; or simply be alone, absorbed in private thoughts. [18:15] He has learned at an early age what a precarious, unpredictable thing life is—and how very vulnerable he is. He must be prepared always for the worst. But the chief lesson is that life is quite literally a battle. And the test is how he responds, whether he sees himself as a helpless victim or decides to fight back. [20:56] It was no good wishing to appear like the heroes he worshiped if he made no effort to be like them. [21:26] He would charge off ruthlessly in chase of whatever object he had in view. [24:48] Father was the shining example of the life he must aspire to; Father was the perfect example of all he himself was not. “Looking back on his life it seems as if mine must be such a weak, useless one in comparison.” He was engulfed by self-about. [27:08] He’s not strong, but he’s all grit. He’ll kill himself before he’ll even say he’s tired</s
Mon, November 23, 2020
#155 Jeff Bezos (Shareholder Letters and Speeches)
What I learned from reading Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos , With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson. ---- [2:38] The whole point of moving things forward is that you run into problems, failures, things that don't work. You need to back up and try again. Each one of those times when you have a setback, you get back up and you try again. You're using resourcefulness; you're using self-reliance; you're trying to invent your way out of a box. We have tons of examples at Amazon where we’ve had to do this. [4:08] I would much rather have a kid with nine fingers than a resourceless kid. [5:51] I am often asked who, of the people living today, I would consider to be in the same league as those I have written about as a biographer: Leonardo da Vinci (#15), Benjamin Franklin (#115), Ada Lovelace, Steve Jobs (#5), and Albert Einstein. All were very smart. But that’s not what made them special. Smart people are a dime a dozen and often don’t amount to much. What counts is being creative and imaginative. That’s what makes someone a true innovator. And that’s why my answer to the question is Jeff Bezos. [8:26] One final trait shared by all my subjects is that they retained a childlike sense of wonder. At a certain point in life, most of us quit puzzling over everyday phenomena. Our teachers and parents, becoming impatient, tell us to stop asking so many silly questions. We might savor the beauty of a blue sky, but we no longer bother to wonder why it is that color. Leonardo did. So did Einstein, who wrote to another friend, “You and I never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.” We should be careful to never outgrow our wonder years—or to let our children do so. [11:50] Jeff’s childhood business heroes were Thomas Edison and Walt Disney . “I’ve always been interested in inventors and invention,” he says. Even though Edison was the more prolific inventor, Bezos came to admire Disney more because of the audacity of his vision. “It seemed to me that he had this incredible capability to create a vision that he could get a large number of people to share.” [17:49] Keeping his focus on the customer, he emailed one thousand of them to see what else they would like to buy. The answers helped him understand better the concept of “the long tail,” which means being able to offer items that are not everyday best sellers and don’t command shelf space at retailers. “The way they answered the question was with whatever they were looking for at the moment. And I thought to myself we can sell anything this way.” [19:26] Every time a seismic shift takes place in our economy, there are people who feel the vibrations long before the rest of us do, vibrations so strong they demand action—action that can seem rash, even stupid . [22:00] “No customer was askin
Thu, November 19, 2020
#154 Charles Schulz (Charlie Brown)
What I learned from reading My Life with Charlie Brown by Charles Schulz. ---- [0:24] Beginning with the first strip published on October 2nd, 1950, until the last published on Sunday, February 13th, 2000, the day after his death, Schultz wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered by hand every single one of the daily and Sunday strips to leave his studio, 17,897 in all for an almost fifty-year run. [4:08] If there were one bit of advice I could give to a young person, it would be to do at least one task well. Do what you do on a high plain. [5:54] Slow consistent growth over a long period of time: Year / # of newspapers 1950 7 1952 40 1958 355 1971 1100 1975 1480 1984 2000 [12:00] There are certain seasons in our lives that each of us can recall, and there are others that disappear from our memories, like the melting snow. [14:05] I used my spare time to work on my own cartoons. I tried to never let a week go by without having something in the mail working for me. [21:03] You don’t work all of your life to do something so you don’t have to do it. [22:09] On where ideas come from: Most comic strip ideas are like that. They come from sitting in a room alone and drawing seven days a week, as I’ve done for 40 years. [25:03] When he is 73: People come up to me and say: “Are you still drawing the strip?” I want to say to them, “Good grief—who else in the world do you think is drawing it?” I would never let anybody take over. And I have it in my contract that if I die, then my strip dies. [30:15] At the point he is writing this he is making $30 to $40 million a year. The total earning of Peanuts is well over $1 billion. [32:37] But as the year went by, I could almost say that drawing a comic strip for me became a lot like a religion. Because it helps me survive from day to day. I always have this to fall back upon. When everything seems hopeless I know I can come to the studio and think: Here’s where I’m at home. This is where I belong —in this room, drawing pictures. [40:01] If you should ask me why I have been successful with Peanuts, I would have to admit that being highly competitive has played a strong role. I must admit that I would rather win than lose. In the thing that I do best, which is drawing a comic strip, it is important to me that I win. [44:26] To have staying power you must be willing to accommodate yourself to the task. I have never maintained that a comic strip is Great Art. It simply happens to be something I feel uniquely qualified to do. [45:18] He is the most widely syndicated cartoonist ever, with more than 2300 newspapers. He has had more than 1400 books published, selling more than 300 million copies. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrep
Thu, November 12, 2020
#153 Bill Bowerman (Nike)
What I learned from reading Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Cofounder by Kenny Moore. ---- [0:01] Take a primitive organism, any weak, pitiful organism. Say a freshman. Make it lift, or jump or run. Let it rest. What happens? A little miracle. It gets a little better. It gets a little stronger or faster or more enduring. That's all training is. Stress. Recover. Improve. You would think any damn fool could do it, but you won't. [0:25] You work too hard and you rest too little and get hurt. [1:38] You cannot just tell somebody what’s good for him. He won’t listen. He will not listen. First, you have to get his attention. [4:14] From the book Shoe Dog . Phil Knight on Bowerman: I look back over the decades and see him toiling in his workshop, Mrs. Bowerman carefully helping, and I get goosebumps. He was Edison in Menlo Park, Da Vinci in Florence, Tesla in Wardenclyffe. Divinely inspired. I wonder if he knew, if he had any clue, that he was the Daedalus of sneakers, that he was making history, remaking an industry, transforming the way athletes would run and stop and jump for generations. I wonder if he could conceive at that moment all that he'd done. All that would follow. I know I couldn't. [8:02] Are you in this simply to do mindless labor or do you want to improve? You can’t improve if you’re always sick or injured. [9:17] Bowerman was decades ahead of putting just as much of an importance on your recovery as you do on your training. [12:11] In theory, as a coach, he should have been as interested in motivating the lazy as in mellowing the mad, but he wasn’t. “I’m sorry I can’t make them switch brains,” he said. But I can’t.” That left him free to be absorbed by the eager. [17:00] One of the things that makes him so interesting is that he was willing to think from first principles. If he arrived at different collusion he thought was right it didn't matter if 90% of the people in his field were doing it another way. [17:21] Bowerman understood that paradox—the need for both abandoned effort and ironclad control . [18:47] He spent long hours in contented silence, solving a huge range of problems, and he was brutally eloquent when dissecting others’ psyches. Yet he kept the process of himself to himself. [20:42] In his approach to the world, he would take stock, give nothing away, circle to different vantage points, and keep an eye out for a sign of something he might exploit. [28:27] “Because of what he taught,” Bowerman would say, “I went from one of the slowest players to the second fastest. . . I learned from the master.” [30:40] Bill Hayward was Bill Bowerman’s blueprint: He took from his scrapbook a photograph of Hayward. He had it framed behind glass, to preserve what Hayward had written on it: “Live eac
Thu, November 05, 2020
#152 Katherine Graham (Washington Post)
What I learned from reading Personal History by Katherine Graham. ---- [1:02] A few minutes later there was the ear-splitting noise of a gun going off indoors. I bolted out of the room and ran around in a frenzy looking for him. When I opened the door to a downstairs bathroom, I found him. It was so profoundly shocking and traumatizing —he was so obviously dead. [3:56] Katherine Graham was the first-ever female CEO of a fortune 500 company. [5:30] This book is the inner monologue of someone not at all comfortable with herself and where she fits in with others. [8:55] Katherine's mom on having a second wind: The fatigue of the climb was great but it is interesting to learn once more how much further one can go on one’s second wind. I think that is an important lesson for everyone to learn for it should also be applied to one’s mental efforts. Most people go through life without ever discovering the existence of that whole field of endeavor which we describe as second wind. Whether mentally or physically occupied most people give up at the first appearance of exhaustion. Thus they never learn the glory and the exhilaration of genuine effort . [13:42] When an idea is right, nothing can stop it . [17:47] Advice from her Father that she still remembers 60 years later: What parents may sometimes do in a helpful way is to point out certain principles of action. I do not think I would be helpful in advising you too strongly. I do not even feel the need of doing that because I have so much confidence in your having really good judgment. I believe that what I can do for you once in a while is to point out certain principles that have developed in my mind as sound and practical, leaving it for you yourself to apply them if your own mind grasps and approves the principles . [26:14] Have a problem? Look at it from a different perspective: I had deplored the fact we had the bad luck to live in a world with Hitler, to which Phil responded, “ I don’t know. Maybe it’s a privilege to have to fight the biggest son of a bitch in history .” [29:20] Reading biographies can give you the strength to not quit : Phil was finishing a book on the lives and careers of newspaper magnates. “ You know, they put the company together when they were in their thirties. Now they’re in their sixties and I’m in my thirties. I think we can make it [successful] another way .” [33:28] There is no doubt in my mind that the struggle to survive was good for us. In business, you have to know what it is to be poor and stretched and fighting for your life against great odds. [37:26] Knowledge of that new generation—my children—was what led me, however hesitatingly, to the decision I made then: to try to hold
Thu, October 29, 2020
#151 Frederick Smith (FedEx)
What I learned from reading Overnight Success: Federal Express and Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator by Vance Trimble. ---- [0:01] At age thirty Frederick Wallace Smith was in deep trouble. His dream of creating Federal Express had become too expensive and was fast fizzling out. He had exhausted his father’s millions. He was in hock for 15 or 20 million more. He appeared in danger of losing his cargo jets and also his wife. His own board of directors had fired him as CEO. Now the FBI accused him of forging papers to get a $2 million bank loan and was trying to send him to prison. He thought of suicide. [1:08] At any risk, at any cost, he refused to let his Federal Express dream die . [6:23] I believe that a man who expects to win out in business without self-denial and self-improvement stands about as much chance as a prizefighter would stand if he started a hard ring battle without having gone through intensive training. Natural ability, even when accompanied by the spirit to win, is never sufficient. [7:32] It was push and drive he inherited from his father. He had to be doing something all the time . [9:19] Fred is one of those people who never gives up if he wants something and you say no. He just goes on and on and on . [10:50] And one of the greatest qualities that he has, that anybody can have, is he’s a voracious reader. You could talk to Fred Smith about government or literature, a whole range of things kids his age didn’t know much about. [11:38] Like Nike, the idea for FEDEX started as a term paper: There is no great mystery to the “hub and spoke” concept. As Smith visualized the plan, the “hub” would be located in a middle America location with “spokes” radiating out to Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, and other cities. Fred Smith thought of his system as similar to the telephone network, where all calls are connected through a “central switchboard” routing process. [18:40] He wanted to do something that nobody else had done. That was his main objective . [20:18] Smith wasn’t traveling in a straight line himself. He tried first one project and then another. All of them were built around his idea of acquiring and operating a fleet of jets. It [FEDEX] didn’t start out as a package outfit. [27:23] Fred Smith was learning not to be disheartened or dismayed by negative reactions . [35:43] Fred was in such deep thought all the time. Constantly thinking. Sheer determination. You could walk in and he’d be thinking about something and literally wouldn’t know you were in the room. That is one sign of a great mind—the ability to concentrate. When I read that section it made me think of this great quote by Edwin Land: “My whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people
Sat, October 24, 2020
#150 Sam Walton (America's Richest Man)
What I learned from reading Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance H. Trimble. ---- [3:11] Charlie Munger on Sam Walton: It's quite interesting to think about Walmart starting from a single store in Arkansas – against Sears Roebuck with its name, reputation and all of its billions. How does a guy in Bentonville, Arkansas, with no money, blow right by Sears, Roebuck? And he does it in his own lifetime – in fact, during his own late lifetime because he was already pretty old by the time he started out with one little store. He played the chain store game harder and better than anyone else. Walton invented practically nothing. But he copied everything anybody else ever did that was smart – and he did it with more fanaticism. So he just blew right by them all. [4:46] Sam Walton was no ordinary man. He was a genius in business, with an iron mind —some say pig-headed—unwilling to compromise any of his carefully thought out policies and principles. [5:08] To him, making money was only a game. A test of his imagination and expertise to see how far he could drive a business concept. Wall Street had a hard time getting the drift of that Sam's idea, he readily admitted was absurdly simple: Buy cheap. Sell low. Every day. And do it with a smile! [9:23] No one in the Walton household worked harder, except his father. ‘The secret is work, work work,” said Thomas Walton. “I taught the boys how to do it.” He was a bear for work, and would not tolerate sons who were not likewise industrious, ambitious, and decent. [12:08] Sam was optimistic all the time. He felt the world was something he could conquer. [15:13] A lesson the founder of JC Penney personally taught Sam: Boys we don't make a dime out of the merchandise we sell. We only make our profit out of the paper and string we save.” [21:42] The lawyer saw Sam clenching and unclenching his fists, staring at his hands. Sam straightened up. “No,” he said. “I’m not whipped. I found Newport, and I found the store. I can find another good town and another store. Just wait and see!” [27:09] Sir, I never quarrel, Sir, but sometimes I fight, Sir, when I fight Sir, a funeral follows. [28:27] Sometimes hardship can enlighten and inspire. This was the case of Sam Walton as he put in hours and hours of driving Ozark mountain roads in the winter of 1950. But the same boredom and frustration triggered ideas that eventually bought him billions of dollars. [34:02] One of the basic lessons Sam Walton learned at JC Penny was not to be so smug you ignored your competitors, especially their successful policies and practices. “If they had something good, we copied it,” Sam always said with total candor. [37:52] To these sophisticated and experienced businessmen in tailored suits and custom shoes, it looked like the tail was trying to wag the dog. What
Sun, October 18, 2020
#149 The Big Rich (Oil Billionaires)
What I learned from reading The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes by Bryan Burrough. ---- [3:12] There's truth behind legend. There really were poor Texas boys who discovered gushing oil wells and became overnight billionaires, patriarchs of squabbling families who owned private islands and colossal mansions and championship football teams, who slept with movie stars and jousted with presidents and tried to corner and international market or two. [9:55] Their success raised a tantalizing question. What if there really was another Spindletop out there, and what if it were discovered not by a large company but by a single Texan working alone? One well, one fortune, it was the stuff of myth, the Eldorado of Texas Oil, and as a new decade dawned, a hoard of young second-generation oilmen would begin trying to find it. [14:53] He first headed to the Houston public library where he read every book he could find on the geology of oil. [17:51] Let me get a shave and a bath. Tomorrow's another day he would tell her. [19:35] This is a metaphor for a lot in life. Not just oil: The trouble with this business is that everybody expects to find oil on the surface. If it was up near the top, it wouldn't be any trick to it. You've got to drill deep for oil. [25:45] What Clint lacked in physical appeal, he made up for with a mind that whirred like a Swiss timepiece. Headstrong and independent, disdainful of his father's stuffy ways, young Clint was Tom Sawyer with an abacus. [32:21] “Daddy, you cheated me!” he exclaimed.“ “I did not,” his father said. “People will try to get at you any way they can, and you might as well learn now.” [33:46] If that dunce can make so much money we’ll go too. [42:07] H.L. Hunt was a strange man, a loner who lived deep inside his own peculiar mind, a self-educated thinker who was convinced —absolutely convinced— that he was possessed of talents that bordered on the superhuman. [49:30] Great fortunes are built on great convictions. [52:33] Hunt drilled wells like a madman. He worked from dawn till late in the evening seven days a week. Every cent he took in he plowed back into the search for more oil. [58:50] The spigot of cash Texas oil opened in the early 1930s ranks among the greatest periods of wealth generated in American history. [1:02:30] Sid Bass and his brothers had since achieved everything he hadn’t, that while the Basses were investing in Wall Street stocks and high tech startups, he had been snorting cocaine. [1:10:30] A harking to the days when giants walked the oil fields, when men like Hunt and Clint and Sid and Roy helped build something unique in midcentury, Texas—an image and culture loud, boisterous, money-hungry and a bit silly, but proud and independent. ---- Founders Notes gives you the abili
Sun, October 11, 2020
#148 John D. Rockefeller (Autobiography)
What I learned from Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. - --- [0:16] These incidents which come to my mind to speak of seemed vitally important to me when they happened, and they still stand out distinctly in my memory. [2:43] That sounds funny, making friends among the eminent dead, but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better in life and work better in education. — Charlie Munger [3:07] On Founders #16 I covered the biography of Rockefeller. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller . [3:19] Rockefeller prioritized silence and using the element of surprise by not telling people what he was up to. [3:54] The book I read for Founders #31 Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday. [5:02] They woke up and saw for the first time that my mind had not been idle while they were talking so big and loud. [5:35] He's attempting to buy out one of his competitors and he says, “I have ways of making money that you know nothing about.” [6:00] One thing that he mentioned over and over again in this book is the importance of relationships. That relationships make life better. [7:45] Having created an empire of unfathomable complexity, he was smart enough to see that he had to submerge his identity in the organization. [13:01] We went pretty rapidly in those days. We had with us a group of courageous men who recognized the great principle that a business cannot be a great success that does not fully and efficiently accept and take advantage of its opportunities. [15:52] It was a friendship founded on business, which Mr. Flagler used to say was a good deal better than a business founded on friendship, and my experience leads me to agree with him. [18:09] Perhaps they will not be useless if even tiresome stories make young people realize how, above all other possessions, is the value of a friend in every department of life without any exception whatsoever. [20:26] I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the waking hours of the day to making money for money’s sake. [24:35] This casual way of conducting affairs did not appeal to me . [28:07] I grew up watching Michael Jordan play. My generation saw the highlights. They saw the fancy stuff. What I saw was his footwork. I saw the spacing. I saw the timing. I saw the fundamentals of the game. [30:58] Go to sleep on a win and you wake up with a loss: As our successes began to come, I seldom put my head upon the pillow at night without speaking a few words to myself in this wise: “Now a little success, soon you will fall down, soon you will be overthrown. Because you have got a start, you think y
Mon, October 05, 2020
#147 Sam Colt
What I learned from reading Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America by Jim Rasenberger. ---- [0:01] Sam Colt embodied the America of his time. He was big brash, voracious, imaginative, and possessed extraordinary drive and energy. He was a classic disruptor who not only invented a world-changing product but produced it and sold it in world-changing ways. [1:59] He had solved one of the great technological challenges of the early 19th century. [2:36] He was rich at 21. Poor at 31. Then rich again at 41. [7:10] Sam Colt solved a 400-year-old problem. The guns of 1830 were essentially what they had been in 1430 . [7:53] There's a financial panic in 1819. This is a very important part in the life of Sam Colt. It may explain why he was such a hard worker, ruthless, and determined. The panic of 1819 bankrupts his family. [10:48] What kind of person would do this voluntarily? He was set to embark on a 17,000-mile voyage across the Atlantic, around the horn of Africa, through the Indian ocean and to the city of Calcutta. Honeymoon was not quite the word to describe a 17,000-mile voyage to Calcutta in 1830. [13:57] He bridled at being under any authority other than his own. His dogma was the gospel of self-determination. “It is better to be the head of a louse than the tail of a lion.” [14:19] Self-determination took deep root in my heart and to has been the mark that has and shall control my destiny. [16:14] Every cut of the jackknife an act of quiet vengeance not only against those who had flogged him but against the nameless forces that had snatched away his childhood with financial ruin and death. [19:58] He saw a nation brimming with industry and ingenuity and hope. And at the same time, anxiety, fear and brutality . [20:55] Nights went to [selling] nitrous oxide, days to improving his gun. [22:31] This description of the book sold me on buying it: Brilliantly told, Revolver brings the brazenly ambitious and profoundly innovative industrialist and leader Samuel Colt to vivid life. In the space of his forty-seven years, he seemingly lived five lives: he traveled, womanized, drank prodigiously, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and supplied the Union Army with the guns they needed to win the Civil War. Colt lived during an age of promise and progress, but also of slavery, corruption, and unbridled greed, and he not only helped to create this America, he completely embodied it. By the time he died in 1862 in Hartford, Connecticut, he was one of the most famous men in nation, and one of the richest. [27:19] But more important than Roswell’s money would be the contacts he helped Sam cultivate in coming months; and more important still would be the encouragement Roswell gave to the young entrepreneur.
Sun, September 27, 2020
#146 Milton Hershey (Chocolate)
What I learned from reading Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams by Michael D'Antonio. ---- [0:01] Perhaps the only thing about Milton Hershey that is absolutely certain is that he believed in progress. He was always moving. [2:51] This blew my mind. Only six universities held larger endowments. Which meant that the Milton Hershey School was richer than Cornell, Columbia, or the University of Pennsylvania. [4:14] Milton’s father was unrealized ambition personified. [5:44] One of the biggest things Milton learned from his father and something he avoided. His father had 1,000 schemes and never stuck to any of them. He didn’t know what perseverance meant. [7:25] Rockefeller had arrived in Oil City in the same year as Hershey, 1860. But unlike Henry, he was possessed of extraordinary energy, remarkable financial savvy, and an uncanny ability to remain focused on his goals. [8:00] Henry’s had a preference for talking about things rather than doing them. Even neighbors could see that the man was lazy. Milton was the direct opposite of these traits. [8:37] This gives you an insight into why Milton would leave a large fortunes to orphans: Milton was denied the kind of stability children need to feel secure. He had been moved from place to place, and he listened to his parents argue with increasing frequency and anger. Milton went without proper shoes and the little family didn’t have enough to eat. [9:14] He learned to channel all of his energy and passions into a single outlet: work. [10:47] The main takeaway from this book: Milton Hershey had perseverance in abundance. [12:43] Hershey experiences multiple business failures before he founds his first successful company. [14:34] Things start to go bad. He realizes he has another “me too” product. He faced intense competition from hundreds of other candy retailers and wholesalers in the city. He doesn’t find success unit he actually innovates. Milton finds a way to turn a luxury product — milk chocolate — into a mass produced, inexpensive product. [16:37] This is an important part. He is being squeezed by suppliers. Later on in life he realizes if something is important to your business you must control it. He starts his own sugar plantation. He does this for other ingredients he needs to make his product. [19:08] His simple idea: Caramel is really popular in Western states. The candy makers in Denver figured out how to make caramel that don’t go bad and taste very well. That was not happening where he was from. He decided to take that idea back east and build my own caramel empire. He sells that company for $1 million and uses that money to start Hershey Chocolate. [22:34] Milton is doing exactly what you and I are doing right now. He is studying successful entrepreneurs. [24:44] Bouncing back from de
Sun, September 20, 2020
#145 William Randolph Hearst
What I learned from reading The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst by David Nasaw. ---- [0:20] There has never been —nor, most likely, will there ever again be — a publisher like William Randolph Hearst. [0:26] Decades before synergy became a corporate cliche, Hearst put the concept into practice. His magazine editors were directed to buy only stories which could be rewritten into screenplays to be produced by his film studio and serialized, reviewed, and publicized in his newspapers and magazines. He broadcast the news from his papers over the radio and pictured it in his newsreels . [1:42] Winston Churchill on William Randolph Hearst : “Hearst was most interesting to meet,” Churchill wrote. “I got to like him — a grave, simple child — with no doubt a nasty temper — playing with the most costly toys. A vast income always over spent: ceaseless building and collecting . . .two magnificent establishments, two charming wives; complete indifference to public opinion, a 15 million daily circulation, and extreme personal courtesy.” [4:42] If public schools are rough-and-tumble they will do him good. So is the world rough-and-tumble. Willie might as well learn to face it . —George Hearst, William’s father. [8:45] He didn’t care what the world thought. . .He was rather indifferent to the thoughts and feelings of people outside of his immediate family. [10:20] Warren Buffett had this great idea that he came up with by observing his parents. Do you have an outer scorecard or an inner scorecard? Warren says you are going to have a hard time living a happy life if you don’t have an inner scorecard. His mom had an outer scorecard. She was very worried about what the outside world thought. Warren Buffett most admired his father. His father had an inner scorecard. If he could look himself in the mirror at the end of the day and say I’m comfortable with doing then he would accept it regardless if the people around him didn’t understand it. I think William Randolph Hearst had an inner scorecard. [13:08] Hearst believed you had to pay for talent : The paper must be built up and cheap labor has been entirely ineffectual. The paper requires a head that has ability, enterprise, and experience. Let one of these things be absent and the paper will be a failure. Naturally such a man commands a high salary and you must reconcile yourself, either to paying it or giving up the paper. [14:00] His father thought he was a quitter: Tell him to stand in like a man and stick to his studies to the end. [15:00] Joseph Pulitzer was William’s blueprint: His evenings were devoted to the studying of the newspaper industry in preparation to take over his father’s newspaper. He text was Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World . He was reading it daily
Sun, September 13, 2020
#144 Ernest Shackleton
What I learned from reading Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. ---- [0:58] All the men were struck, almost to the point of horror, by the way the ship behaved like a giant beast in its death agonies. [1:27] His name was Sir Ernest Shackleton, and the twenty-seven men he had watched so ingloriously leaving the stricken ship were the members of his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. [2:02] Few men have borne the responsibility Shackleton did at that moment. Though he certainly was aware that their situation was desperate, he could not possibly have imagined then the physical and emotional demands that ultimately would be placed upon them, the rigors they would have to endure, the sufferings to which they would be subjected . [2:52] Their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity: If they were to get out—they had to get themselves out . [9:21] Shackleton returned to England a hero of the Empire. He was lionized wherever he went, knighted by the king, and decorated by every major country in the world. [10:24] Making his primary argument for such an expedition, he wrote: It is the last great Polar journey that can be made. I feel it is up to the British nation to accomplish this, for we have been beaten at the conquest of the North Pole and beaten at the first conquest of the South Pole. There now remains the largest and most striking of all journeys—the crossing of the Continent. [12:16] He was an explorer in the classic mold—utterly self-reliant, romantic, and swashbuckling . [15:20] But the great leaders of historical record—the Napoleons, the Alexanders—have rarely fitted any conventional mold. Perhaps it’s an injustice to evaluate them in ordinary terms. [17:00] When you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems no way out, get down on your knees, and pray for Shackleton. [17:15] The motto of his family: BY ENDURANCE WE CONQUER . [23:10] Shackleton said there once was a mouse who lived in a tavern. One night the mouse found a leaky barrel of beer, and he drank all he could hold. When the mouse had finished, he looked around arrogantly. “Now then,” he said, “where’s that damn cat.” [25:15] From studying the outcome of past expeditions, he believed that those that burdened themselves with equipment to meet every contingency had fared much worse than those that had sacrificed total preparedness for speed . [30:19] Of all their enemies—the cold, the ice, the sea—he feared none more than demoralization . [32:00] Shackleton was not an ordinary individual. He was a man who believed completely in his own invincibility, and to whom defeat was a reflection of personal inadequacy . [43:15] It was pull or perish, and ignoring their sickening thirst, they leane
Sun, September 06, 2020
#143 Alfred Lee Loomis (the most interesting man you've never heard of)
What I learned from reading Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II by James Conant. ---- [0:01] Few men of Loomis’ prominence and achievement have gone to greater lengths to foil history. [0:17] Independently wealthy, iconoclastic, and aloof, Loomis did not conform to the conventional measure of a great scientist. He was too complex to categorize—financier, philanthropist, society figure, physicist, inventor, dilettante—a contradiction in terms. [0:42] He rose to become one of the most powerful figures in banking in the 1920s. [4:42] The smile was a velvet glove covering his iron determination to get underway without any lost motion. [5:29] He would dedicate himself to overcoming Germany’s scientific advantage. [7:19] He had amassed a substantial fortune, which allowed him to act as a patron. [8:06] Loomis was a bit stiff, with the bearing of a four-star general in civilian clothes. He was strong and decisive. [10:15] He was enthusiastic about American know-how and was not inclined to sit idly by until the miliary finally determined it was time to take action—particularly if just catching up with the Germans proved to be a monumental task . [13:30] He carried himself with composure, but his politeness was merely a habit; he was preoccupied . [16:56]When duty called he helped reinvent modern warfare. [20:21] He became an enthusiastic champion of the new armored tanks. He became such an expert on tank construction, he built a scaled-down model in his garage in order to see if he could make further improvements in the design. When his cousin came to visit, Loomis rolled into the rail station in his light armored tank to meet the train, kicking up dust and causing quite a scene. [26:54] Loomis would later maintain that everybody on the Street knew the crash was coming, the only difference was that he and Thorne refused to bank on its being inevitably delayed. [31:20] After the shock of the sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915, Thomas Edison said that Americans were “as clever at mechanics as any people in the world” and could defeat any “engine of destruction.:” Edison had advocated for preparedness without provocation, and to Loomis, it seemed as wise a course in the present as it had been then . [40:58] For the next four years, he would drive himself and his band of physicists almost without break to develop the all-important radar warning systems based on the magnetron. [43:44] He drew a striking parallel between the present international situation and the financial situation prior to the crash. He said that now people are asking him when we will enter the war just as in 1928 his friends were asking him when the stock market crash was coming. <st
Sun, August 30, 2020
#142 Teddy Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan
What I learned from reading The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield. ---- [0:17] Morgan was the most influential of these businessmen. He wasn’t the richest but that didn’t matter; he was commanding in a way none could match. [0:38] Morgan had an aristocrat’s disdain for public sentiment and the conviction that his actions were to the country’s advantage, no explanations necessary. [0:50] Roosevelt thought big business was not only inevitable but essential. He also believed it had to be accountable to the public, and Roosevelt considered himself the public. [1:04] Each [Morgan and Roosevelt] presumed he could use his authority to determine the nation’s course. Each expected deference from the other along the way. [2:18] “I’m afraid of Mr. Roosevelt because I don’t know what he’ll do,” Morgan said. “He’s afraid of me because he does know what I’ll do,” Roosevelt replied. [5:24] Morgan had trusted his father to set him on the right path and steer his career, even when his father was overbearing, Morgan never mounted a challenge. The creator of the biggest companies the world had ever known was very much the creation of paternal influence. [9:58] Morgan said he could do a year’s work in nine months, but not twelve. His impatience could be withering. [10:17] Roosevelt adopted his father’s motto, “Get action.” [10:35] Roosevelt never sat when he could stand. When provoked, he would thrust, and when he hit, he hit hard . [11:11] Theodore loved to row in the hottest sun, over the roughest water, in the smallest boat . [12:09] When they attacked Roosevelt, he would fire back with all the venom imaginable. “He was the most indiscreet guy I ever met.” [16:36] When one of the gentlemen complained later about Morgan’s interference in their roads, Morgan snapped: “Your roads? Your roads belong to my clients .” [19:26] John D. Rockefeller said his company was efficient. Critics said it was untouchable. [23:04] James J. Hill had built the Great Northern with deliberate thrift and brutal efficiency. His railroad would become among the most profitable in the Northwest. He didn’t need Morgan the way other railroad executives did. [25:52] “A soft, easy life is not worth living, it impairs the fiber of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great.”, Roosevelt said . [29:18] Harriman secretly bought up shares in Northern Pacific. This was revenge. Hill and Morgan had effective control over the Northern Pacific, but they didn’t own a majority of the shares. Morgan had never found it necessary to own a company outright in order to exert influence. [35:02] The president had asked his attorney general to prosecute Northern Securities for vio
Sun, August 23, 2020
#141 Arnold Schwarzenegger (My Unbelievably True Life Story)
What I learned from reading Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. ---- I decided that the best course for independence was to mind my own business and make my own money. I never felt that I was good enough, strong enough, smart enough. He let me know that there was always room for improvement. A lot of sons would have been crippled by his demands, but instead, the discipline rubbed off on me. I turned it into drive. I became absolutely convinced that I was special and meant for bigger things. I knew I would be the best at something - although I didn’t know what - and that it would make me famous. I never went to a competition to compete. I went to win. Even though I didn’t win every time, that was my mindset. I became a total animal. If you tuned into my thoughts before a competition, you would hear something like: “I deserve that pedestal, I own it, and the sea ought to part for me. Just get out of the fucking way, I’m on a mission. So just step aside and gimme the trophy.” I pictured myself high up on the pedestal, trophy in hand. Everyone else would be standing below. And I would look down. When you grow up in that kind of harsh environment, you never forget how to withstand physical punishment, even long after the hard times end . I find joy in the gym because every rep and every set is getting me one step closer to my goal . It gave Reg Park’s whole life story, from growing up poor in Leeds, England, to becoming Mr. Universe, getting invited to America as a champion bodybuilder, getting sent to Rome to star as Hercules, and marrying a beauty from South Africa. This story crystallized a new vision for me. I could become another Reg Park. All my dreams suddenly came together and made sense. I refined this vision until it was very specific. I was going to go for the Mr. Universe title; I was going to break records in powerlifting; I was going to Hollywood; I was going to be like Reg Park. The vision became so clear in my mind that I felt like it had to happen. There was no alternative; it was this or nothing . Lucille Ball gave me advice about Hollywood. “Just remember, when they say, ‘No,’ you hear ‘Yes,’ and act accordingly. Someone says to you, ‘We can’t do this movie,’ you hug him and say, ‘Thank you for believing in me.’ There was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal. The whole idea of a conventional existence was like Kryptonite to me . It was the fact that I had failed—not my body, but my vision and my drive. I hadn’t done everything in my power to prepare. Thinking this made me furious. “You are still a fucking amateur,” I told myself. I decided I wouldn’t be an amateur ever again. That night, despair came
Sun, August 16, 2020
#140 Bill Gates (the Making of the Microsoft Empire)
What I learned from reading Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. ---- Microsoft had become the first software company to sell more than a billion dollars worth of software in a single year. Gates was the undisputed mastermind of that success, a brilliant technocrat, ruthless salesman, and manipulative businessman. Gates had slammed his fist into his palm and vowed to put several of his major software competitors out of business. By 1991, many of those competitors were in full retreat. I can do anything I put my mind to. Aggressive and stimulated by conflict; prone to change mood quickly; a dominating personality with outstanding powers of leadership. Mary Gates, in describing her son, has said that he has pretty much done what he wanted since the age of eight. Even as a child Gates had an obsessive personality and a compulsive need to be the best. Everything Bill did, he did to the max . Everything he did, he did competitively and not simply to relax. He was a very driven individual. Gates was immediately hooked. He found he had to compete for time on the computer with a handful of others who were similarly drawn to the room as if by a powerful gravitational force. Among them was Paul Allen. Gates devoured everything he could get his hands on concerning computers and how to communicate with them, often teaching himself as he went . Gates and a couple of other boys broke into the PDP-10 security system and obtained access to the company’s accounting files. They found their personal accounts and substantially reduced the amount of time the computer showed they had used. “It was when we got that free time that we really got into computers,” Gates said. “ Then I became hardcore. It was day and night .” Gates was 13 years old. Although he was only in the ninth grade, he already seemed obsessed with the computer, ignoring everything else, staying out all night. He consumed biographies to understand how the great figures in history thought . If you had asked anybody at Lakeside, ‘Who is the real genius among geniuses?’ everyone would have said ‘Bill Gates.’ He was obnoxious, he was sure of himself, he was aggressively, intimidatingly smart. He had a hard-nosed, confrontational style. His intensity at times boiled over into raw, unthrottled emotion. To those who knew him best Gates was hardly the social outcast he may have appeared to be from a distance. He had a sense of humor and adventure. He was a risk taker, a guy who liked to have fun and who was fun to be with. He had an immense range of knowledge and interests and could talk at length on any number
Sun, August 09, 2020
#139 J.P. Morgan
What I learned from reading The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. [0:01] This book is about the rise, fall, and resurrection of an American banking empire—the House of Morgan. [1:56] What gave the House of Morgan its tantalizing mystery was its government links. Much like the Rothschilds it seemed insinuated into the power structure of many countries, especially the United States. [2:46] They practiced a brand of banking that has little resemblance to standard retail banking. [3:43] They have weathered wars and depressions, scandals and hearings, bomb blasts and attempted assassinations . [4:44] Contrary to the usual law of perspective, the Morgans seem to grow larger as they recede in time. [5:41] I was struck that the old Wall Street—elite, clubby, and dominated by small, mysterious partnerships—bore scant resemblance to the universe of faceless conglomerates springing up across the globe. [6:49] Only one firm, one family, one name rather gloriously spanned the entire century and a half that I wanted to cover: J.P. Morgan. [8:13] I am a firm believer that most people who do great things are doing them for the first time. —Marc Andreessen [12:22] He carried the scars of early poverty. Like many who have overcome early hardship by brute force, he was always at war with the world and counting his injuries. [14:22] My capital is ample but I have passed too many money panics unscathed, not to have seen how often large fortunes are swept away, and that even with my own I must use caution. [14:48] His annual savings were staggering. He spent only $3,000 of a total annual income of $300,000. [18:05] J.P’s dad’s advice: You are commencing upon your business career at an eventful time. Let what you now witness make an impression not to be eradicated. Slow and sure should be the motto of every young man . [18:40] Junius Morgan reminds me of Tywin Lannister . [21:19] Perhaps the contrast between his own steady nature and Pierpont’s unruly temper made Junius fret unduly about his boy. With granite will, he began to mold Pierpont. [23:03] The Rothschilds are mentioned 30 times in this book. They had an influence on how Junius wanted to set up the Morgan family. [25:08] Junius lectured Pierpont: Never, under any circumstances, do an action which could be called in question if known to the world. [25:55] The railroads were the Internet of their day: More than just isolated businesses, railroads were the scaffolding on which new worlds would be built. [27:41] Not for the last time, Pierpont contemplated retirement. He would assume tremendous responsibility, then feel oppressed. He never seemed to take great pleasure in his accomplishments. He craved a restful
Sun, August 02, 2020
#138 Alexander Graham Bell
What I learned from reading Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell by Charlotte Gray. ---- [0:01] I have my periods of restlessness when my brain is crowded with ideas tingling to my fingertips when I am excited and cannot stop for anybody. Let me alone, let me work as I like even if I have to sit up all night all night or even for two nights . When you see me flagging, getting tired, discouraged put your hands over my eyes so that I go to sleep and let me sleep as long as I like until I wake. Then I may hand around, read novels and be stupid without an idea in my head until I get rested and ready for another period of work. But oh, do not do as you often do, stop me in the midst of my work, my excitement with “Alex, Alex, aren’t you coming to bed? It’s one o’clock, do come.” Then I have to come feeling cross and ugly. Then you put your hands on my eyes and after a while I go to sleep, but the ideas are gone, the work is never done . [1:20] Books are the original links : So many times Edwin Land referenced what he learned from studying the life of Alexander Graham Bell—from being motivated as Bell persevered through struggles to how to market a brand new product. [3:06] Alexander Graham Bell had a lifelong passion for helping and teaching the deaf. [4:13] Alex asserted his independence early. Exasperated by being the third Alexander Bell in a row, he decided to add Graham to his own name . [4:32] He often retreated into solitude, particularly when he was preoccupied with a project. [5:27] Alex’s school record was unimpressive. Chronically untidy and late for class, Alex often skipped school altogether. Outside the classroom he demonstrated the ingenuity and single-mindedness that would shape his later career . [8:03] He complained of headaches, depression, and sleeplessness. Perhaps this wasn’t surprising considering the undisciplined intensity of his work habits. In a pattern that would last a lifetime, he would sit up all night reading or working obsessively on sound experiments . [9:54] A note he left himself: A man’s own judgement should be the final appeal in all that relates to himself. Many men do this or that because someone else thought it right . [11:42] The problem Alexander was trying to solve that led to the invention of the telephone : Could they solve a puzzle with which amateur engineers all over the United States were grappling? Nearly thirty years after its first commercial application, the telegraph system was still limited to sending one message at a time. The race was on to increase its capacity. Alex was determined to join this race. [12:39] Samuel Morse is mentioned over and over again in this book just like Alexander Graham Bel
Sun, July 26, 2020
#137 P.T. Barnum
What I learned from reading Barnum: An American Life by Robert Wilson. ---- [1:23] He is known today primarily for his connection to the circus, but that came only in the last quarter of his long life. Less well known is that he was also a best-selling author, an inspirational lecturer on temperance and on success in business, a real-estate developer, a builder, a banker, a state legislator, and the mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut. [1:54] In all endeavors he was a promoter and self-promotor without peer, a relentless advertiser and an unfailingly imaginative concoctor of events to draw the interest of potential patrons. [3:16] Through hard work, a lot of brass, and a genius for exploiting new technologies related to communication and transportation, he became world famous and wealthy beyond his dreams. [3:54] He led a rich, event-filled, exhilarating life, one indeed characterized by both struggles and triumphs. His life is well worth knowing. [5:36] Barnum’s was 16 when his father died, leaving his family with debts: Barnum remembered the family returning from the cemetery “to our desolate home, feeling that we were forsaken by the world, and that but little hope existed for us this side of the grave.” [6:22] He knew even then that he would only be happy working for himself . [7:56] Like most persons who engage in a business which they do not understand, we were unsuccessful in the enterprise. [8:16] He is running a lottery and learns something he will use later in his career : He began to develop his insight into the complicated nature of his customers, a realization that outwardly respectable people might have interests that were not entirely respectable. [11:06] The day he became a showman. He starts a newspaper, gets sued for libel, goes to jail, and organizes a parade on the day he is released : His ability to marshal not just his own paper but also the goodwill of others was a harbinger of things to come. It was the first example of his flair for drawing attention to his beliefs, his enterprises, and himself. [13:48] Seemingly small but consequential details would never elude him. [14:15] His lottery business is outlawed by the state legislature. He is broke: He blamed himself for his situation, writing that “the old proverb, ‘Easy come, easy go,’ was too true in my case.” Still, he was confident in his ability to make money . [17:03] I fell into the occupation, and far beyond any of my predecessors on this continent, I have succeeded. [18:42] Up and Down, Down and Up: He struggled to find further success in the years that followed. Barnum would spend much of the five years after on the road with various acts. “I was thoroughly disgusted with the life of an itinerant showman.” [20:03] Broke
Sat, July 18, 2020
#136 Estée Lauder
What I learned from reading A Success Story by Estee Lauder . ---- You can probably reach out with comparative ease and touch a life of serenity and peace. You can wait for things to happen and not get too sad when they don’t. That’s fine for some but not for me. Serenity is pleasant, but it lacks the ecstasy of achievement . [0:10] I’ve always believed that if you stick to a thought and carefully avoid distraction along the way, you can fulfill a dream. I kept my eye on the target. I never allowed my eye to leave the target. I always believed that success comes from not letting your eyes stray from that target . [1:10] Beauty is an ancient industry: Women have always enhanced their looks. It has always been so. It will always be so. [4:18] Lessons from here mother: The secret is to imagine yourself as the most important person in the room. Imagine it vividly enough and you will become that person. [6:01] You could make a thing wonderful by enhancing its outward appearance. Little did I know I’d be doing the same thing, multiplied by a billionfold. [8:45] Everything has to be sold aggressively . [9:05] I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and sell it hard . [9:39] My drive and persistence were always there, and those are the qualities for building a successful business. [10:38] The moment she realizes she could make beauty her life’s work: This is the story of bewitchment. Uncle John [a skin specialist] had worlds to teach me. Do you know what it means for a young girl to suddenly have someone take her dreams seriously? Teach her secrets? I could think of nothing else . [12:09] The humble beginning of the Estee Lauder empire: This was my first chance at a real business. I would have a small counter in a beauty salon . Whatever I sold would be mine to keep. No partners. I would risk the rent, but if it worked, I would start the business I always dreamed about. Risk taking is the cornerstone of empires. No one ever became a success without taking chances. [15:30] Sales technique of the century: Now the big secret. I would give the woman a sample of whatever she did not buy as a gift. I just knew, even though I had not yet named the technique, that gift with a purchase was very appealing . The idea was to convince a woman to try a product. She would be faithful forever. [16:30] I didn’t need bread to eat but I worked as though I did, for the pure love of the venture. For me, teaching about beauty was an emotional experience . [18:52] I was single-minded in the pursuit of my dream . [21:01] Despite all the nay sayers, there was never a single moment when I considered giving up . That was simply not a viab
Sun, July 12, 2020
#135 Joseph Pulitzer (Politics & Media)
What I learned from reading Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power by James McGrath Morris. ---- [0:20] Joseph Pulitzer was the midwife to the birth of the modern mass media. Pulitzer’s lasting achievement was to transform American journalism into a medium of mass consumption and immense influence. [3:04] He was the pioneer of the modern media industry. [5:06] Teddy Roosevelt tried to have Joseph Pulitzer put in jail. [7:11] How one of Pulitzer’s adult sons viewed him: One of the strange differences between us two is the fact that you have never come near learning how to enjoy life. [9:42] Joseph favored reading works of history and biography. [10:12] Joseph understood fully the extent of the calamity [his father’s death]. He had been 9 years old when his older brother died, 10 when his younger brother and sister died, 11 when his father died, and 13 at the death of his last sister. [11:50] At 17 years old Joseph escapes to America. A group of wealthy Boston businessmen recruit thousands of young Europeans to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. This scheme became Pulitzer’s escape route. [13:18] Describing how he came to the United States: He was friendless, homeless, tongueless, and guideless. [14:05] One of the places he slept when he was homeless was in the lobby of a hotel. They kept kicking him out. Later in life he buys the hotel. [14:44] What he said about his job of tending mules: Never in my life did I have a more trying task. The man who has not cared for 16 mules does not know what work and trouble are. [15:18] Pulitzer was a voracious reader. When he was not working he spent every free minute improving his mind. [17:12] Edwin Land said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess". Joseph Pulitzer would have agreed with that. [19:15]He was so industrious that he became a positive annoyance to others who felt less inclined to work. Pulitzer was unwilling to put forward anything but his best effort. [25:10] In only 5 years he had grown from a bounty hunting Hungarian teenager to an American lawmaker. [28:54] There are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they have never happened before. [38:10] He is 30 years old and depressed. In the best of circumstances the loss of one’s only surviving parent inspires self-reflection, for Joseph with no specific profession or even a home, such introspection was demoralizing. [40:45] It is hard to understand how much money newspapers made, especially at this time. William Randolph Hearst’s net worth would be the equivalent of $30 billion today. [48:34] One did not work with Pulitzer. For him, surely. Against him, often. But not with him. [51:44] Pulitzer was extremely ambitious. He was not satisfied to be the
Wed, July 01, 2020
#134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak)
What I learned from reading A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein. ---- [0:21] He died in 1991 with 535 patents to his credit, third in U.S. history. His honorary doctorate degrees, too numerous to list, come from the most distinguished academic institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. He received virtually every distinction the scientific community has to offer, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and membership in the prestigious Royal Society of London. Land was included on Life’s list of the 100 most important Americans of the twentieth century. [1:35] In so many ways, on so many occasions, Land’s life was a manifestation of the indefatigable can-do attitude he embraced and encouraged others to follow. [2:15] Land has the well-grounded suspicion that good, careful, systematic planning can kill a creative company . [2:34] Pick problems that are important and nearly impossible to solve, pick problems that are the result of sensing deep and possibly unarticulated human needs, pick problems that will draw on the diversity of human knowledge for their solution, and where that knowledge is inadequate, fill the gaps with basic scientific exploration—involve all the members of the organization in the sense of adventure and accomplishment, so that a large part of life’s rewards would come from this involvement. [3:30] Steve Jobs was one of Land’s most dedicated fans: “Not only was [Land] one of the great inventors of our time,” said Jobs in a 1985 interview, “but, more importantly, he saw the intersection of art and science and business and built an organization to reflect that. . . . The man is a national treasure, I don’t understand why people like that can’t be held up as models. This is the most incredible thing to be—not an astronaut, not a football player—but this .” [5:22] Land’s relative anonymity can perhaps best be explained by his inscrutable personality, his simple shyness, and his blinders-on mentality when it came to his life’s work . [6:19] He sees himself as determined, iron-willed and hard driving, a man who will not rest until he has conquered whatever problem is at hand . [6:31] The formula for accomplishment he practiced throughout his life—creative wonderment and intellectual curiosity followed by inexhaustible effort—remains a model that should inform and inspire us all, no matter the particular field of our endeavor . [8:56] He strongly believed that concentrated focus could also produce extraordinary results for others. Late in his career, Land recalled that his “whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people resources they di
Thu, June 25, 2020
#133 Edwin Land (Polaroid and The Man Who Invented It)
What I learned from reading Land’s Polaroid: A Company and The Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. ---- [1:14] He was revered to an extraordinary extent by most of the people who worked for him. [1:36] Land did not earn a college degree, yet he has received more medals and scientific honors than most living Americans. [3:36] Land's life seemed to be primarily a life of the mind. His great dramas were largely self created, played on the stage of Polaroid, which he constructed for himself. [4:14] All of the people that you and I are studying on this podcast created their own world within the world. [5:55] The end this book made me think of this quote by Steve Jobs: Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart . [7:38] Peter [the author] worked with Edwin Land for 20 years. As a result this book —more than any other— has a lot of direct quotes from Land. [7:50] “Nature doesn’t care.” By that he meant nothing in nature would help or hinder their progress to a solution except their own ingenuity. Nature offered no bar to the elegant solution over the awkward compromise if they had the imagination to seek it and the wit to discover it. Nature had no concern for the affairs of men. [9:42] At 37 years old he had achieved everything to which he aspired except success. [10:55] This product, this innovation, this creation— of one of the most important products ever made— came at a time when the company was almost out of business. [12:42] Land said running his company felt like he was a physics professor leading his students on a grand experiment. [12:53] I really do believe that Edwin Land is one of the most important entrepreneurs that ever existed. The way his mind works is extremely unique . [17:08] Land on his motivations in life: I find an urge to make a significant intellectual contribution that can be tangibly embodied in a product or process . [19:45] Edwin Land at 18: A secretive young man who was well-dressed but usually disheveled, often highly agitated, prone to long periods of intense activity, rarely volunteering any explanation of what he was trying to accomplish, eating haphazardly, his sleeves rolled up, his shock of dark hair falling in his face as he worked. [20:31] Edwin Land on how to work: If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it and don
Sat, June 20, 2020
#132 Edwin Land (Steve Jobs's Hero)
What I learned from reading The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker. ---- [1:42] The word “problem” had completely departed from Edwin land's vocabulary to be replaced by the word “opportunity”. [2:01] What was it about this man and his company that allowed such confidence and seeming lack of concern with the traditional top priorities of American business? [2:38] There is something unique about Polaroid having to do both with the human dimension of the company, and with a unity of vision of its founder and guiding genius. [3:36] Perhaps the single most important aspect of Land's character is his ability to regard things around him in a new and totally different way . [4:14] Right from the beginning of his career Land had paid scant attention to what experts had to say, trusting his own instincts instead. [4:49] Land has always believed that for any item sufficiently ingenious and intriguing, a new market could be created. Conventional wisdom has little capacity with which to evaluate a market that did not exist prior to the product that defines it. [5:21] He feels that creativity is an individual thing. Not generally applicable to group generation. [5:52] Land is a man deeply caught up in the creative potential of the individual. [6:33] An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. [7:43] Apple founder Steve Jobs once hailed Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid and the father of instant photography, as "a national treasure" and once confessed to a reporter that meeting Land was "like visiting a shrine." By his own admission, Jobs modeled much of his own career after Land’s . Both Jobs and Land stand out today as unique and towering figures in the history of technology. Neither had a college degree, but both built highly successful and innovative organizations. Jobs and Land were both perfectionists with an almost fanatic attentiveness to detail, in addition to being consummate showmen and instinctive marketers. In many ways, Edwin Land was the original Steve Jobs. [8:36] There's a rule that they don't teach you at the Harvard business school. It is, if anything is worth doing it's worth doing to excess . [11:22] Steve Jobs: I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics. Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences. And I decided that's what I wanted to do . [12:51] In a world full of cooks, Edwin Land was a chef. [ Link to The Cook and The Chef: Elon Musk’s Secret Sauce ] [19:34] Land was asked what he wanted to be w
Sun, June 14, 2020
#131 Robert Friedland (Billionaire Miner)
What I learned from reading The Big Score: Robert Friedland and The Voisey’s Bay Hustle by Jacquie McNish. ---- [0:04] Promoting a stock is like making a movie. You've got to have stars, props, and a good script. [2:22] He had learned that there was nothing that Robert Friedland could not sell. [2:50] This book is about how Robert Friedland accidentally discovers the largest nickel deposit in history. He winds up selling that discovery for over $4 billion . [3:50] Robert Friedland and Steve Jobs were friends in college . Robert influenced Steve. [4:50] Friedland grinned as if he had just won an award. But the prize being handed down was a two year jail sentence for selling drugs. Police confiscated 24,000 tablets of LSD valued at $125,000 . [7:01] He is a very complicated character. He was involved in a lot of shady stuff on the way to becoming a billionaire. I was struck by the contrast between how the book describes Friedland and how he comes off in this sales presentation: China Is About To Ban The Internal Combustion Engine . He comes off as extremely likable and knowledgeable. [9:42] At Reed College Friedland’s drug conviction no handicap. The prison term only added to his mystique. Steve talks about the mind expanding experience that taking acid was. He felt it allowed him to approach product creation from a broader perspective. He said Bill Gates would be more interesting if he had dropped acid . [10:28] Friedland starts a cult. Even when he is in his early 20s Friedland is able to influence the thoughts of the people around him . [11:21] Frieland turns his uncle’s farm into a collective. The farm drew a steady stream of students. Including an introverted freshman named Steve Jobs. Steve devoted himself to reviving the farm’s Apple orchard. The orchard would later inspire the name of Apple Computer . [12:17] Robert Freidland’s influence on Steve Jobs: Robert was very much an outgoing, charismatic guy. A real salesman. He'd walk into a room and you would instantly notice him. Steve was the absolute opposite . After he spent time with Robert, some of this rubbed off. [12:57] Steve Jobs: Robert was the first person I met who was firmly convinced that this phenomenon of enlightenment existed. [14:07] Friedland returns from India and reinvents himself again . He wore flowing robes and sandals. He embraced universal love and rejected material attachment. Friedland and his disciples practiced yoga, Buddhist meditation, they grew their own food. They had children with names like Silver Moon and Ashberry. Friedland said he was a guru and his name was now Sita Ram Dass . [15:29] Steve Jobs: Robert walks a very fine li
Tue, June 09, 2020
#130 Walter Chrysler
What I learned from reading Life of an American Workman by Walter Chrysler. ---- [0:56]The kitchen fire was the only heat we knew in the winter. Often I had to scamper barefoot across a floor where snow had drifted through the cracks of badly fitting windows. [1:56] We never spent money on things we could get without spending. [3:10] This book was written about a year before he had a stroke and about two years before he died. The book is full of memories of parents and friends long dead. [3:29] The memories he chose to highlight made me think of this quote on books by Carl Sagan: What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic . [4:10] And I think that is what this book is. It is Walter Chrysler speaking directly to you and I over 80 years after he died . [5:18] On a few occasions his Dad would let him come to work with him [on the Union Pacific Railroad]. This is how Walt remembered that: The part of me that would be most tired would be my face. It was tired from grinning in my hours of ecstasy. [6:35] He learned from his parents the need to be self sufficient. They built their own house. They raised their own food. They created their own jobs. If they wanted plumbing they made it themselves. [7:00] He is very passionate about mechanics and understanding machines. He has to create his own tools because he is too poor to buy them. [7:35] I went to work at 6 in the morning and was through at 10:30 at night. [9:02] I was a cocky youngster and full of confidence. [9:34] He really valued work and learning and the sense of self confidence you get from doing something well. [10:01] A good workman was likely to mistrust any tool whose metal had not been tempered by himself. But I had an even better reason for making mine. I lacked the money with which to buy them. Years after I ceased to need them to earn a living, those tools I made were placed on display in a glass case on the observatory floor, 71 stories up in the tower of the Chrysler building. That is one of the most remarkable paragraphs in the entire book. Think about this: In one lifetime he goes from being so poor that he has to make his own tools—to having a skyscraper built for the company that he creates and that bears his name . [10:42] Jeff Bezos has a quote that says, "<str
Thu, June 04, 2020
#129 Felix Dennis (How to Get Rich)
What I learned from reading How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets by Felix Dennis. ---- [0:01] How Felix started his first business with no money. [4:30] Human nature does not change. We are cooperative animals. Those who wish to start a company cannot expect a free ride, but they might be surprised at the number of people willing to help them to some degree or another. [5:11] This book was one of the most requested books for me to cover on the podcast. I was hesitant to read it because of the title. After reading it I think a better title would be How I Got Rich. [7:36] A large part of this book is philosophical. He is asking us, “Is this really what you want?” He opens up about his drug addiction. About his addiction to prostitutes. About how he blew 100 million dollars and almost died . [8:13] How To Get Rich sets to tell you about how I did it. How I got rich without the benefit of a college education or a penny of capital. It will expose the many errors I made along the way, which will contribute greatly to the length. [10:51] My constant refrain when I was bumming rides from friends as a teenager was, “You don’t understand. I was born to be driven.” [13:00] The key, I think, is confidence and an unshakeable belief that it can be done and that you are the one to do it. Tunnel vision helps. Being a bit of a shit helps. A thick skin helps. [16:01] Nearly all the great fortunes acquired by entrepreneurs arose because they had nothing to lose. Nobody had bothered to tell them that such a thing could not be done or would be likely to fail. Or if they had told them then they weren’t listening. They were too busy proving those around them wrong . [17:24] On trusting your instincts: The first few million dollars I ever made was the direct result of trusting my instincts— which were entirely at odds with conventional wisdom. I published a series of 8 full-page folded posters with articles printed on the back and charged the same price as magazines with 10 times the number of pages. I sold millions of copies around the world. Those magazines have earned me tens of millions of dollars in the last 25 years and are still earning me money today. [19:50] If you could turn the clock back for me by 40 years I would willingly give you every penny and every possession I own in return. And I would have the better of the bargain . [20:28] If I had my time again—knowing what I know today—I would dedicate myself to making just enough money to live comfortably . [21:00] Making money was, and still is, fun. But at one time is wrecked chaos upon my private life. It consumed my waking hours. [23:26] Think of fear—not as the King Kong of bogeymen—but as a mare. A mare, after all, is a horse. A horse can be tamed, bridled, saddled, h
Sun, May 31, 2020
#128 Henry Leland (Cadillac)
What I learned from reading Master of Precision: Henry Leland by Ottilie Leland and Minnie Dubbs Millbrook. ---- [0:17] Henry Leland laid the foundation for the future of American industry . He had established manufacturing procedures never previously so effectively employed and took a position of leadership. In the next decades would be comparable in statute with, although quite different from, William Durant, Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan. [0:40] It should be pointed out that Leland's contribution to the development of the motor car was the establishment of high standards of manufacturing . [2:33] Henry Leland always got deep satisfaction out of anything which was made right . He had—in high degree—the pride of craftsmanship that had marked the master workman down the centuries. [3:07] He developed the Cadillac, the self-starter, The Lincoln car, held up high standards of performance for the industry, and established the first notable school of automotive mechanics. [4:05] A lesson Henry Leland learned from his Father: He bequeathed a singularly trustful disposition to his son, who could never believe that other men were not inherently as good and honorable as he himself. He was several times to pay a stiff penalty for this faith in human nature . [4:56] A lesson Henry Leland learned from his Mother: “There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. Hunt for the right way and then go ahead.” This simple admonition was to become a creed that would govern all of his actions as he rose in industry. [6:10] He lives through the beginning of two industries in his life: Manufacturing in general and the automobile industry in specific. [7:24] Henry Leland was not sure he wanted to become an apprentice machinist. The hours were long—10 hour days, 6 days a week—and most factories did not pay high wages. Moreover, farming was still the traditional American operation, which offered a possibility of independence and did not shut a man indoors with noisy machinery. [9:06] Henry was already discovering the education that could be mined from books . At first, the fond of reading, he had been attracted by cheap adventure novels, which he borrowed from the local library. One night a stranger there, seeing what he was taking out exclaimed, “Surely don't read that trash!” Henry replied, “What better use can I make of my time than to read?” The stranger answered, “ It makes a lot of difference what you read ,” and then suggested some better books. The episode was a revelation to young Leland and he was soon reading volumes that acquainted him with American genius in literature, government and invention . [9:55] Abraham Lincoln was his idol. Lincoln Motor Company—which Henry founds
Mon, May 25, 2020
#127 Larry Ellison (Oracle)
What I learned from reading The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison by Mike Wilson ---- [1:06] You want to know what I think about Larry Ellison? Well, I suppose he had some private sort of greatness but he kept it to himself. He never gave himself away. He never gave anything away. He just left you a tip. He had a generous mind. I don’t suppose anybody ever had so many opinions, but he never believed in anything except Larry Ellison. [1:45] That was the way Ellison’s mind worked. He was like a search engine gone haywire. [3:01] I asked Ellison how he had seen his adult life when he was a kid. What he thought was going to happen to him. “You mean did I anticipate becoming the fifth wealthiest person in the United States? No. This is all kind of surreal. I don’t even believe it. When I look around I say this must be something out of a dream.” [3:57] Ellison is the Charles Foster Kane of the technological age. He is bright, brash, optimistic, and immensely appealing, yet somehow incomplete. [4:31] He worked in the computer industry for several years but never had a job that suited what he saw as his superior intellectual gifts. [6:08] The stockholder who benefited the most from Oracle’s performance was Larry Ellison, exactly what he intended. Ellison started the company because he wanted to be his own boss. And he stayed in control throughout his tenure at Oracle always holding onto enough stock that his power and authority could never be seriously challenged. [7:57] To him there was now power greater than the human mind. [8:23] What Larry reminds me of is a truth that Benjamin Franklin hit on 250 years ago. He says his mind was much improved by all the reading he did. There were very tangible results in Benjamin Franklin’s life when people found his conversations more enjoyable because he was a more interesting person to talk to—that led him being able to raise money for his business. It helped him close sales. Larry Ellison is very much the same way . [8:53] When hiring, Ellison valued intelligence more than experience. He often looked for unruly geniuses instead of solid, steady workers. [10:52] If he hadn’t made me rich, I’d probably hate him because he is obnoxious. He is not nice to people. [12:39] He was capable of chilling selfishness and inspiring generosity. He could dazzle people with his insights and madden them with his lies. He was a fundamentally shy man who could delight audiences with his colorful speeches. He was known for his healthy ego and often seemed deeply insecure. Many people learned to accept Ellison’s contradictory nature. [14:01] In 1970 sales of packaged computer programs amounted to only $70 million for the entire year. [15:55] There is a book called The HP Way . I did a podcast on it (Fo
Wed, May 20, 2020
#126: Larry Ellison (The Billionaire and the Mechanic)
What I learned from reading The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the America’s Cup, Twice by Julian Guthrie. ---- [0:01] Larry Ellison to Steve Jobs: I’m talking about greatness, about taking a lever to the world and moving it. I’m not talking about moral perfection. I’m talking about people who changed the world the most during their lifetime. [0:56] Larry’s choice for history’s greatest person could not have been more different from Gandhi (Steve Jobs’s choice): the military leader Napoleon Bonaparte. [3:15] Steve liked to say the Beatles were his management model — four guys who kept each other in check and produced something great. [3:47] Larry’s favorite history book was Will and Ariel Durant’s The Age of Napoleon, which he had read several times. Like his buddy Steve, and like Larry himself, Napoleon was an outsider who was told he would never amount to anything. [6:09] Now the book is technically about the America’s Cup race. But that is not really what it is about. This books gives insights into extreme winners. [7:50] Steve and Larry had found they had much in common. They both had adoptive parents. Both considered their adoptive parents their real parents. Both were “OCD,” and both were antiauthoritarian. They shared a disdain for conventional wisdom and felt people too often equated obedience with intelligence. They never graduated from college, and Steve loved to boast that he’d left Reed College after just two weeks while it took others, including Larry and their rival Bill Gates, months or even years to drop out. [9:09] Steve Jobs: “Why do people buy art when they can make their own art?” Larry thought for a moment and replied, “Well , Steve , not everyone can make his own art. You can. It’s a gift.” [10:46] What he (Steve Jobs) liked was designing and redesigning things to make them more useful and more beautiful. [11:02] If Michael Jordan sold enterprise software he would be Larry Ellison. Larry is addicted to winning. [12:38] An idea I learned from Steve was the further you get away from one the more complexity you are inviting in. [13:20] Larry was a voracious reader who spent a great deal of time studying science and technology, but his favorite subject was history. He learned more about human nature, management, and leadership by reading history than by reading books about business. [14:52] His adopted Dad said over and over again to Larry, “You are a loser. You are going to amount to nothing in life.” [15:19] Larry treats life like an adventure . [15:26] He envied how Graham’s parents supported him on his adventure, as this was the opposite of his own life. The story of Graham transported Larry from the regimentation of high school to the adventure and freedom of the sea
Fri, May 15, 2020
#125 Charles Kettering (inventor, engineer, founder)
What I learned from reading Professional Amateur: The Biography of Charles Franklin Kettering by Thomas Boyd ---- [3:06] If you had to summarize Charles Kettering this is the way you would do it: “As symbol of progress and the American way of life—as creator of ideas and builder of industries and employment—as inspirer of men to nobler thoughts and greater accomplishments—as foe of ignorance and discouragement—as friend of learning and optimistic resolve—Charles F. Kettering stands among the great men of all time.” [3:36] He was an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents. He was a founder of Delco, and was head of research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947. Among his most widely used automotive developments were the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline. He was also responsible for the invention of Freon refrigerant for refrigeration and air conditioning systems. He developed the world's first aerial missile. He led the advancement of practical, lightweight two-stroke diesel engines, revolutionizing the locomotive and heavy equipment industries. [4:42] This is Ket talking about why it is so important to approach your work with the mindset that you are a professional amateur: We are simply professional amateurs. We are amateurs because we are doing things for the first time. We are professional because we know we are going to have a lot of trouble. The price of progress is trouble . And I don’t think the price is too high. [6:52] There is a quote from Thomas Edison that says “We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.” Ket has that same belief. This is Ket echoing Thomas Edison: “In reality, we have only begun to knock a few chips from the great quarry of knowledge that has been given us to dig out and use. We are like the two fellows who started to walk from New York to San Francisco. When they got over into New Jersey, one said: “We must be pretty nearly there. We have been walking a long, long time.” That is just how we are in what we know technically. We have just barely begun. [9:57] I am enthusiastic about being an American because I came from the hills in Ohio. I was a hillbilly. [10:21] I thought the only thing involved in opportunity was whether I knew how to think with my head and how to do with my hands. [13:37] One lesson from his childhood that stuck with him his whole life is that you need to only worry about things you can control. One of the older men is teaching him this through a story: Besides learning about water power and flour mills, he got from the wise old miller some bits of philosophy which he stored in his young mind. “A lot of people are bound to worry,” the miller once told him. “If you can do something about it, you ought to worry. I would think there was something wrong with you if you didn’t. But if you can’t do an
Sat, May 09, 2020
#124 Larry Ellison and Oracle
What I learned from reading Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds. ---- [0:01] Although much of my time with him coincided with a period of adversity for Oracle, I never once saw Ellison downcast. His unquenchable optimism and almost messianic self belief never faltered. [5:06] The single most important aspect of my personality is my questioning of conventional wisdom. My doubting of experts just because they are experts. My questioning of authority. While that can be very painful in terms of your relationships with your parents and teachers it is enormously useful in life. [12:19] People — teachers, coaches, bosses — want you to conform to some standard of behavior they deem correct. They measure and reward you on how well you conform — arrive on time, dress appropriately, exhibit a properly deferential attitude — as opposed to how well you do your job. Programming liberated me from all that. [16:34] I had always believed that at the top of these companies there must be some exceptionally capable people who make the entire technology industry work. Now here I was, working near the top of a tech company, and those capable people were nowhere to be found. The senior managers I saw were conformist, bureaucratic, and very reluctant to make decisions. [23:08] Oracle’s first product reflected Larry Ellison’s desire to do something no one else was doing : The opportunity was huge. We had a chance to build the world’s first commercial relational database. Why? Because nobody else was even trying. The other relational database projects were pure research efforts. If we could build a fast and reliable relational database, we would have it made. I thought that relational was clearly the way to go. It was very cool technology. And I liked the fact it was risky. The bigger the apparent risk, the fewer people will try to go there. We would surely lose if we had to face serious competition. But if we were all alone in pursuit of our goal of building the first commercial relational database system, we had a chance to win. [26:03] Larry is a sprinter. Not a grinder: Although he always talked about technology and Oracle with passion and intensity, he didn’t have the methodical relentlessness that made Bill Gates so formidable and feared. By his own admission, Ellison was not an obsessive grinder like Gates: “I am a sprinter. I rest, I sprint, I rest, I sprint again.” Ellison had a reputation for being easily bored by the process of running a business and often took time off, leaving the shop to senior colleagues. [30:55] If you speak out in support of small, unimportant innovations that fly in the face of widely held beliefs—I do it all the time—you are likely to be dismissed as stupid or arrogant, and that’s pretty much the end of it. However, if you defend a really big idea that challenges widely held
Fri, May 01, 2020
#123 Albert Champion (Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon)
What I learned from reading The Fast Times of Albert Champion: From Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon, An Untold Story of Speed, Success, and Betrayal by Peter Joffre Nye. ---- [0:01] A brief summary of the life of Albert Champion : Champion had been born in Paris April 2, 1878. By age twelve he was an errand and office boy for a Paris bicycle manufacturer. He became interested in bicycle racing, won the middle-distance championship in France, and went to the United States in 1899 for a series of races. He won the American and world championships, returned to France to study automobile manufacturing, and returned to the United States in 1900. He tried auto racing, almost lost a leg in a racing accident, and then organized the Champion company. His original backers kept the name and moved the company to Toledo at about the same time Champion joined Durant. In Flint, Champion became known as one of the most colorful and flamboyant figures in a town full of them. He lived to see both his new company, later named the AC Spark Plug Division (using his initials), and the company he had left, the Champion Spark Plug Company, become giants in their field. He was a multimillionaire when he died. [2:55] His father dies at 47 years old : One of the turning points in Albert’s life is the early death of his father. He had to become the breadwinner of the family at 12 years old. The experience formed Albert’s character. For the rest of his life, he threw himself into work, forever escaping into the task at hand, keeping busy, always planning new projects, in time building up a business with factories in three countries and offices of his own. [6:19] Albert Champion was a showman who was addicted to self-improvement : He was willing to put in the work necessary for self improvement. Champion practiced rising a unicycle everyday. He learned how to draw onlookers and hold their attention. Champion had discovered the value of self—improvement. He would apply that principle again and again. [9:15] Adolphe Clement is a blueprint for Albert Champion : Clement goes from poor orphan to building a successful bicycle and automobile manufacturing company. [13:46] How do you introduce a brand new product to a society that is resistant to change? You sell to those who would be willing to pay for improvement : Dunlop pneumatics faced a tough sell with a public forever wary about buying a new product —only persuasive evidence would sway the public to accept change. Clément could count on the rabid racing crowd to try anything they thought could give a competitive edge. [15:53] What Albert Champion learns from watching a 750 mile bicycle race—tenacity is more important than talent : A chord struck with Champion that Terront came from nothing, a nobody. Yet through the forc
Sun, April 26, 2020
#122 Alfred Sloan (General Motors)
What I learned from reading My Years with General Motors by Alfred Sloan. ---- [2:40] There are ideas worth billions in a $30 history book : Henry talked to me on several occasions about a book by the former chairman of General Motors. He told me he had learned a very important concept from that book, which he wished to use in the growth of Teledyne. . .during a very difficult economic time of recession, General Motors had needed additional funds to finance their growth and had a plan to sell bonds to the general public. The bond sale was a complete failure, and the chairman (Sloan) had written in his book that it had taught him an important lesson. It was that for a corporation to grow and to have a strong financial base, it needed to have, as part of itself, an interest in substantial financially oriented institutions. So General Motors had started GMAC and invested in other financial groups. As a result of his interest in this idea, Henry had decided that at some point, he would seek out financial organizations we could acquire. We began acquiring a number of financial and insurance companies, which was a significant change from our usual aerospace, metals, industrial and consumer company acquisitions. [5:45] Alfred Sloan had a singular focus : General Motors and the Hyatt Roller Bearing Company, have been almost the sole interests of my business life. [6:28] Alfred Sloan’s perspective on work : I simply took the view that we should go at the job vigorously and without hampering restrictions. I put no ceiling on progress. [12:22] Billy Durant came up with the idea for General Motors. Alfred Sloan perfected it : Durant’s pioneer work has yet to receive the recognition it deserves. His philosophy was an emerging one in the Model T era and was afterward to be realized not by him but by others, including myself. [19:08] The accumulated intelligence of mankind is what makes us special amongst all other species Everything is built upon the foundation before it : It has been called to my attention that Eli Whitney, long before, had started the development of interchangeable parts in connection with the manufacture of guns, a fact which suggests a line of descent from Whitney to Leland to the automobile industry. [29:20] Alfred Sloan had a great perspective on problems. They are temporary and we can fix them : Economic declines have a way of shaking out the weak ones in business, and we had weaknesses. Some people cannot see beyond a slump, but I have never yielded to economic pessimism and in times of decline have kept in mind the eventual upturn of the business cycle and the long—range dynamics of growth. Confidence and caution formed my attitude in 1920. We could not control the environment, or predict its changes precisely, but we could seek the flexibility to survive flu
Sun, April 19, 2020
#121 Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan (General Motors)
What I learned from reading Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, A Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History by William Pelfrey. ---- [0:01] They were oil and water in all respects . Billy Durant, the high school dropout, was the flamboyant dreamer and gambler, focused on personal relationships and risk. Alfred Sloan, the MIT engineer, was the stern organizer and manager, focused on data, logic, and profit. [4:40] The paradox of this book in two sentences : Sloan’s most constant criticism of Durant was that he acted on instinct and whim rather than facts. Yet the achievements and decisions of Durant the dreamer were what made Sloan the manager’s spectacular career possible. [6:50] Alfred Sloan telling us it is a lot harder to stay successful over a long period of time : “The perpetuation of an unusual success or the maintenance of an unusually high standard of leadership in any industry is sometimes more difficult than the attainment of that success or leadership in the first place.” [10:45] Walter Chrysler left the highest paying job in the entire automobile industry because of Billy Durant’s wasted his time : More than once, Chrysler had been summoned by Durant only to be kept waiting then to discover that the urgent matter that needed to be discussed was nothing that couldn’t have been resolved quickly at the plant level rather than wasting top management’s time and brainpower. [12:52] Sloan believed Billy Durant had no right to be distracted by the financial markets while Durant was supposed to be running General Motors : Sometimes I used to feel as if he were always holding a telephone in his hand. I think there were twenty telephones in his private office and a switchboard. He had private wires to brokers’ offices across the continent. In the same minute, he would buy in San Francisco, sell in Boston. It did not seem to me that the operating head of a corporation had any right to devote himself to the market, even if the stock of the corporation was involved. [17:13] Billy Durant will remind you that everything is possible : What was it in Billy’s genes and character that had led the high school dropout from rural Michigan to even dream of building an empire that would change the world? [20:30] Billy Durant would tell you to control the things that are important to your business: Billy Durant would never forget the bitter lesson of what he saw as Paterson’s treachery: Always control your own production and, whenever possible, all of the links in the supply chain. [23:05] Unlike Durant, Alfred Sloan had a singular focus. His singular focus was General Motors : By the early 1930s, Alfred Sloan was widely considered to be one of the richest men in the world, but he had no known
Sat, April 11, 2020
#120 Billy Durant (Creator of General Motors)
What I learned from reading Billy Durant Creator of General Motors: The Story of the Flamboyant Genius Who Helped Lead America into the Automobile Age by Lawrence Gustin. ---- [0:32] DURANT MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT AUTOMOBILE PIONEER: Of all the colorful men who propelled the United States into the automobile age, Billy Durant was perhaps the most unusual, and from an organizational standpoint in the pioneering era, the most important. Durant had a hand in shaping the beginnings of three of the four major American automobile manufacturing corporations that exist today . [4:16] HIS LIFE STORY HAS A SURPRISING END: The guy founded General Motors, Chrysler, and Frigidaire. Three gigantic, successful companies. How does he die with no money? [6:04] DURANT TRIED TO PROTECT HIS INVESTORS: He had an attitude, not a common among men of big money. He tried to protect the people who invested with him, even if this protection would break him. Finally, it did. And when he was unable to save the dollars of his supporters he plunged from multimillionaire to bankruptcy. [10:29] DURANT WAS SKEPTICAL OF AUTOMOBILES: Durant starts out as an automobile skeptic. He builds the General Motors of horse-drawn transportation and then takes that same playbook and uses it again to do the same thing in the automobile industry once he gets over his skepticism. [17:08] IF SOMETHING IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR BUSINESS YOU NEED TO CONTROL IT: We have seen this over and over and over and over again in these stories throughout the history of entrepreneurship. If something is important to your business, you need to control it. Durant line up a big contract for the buggies only to find that Patterson chanced upon the same buyer and told him that since the product was actually being made at his factory, the buyer could save money by buying directly from him. Durant that from then on they would build all their own vehicles. [19:12] DURANT ON SALES: Assume that the person you are talking to knows as much or more than you do. Do not talk too much. Give the customer time to think. In other words, let the customer sell himself. That system works best when you have a good product. Look for a self - seller. If you cannot find one, make one. [21:48] ON CONTROL. HENRY FORD REALIZED THIS. THE DODGE BROTHERS DID TOO: We started out as assemblers with no advantage over our competitors. We paid about the same prices for everything we purchased. We realized that we were making no progress and would not unless and until we manufactured practically every important part that we used. We proceeded to purchase plants and the control of plants, which made it possible for us to build up the largest carriage company in the United States. [31:36] DURANT WAS AT THE RIGHT PLACE, AT THE RIGHT TIME, WITH THE RIGHT SET OF SKILLS: For the first time, he began to see that the automobi
Sun, April 05, 2020
#119 The Dodge Brothers
What I learned from reading The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy by Charles Hyde. ---- This is the story of two small town machinists who became enormously successful automobile manufacturers in the early years of the auto industry [0:01] Early life and first jobs [3:02] Moving to Detroit: Arriving at the right place, at the right time, with the right skill set [6:28] Horace Dodge is a gifted engineer like Henry Royce (Founders #81) was + Inventors and bicycle manufacturers [12:00] How The Dodge Brothers first described their business [16:40] Doing work for Ransom Olds, Founder of Oldsmobile [18:20] Crucial decisions in the early days of the company [23:33] In a gold rush don't dig for gold. Sell pick axes [24:44] The Dodge Brothers almost bankrupted Ford for lack of payment [28:22] The Dodge Brothers got very rich off of Henry Ford [33:28] Why and how the Dodge Brothers built their own car [36:00] Comparing The Dodge Brothers organizational structure with that of Ford and GM [41:00] The Dodge Brothers view on advertising [43:04] How and why they worked so well together [46:13] A bond so tight it could only be separated by death [50:58] Their greatest accomplishment [52:01] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, March 31, 2020
#118 Forty Years With Henry Ford
What I learned by reading My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen. ---- Henry Ford’s greatest achievement and his greatest failure [0:01] Henry Ford had one, single idea [4:15] Henry Ford’s management style [5:46] The paradox of Henry Ford [8:27] Henry Ford’s greatest advisor [11:30] A great story about The Dodge Brothers [16:20] Why and how Henry Ford bought out all of the shareholders of Ford [19:15] Henry Ford would tell you to not divert your attention [27:15] Henry Ford would tell you to not be afraid [28:20] Henry Ford would tell you to be firm in what you want to accomplish but flexible in how you do it [31:45] Why Henry Ford and The Ford Motor Company are worthy of study [36:20] The difference between a pioneer and an expert [39:45] Henry Ford would tell you not to worry about titles [47:40] Henry Ford would tell you to focus on individual contact over collective speeches [49:52] Henry Ford would tell you don't let your team grow stale [50:10] Henry Ford would tell you that you can’t foresee everything. Even things that should be obvious. [50:50] Henry Ford would tell you to never stop learning [51:32] A description of Detroit and the early days of one of the most important industries ever created [55:14] The story of the Model T: Henry ford was groping and fumbling toward a low-cost car. [59:14] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, March 26, 2020
#117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read)
What I learned from reading Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-yung. --- For a long time I was known as the bulldozer. [0:01] How Chung’s son remembers him: He had a wonderfully positive disposition and a rigorous work ethic . [3:15] Memories of his father + Half century of struggle + Why he is writing this book [9:25] Running away from home. Four times. [12:15] A different level of poverty. [15:40] How struggle shaped his personality + Why he had to run away for the last time [17:15] On his own + Early jobs before the birth of Hyundai [19:24] On simple tasks + The fundamental principle of his life + Hard work paying off [21:15] Getting into the auto repair business + More struggle + More perseverance [25:55] Why you should emulate bedbugs. [31:00] Hyundai Auto Service Center + Hyundai Construction + Disaster strikes again + The Korean War [33:11] His management style + Don’t waste time if you want to be remarkable [39:30] Go where the money is: Hyundai must go abroad to escape poor domestic conditions. [42:15] The beginning of Hyundai Motors + Chung had only one speed: GO! That is not always a good thing. [45:57] Ships or how a great idea starts as a small idea [53:26] Why determination is more important than intelligence [58:10] Find something you love to do and do it until you die. [1:06:39] Don’t covet luxury. [1:08:49] Be diligent. [1:15:40] Positive thinking is the road to happiness. [1:16:48] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sat, March 21, 2020
#116 Sam Bronfman (Seagram's and the Bronfman family dynasty)
What I learned from reading Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam by Michael R. Marrus. ---- The story of Sam’s rise to fame and fortune from a hard life on the Canadian frontier is inherently dramatic and yet touches a familiar nerve in a broad spectrum of the population. There is something in Sam’s response to his disappointments that most people recognize in their themselves. [0:01] I found out about the Bronfman family on Founders #53 Mike Ovitz when Mike Ovitz brokered a deal that led to Seagram buying MCA Universal for $5.7 billion . [2:58] Generational Inflection Point: A single individual that changes the trajectory of his entire family for generations to come [3:35] Why did his family have to flee Russia? [6:42] Sam was ashamed of the poverty is family endured and NEVER forgot it [10:45] Sam starts running his own hotel at 23 [14:35] Sam figures out a new plan to overcome the powerful temperance movement / The good ones know more. — David Ogilvy [18:00] The advantages of Sam’s mail order strategy + Copying and improving on his competitors [20:12] Some people just want it more [22:23] Sam would tell you to focus on the long term [24:26] Sam would tell you don’t waste any opportunity and be a learning machine [31:50] Sam would tell you to learn from the best [35:44] Sam would tell you to think big and appeal to interest [37:20] Sam’s view on money / Go First Class [42:04] After prohibition is lifted Sam goes on a buying spree / Default aggressive [48:53] Sam does something brilliant: He repositions whiskey as a luxury product [53:02] Sam’s personal curriculum [57:30] How Sam’s business survived WWII [59:00] The company proved to be one of Sam’s shrewdest moves; bought with only $50 million in borrowed cash it was sold [by his heirs] in 1980 for $2.3 billion [1:03:35] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, March 16, 2020
#115 Ben Franklin: An American Life
What I learned from reading Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. ---- He was, during his 84 year long life, America’s best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist . [0:01] On Founders #62 I covered Ben Franklin’s autobiography [4:10] The family produced dissenters and nonconformists who were willing to defy authority, although not to the point of becoming zealots. They were clever craftsman and inventive blacksmiths with a love of learning. Avid readers and writers, they had deep convictions, but knew how to wear them lightly . [5:00] The industrialist Thomas Mellon, who erected a statue of Franklin in his banks headquarters, declared that Franklin had inspired him to leave his family's farm and go into business. "I regard the reading of Franklin's Autobiography as the turning point of my life. Here was Franklin, poorer than myself, who by industry, thrift, and frugality, had become learned and wise, and elevated to wealth and fame. The maxims of poor Richard exactly suited my sentiments. I read the book again and again, and wondered if I might not do something in the same line by similar means ." [13:10] Franklin is learning how to deal with people and to change his behavior to get the outcome he desires: Being argumentative, he concluded, was a very bad habit because contradicting people produced disgusts and perhaps enemies. Later in his life he would wryly say of disputing: "Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into it.” [17:50] Ben Franklin understood marketing [22:10] Ben Franklin would tell you to keep reading and learning so you are more interesting to talk to. This produces positive externalities. [23:50] Franklin’s plan for his business and how to overcome an entrenched competitor [30:00] Franklin would tell you it is foolish to avoid all criticism [33:28] The Ben Franklin method for making difficult decisions [34:15] As Franklin is building his business he is focused on self improvement: A list of 12 virtues he thought desirable [35:56] Most of Poor Richard's saying were not totally original as Franklin freely admitted. "They contained the wisdom of many ages and nations. Not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own." / Picasso had a saying good artists copy; great artists steal. we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas --Steve Jobs [38:25] Franklin telling you how to turn adversaries into allies. [41:38] Halfway through his life, Franklin realizes he has enough: " Lost time is never found again ." [43:25] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here<
Mon, March 09, 2020
#114 The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time
What I learned from reading The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time by Michael Craig. ---- Some Texas banker was playing poker with over $15 million on the table. 15 million on the table? This much cash would weigh over 250 pounds. [0:01] Founders #38 Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos [4:12] Poker players are misfits / Poker as a capital intensive business / How to avoid going over the edge [6:51] The early life and personality traits of Andy Beal [12:20] Other founders mentioned in this episode: #59 Howard Hughes: Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters; The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire . #65 Kirk Kerkorian: The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became The Greatest Deal Maker In Capitalist History . #67 Conrad Hilton: The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty [19:24] Professional poker players were the ultimate independent businessmen. They had no bosses, no employees, and no set hours. [20:36] He came. He saw. He was conquered. [26:01] The entrepreneurial emotional roller coaster + Bet on yourself [28:20] A young Andy Beal’s adventures in entrepreneurship [36:30] Beal Aerospace [49:45] How Andy Beal finds an edge in poker [55:04] The difference between knowing and doing [1:07:49] The benefits of facing tough competition: Andy had played abasing the best poker players in the world for nearly 300 hours. It was impossible to stick around against this level of competition and not improve. How can we simulate an environment like this for ourselves? [1:09:45] What a bizarre, nonchalant way to start an important day [1:14:20] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, March 05, 2020
#113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire)
What I learned from reading Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire by Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines ---- The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million [0:01] A 10 year old’s first business idea [5:35] A.G. finds a blueprint to follow: A.B. Loveman [9:00] The remarkable story of Carrie Tuggle and The Tuggle Institute [12:10] The influence of Booker T. Washington [13:35] The power of positive examples [15:27] Joining the army for discipline and opportunity / Lessons from World War I [18:32] Keep your eyes open. Study the people around you. How do they live? What makes them tick? What do they need? [25:05] A. G. Gaston was relentless [27:20] The parallels between Andrew Carnegie and A. G. Gaston [30:26] Exhausted, depressed, and hopeless right before his big breakthrough [33:38] And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under — Benjamin Franklin / Both Benjamin Franklin and A. G. Gaston valued industry and frugality [38:00] A fundamental change in philosophy for a young entrepreneur [44:30] A.G. starts a funeral insurance company / Inspiration from the life of Booker T. Washington [46:40] CAP YOUR DOWNSIDE! [51:41] Personality: Focus on only on what you can control and have a bias for action [54:00] A.G. starts The Booker T. Washington Business College to help train potential employees [56:00] A.G’s singular focus is on mastering his craft [57:50] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, February 24, 2020
#112 Frank Lloyd Wright
What I learned from reading Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright by Paul Hendrickson. ---- [0:01] Frank Lloyd Wright suffered a personal catastrophe that would have destroyed a man of lesser will and lesser ego. [7:20] Ben Franklin writing about vanity 250 years ago: Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor. [12:38] He held a press conference on Christmas Day to explain his actions. He said ordinary people can not live without rules to guide his conduct. He - Frank Lloyd Wright - is not ordinary. [13:44] Frank Lloyd Wright had a single minded pursuit of his own potential . [18:50] Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. [19:30] Find something you love to do and don’t stop until you die . [23:00] Everything is malleable. Including the truth. [25:25] All Frank Lloyd Wright had was a complete faith in himself . [31:57] Frank Lloyd Wright had a point of view—a conviction— and he tied his point of view to larger ideas . [35:29] Frank Lloyd Wright was terrible with money: So long as we had the luxuries, the necessities could pretty well take care of themselves. [36:20] The early career of Frank Lloyd Wright / his mentor was one of the greatest architects ever [39:30] You are going to go far. You’ll have a kind of success; I believe the kind you want. Not everybody would pay the price in concentrated hard work and human sacrifice you’ll make for it. [50:05] Wright turned down a fantastic opportunity. He preferred to bet on himself . [53:28] Wright’s mid life crisis and the abandonment of his family. [56:00] We’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets. We’d like to be writers, but as everybody knows—we can’t earn any money that way. What do you want to do? When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him you do that—and uh—forget the money. If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time... You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid! It is absolutely stupid! Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all, if you do really like what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter what it is—somebody is interested in everything—anything you can be interested in, you will find others who are... But, it’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like and to teach our children to follow in the same track
Sun, February 16, 2020
#111 David Geffen
What I learned from reading The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Tom King. ---- He told me he had recently read Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist , Buffett was Geffen's hero. Geffen—with searing focus, unyielding drive, and outlandish nerve—had devised and implemented strategies to propel himself to the top of the heap of Hollywood powerbrokers. I used to have phone conversations with David that would leave me sweaty. David might not have realized it, but he was being educated by a master entrepreneur. Batya succeeded in teaching him the value of hard work and the possibilities of life under even the most difficult circumstances. She was a brilliant businesswoman who could account for every penny that went into and out of the enterprise. She kept her overhead low by driving hard bargains with her suppliers and by closely monitoring her expenses. His mother determinedly drilled into him the same advice she often repeated to herself. "You may not be very tall, but you will stand head and shoulders above everyone," she declared. " You think of yourself as head and shoulders above everyone else, and you will be ." Arriving in Hollywood for the first time, David thought he had found paradise. It was even more intoxicating than he had imagined. His life's ambition was soon established after he read a new biography of MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer called Hollywood Rajah . "I want this job," he thought to himself. He simply did not have the attention span that college required. He was eager to get into the real world. She told Geffen that some of the brightest lights in the entertainment business had gotten their start in the mailrooms of the major talent agencies. Although it was not a glamorous job, it was a way to get a foot in the door. Having tossed aside all notions of right and wrong, David Geffen simply lived by different rules than did the rest of society around him. Unconstrained by traditional ideas of acceptable social behavior, he was free to use all of the resources at his fingertips to achieve his lofty goals. Geffen simply worked harder than anyone else. The music department, he said, was the place where a young agent could make a name for himself. Brandt's advice had a profound impact on Geffen. He at once rejiggered his career plans. It was not an undying passion for music that made him decide to try to make his fortune in the business; he did it because he might get rich quickly. Geffen recognized that publishing was one of the areas in the music business where the real money was being made. Long after an artist's star has faded, publishers benefit financially for years to come, pocketing royalties w
Mon, February 10, 2020
#110 Henry Singleton (Teledyne)
What I learned from reading Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It by Dr. George Roberts. ---- Henry was much more than a salesman, mathematician, engineer, inventor, and chess champion. He was a student. An observer of the history of manufacturing, of the progress and growth of corporations from the days of Henry Ford, the growth of General Motors, the manner of successful corporations in growing by acquisition . [0:01] Henry reminds me of de Gaulle. He has a singleness of purpose, a tenacity that is just overpowering. He gives you absolute confidence in his ability to accomplish whatever he says he is going to do . [2:00] Henry spent time doing exactly what we are doing — learned from entrepreneurs and great people of the past. [3:45] According to Buffett, if one took the top 100 business school graduates and made a composite of their triumphs, their record would not be as good as that of Singleton, who incidentally was trained as a scientist, not an MBA. / Here is a direct quote from Buffett: The failure of business schools to study men like Singleton is a crime. / "Henry Singleton of Teledyne has the best operating and capital deployment record in American business .” —Warren Buffett [8:30] Genius is an oft-misused word, but it cannot be denied that Henry Singleton brought exceptional brilliance to the creation and development of the enterprise he undertook. . .Many of these strategies, new at the time, have now become commonplace in the business world . [12:57] My only plan is to keep coming to work each day. I like to steer the boat each day rather than plan ahead way into the future . —Henry Singleton [14:36] Within eight years of founding Teledyne had bootstrapped their startup investment of $450,000 into a company with annual sales of over $450 million . [17:24] Henry’s early faith that semiconductors would become the dominant factor in future electronics, even while this was still being debated by others in the industry . [31:15] Henry’s three great ideas Recognizing the future importance of digital semiconductors when this technology was in its infancy. Acquiring and organizing a selection of financial companies to provide a strong financial base [The idea Henry learned by reading Alfred Sloan’s of GM’s book] His innovative strategy for stock buybacks [40:30] Henry knew where he could create the most value and focused on that. Are you doing the same? [50:16] There is no speed limit : In the company’s first six years net income rose from $58,000 to $12,035,000 [52:20] There are ideas worth billions in a $30 history book . [56:10] Henry Singleton the teacher / Claude Shannon on being smart and quiet [1:06:45] By 1977 Teledyne was the largest sh
Mon, February 03, 2020
#109 Adi Dassler (Adidas)
What I learned from reading Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and The Family Feud That Forever Changed The Business of Sports by Barbara Smit. ---- This story begins at a time in history when money and sports were still two separate worlds [0:01] A family business struggling to survive / drafted into WWI / Adi Dassler’s EXTREME resourcefulness and personality / [3:15] Early distribution and marketing of sports shoes [10:06] The Dassler Brothers were opposites: Adi was the quiet craftsman with soul in the game. Rudolf was ostentatious and loud. [12:46] The chronicle and biography of Adi Dassler: A story about someone obsessed with making high quality products [14:00] Was Adi Dassler a Nazi? / My experience with the totalitarianism of the Castro regime / tearing up thinking of having to risk the lives of your children [24:30] Adi Dassler reminds me of Henry Royce [29:30] The difficulties of building a business during World War II [32:15] Adi starting over at the age of 46 / How the Adidas stripes came about [38:15] Athletes start requesting bribes to wear Adidas / How the payoffs happened [46:00] Breaking into a new market was a slow, labor intensive process [50:45] While Adidas and Puma are distracted fighting each other, opportunity opens up for Phil Knight and Nike / pursue your crazy idea / famous last words: “it’s just a toy”, “jogging isn’t a real sport”, “Nike is not a threat because we have more demand than we could service” [55:05] If you have a business that makes you miserable, somewhere along the line you lost the plot. [1:06:45] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, January 26, 2020
#108 Jim Simons (Money Printer)
What I learned from reading The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman ---- The story of the greatest moneymaker of all time [0:01] Simons prefers to move in silence [1:40] Unknown Unknowns > Known Knowns / Wise people always know exactly why something won’t work. That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom. —Henry Ford [2:42] A one word summary of the book: PERSISTENCE [4:15] Simons’ early life / Only the arrogant are self-confident enough to push their creative ideas on others. —Nolan Bushnell [4:44] Advice from his father: Do what you like in life, not what you feel you should do. [6:16] Personality: Jim had a persistent and burning desire to be wealthy [7:20] A seed has been planted + Jim’s existential crisis [9:55] Lessons from codebreaking that Jim applies to his business later [14:08] Jim Simons at 29 years of age: Fired, father of 3 young children, no idea what his future holds [20:00] Jim Simons at 33 years of age: Genius and madness are next-door neighbors [21:44] Jim Simons at 40 years of age: Jim finally makes the jump. Only misfits understand misfits [22:55] Jim’s first trading style [28:00] We all go through times like this: DON’T QUIT! [29:15] Jim Simons at 44 years of age / Jim’s partner doesn’t see the point in developing automated trading system / Giant success followed by giants failures [34:30] Back to being filled with self-doubt [37:15] Our mind loves playing tricks on us [38:00] Jim Simons studied the past to gain an information advantage [41:00] Finally, the new strategy starts working! / Even with wild success people will tell you that you are wrong [46:55] Business is like nature, it doesn’t care if you arrive at the right answer from the wrong reasoning. [52:50] Emperors want empires [57:02] Life advice from an 82 year old Jim Simons [1:02:40] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 20, 2020
#107 Sol Price (Costco)
What I learned from reading Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary & Social Innovator by Robert E. Price. ---- What was it about this man that engendered so much admiration and respect? [0:01] Sol Price’s early life [4:39] Sol Price was a misfit / “ If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, "This sucks. I'm going to do my own thing .” [5:40] Learning to love being productive / Sol Price on the importance of time / DO IT NOW! [12:20] The beginning of FedMart [16:00] Sol Price learned from other founders [21:25] Sol Price’s business philosophy [28:50] What happened when Sol opens a pharmacy in FedMart / A creative solution to being cut off by gasoline suppliers [36:25] Sol Price’s idea on teaching and “alter egos” / “ You train an animal. You teach a person .” —Sol Price [39:13] The intelligent loss of sales [42:00] The idea for Price Club [52:37] What Sol Price meant to his son [1:05:28] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, January 12, 2020
#106 Bill Walsh (The Score Takes Care of Itself)
What I learned from reading The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. --- [0:01] I believe it’s much the same in one’s profession: Superb, reliable results take time. [4:55] How Jack Dorsey describes The Score Takes Care of Itself: He took at team that was at the bottom and brought them to the top. He focused on the details. He didn’t say you need to win games. He said you need to tuck in your shirts. You need to clean your lockers. This is how we answer the phones here. He set a new standard of performance. [6:53] Bill Walsh on his father / What he learned from his early life [10:15] Bill Walsh on why should you care about your standard of performance : Pursuing your ambitions, especially those of any magnitude, can be grueling and hazardous, and produce agonizing failure along the way, but achieving those goals is among life’s most gratifying and thrilling experiences . [14:15] A great description of the book: Bill Walsh loved to teach. This is his final lecture on leadership . [16:20] Bill Walsh built a new culture. He calls it his Standard of Performance. [20:30] Make a commitment to be the best version of yourself— even when your current external results may not warrant that belief [26:16] The prime directive was not victory [28:45] Winners act like winners before their winners [32:20] Bill Walsh experiences the entrepreneurial roller coaster [37:00] An incredible story about his idea of the west coast offense [46:20] Be unswerving in moving towards your goal [47:25] Sweat the little details but the right little details [49:00] Don’t focus on your competitors —spend that time making yourself better so it is harder for them to compete against you [50:00] Don’t let anybody call you a genius / If you sleep on a win you’ll wake up with a loss / Success Disease [54:15] Without a healthy ego you’ve got a big problem [58:05] There is no mystery to mastery [1:03:05] A pretty package will not sell a crappy product [1:04:16] Avoid burnout: Can you imagine how burned out you must be to wait fourteen years to return to doing something you love? ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/
Sun, January 05, 2020
#105 Les Schwab (Charlie Munger recommended this book)
What I learned from reading Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. ---- 16 ideas from the book: Intensity is the price of excellence —Warren Buffett I am 68 years old now. And I've run it in overdrive my whole life. I've always wanted to be the best tire dealer, not necessarily the largest tire dealer. The people serving your customers are the most important people in your company: We have had over the years some people in the office that sometimes think they are more important than the stores. The office serves only one purpose, and that is to serve the stores. Some of our office people sometimes wonder about this. But I’ve warned them, don’t bitch to me because that is the way I want it. If you want to go out and start at the bottom changing tires and work into a manager job, then hop right to it. If it weren’t for those men in the stores working their butts off in all kinds of weather, missing meals, God awful hours, etc. you wouldn’t even have a job. If you’re not serving the customer, or supporting the folks who do, we don’t need you. —Sam Walton Let the people at the store level and your manager know you are behind them. They are the ones who make you successful, not the person in a nice office who has nothing to do today but to send out another damn directive. If it doesn't help the store, tear it up and tell the store to tell the office to go to hell. There are no shortcuts around quality, and quality starts with people. —Steve Jobs People are the success of our company. Most anyone can sell tires. The only difference between a Les Schwab Tire Centre and most any tire dealership is the people working there. Sharing profits with your employees is a way to build people. Be unselfish for good reasons. We share 50% of our profits with all the employees in the store. My thinking has always been if I give away half the profits I still have half. If I share $10 million with people I still have $10 million left over. I don’t understand why businessmen can’t do this. It is being unselfish for good reasons. It helps a lot of people. Helping others succeed provides deep satisfaction: Success in life is being a good husband, a good father and you end up being a second father to hundreds of other men and women. Last night I attended a wedding of a young man from our office. This young man told me that two men had influenced his life, his father and me. That’s worth more than money. Promote from within —There’s no problem you can’t solve if you know your business from A to Z In our 34 years of business, we have never hired a manager from the outside, nor have we ever hired an assistant manager directly to that job. Every single one of our more than 250 managers and assistant
Mon, December 30, 2019
#104 Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA)
What I learned from reading Leading By Design: The Ikea Story by Ingvar Kamprad and Bertil Torekull. ---- [0:01] He aims to give his company eternal life [3:45] Early life and entrepreneurship [8:00] The beginning of IKEA [11:40] Learning entrepreneurship by imitating [16:30] IKEA almost dies in infancy / how Ingvar worked his way through it [26:00] Ingvar’s greatest regret in life: Neglecting his children for his business. “ Everyone with children knows that childhood does not allow itself to be reconquered .” [32:20] Only those asleep make no mistakes . — Ingvar Kamprad [36:00] Thinking of the first store as a laboratory [43:43] Why IKEA stumbled upon self assembled furniture [46:30] A summary of the early history of IKEA [49:00] How Ingvar managed [54:00] Why Ingvar refused to go public [1:03:30] The IKEA Company Bible: The Testament of a Furniture Dealer [1:19:10] Ingvar the Misfit ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, December 22, 2019
#103 Hetty Green (The Richest Woman in America)
What I learned from reading The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach. ---- [0:10] She was the smartest woman on Wall Street, a financial genius, a railroad magnate, a real estate mogul, a Gilded Era renegade, a reliable source for city funds. [0:19] “I have had fights with some of the greatest financial men in the country. Did you ever hear of any of them getting ahead of Hetty Green?” [1:10] I go my own way, take no partners, risk nobody else’s fortune. [1:29] She was considered the single biggest individual financier in the world. [1:58] A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (Founders #95) [2:55] Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. [3:31] Don’t close a bargain until you have reflected on it overnight. [4:00] I am always buying when everyone wants to sell, and selling when everyone wants to buy. [4:51] I never set out for anything that I don’t conquer. [5:55] To live content with small means; To seek elegance rather than luxury, And refinement rather than fashion; To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich. [7:27] Her father’s advice: Never owe anyone anything. [9:44] By the time she is 13 she is the family bookkeeper. [11:53] She paid attention when he (her father) repeated again and again that property was a trust to be taken care of and enlarged for future generations. She obeyed when he insisted that she keep her own accounts in order and later praised the experience. “There is nothing better than this sort of training,” she said. [13:28] Hetty hungered for money itself. [14:08] List of financial panics discussed in the book: Panic of 1857, Panic of 1866, The Long Depression 1873-1896 which had several panics within, (Panic of 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893) Panic 1901 and Panic of 1907. [16:18] She was a master at studying what happened before her. [16:31] The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by TJ Stiles. (Founders #54) and Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55) [17:15] Clever men like Russell Sage, a future role model for Hetty, kept substantial amounts of cash on hand and used it to buy stocks at rock-bottom prices. John Pierpont Morgan told his son there was a good lesson to be learned from other people’s greed and good bargains to be found in the aftermath. In future times, Hetty would always keep cash available and use it to buy when everyone else was selling. Much later, Warren Buffett would do the same. But most people watched their money wash away in the flood.
Sun, December 15, 2019
#102 Akio Morita (Sony)
What I learned from reading Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita. --- [0:01] Forty years ago, a small group gathered in a burned-out department store building in war-devastated downtown Tokyo. Their purpose was to found a new company, their optimistic goal was to develop the technologies that would help rebuild Japan's economy. [5:00] I was born the first son and fifteenth-generation heir to one of Japan's finest and oldest sake-brewing families. The Morita family has been making sale for three hundred years. Unfortunately, the taste of a couple of generations of Morita family heads was so refined and their collecting skills so acute that the business suffered while they pursued their artistic interests, letting the business take care of itself, or, rather, putting it in other hands. They relied on hired managers to run the Morita company, but to these managers the business was no more than a livelihood, and if the business did not do well, that was to be regretted, but it was not crucial to their personal survival. In the end, all the managers stood to lose was a job. They did not carry the responsibility of the generations, of maintaining the continuity and prosperity of the enterprise and the financial well-being of the Morita family. [8:18] Tenacity, perseverance, and optimism are traits that have been handed down to me through the family genes. [9:25] I was taught that scolding subordinates and looking for people to blame for problems—seeking scapegoats—is useless. These concepts have stayed with me and helped me develop the philosophy of management that served me very well. [10:28] I had to teach myself because the subjects I was really interested in were not taught in my school in those days. [14:09] The emperor, who until now had never before spoken directly to his people, told us the immediate future would be grim. He said that we could “pave the way for a grand peace for all generations to come," but we had to do it "by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." [23:58] When some of my relatives came to see me, they were so shocked by the shabby conditions that they thought I had become an anarchist. They could not understand how, if I was not a radical, I could choose to work in a place like that. [24:28] Ibuka and I had often spoken of the concept of our new company as an innovator, a clever company that would make new high technology products in ingenious ways. [29:36] We were engineers and we had a big dream of success. We thought that in making a unique product, we would surely make a fortune. I then realized that having unique technology and being able to make unique products are not enough to keep a business going. You have to sell the products, and to do that you have to show the potential buyer the real value of what you are selling. [32:20] There was an acute shortage of stenogr
Sun, December 08, 2019
#101 Warren Buffett (The Tao of Warren Buffett)
What I learned from reading The Tao of Warren Buffett by David Clark and Mary Buffett. --- [0:01]The more I heard Warren speak, the more I learned. Not only about investing, but about business and life. [4:02] The great personal fortunes in this country weren’t built on a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified one wonderful business. [5:45] It is impossible to unsign a contract, so do all your thinking before you sign. [8:35] I don’t try to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over. [14:27] The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. [19:00] My idea of a group decision is to look in the mirror. [22:14] When management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact. [23:07] Managing your career is like investing—the degree of difficulty does not count. So you can save yourself money and pain by getting on the right train. [24:55] There is a huge difference between the business that grows and requires lots of capital to do so and the business that grows and doesn’t require capital. [27:00] I look for businesses in which I think I can predict what they’re going to look like in ten or fifteen year; time. Take Wrigley’s chewing gum. I don’t think the Internet is going to change how people chew gum [28:50] You want to learn from experience, but you want to learn from other’s people’s experience when you can. [29:20] The really good business manager doesn’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘This is the day that I am going to cut costs,’ any more than he wakes up and decides to practice breathing. [30:07] A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought / A story from a young Steve Jobs [31:55] The business schools reward difficult, complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective. [32:42] If you let yourself be undisciplined on the small things, you will probably be undisciplined on the large things as well. [35:15] George Lucas unapologetically invested in what he believed in the most: Himself. [41:15] No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am i
Sun, December 01, 2019
#100 Warren Buffett (The Snowball)
What I learned from reading The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. ---- [0:01] What he was teaching were the lessons that had emerged from the unfolding of his own life [4:35] The dichotomy of Warren Buffett [9:20] Warren Buffett wants to be remembered as a teacher [11:52] Buffett’s idea of Inner scorecard vs Outer scorecard [13:49] Warren Buffett’s early family life [18:03] Learning to avoid the habit of thinking in only one direction (18:03), [24:30] Warren’s WHY [29:58] A young troublemaker and how Warren’s dad convinced him to change his behavior [32:20] Warren did what you are doing right now: Since a young age Warren had studied the lives of men like Jay Cooke, Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie . [33:48] Turning a rejection into one of the best things to ever happen to him [38:30] Mimicry instead of independent thought: Warren didn’t understand why they couldn’t see what was right before their eyes . [42:20] One of the most inspiring things about reading biographies is you are constantly reminded that we all have the ability to improve. A young Warren Buffett was so afraid of public speaking he would vomit . [48:06] Warren learning from and working with his idol: Ben Graham [52:20] Warren’s advice for everyone: Sell yourself an hour a day [57:28] Intensity is the price of excellence and examples of people Warren wanted to do business with [1:01:08] Warren Buffett is an obsessive/Munger would later call Buffett an implacable acquirer, like John D. Rockefeller in the early days of assembling his empire, who let nobody and nothing get in his way. (1:01:08), [1:13:10] Warren Buffett on his biggest mistake [1:16:11] What Buffett valued in the lives of others/His idea about claim checks [1:19:25] His “Twenty Punches” approach to investing [1:22:38] Warren’s answer to the question, “What has been your greatest success and greatest failure?” ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, November 24, 2019
#99 Carroll Shelby (My name is Carroll Shelby and performance is my business)
What I learned from reading Carroll Shelby: The Authorized Biography by Rinsey Mills. --- [3:27] I love everything about this person. I like the way he thought. I like the way he lived his life. [3:38] It is almost unbelievable all the different events that could happen in one human lifetime. [3:52] He lived to 89 years old and he used every single year that he was alive . [5:22] He could talk his way out of anything. [6:40] He knew what he wanted. He didn't want anybody else telling him what to do. [7:41] He had a love for anything that would go fast. [10:48] He didn’t know what to do with his life. [15:54] Follow your natural drift. —Charlie Munger [17:00] I can't work for anybody. [18:42] He has fun his entire life. As soon as they stop being fun he runs away. [22:20] A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #93 and #222) [24:17] Money only solves money problems. [26:32] Scratching around doing insignificant races with inferior machinery wasn't an option in which he could see any future. [27:26] Whatever setbacks he encountered he was invariably able to bounce back through a combination of self-belief and an aptitude for making other people believe in him. [27:45] Enthusiasm and passion are universal attractive traits . [28:05] Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97) and Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automobile Empire by Luca Dal Monte. (Founders #98) [30:29] The Purple Cow by Seth Godin [32:22] Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It by Dr. George Roberts. (Founders #110) [32:38] Having extreme focus in the information age is a superpower . [36:13] Racing was a means to an end. He wanted to build his own car. That was his main goal. [42:34] He still didn't know quite how he was going to do it but if he was finally going to produce his own sports car. [53:48] All big things start small. [58:31] 12 months after Shelby was deeply depressed his life is completely different and the Shelby Cobra starts to take shape. [1:00:06] A summary of the early days of Shelby Automotive: Everything had to be done tomorrow and by the cheapest method possible. [1:01:12] It wasn't uncommon for them to work until two or three in the morning and be back down there at 7:30 the next morning. [1:02:22] There's just something special about a group of highly talented, smart people working togeth
Mon, November 18, 2019
#98 Enzo Ferrari (the making of an automobile empire)
What I learned from reading Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automobile Empire by Luca Dal Monte. --- [0:01] Ferrari was animated by an extraordinary passion that led him to build a product with no equal [3:52] Lee Iacocca on why Enzo Ferrari will go as the greatest car manufacturer in history: " Ferrari spent every dollar chasing perfection ." [8:50] Business lessons from his father [11:47] Enzo Ferrari was not interested in school. He wanted to start working immediately. [16:36] The deaths of his father and brother [18:20] No job. No money. No connections. A young man desperate to succeed in life. [23:06] He learned something that he would never forget for the rest of his life: Not even the best driver had any chance of victory if he was not at the wheel of the best car . [24:20] Starting his first business which ends in bankruptcy. [28:31] Enzo learned from those who already accomplished what he was trying to do. [31:10] He does the best possible job at whatever task he is given. Even if he doesn't want to do it. Enzo focuses on being useful. [33:35] A young Enzo Ferrari is plagued with doubts and close to a nervous breakdown. [38:28] The large leave gaps for the small: The start of Scuderia Ferrari. [49:38] Enzo Ferrari at 33 years old. [51:30] For Enzo Ferrari it was always day 1. [52:33] Alfa Romeo pulls the plug/the end of Scuderia Ferrari, the birth of Ferrari. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, November 10, 2019
#97 Enzo Ferrari (Ferrari vs Ford)
What I learned from reading Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. ---- [0:01] Racing was the most magnificent marketing tool the industry had ever known. [2:42] Founders vs Managers [3:43] Founders Podcasts on Henry Ford: #9, #26, and #80. [4:29] The passion Enzo Ferrari had for his products [5:50] The same broad features keep recurring over and over again/ In their detailed appearance these broad features are never twice the same. [8:09] Steve Jobs on passion. [12:00] Steve Jobs on building the Macintosh/ Artisans have soul in the game. [13:05] Enzo Ferrari’s schedule at 58 years old / His early life [17:08] Ferrari’s 3 principles for winning [20:20] How Enzo Ferrari started his company / Racing as marketing / Ferrari’s personality and his philosophy on building a business [24:49] Enzo Ferrari’s extreme level of dedication [25:48] How Enzo Ferrari described his product [26:54] How and why the Ford/Ferrari negotiations begin [35:37] How Enzo Ferrari described the process of building a product [38:07] The advantage founder led companies have / I made a mistake here. I said Les Miles when I meant Ken Miles. Les Miles is a football coach. Ken Miles is a race car driver. [40:58] Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda [42:06] Enzo Ferrari on why he doesn’t have a social life. [42:57] You don’t understand. When I go in there, if I don’t really and truly believe I am the best in the world, I had better not go in at all. [49:05] Enzo Ferrari played chess while everyone else was playing checkers. [52:20] It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, November 04, 2019
#96 James J. Hill (Empire Builder of the Northwest)
What I learned from reading James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest by Michael P. Malone. ---- James J. Hill demonstrates the impact one willful individual can have on the course of history [1:00] If you want to know whether you are destined to be a success or a failure in life, you can easily find out. The test is simple and it is infallible: Are you able to save money? If not, drop out. You will lose. You may think not, but you will lose as sure as you live. The seed of success is not in you . –James J. Hill [3:30] Early life and education [7:58] What James Hill learned from history: The power of one dynamic individual [9:09] Hill strikes out for adventure [10:48] Hill makes it a priority to seek out mentors to learn from [14:44] Starting his first business [18:22] Hill’s strategies on building businesses & insights into his business philosophy [21:50] Hill’s edge: An obsession with knowing every detail of his business [29:22] Burn the boats/ going all in/ when you have an edge, bet heavily [34:31] Stay close to where the money is being spent [36:51] Hill had an edge because he took the time to educate himself more than others would [38:49] The power of maintaining your focus [40:00] The best defense against invading railroads was a better built system that could operate at lower rates [45:05] Great idea to think of your business as a living organism [55:40] A well run business is built slowly [56:32] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, October 27, 2019
#95 Claude Shannon
What I learned from reading A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman ---- [0:25] Claude Shannon trained a powerful intellect on topics of deep interest, and continued to do so beyond the point of short term practicality [5:50] Insulated from opinion of all kinds [9:09] A simple way to describe the impact of information theory [10:39] Resourceful at a young age [11:50] An ordinary childhood [12:41] Follow your natural drift [14:40] Too many facts; too few principles [16:10] His indecisive nature inadvertently helps him [17:00] An important turning point in Shannon’s life [18:30] Vannevar Bush : The first person to see Claude Shannon for who he was [21:00] The results of Claude Shannon’s thesis [23:20] How Claude Shannon worked in his 20s [25:30] The main takeaway from the book: The world isn’t there to be used, but to be played with, manipulated by hand and mind [30:00] Succeeding with no prior knowledge in the specific field [31:20] Working on what naturally interests you is time well spent [32:45] Working at Bell Labs / The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation [36:49] Fire Control / What he worked on during the war [38:15] Claude Shannon’s work on cryptography [40:05] Take many different ideas from unrelated fields [43:35] Leaving Bell Labs for MIT [48:52] Claude Shannon on investing [1:01:15] Shannon’s design for his own funeral ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, October 20, 2019
#94 Henry Singleton (The Outsiders)
What I learned from reading The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike. ---- [0:30] The failure of business schools to study men like Henry Singleton is a crime— Warren Buffett [2:40]Buffett and Singleton: Separated at birth? [8:35] The Singular Henry Singleton [14:40] Supremely indifferent to criticism [19:50] Teledyne breaks up huge business into a bunch of small profit centers [29:30] Risk is controlled. Divisions will remain relatively small. [32:00} Building a cash generating machine [36:30] Bet heavily when you have an edge. [44:00] Singleton has found a way to run a multibillion dollar company in an entrepreneurial, innovative way. [50:16] Singleton had a different focus: Capital allocation. [50:37] Getting Rich vs Staying Rich [55:18] What the people profiled in this book have in common [59:00] Early career and the founding of Teledyne [1:00:38] How Henry Singleton thought about acquisitions 1:02:00] Actions express priority [1:07:12] Ruthlessly cut fat [1:11:20] Stay within your cirlce of competence and bet heavy [1:16:30] Singleton on Time Management [1:19:19] If everyone is doing them, there must be something wrong with them. — Henry Singleton ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, October 13, 2019
#93 Ed Thorp (A Man for All Markets)
What I learned from reading A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Edward Thorp. ---- [0:01] Ed Thorp’s memoir reads like a thriller—mixing wearable computers that would have made James Bond proud, shady characters, great scientists, and poisoning attempts. The book reveals a thorough, rigorous, methodical person in search of life, knowledge, financial security, and, not least of all, fun. Thorp is also known to be a generous man, intellectually speaking, eager to share his discoveries with random strangers. [1:23] Ed Thorp is the first modern mathematician who successfully used quantitative methods for risk taking—and most certainly the first mathematician who met financial success doing it. [3:19] Ed was initially an academic, but he favored learning by doing, with his skin in the game. When you reincarnate as practitioner, you want the mountain to give birth to the simplest possible strategy, and one that has the smallest number of side effects, the minimum possible hidden complications. [4:33] As Warren Buffet said: “In order to succeed you must first survive.” You need to avoid ruin. At all costs. [6:48] It is vastly less stressful to be independent—and one is never independent when involved in a large structure with powerful clients. It is hard enough to deal with the intricacies of probabilities, you need to avoid the vagaries of exposure to human moods. True success is exiting some rat race to modulate one’s activities for peace of mind. [7:51] Read the forward by Nassim Taleb [9:14] Ed’s 4 rules for learning First, rather than subscribing to widely accepted views—such as you can’t beat the casinos—I checked for myself. Second, since I tested theories by inventing new experiments, I formed the habit of taking the result of pure thought—such as a formula for valuing warrants—and using it profitably. Third, when I set a worthwhile goal for myself, I made a realistic plan and persisted until I succeeded. Fourth, I strove to be consistently rational, not just in a specialized area of science, but in dealing with all aspects of the world. I also learned the value of withholding judgement until I could make a decision based on evidence. [11:15] I admired the heroes who, through extraordinary abilities and resourcefulness, achieved great things. I may have been inspired to mirror this in the future by using my mind to overcome obstacles. [14:29] They told us that my aunt Nona and her husband had been beheaded in front of their children. [16:45] At its core, this is a book about how to live well. [17:55] Ed develops simple systems for everything in his life. [20:37] If anyone knew whether physical prediction at roulette was possi
Mon, October 07, 2019
#92 Ed Thorp and Claude Shannon
What I learned from reading Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street by William Poundstone. ---- Claude Shannon was as close to a sure thing as existed [2:53] The beginning of information theory [7:11] Project X [9:09] introduction to Ed Thorpe [15:05] using math and physics to beat Las Vegas [18:03] Ed Thorp and Claude Shannon meet [20:45] testing Thorpe’s Blackjack theory [26:00] The core of John Kelly’s philosophy of risk can be stated without math. It is that even unlikely events must come to pass eventually. Therefore, anyone who accepts small risks of losing everything will lose everything, sooner or later. The ultimate compound return rate is acutely sensitive to fat tails . [28:23] I’d be a bum in the street with a tin cup if the markets were efficient . —Warren Buffett [44:30] how Claude Shannon begins studying the stock market [46:45] Claude Shannon and Henry Singleton [48:16] why and how Ed Thorp started investing in stocks [49:49] Thorp starts a hedge fund and starts working remotely [52:49] Ed Thorp meets Warren Buffett [54:20] An acid test of Princeton/Newport’s market neutrality came in the Black Monday crash of October 19, 1987. The Dow Jones index lost 23 percent of its value in a single day. Princeton/Newport’s $ 600 million portfolio shed only about $ 2 million in the crash. Princeton Newport’s return for the year was an astonishing 34 percent . [59:36] the implosion of Long Term Capital Management [1:07:00] The thing you should do is the opposite of what you feel you should do . –Jim Clayton [1:09:10] A quote from 1738: A man who risks his entire fortune acts like a simpleton, however great may be the possible gain . — Daniel Bernoulli [1:13:00] Claude Shannon: A smart investor should understand where he has an edge and invest only in those opportunities . The methods Claude Shannon used to invest [1:17:10] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, September 29, 2019
#91 Jim Clayton (Sold to Warren Buffett)
What I learned from reading First A Dream by Jim Clayton. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, September 22, 2019
#90 Charlie Munger (Poor Charlie's Almanack)
What I learned from reading Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger . ---- Cicero, learned man that he was, believed in self-improvement so long as breath lasts. In business we often find that the winning system goes almost ridiculously far in maximizing and/or minimizing one or a few variables -like the discount warehouses of Costco. "Invert, always invert." It is in the nature of things, as Jacobi knew, that many hard problems are best solved only when they are addressed backward. It's quite interesting to think about Wal-Mart starting from a single store in Arkansas-against Sears with its name, reputation and all of its billions. How does a guy in Bentonville, Arkansas, with no money, blow right by Sears? And he does it in his own lifetime-in fact, during his own late lifetime because he was already pretty old by the time he started out with one little store. He played the chain store game harder and better than else. Walton anyone invented practically nothing. But he copied everything anybody else ever did that was smart. So he blew right by them all. Charlie's redundancy in expressions and examples is purposeful: for the kind of deep "fluency" he advocates, he knows that repetition is the heart of instruction . He enjoyed challenging the conventional wisdom of teachers and fellow students with his ever-increasing knowledge gained through voracious reading, particularly biographies . He never forgot the sound principles taught by his grandfather: to concentrate on the task immediately in front of him and to control spending. I would say everything about Charlie is unusual . I've been looking for the usual now for forty years, and I have yet to find it. Charlie marches to his own music, and it's music like virtually no one else is listening to . So, I would say that to try and typecast Charlie in terms of any other human that I can think of, no one would fit. He's got his own mold. Charlie Munger has spent a professional lifetime studying lives that have worked well and others that have glitches or have experienced failures. Despite his healthy self-image, Charlie would prefer to be anonymous. I am a biography nut myself. And I think when you're trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them. I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among 'the eminent dead,' but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better for you in life and work better in education. It's way better than just giving the basic concept
Sun, September 15, 2019
#89 David Ogilvy (Confessions of an Advertising Man)
What I learned by reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, September 08, 2019
#88 Warren Buffett's Shareholder Letters— All of them!
What I learned from reading Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders by Warren Buffett. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, September 01, 2019
#87 Thomas Watson (IBM)
What I learned from reading The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and The Making of IBM by Kevin Maney. ---- ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 25, 2019
#86 Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber (A Genius and a Doomed Tycoon)
What I learned from reading The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 18, 2019
#85 Walter and Olive Ann Beech (Aviation Legends)
What I learned from reading The Barnstormer and The Lady: Aviation Legends Walter and Olive Ann Beech by Dennis Farney. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 11, 2019
#84 Aristotle Onassis
What I learned from reading Onassis: The Definitive Biography by Willi Frischauer. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 04, 2019
#83 Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
What I learned from reading Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes. Jeff Bezos on The Electricity Metaphor for the Web's Future ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, July 28, 2019
#82 David Ogilvy (Ogilvy on Advertising)
What I learned from reading Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. --- In my Confessions of an Advertising Man I told the story of how Ogilvy & Mather came into existence, and set forth the principles on which our early success had been based. What was then little more than a creative boutique in New York has since become one of the four biggest advertising agencies in the world, with 140 offices in 40 countries. Our principles seem to work. I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product. When Aeschines spoke, they said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, ‘Let us march against Philip.’ Does old age disqualify me from writing about advertising in today’s world? Or could it be that perspective helps a man to separate the eternal verities of advertising from its passing fads? Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on. All I do is report on how consumers react to different stimuli. I ask you to forgive me for oversimplifying some complicated subjects, and for the dogmatism of my style – the dogmatism of brevity. We are both in a hurry. I have seen one advertisement actually sell not twice as much, not three times as much, but 19½ times as much as another. Both advertisements occupied the same space. Both were run in the same publication. Both had photographic illustrations. Both had carefully written copy. The difference was that one used the right appeal and the other used the wrong appeal. Do your homework You don’t stand a tinker’s chance of producing successful advertising unless you start by doing your homework. I have always found this extremely tedious, but there is no substitute for it. On product positioning: Now consider how you want to ‘position’ your product. This curious verb is in great favor among marketing experts, but no two of them agree what it means. My own definition is ‘what the product does, and who it is for.’ I could have positioned Dove as a detergent bar for men with dirty hands, but chose instead to position it as a toilet bar for women with dry skin. This is still working 25 years later. When asked what was the best asset a man could have, Albert Lasker – the most astute of all advertising men – replied, ‘Humility in the presence of a good idea.’ It is horribly difficult to recognize a good idea. I shudder to think how many I have rejected. Make the product the hero. There are no dull products, only dull writers. The idea of a positively good prod
Mon, July 22, 2019
#81 Henry Royce (Founder of Rolls-Royce)
What I learned from reading Rolls-Royce: The First Forty Years of Britain's Most Prestigious Company by Peter Pugh. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, July 14, 2019
#80 Henry Ford (Today and Tomorrow)
What I learned from reading Today and Tomorrow by Henry Ford. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, July 07, 2019
#79 Charlie Munger (The Complete Investor)
What I learned from reading Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor by Tren Griffin ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, June 30, 2019
#78 Charlie Munger (the Tao of Charlie Munger)
What I learned from reading Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth With Commentary by David Clark How is it that Charlie—who trained as a meteorologist and a lawyer and never took a single college course in economics, marketing, finance, or accounting—became one of the greatest business and investing geniuses of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? Therein lies the mystery. [0:44] Charlie Munger was learning this important investment skill while playing poker with his army buddies. That’s where he learned to fold his hand when the odds were against him and bet heavy when the odds were with him, a strategy he later adapted to investing. [11:12] Charlie thought a lot about business during that time. He made a habit of asking people what was the best business they knew of. He longed to join the rich elite clientele his silk-stocking law firm served. He decided that each day he would devote one hour of his time at the office to work on his own real estate projects, and by doing so he completed five. He has said that the first million dollars he put together was the hardest money he ever earned. It was also during that period that he realized he would never become really rich practicing law; he’d have to find something else. [12:18] Warren, in summing up Charlie’s impact on his investment style over the last fifty-seven years, said, “Charlie shoved me in the direction of not just buying bargains, as Ben Graham had taught me. This was the real impact that he had on me. It took a powerful force to move me on from Graham’s limiting view. It was the power of Charlie’s mind.” [15:33] Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant. [17:39] “People are trying to be smart—all I am trying to do is not to be idiotic, but it’s harder than most people think.” [17:58] All good things in life come from compounding. [19:34] This important investment philosophy assumes that one is better off buying a business with exceptional business economics working in its favor and holding it for many years than engaging in a lot of buying and selling. [19:42] Charlie knows that time is a good friend to a business that has exceptional economics working in its favor, but for a mediocre business time can be a curse. [20:25] Andrew Carnegie says in his autobiography you should study how the great fortunes are made. It's not a scattershot approach. They identified the best business possible and they put all their energy and effort into it. That's certainly what Andrew Carnegie did. [22:39] Charlie makes the point that Berkshire Hathaway probably has the most successful investment record in humanity. That is a hell of a statement and he is probably right. [26:10] Charlie advocates keeping $10 million in cash, and Berkshire keeps $72 billion sitting around in c
Sun, June 23, 2019
#77 Steve Jobs (The NeXT Years)
What I learned from reading Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing by Randall Stross. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, June 16, 2019
#76 Steve Jobs: The Early Years of Apple
What I learned from reading Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and the Creation of Apple by Michael Moritz. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, June 09, 2019
#75 Henry Clay Frick: Andrew Carnegie's Partner
What I learned from reading Henry Clay Frick: The Life of the Perfect Capitalist by Quentin Skrabec Jr. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, June 02, 2019
#74 The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
What I learned from reading The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, May 26, 2019
#73 Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick: The Bitter Partnership That Changed America
What I learned from reading Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America by Les Standiford. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, May 19, 2019
#72 Stan Lee: Founder of Marvel
What I learned from reading Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee by Stan Lee and George Mair. Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and prosaic. It's a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination, a literate celebration of unbridled creativity, coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon (1:15) discovering his love of reading at an early age (8:45) accidentally finding his life's work at 17 years old / hilarious level of optimism (12:35), there is opportunity in things that other people say will rot your brain (22:30) Stan Lee's advice on writing (26:00) be your own biggest fan (28:00) the turning point of Stan Lee's life (38:20) humans scorn the abstract (45:20) a lesson in human nature (51:30) the power of direct sales (55:29) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, May 12, 2019
#71 Jeff Bezos' Shareholder Letters
"To read Bezos’ shareholder letters is to get a crash course in running a high-growth internet business from someone who mastered it before any of the playbooks were written." ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, May 06, 2019
#70 Mark Spitznagel: The Dao of Capital
What I learned from reading The Dao of Capital: Austrian Investing in a Distorted World by Mark Spitznagel. Klipp's Paradox (0:01) the whole point of my approach to investing is that we must be willing to adopt the indirect route to achieve our goals (14:00) finding his life's work (19:00) if my children will only read one book on economics I would be Economics in One Lesson (25:30) why it is always possible to start new, successful companies (30:00) the point is not to go slow to stay glow. it is to go slow now so you can go faster later (34:15) Robinson Crusoe and roundabout production (39:30) Henry Ford as the quintessential roundabout entrepreneur (45:00) how Mark uses roundabout in his investing (54:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, April 28, 2019
#69 Charles Goodyear: An Inventor's Obsession and the Struggle for a Rubber Monopoly
What I learned from reading The Goodyear Story: An Inventor's Obsession and The Struggle For A Rubber Monopoly by Richard Korman. An obsessive quest to find the recipe for rubber (0:01) Charles Goodyear epitomized the spirit of the upstart American technologists (6:15) the early life of Goodyear's family (20:10) coming up with the idea for a domestic made only hardware store (29:00) a crushing failure + debtor's prison (35:20) accidentally finding his life's work (38:18) optimism + positive mental attitude (44:30) Patent #3633 (1:03:30) why Charles did what he did (1:11:30) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, April 21, 2019
#68 Daniel Ludwig: The Invisible Billionaire
What I learned from reading The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. The cameraman was excited and more than a little nervous. In a matter of moments he would enjoy a unique opportunity: the chance to snap the first unposed picture ever taken of the richest man in the world. The strange thing was that most Americans had never even heard of Daniel Keith Ludwig. How could a man in these days of mass media coverage and public obsession with world records, manage to accumulate a $3 billion fortune with hardly anyone becoming aware of it? Obsessed with privacy, he reportedly pays a major public relations firm fat fees to keep his name out of the papers. Daniel Ludwig is a man nobody knows yet his tanker fleet rivals those of the fabulous Greeks whose names are symbols of wealth. His empire began with shipping, grew big with shipbuilding, is branching out now into other fields. With Ludwig, work is almost an obsession. Spartan in personal habits, business gets almost 100% of his attention. Once a project begins Ludwig doesn't rest easy until completion date. Ludwig’s most notable characteristic, besides his imagination and pertinacity, is a lifelong penchant for keeping his mouth shut. He is interested in achievement, not fame. I'm in this business because I like it. I have no hobbies. D.K. was strictly a solo act. His zest for these operations is that of the lone wolf. He shares neither the rewards nor the risks with anyone. Ludwig doesn't drink much, he doesn't smoke at all, he doesn't entertain lavishly. He counts cakories religiously. His only bad habit is work and that he can't stop. Even as a boy Daniel exhibited a strong drive toward the acquisition of money. During the mid-to-late-1920s Ludwig was more involved in buying and selling ships than he was in operating them. The result was that hundreds of government-owned vessels, built at taxpayers' expense, were being sold off at well below cost both to legitimate shippers and to speculators who did the minimum required renovation work and then sold the ships for a quick profit. He never liked spending money unless there was a good chance that it would make him more. The advantage of bulk carriers was versatility; these ships were to be designed in such a way that they could haul either dry cargo (coal or metal ores) or liquids (petroleum or gasoline) without expensive, time-consuming structural conversion. If the oil market fell off, a bulk carrier could haul ore for a while. Or it could haul oil in one direction and coal or ore on the voyage home. Ludwig needed a way to obtain ready money without either taking partners or assuming heavy mortgages. His early experiences with partnerships had been costly, and borrowing to finance ship renovation was no better
Sun, April 14, 2019
#67 Conrad Hilton: Hilton Hotel Dynasty
What I learned from reading The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty by J. Randy Taraborrelli. 100 years ago he was a man with $5000 to his name (0:01) the curse of the ambitious/early life + work (6:35) Conrad Hilton is inspired by Helen Keller's optimism (13:00) the first Hilton hotel + more failed businesses (14:45) Conrad at 32 years old /falling back into the Hotel business by accident (25:30) losing it all / The Great Depression (35:00) The Great Depression's effect on his business and marriage (49:00) Conrad's advice on how to make decisions (56:22) Conrad Hilton's philosophy on money (1:03:47) it is important to have friends around you that increase your ambition (1:11:30) the regrets of Conrad Hilton (1:23:48) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, April 07, 2019
#66 Henry Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West
What I learned from reading Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West by Mark Foster. He built giant businesses in roads, bridges, dams, housing, cement, aluminum, chemicals, steel, health care, and tourism. (0:01) starting a joint venture with Howard Hughes (6:40) learning how not to run a business (12:00) how Kaiser was able to start his own business with no money (18:00) I decided to pick one fellow I wanted most to work for and concentrate on him . (23:15) how Henry Kaiser used passion and enthusiasm to start a construction company in Vancouver (30:00) using the leverage that technology provides or how to make big jobs small (44:00) very difficult work + fewer people willing to do it = opportunity (50:40) how Kaiser goes from never building ships to having 200,000 employees building ships (1:00:00), Kaiser promoted himself as an industrialist populist (1:13:00) Kaiser's managerial style (1:15:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, March 31, 2019
#65 Kirk Kerkorian: Penniless Dropout became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History
What I learned from reading The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William C. Rempel. ---- [0:16] He was a humble man privately proud of his accomplishments, a business genius who ignored his MBA advisers, a daring aviator and movie mogul, a gambler at the casino and on Wall Street who played the odds in both houses with uncanny skill. [4:34] Kirk believed there was no point in placing small bets. [16:48] He was a day laborer at MGA studios. He made $2.60 a day. Thirty years later he owned MGM and his investment was returning $260,000 a day. [21:27] His low tolerance for mistakes and recklessness made him a demanding instructor. He often repeated the mantra: There are old pilots and there are bold pilots—but there are no old, bold pilots. [46:54] He still relished big risks. And he subscribed to the logic of his friend and casino owner Wilbur Clark of the Desert Inn: “ The smaller your bet, the more you lose when you win .” Besides, what’s the point—where’s the thrill—winning a small wager? Betting the limit became Kirk’s trademark . [53:26] Kirk was now sitting on stock worth more than $66 million, a vast fortune by any measure. And no one was more surprised than he was. [1:09:03] Kirk blamed Kirk. He had let himself become vulnerable. He hated that. He hated feeling helpless and at the mercy of forces beyond his control. He vowed never to let anything like that happen again. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, March 24, 2019
#64 Coco Chanel: Her Life and Secrets
What I learned from reading Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets . ---- It is my work I am congratulated on, and to me, that's the only thing that counts (0:01) I've been miserable in a life that from the outside seemed magnificent (4:15) The maxims of Coco Chanel (6:43) Coco on marketing (13:22) Coco's early life (15:15) My need for independence began to develop when I was very young. (18:53) Coco Chanel at 20 (28:15) the beginning of her empire (34:00) I have nothing and I know I can do anything. (37:00) relentlessly resourceful / a metaphor on how to create opportunity (41:04) Coco goes to war for her profits - and wins (48:45) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, March 10, 2019
#63 The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich
What I learned by from reading The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich by Daniel Ammann. ---- The spot market for oil was one of the most lucrative ideas of the twentieth century. [0:01] the historical events intertwined with the career of Marc Rich [5:15] how his family escapes the Nazi's [12:00] his first jobs + learning from his father + finding his vocation [14:30] learning the commodities business from A to Z [20:00] his work environment was training for entrepreneurship + how he thought about the opportunity in oil [30:30] Marc gets screwed on pay so he starts his own company [35:00] why Marc chose Switzerland as the headquarters of Marc Rich + Co. [37:00] why the invention of the spot market was important [43:00] why Marc Rich thought he was exempt from Jimmy Carter's executive order [46:15] the state of his business in 1990 [1:01:00] how to lose $172,000,000 [1:14:00] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, March 04, 2019
#62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
What I learned from reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. ---- [0:01] Why Ben Franklin wrote an autobiography [4:50] Ben Franklin's early education and first job [7:30] starting out in the printing business [11:00] Writing had been of great use to me in the course of my life, and was a principal means of my advancement [16:45] his humble arrival in Philadelphia [25:00] Ben Franklin's time in London [29:00] how the mind of Benjamin Franklin worked [34:30] the opportunity to start your his own business [41:15] industry is virtuous [46:20] Ben understood branding [48:15] Ben Franklin creates the first subscription library [54:30] Ben Franklin's 13 virtues ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, February 25, 2019
#61 Malcom McLean: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
What I learned from reading The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger . ---- Such was the beginning of a revolution [0:01] The economic benefits arise not from innovation itself, but from the entrepreneurs who eventually discover ways to put innovations to practical use . [15:30] the basic idea was around for decades [17:30] Malcom's early life and first business [23:00] McLean had an obsessive focus on cutting costs [33:00] the beginning of Malcom McLean's idea [37:00] McLean's definition of total commitment [41:00] McLean's fundamental insight [48:00] fixing the business by focusing on the customer's real problem [53:40] the surprising reason containers are standardized [1:00:00] Daniel K. Ludwig and Malcom McLean [1:07:00] Malcom McLean sells his business [1:13:00] Starting another business [1:21:00] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, February 18, 2019
#60 Yvon Chouinard: What We've Learned from Patagonia's First 40 Years
What I learned from reading The Responsible Company: What We've Learned From Patagonia's First 40 Years by Yvon Chouinard and Vincent Stanley. ---- When I die and go to hell, the devil is going to make me the marketing director for a cola company. I’ll be in charge of trying to sell a product that no one needs, is identical to its competition, and can’t be sold on its merits . (0:01) What Patagonia was meant to be (8:25) Everyone wants to feel useful (11:00) a short history of companies (14:30) the definition of meaningful work (26:00) more human, less corporate (40:30) Yvon's ancestors and their working conditions (46:00) the benefits of long term thinking (49:00) build something useful and don't bullshit (57:00) Don't do things that have no useful purpose / being bold can lead to new discoveries / we need more small businesses (1:04:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, February 11, 2019
#59 Howard Hughes: The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire
What I learned from reading Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters; The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire . ---- He was a film director, a producer, a test pilot, inventor, investor, and entrepreneur [0:01] the start of Hughes Tool Company [13:00] during a gold rush sell pickaxe's / great idea about leasing drill bits [19:00] Howard Hughes Jr is on his own at 18 years old [26:00] starting out in the movie business [32:00] his first plane crash/divorce [38:00] Howard Hughes goes broke [48:00] Howard Hughes breaks the world record for the fastest flight around the world / Hitler was always an asshole [56:00] Henry Kaiser and the birth of The Hercules [1:05:00] his 4th plane crash and descent into madness [1:14:00] Howard Hughe's M.O. on corruption and bribes [1:26:00] I am not really interested in people. I am interested in science. –Howard Hughes [1:29:00] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, February 04, 2019
#58 John Bogle: Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life
What I learned from reading Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by John Bogle ---- Gentlemen, cut your costs. [4:00] the benefits of being forced to work early on in life [7:00] I'll never forget the inspiration when I read this quote: The force of his mind overcame his every impediment . [9:30] the traits he needed to found Vanguard [12:00] what John thinks we should be doing better [13:30] create things that help other people/Charlie Munger [17:30] When a business fails people want to know their revenue. I want to know their costs [19:30] the past is not a prologue in the financial markets... please, please, please don't count on it. [23:00] Einstein well understood the limits of quantification / the way we act and the way we measure are in conflict [26:00] Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome. –Charlie Munger / If you get the incentives right when you start the company you will grow. [35:00] A rule of life: Press On, Regardless [39:00] 10 reasons why I bother to battle [44:00] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 28, 2019
#57 John Bogle: Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution
What I learned from reading Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution . ---- This is a story of a revolution [0:01] what Vanguard does and why? [7:00] the seed of the idea that eventually becomes Vanguard [10:00] switching from conservative investing to speculation / when humans are scared they copy the behavior of those around them [17:00] John gets fired. He decides to fight back. [31:00] if you know why you are doing what you are doing you are less likely to quit [41:00] staying the course gives you a massive advantage because most humans quit [53:00] We must never underrate the power of compounding investment returns, and always avoid the tyranny of compounding investment costs .– John Bogle [59:00] eliminating the 50-year tradition of sales commission [1:01:00] a failure caused by focusing on competition and not learning from the past [1:06:00] the Founders Mentality [1:07:30] personal reflections and a memoir of sorts [1:11:00] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, January 22, 2019
#56 The Biography of Herb Kelleher
What I learned from reading Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success ---- Reality is chaotic; planning is ordered [0:01] Vince Lombardi is the Steve Jobs of coaches [3:48] how Southwest Airlines is different [11:31] the beginning of Southwest [16:00] fighting anticompetitive practice [24:30] finding a new market by doing the opposite of your competition [29:00] missionaries make the best products [31:00] being forced to innovate leads to questioning assumptions which leads to finding new markets [34:00] how Southwest became the largest liquor distributor in Texas [38:00] remember your fundamental reason for being and don't deviate from that [40:45] optimize for profits, not market share [42:30] know what you are competing with - not who [44:15] how having only one type of airplane gives Southwest an advantage [46:30] how keeping it simple saved Southwest $2 million [51:30] know what you do best - have the discipline to stick to it [53:00] if you are going to be small you have to be fast [1:01:19] the benefits of curiosity are unpredictable [1:03:45] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 14, 2019
#55 Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer
What I learned from reading Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins ---- Unlike Vanderbilt's other adversaries William Walker was not afraid of Cornelius when he should have been [0:01] Setting up the war between Cornelius Vanderbilt and William Walker [7:32] William Walker's impressive resume [16:44] Betrayal: " Gentlemen, You have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I'll ruin you. " [27:04] Walker takes Vanderbilt's property. Walker thinks the law protects him. Vanderbilt doesn't care about the law [39:27] Garrison's counter move against Cornelius Vanderbilt [44:36] Vanderbilt funds several Central American governments to destroy William Walker [52:51] The power of having a singular focus on a goal but remaining flexible on the tactics to get there [1:02:10] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, January 08, 2019
#54 The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
What I learned by reading The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by TJ Stiles. ---- His life spanned from the days of George Washington to John D. Rockefeller [0:01] $1 out of $20 in circulation [4:35] an overview of his life [5:35] the environment Vanderbilt was raised in [14:10] love of competition / dislike of school / first jobs [18:00] action for actions sake [22:00] an entrepreneur from the beginning [23:06] expansion fueled by aggressiveness, action, and constraints [30:00] partnering with the rich and powerful Thomas Gibbons [35:00] the solo founder [46:34] starting up with an eye on getting acquired [50:00] frugality wins [56:20] entrepreneurs vs large companies [1:03:45] more frugality and decentralized company structure [1:12:00] the size of his ambition was difficult for others to comprehend [1:19:25] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, January 01, 2019
#53 Who Is Michael Ovitz?
What I learned from reading Who Is Michael Ovitz ? by Michael Ovitz. ---- Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first give a gift [0:01] Michael's first jobs + finding his first love [7:02] the foul-mouthed magnates [19:49] starting at the bottom / being hungry for knowledge [24:50] I don't want to be standard in any way [32:30] the revolt begins and the founding of CAA [36:05] know the history of the industry you are in [46:30] a warning for all entrepreneurs [53:44] what influenced CAA's culture [59:27] becoming the thing you hate [1:02:10] a typical day's schedule [1:07:00] problems with co-founders [1:11:30] the fastest animal on the field [1:15:13] I was tired / The end of Michael Ovitz's time at CAA [1:19:15] Ron is gone [1:25:07] a new beginning / meeting Marc Andreessen [1:32:00] reconciliation [1:38:00] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, December 25, 2018
#52 The Republic of Tea: The Story of the Creation of a Business, as Told Through the Personal Letters of Its Founders
What I learned from reading The Republic of Tea: The Story of the Creation of a Business, as Told Through the Personal Letters of Its Founders . ---- A business is born (0:01) don't start a business unless you are the first customer (22:49) what it is like to fall in love with an idea (25:31) starting a business is like making a movie (27:15) on slowing down (32:32) the problem with being able to argue both sides of an idea (37:00) editing & narrowing your focus (46:51) ideas in the form of action (51:39) history doesn't repeat, human nature does (57:00) the doubts of nascent entrepreneurship (59:51) Steve Jobs had one speed: Go (1:07:39) be the customer, not the seller (1:16:21) Bill finally gets it (1:22:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, December 17, 2018
#51 Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic
What I learned from reading Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic by Mel and Patricia Ziegler ---- For every business, there is an appropriate scale [0:01] Fundamentally Unemployable [5:18] the prehistory of Banana Republic [10:02] " We didn't have any money, we didn't have any technology, and we didn't have a plan. " –Jack Ma [14:30] A republic is born [18:13] when something is not selling, increase the price [20:45] relentlessly resourceful [25:45] finding assets hiding in liabilities [28:30] the catalog! [30:33] Eddie Murphy on why you shouldn't have a backup plan [36:40] media was the initial distribution strategy [42:15] Understanding the internet before the internet existed. A lesson on publicity/attention [45:22] when all else fails, expand [51:05] selling the company [56:24] the end of freedom [1:04:40] Misfits, quotes from Steve Jobs and what this has to do with the podcast industry [1:08:00] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, December 11, 2018
#50 Marc Andreessen's Blog Archive
What I learned from reading The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen. ---- [0:01] In this series of posts I will walk through some of my accumulated knowledge and experience in building high-tech startups. [3:15] Great things about doing a startups: Most fundamentally, the opportunity to be in control of your own destiny — you get to succeed or fail on your own, and you don’t have some bozo telling you what to do. For a certain kind of personality, this alone is reason enough to do a startup. The opportunity to create something new — the proverbial blank sheet of paper. You have the ability — actually, the obligation— to imagine a product that does not yet exist and bring it into existence, without any of the constraints normally faced by larger companies. The opportunity to have an impact on the world — to give people a new way to communicate, a new way to share information, a new way to work together, or anything else you can think of that would make the world a better place. The ability to create your ideal culture and work with a dream team of people you get to assemble yourself . Want your culture to be based on people who have fun every day and enjoy working together? Or, are hyper-competitive both in work and play? Or, are super-focused on creating innovative new rocket science. And finally, money —startups done right can of course be highly lucrative. This is not just an issue of personal greed — when things go right, your team and employees will themselves do very well and will be able to support their families, send their kids to college, and realize their dreams, and that’s really cool. And if you’re really lucky, you as the entrepreneur can ultimately make profound philanthropic gifts that change society for the better. [5:15] However, there are many more reasons to not do a startup. [5:28] First, and most importantly, realize that a startup puts you on an emotional rollercoaster unlike anything you have ever experienced . You will flip rapidly from a day in which you are euphorically convinced you are going to own the world, to a day in which doom seems only weeks away and you feel completely ruined, and back again.Over and over and over. [6:04] Some days things will go really well and some things will go really poorly. And the level of stress that you’re under generally will magnify those transient data points into incredible highs and unbelievable lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude . [6:42] The best thing about startups: you only ever experience two emotions, euphoria and terror, and I find that a lack of sleep enhances them both . [7:09] In a startup, absolutely nothing happens unless you make it happen. [8:19] As a founder of
Mon, December 03, 2018
#49 Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life by Richard Branson
What I learned from reading Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life by Richard Branson. --- Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. --- — “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, November 26, 2018
#48 Finding My Virginity: The New Autobiography by Richard Branson
What I learned from reading Finding My Virginity: The New Autobiography by Richard Branson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, November 19, 2018
#47 Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
What I learned from reading Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson ---- Business is a fluid, changing substance. A mutating, indefinable thing [0:45] I just pick up the phone and get on with it [7:50] smart ways to get initial traction [9:51] to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent [14:19] Richard Branson's early business philosophy [14:49] the beginning of Virgin [19:00] what he learned from going to jail [23:01] the scope of Richard's ambition at 21 [24:44] a model of compatible businesses [27:00] how Richard Branson made his first fortune [29:00] how Richard Branson gets Necker Island and the idea for Virgin Airways [34:45] protecting the downside risk [38:40] Richard Branson's view on public companies [46:12] taking Virgin private, funding secured [52:00] questioning the direction of his life at 40 years old [59:54] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, November 13, 2018
#46 I Love Capitalism: An American Story
What I learned from reading I Love Capitalism: An American Story by Ken Langone. --- His early life: there was never much money (3:30) Ken's first jobs (5:35) [At school] I didn't apply myself at all . I did the absolute minimum . I was too busy having fun and working at all my various jobs (12:05) further adventures in entrepreneurship (13:24) Looking for work / finding excitement (17:00) stepping out into the void / getting creative to get a job (23:50) how he starts growing a business within the firm (26:33) his first big break (28:50) You treat a customer right and you never have to worry (32:00) A lesson about human nature and developing trust (34:45) Getting rich is one skill. Staying rich is a different skill altogether (43:10) moral of the story: who wants it the most? (48:25) Hubris and Redemption: Starting over (50:25) how he started his own business (54:00) learning about the opportunity for home depot from other founders and some early tactics to get traction for their stores (59:00) leave more on the table for the other guy than he thinks he should get (1:03:32) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, November 05, 2018
#45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion
What I learned from reading Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. --- The creation of The Home Depot began with two words: "You're fired!" [0:01] Blinders on focus on the customer [5:45] Learning how not to manage people from Ming the Merciless [8:37] Meeting Ken Langone / the prehistory of Home Depot [11:00] 81% private / 19% public partnerships [18:40] Ken sells to Ming. Predicts Ming will fire Bernie [28:30] Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened [35:00] Bernie Marcus at 49 years old: little cash and a ruined reputation [38:15] How Bernie Marcus walks away from Ross Perot [38:50] The importance of equity [49:19] Do not work with people who don't know how to care about other people [51:00] How they got the money to open The Home Depot [55:30] The critical importance of selling at the right price [58:32] Knowing the right way to do something by seeing it done the wrong way [1:08:54] Mistakes can teach us we're never as smart as we think we are [1:11:25] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, October 30, 2018
#44 A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft
What I learned from reading Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft by Paul Allen --- I was 21 years old and at loose ends (0:01) how Paul Allen works (4:09) coming up with the idea for Microsoft (4:48) admiring Bill Gates' bravado (7:56) advice from his father: do something you love (12:30) " Paul is an 'enthusiast' and when in the grip of an enthusiasm is almost totally irresponsible in other areas. How can one help such a student to see the error of his ways ? I don't know. He could even be more right than we, who knows ? " (18:30) Going deep on subjects that interested him (20:56) Paul's first jobs (24:14) Paul Allen and Bill Gates first business (26:44) New Mexico and the start of Microsoft (31:37) We were certain that the tech establishment was wrong and we were right (34:40) Unequal cofounders (37:29) Starting to grow Microsoft (39:00) Unequal cofounders part two (41:00) Early Microsoft culture: When I talk about the early days at Microsoft, it's hard to explain to people how much fun it was. ( 46:43) Turning down a millions of dollars from Ross Perot (53:37) Unequal cofounders part 3 (56:54) The deal that led to Microsoft becoming the largest tech company of its day (58:00) Health crisis and Paul Allen leaves Microsoft (1:05:30) His most important realization (1:09:27) How Paul makes $75 million from AOL (1:13:00) I start from a different place , from the love of ideas and the urge to put them into motion and see where they might lead (1:18:10) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, October 22, 2018
#43 Ray Dalio: Principles: Life and Work
What I learned from reading Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio --- Whatever success I've had in life has had more to do with my knowing how to deal with my not knowing than anything I know [0:01] Ray's first principle and why [5:35] Ray's key to success [8:07] The similarities between investors and entrepreneurs [9:27] Shift your mindset from I know I am right to How do I know I am right? [13:05] Systemize your decision making [14:09] Ray on his life story [17:30] the quality of your decisions determine the quality of your life [19:50] Like a lot of Founders, Ray was bad at school [21:45] More about his personality: stubborn and determined + his first jobs [22:45] Hungry for knowledge he could actually use [24:28] Terrible is better than mediocre [25:03] What we think to be true that is not: The future is a slightly modified version of the present [25:30] Steve Jobs [26:30] A pivotal lesson for Ray: The same things happen over and over again [28:02] the founding of Bridgewater [32:33] the humble beginning of Bridgewater [35:15] If you know your business A to Z there is no problem you can't solve – Sam Zemurray [36:06] Watching the richest man in the world go broke [38:00] Ray loses everything and has to start all over again [40:30] Successful people change in ways that allow them to continue to take advantage of their strengths while compensating for their weaknesses and unsuccessful people don't [45:10] The new Bridgewater: Systematizing his decision making process [47:35] Developing more products and out teaching his competition [48:11] The results of systematized thinking guided by principles that are written down and adhered to [53:30] Counterintuitive thoughts on public success [55:19] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, October 16, 2018
#42 One From Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
What I learned from reading One From Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock --- Walking away at the pinnacle of success was the hardest thing I have ever done (0:01) Through the years, I have greatly feared and sought to keep at bay the four beasts that inevitably devour their keeper – Ego, Envy, Avarice, and Ambition. In 1984, I severed all connections with business for a life of isolation and anonymity, convinced I was making a great bargain by trading money for time, position for liberty, and ego for contentment – that the beasts were securely caged. –Dee Hock (4:14) Visa was little more than a set of unorthodox convictions about organization slowly growing in the mind of a young corporate rebel (9:03) Dee's first jobs (21:44) Learning how mechanistic, Industrial Age organizations really function (28:17) Useful questions to ask in your organization (34:30) A failure at 36 years old (38:33) The environment from which Visa emerged (46:41) Healthy vs Unhealthy Organizations (55:19) Focus on how your product or company " ought to be " and nothing else. (57:30) I had held fast to the notion that until someone has repeatedly said "no!" and adamantly refuses another word on the subject, they are in the process of saying "yes" and don't know it yet . –Dee Hock (1:03:55) His biggest regret: The fight against duality (monopoly) (1:04:35) How Dee Hock dealt with stress (1:07:00) His biggest regret: The fight against duality (monopoly) continued (1:09:52) Dee's surprising conclusion about his work (1:16:50) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, October 08, 2018
#41 The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
What I learned from reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz. --- There's no recipe for complicated, dynamic situations [0:01] Meeting Marc Andreessen [8:30] The co-founder relationship between Marc and Ben [11:00] How they came up with the idea for Loudcloud (Opsware) / A business is just an idea that will make someone's life better. —Richard Branson [13:45] Ben finds value by asking the question: What would I do if we went bankrupt? [21:05] Sell the wrong product to find the right one [22:30] Saving a $20 million a year customer by buying a $10 million company [23:16] Do not play the odds [27:27] Discount praise. Focus on what can be fixed [28:32] Why training is so important (compounding effect) [31:20] Difference between large company executives and founders [32:00] Why it is a good idea to collect good ideas [34:00] Determination is more important than intelligence [35:30] Your culture should be unique / Using shock to create behavioral change [38:24] There is no founder school [40:30] Perseverance is more important than intelligence [41:01] Copy from great founders [46:50] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, October 02, 2018
#40 Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid
What I learned from reading Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid --- If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it, and don’t think anything of personalities, or emotional conflicts, or of money, or of family distractions; if you just think of, detail by detail, what you have to do next, it is a wonderful dream. [0:01] Edwin Land was a pioneer whose inventions were dismissed, and yet he created a great company by dint of pure stubbornness . [2:33] He [Steve Jobs] didn't yet have the skills to build a great company, but he admired those who had pulled it off and he would go to great lengths to meet them and learn from them . [3:03] Steve admired many things about Land: his obsessive commitment to creating products of style, practicality, and great consumer appeal. His reliance on gut instinct rather than consumer research and the restless obsession and invention he brought to the company he founded. [4:07] Recounting his life is a meditation on the nature of innovation . [5:15] We use bull’s eye empiricism. We try everything but we try the right things first. [6:06] Land clearly did not wish to waste his powers on me too innovations [6:34] Don’t do anything that someone else can do . Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible. [6:55] He held that the business of business was something different, making things that people didn’t know they wanted until they were available. [7:26] He thought and acted on a large stage. [8:34] Over and over he talked about his obsessions: autonomy, learning, education, vision, perception, the mind, and the mining of exhausted veins of knowledge for new gold . [9:14] Land on the problem with formal education: A student would get a message that a secret dream of greatness is a pipe dream . That it would be a long time before he makes a significant contribution, if ever. [13:18] From this day forward, until the day you are buried, do two things each day. First master a difficult old insight and second, add some new piece of knowledge to the world. [17:12] Edwin Land on perseverance: I was totally stubborn about being blocked. Nothing or nobody could stop me from carrying through the execution of the experiments. [18:04] Edwin Land on the difference between individuals and groups: Intelligent men in groups are —as a rule—stupid . [18:15] There's a rule they don't teach you at Harvard business school. It is, if anything is worth doing it's worth doing to excess . [20:02] Steve Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land, calling him "a national treasure". [23:33] Steve
Mon, September 24, 2018
#39 Walt Disney: An American Original
What I learned from reading Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas --- He seemed eager to sum up the lessons he had learned and tell people how he applied them in his life. [0:01] He worked long hours over drawings in his room. Never revealing a project until he completed it. [5:32] Walt Disney's first business: Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists [9:34] Walt Disney's second business: Laugh-O-Gram Films [13:30] Walt Disney's third business: The Walt Disney Company [17:03] "Should the idea or name be exploited in any other way, such as toys or merchandise we shall share equally." / Jeff Bezos on the importance of sleep [21:08] Committees throttle creativity [25:31] It is normal to doubt yourself when you are creating something. Walt Disney doubted the quality of Steamboat Willie. What would go on to be one of the most famous cartoons ever created. [33:28] People don't know what is good until the public tells them/Or how to get film distributors to come to you [37:10] The power of licensing Disney characters [42:06] Advice from Charlie Chaplin [47:17] You can't top pigs with pigs [52:29] A most unusual response to financial calamity [57:42] The Army takes over Disney's studio [1:00:53] An amazing meeting with the founder of Bank of America [1:04:00] Coming up with the idea for Disneyland [1:09:30] Maniacal focus on the customer [1:18:00] Disneyland prints money [1:22:30] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, September 17, 2018
#38 The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
What I learned from reading The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport. --- [0:54] Musk and Bezos were the leaders of this resurrection of the American space program, a pair of billionaires with vastly different styles and temperaments. Always audacious, Musk had plowed far ahead, his triumphs and failures commanding center stage. Bezos remained quiet and clandestine, his mysterious rocket venture kept hidden behind the curtain. [1:36] Musk, the brash hare, was blazing a trail for others to follow, while Bezos, the secretive and slow tortoise, who was content to take it step by step in a race that was only just beginning. [13:46] “How is the situation in the year 2000 different from 1960? What has changed?” he said. “The engines can be somewhat better, but they’re still chemical rocket engines. What’s different is computer sensors, cameras, software. Being able to land vertically is the kind of problem that can be addressed by those technologies that existed in 2000 that didn’t exist in 1960.” [17:33] He started a company called Zip2 that would help print newspapers get their content online, and it immediately had customers lining up, from the New York Times to Hearst. Musk sold the company to Compaq in 1999 for about $300 million. His next venture was called X.com, an online bank that merged with PayPal. The online financial payment system grew fast, gaining a million customers within two years. eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, netting Musk $180 million. He was thirty-one years old. [20:27] Musk, a ravenous reader of science fiction, had expected that by this point in his life there’d be a base on the moon and trips to Mars powered by the robust space program built on the Apollo lunar missions. If in the 1960s, the United States could send a man to the moon in less than a decade, surely there were more great things to come. He was overcome with what he called a “feeling of dismay.” “I just did not want Apollo to be our high-water mark,” he said. “We do not want a future where we tell our children that this was the best we ever did. Growing up, I kept expecting we’re going to have a base on the moon, and we’re going to have trips to Mars. Instead, we went backwards, and that’s a great tragedy.” [21:09] Musk had read every book he could find on the subject, as Beal had. And he came away convinced that the best way to acquire a rocket was to build it himself, no matter how many times friends told him he was crazy. [23:54] He wasn’t just selling his rocket, but what it represented—the crazy idea that a small startup could succeed in space. [25:59] Musk was intense, preternaturally focused, and extremely determined. “This was not the kind of guy who was going to accept failure.” [26:38] Most of us struggle with fear. We dread looking dumb. I found Elon fearless in this regard. He’s not afr
Sun, September 09, 2018
#37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King
What I learned from reading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. --- When he arrived in America in 1891 at age fourteen, Zemurray was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans sixty-nine years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. In between he worked as a fruit peddler, a banana hauler, a dockside hustler, and the owner of plantations on the Central American isthmus. He batted and conquered United Fruit, which was one of the first truly global corporations. [0:01] Zemurray’s life is a parable of the American dream. It told me that the life of the nation was not written only by speech-making grandees in funny hats but also by street-corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real. [0:31] How Sam Zemurray started: He’d arrived on the docks at the start of the last century with nothing. In the early years, he’d had to make his way in the lowest precincts of the fruit business, peddling ripes, bananas other traders dumped into the sea. He worked like a dog and defied the most powerful people in the country. [2:26] He was driven by the same raw energy that has always attracted the most ambitious to America. You did not need to be a Rockefeller to know the basics of the dream: Start at the bottom, fight your way to the top. [3:35] He believed in staying close to the action—in the fields with the workers, in the dives with the banana cowboys. You drink with a man, you learn what he knows. There is no problem you can’t solve if you understand your business from A to Z. [4:33] His real life began when he saw that first banana. He devised a plan soon after: he would travel to where the fruit boats arrived from Central America, purchase a supply of his own, carry them back to Selma, and go into business. [6:24] See opportunity where others see nothing: The bananas that did not make the cut were designated “ripes” and heaped in a sad pile. These bananas, though still good to eat, would never make it to market in time. As far as the merchants were concerned, they were trash. Sam grew fixated on ripes, recognizing a product where others had seen only trash. [6:54] As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit were too slow-footed to cover ground. It was a calculation based on arrogance. I can be fast where others have been slow. I can hustle where others have been satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade. Zemurray stumbled upon a niche: overlooked at the bottom of the trade. [8:08] His business grows rapidly: Because Zemurray discovered a patch of fertile ground previously untilled, his business grew by leaps and bounds. In 1899, he sold 20,000 bananas. Within a decade he w
Mon, September 03, 2018
#36 Finding The Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent
What I learned from reading Finding The Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent by Nolan Bushnell. --- A pong is a piece of advice designed to help enhance creativity. It applies to only where the advice is helpful. Unlike a rule which thinks itself applicable to every situation. (4:36) Cherish the pink-haired. (16:53) Hire the obnoxious: Steve Jobs believed he was always right and was willing to push harder and longer than other people who might have had equally good ideas but caved under pressure. (19:07) Expect to be criticized. Everyone said Atari was nuts. When I explained Chuck E Cheese they laughed. "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad." President of Michigan Savings Bank, advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in Ford Motor Company, 1903 (20:23) One of the best ways to find creative people is to ask a simple question: What books do you like? (24:15) When your company establishes that anyone can and should contribute, you will end up hearing some very good suggestions coming from unlikely places. (26:03) I strongly believe that everyone who wants to be creative must find a place where their mind can be alone and untouched any the insanity of complexity. (30:20) Champion bad ideas: WD-40 is called that because the first 39 versions of the product failed. WD-40 stands for “Water Displacement, 40th formula.” (32:11) Any idiot can say no. There’s no mental process there. If you don’t like something, the trick is to think of something better. (37:04) Invent haphazard holidays. Unplanned days off for the entire company (38:00) Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had a good idea. The thing that matters is what you do with the idea once you get out of the shower. So if there’s only one thing you take from this book, it’s this: You must act! Do something! (41:29) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 26, 2018
#35 George Lucas: A Life
What I learned from reading George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. --- Lucas unapologetically invested in what he believed in the most: himself . “What we’re striving for is total freedom, where we can finance our pictures, make them our way, release them where we want them released, and be completely free to express ourselves,” explained Lucas. “That’s very hard to do in the world of business. In this country, the only thing that speaks is money and you have to have the money in order to have the power to be free.” George looked at it like a businessman, saying, ‘Wait a minute. The studios borrowed money, took a 35 percent distribution fee off the top. This is crazy. Why don’t we borrow the money ourselves?' Some of the bravest and/or most reckless acts were not aesthetic, but financial. My thing about art is that I don’t like the word art because it means pretension and bullshit, and I equate those two directly. I don’t think of myself as an artist, and I don’t think I ever will. I’m a craftsman. I don’t make a work of art; I make a movie. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go through what you have to go through to make a movie. It’s excruciating. It’s horrible. You get physically sick. I get a very bad cough and a cold whenever I direct. I don’t know whether it’s psychosomatic or not. You feel terrible. There is an immense amount of pressure, and emotional pain. But I do it anyway, and I really love to do it. It’s like climbing mountains. I was seriously, seriously depressed at that point because nothing had gone right. Everything was screwed up. I was desperately unhappy. That was a very dark period for me. We were in dire financial straits. I was in debt to my parents, in debt to Francis Coppola, in debt to my agent; I was so far in debt I thought I’d never get out . He was fascinated not only by Scrooge McDuck’s exploits but also by his conniving capitalist ways. “Work smarter, not harder,” was Scrooge’s motto, and his stories were full of inventive schemes that, more often than not, made him even richer and more successful. In Scrooge’s world, hard work paid off, yes — but so did cleverness and a desire to do something in a way no one had ever thought of before. The lessons Lucas learned from Uncle Scrooge would shape the kind of artist and businessman he would become in the future: conservative and driven, believing strongly in his own vision and pursuing it aggressively . I sit at my desk for eight hours a day no matter what happens, even if I don’t write anything. It’s a terrible way to live. But I do it; I sit down and I do it. I can’t get out of my chair until five o clock or five-thirty. It’s like being in school. It’s the only way I can force myself to write. Most days, no words would be written at all. At 5:30 he would
Mon, August 20, 2018
#34 Creativity Inc: The Autobiography of the founder of Pixar
What I learned from reading Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull. --- Lead with a light touch (18:59) Anchor yourself with your why (23:35) Bet on yourself (39:54) Decentralize problem-solving (52:56) People are more important than ideas (1:00:45) Analyze ways to improve your process after a project is complete (1:24:10) Keep a startup mentality (1:26:36) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 12, 2018
#33 Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World
What I learned from reading Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World by Lynn Downey --- [0:01] Levi was one of the men who set that firm foundation [17:35] I do not have at this time a specific occupation...I will share the fate that has been assigned to me [22:29] Enduring hardship for the ultimate goal [29:24] A hole in the market [42:00] Levi starts his business cold [54:18] The dangers of shipping by sea [1:04:42] Inventing Jeans by accident [1:10:00] Overnight success 20 years in the making [1:17:40] How Levi was able to serve customers who were illiterate or spoke another language ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, August 09, 2018
#32 Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built
What I learned from reading Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark. --- Crazy Jack (0:01) The internet is filling the void created by state planning (6:59) Jack has made a career out of being underestimated: “I am a very simple guy. I am not smart. I might have a smart face but I’ve got very stupid brains.” (20:35) Jack’s early life / Discipline and Curiosity (24:43) Jack Magic: “ Nobody saw the opportunity in this business. We didn’t make much money at first, but Jack persevered…I respect him tremendously for he has a a great ability to motivate people and he can invest things that seem hopeless with exciting possibility. He can make those around him get excited about life.” (40:00) Jack’s first time on the Internet (47:06) Another lucky break: Meeting Yahoo Founder Jerry Yang (55:45) Making money from shrimp (57:02) The worst deal he ever made (1:00:43) Masayoshi Son: Founder of Softbank (1:04:45) Be the last man standing (1:10:16) Ebay vs Alibaba: A case study in what not to do (1:13:32) Yahoo’s billion-dollar bet (1:23:00) Jack’s unique reaction to the financial crisis (1:27:00) Alipay’s ownership changes / One of the craziest stories I’ve read (1:33:12) If I had another life, I would keep my company private (1:46:10) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, August 02, 2018
#31 Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
What I learned from reading Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future --- Culture Eats Strategy [1:45] Conspiracy as a metaphor for a company [3:56] It is a story of poetic justice on a grand scale plotted silently for nearly a decade [6:02] Something in these pages planted itself deep into Thiel's mind when he first read it long ago [15:25] It was ruthless efficiency and hyper-competence. [21:40] You were driven to entrepreneurship because it was a safe space from consensus and from convention. [34:36] What if I do something about this? What might happen? What might happen if I do nothing? Which is riskier, to act or to ignore? [38:52] Sometimes these books teach us what not to do. [59:06] Unknown unknowns > known knowns [1:11:10] How you do one thing is how you do all things. [1:25:47] He had always been aggressive. He wouldn't have gotten where he was in life if he wasn't. [1:30:35] Companies routinely focus on silly things. [1:32:38] The greatest sin of a leader.[1:37:17] How resourceful is Peter Thiel?[1:41:37] Just keep asking why.[1:47:29] Gentlemen: You have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you for the laws too slow. I'll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt. [1:53:37] Brilliant thinking is rare but courage is even in shorter supply [1:58:50] The business version of our contrarian question is: What valuable company is nobody building? [2:01:39] This Twisted logic is part of human nature, but it's disastrous in business. If you can recognize competition as a destructive force instead of a sign of value, you're already saner than most. [2:16:11] Steve Jobs saw that you can change the world through careful planning. Not by listening to focus groups feedback or copying others success. [2:19:53] You can have agency not just over your own life, but over a small and important part of the world. It begins by rejecting the unjust tyranny of chance. [2:21:05] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, July 09, 2018
#30 Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
What I learned from reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance. --- I don't want to be the person who ever has to compete with Elon (0:47) Musk expects you to keep up (2:45) Short of building an actual money-crushing machine, Musk could not have picked a faster way to destroy his fortune. He became a one-man, ultra-risk-taking venture capital shop (4:41) Revisit old ideas (5:22) It was not unusual for him to read ten hours a day (7:49) His approach to dating mirrors his approach to work (9:32) Humans are deeply mimetic (10:59) Thinking from first principles (14:37) What it is like to work with Elon Musk (17:40) He would place this urgency that he expected the revenue in ten years to be ten million dollars a day and that every day we were slower to achieve our goals was a day of missing out on that money (19:28) What he went through in 2008 would have broken anyone else. He didn't just survive. He kept working and stayed focused (23:29) A tenet of Elon's companies: make as many things yourself as possible (25:39) The power of the individual in an age of infinite leverage (27:31) The Internet taught me nearly everything I know. It is the modern day equivalent to the library of Alexandria, except it's much harder to burn to the ground. It is indispensable for realizing human rights, combating inequality, accelerating development, and quickening the pace of human progress (29:37) Focusing on the endpoint (30:19) Grand Theft Life (32:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, July 02, 2018
#29 The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company
What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard. --- [0:01] How Steve Jobs was inspired by David Packard [1:00] Books are the original hyperlinks [4:30] Profit is the measure of how well we work together [9:00] HP's first product [11:00] Podcasts before podcasts [14:00] Many of the things I learned in this process were invaluable, and not available in business schools [15:00] More businesses die from indigestion than starvation [16:30] The importance of maintaining a narrow focus [20:00] Growth from profit [21:00] Lessons from the Great Depression = No long term debt [26:30] A Maverick's persistence [29:00] How to avoid layoffs in a recession [30:20] Employees should outgrow you [31:00] The perils of centralization [35:00] Closing with optimism ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, June 25, 2018
#28 The Wright Brothers
What I learned from reading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough --- Unyielding determination (2:30) Jocko's concept of GOOD (4:00) The ability to focus on an idea for a long time is the antidote to short bursts of dopamine we get from checking social feeds all day. (6:30) The beginning of their side business (13:00) The importance of heroes (16:00) Rereading / revisiting old ideas (18:30) Books transformed idle curiosity into the active zeal of workers (22:00) Wilbur Wright on risk: “ The man who wishes to keep at the problem long enough to really learn anything positively must not take dangerous risks. Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks .” (24:30) Jeff Bezos on stress (25:00) Discover things for yourself (28:00) " Success it most certainly was. " (31:00) Profitability of flying machines (33:30) The distribution channel of flying machines (35:00) Wilbur Wright on the idea of flight: " In the enthusiasm being shown around me, I see not merely an outburst intended to glorify a person, but a tribute to an idea that has always impassioned mankind. I sometimes think that the desire to fly after the fashion of birds is an ideal handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air ." (38:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, June 15, 2018
#27 A Truck Full of Money: Coding, Mania, Love, Genius: The Life of an American Entrepreneur
What I learned from reading A Truck Full of Money: Coding, Mania, Love, Genius: The Life of an American Entrepreneur by Tracy Kidder --- [7:00] Kayak sells for $1.8 billion [12:00] "I'm paying attention. I want meetings of three people, not ten." [15:00] "Someday this boy's going to get hit by a truck full of money, and I'm going to be standing beside him." [22:30] A description of Paul's bipolar disorder [31:00] The economics of games [36:30] Learning how to negotiate from his Dad [43:00] "The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven't figured this out yet." [50:00] Leaving a $1,000,000 behind [55:00] Applying the lessons he learned from watching his Dad negotiate [58:30] The entrepreneur of ice [1:01:00] "Consistency doesn't matter. Only invention matters." ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Wed, May 02, 2018
#26 My Life and Work: The Autobiography of Henry Ford
What I learned from My Life and Work: The Autobiography of Henry Ford . --- A theory of business (0:01) If an old idea works then the weight of the evidence is all in its favor. The Lindy Effect. (7:30) All people are not equal (11:00) " That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom " (15:00), " I quit my job on August 15th, 1899 and went into the automobile business " (19:30) Henry Ford's philosophy on constant change (25:00) Henry Ford's 3 conclusions about business (26:00) Traits of a prosperous business (29:45) I cannot discover that anyone knows enough about anything on this earth definitely to say what is and what is not possible. .We get some of our best results from letting fools rush in where angels fear to tread . (34:00) Fix the problem. Do not think money will be the solution. (40:00) Overcome fear. Be free. (44:00) Fuck your feelings (52:30) Henry Ford's 4 principles of business (56:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, April 22, 2018
#25 Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson
What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson --- I am a creator of products, a builder of things. [0:01] This book is the story of 15 years of struggle to finally invent, own, and sell his own product. [1:35] This is the exposition of a business philosophy which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. [2:11] The first 75% to 80% of the book is just struggle after struggle. [2:47] Dyson had a bunch of people that he looked up to that motivated him as a young man. Thomas Edison is one of those people. [4:51] Such reverence has been accorded to the miserable wheel —that perhaps that alone can account for the fact it was never improved. Perhaps millions of people in the last few years had ideas for improving it. All I did was take things a little further than just having an idea . [6:10] The look of the product —the intangible style that sets one thing apart from another—is still closest to my heart. [7:04] After the idea there is plenty of time to learn the technology. My first cyclonic vacuum cleaner was built out of cereal packets and masking tape long before I understood how it worked . [8:09] The greatest lesson for aspiring inventors was yet to come. The actual making of money. Paper stuff in thick wads which they finally give to you because you have done something good. [8:40] The best kind of business is one where you could sell a product at a high price with a good margin and in enormous volumes. That type of investment is long term, high risk , and not very British. Or at least it looks like a high-risk policy. It is not so likely to prove hazardous to one’s financial health as simply following the herd . [9:25] Difference for the sake of it . In everything. Because is must be better. From the moment the ideas strikes, to the running of the business. Difference, and retention of total control . [10:39] This is not even a business book. If anything it is a book against business, against the principles that have filled the world with ugly, useless objects . [11:37] Everybody told James over and over and over again “Who are you to think that you could invent a better vacuum cleaner? If that was possible Hoover would have done it already." [12:44] We all want to make our mark. We all want to make beautiful things and a little money . We all have our own ideas about how to do it. What follows just happens to be my way. [13:15] I have been a misfit throughout my professional life, and that seems to have worked for my advantage. Misfits are not born or made. They make themselves . [13:45] I took on the big boys at their own game, made them look very silly, just by being true to myself. [15
Sun, April 15, 2018
#24 No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet
What I learnd by reading No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet by Molly Knight Raskin. --- When Danny was excited about something, you couldn't help but get excited too (3:00) Steve Jobs had one speed: GO! (6:00) Danny joins Israel's special forces (10:00) "Life is too short to be bored. Only boring people are bored." (19:00) The idea for Akamai (22:00) "If he didn't know something, he'd go learn it." (28:00) Building a company the right way (31:00) Finding a business model (35:00) Passion is worth $500,000 (38:30) The first product (42:00) "My goal was to express it in layman's terms so that your grandmother could understand it." (44:00) Finding the right price/model (45:00) The best salesperson (48:10) "Hi, this is Steve Jobs, and I want to buy your company." (54:00) "I have this company of one hundred ten people, headed by one of the biggest businessmen around with lots of money in the bank, and I'm just a graduate student." (57:00) "In less than one year, a tiny startup out of MIT had grown to a company with a market valuation than that of General Motors" (58:30) The last day of Danny's life (1:00:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sat, April 07, 2018
#23 The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
What I learned from reading The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis --- He grew up poor, dropped out of high school, and made himself 3 or 4 billion dollars (0:01), New Growth Theory (8:00), "Growth is just another word for change." (11:15), "The notion of what constituted useful work had broadened." (15:00), "If everyone was patient there'd be no new companies." (18:00), Turning his life around at 38 (21:00), Jim's idea to avoid the Innovator's Dilemma (30:00), The beginning of Netscape (33:00), The fast eat the slow (38:00), The people you don't want (40:00), The difference between a pig and a chicken /"They had wanted to be chickens; Clark forced them to be pigs" (43:00), All chips on 00 / Diversification is for idiots (48:00), Moving the goalposts / "Mama, I'm going to show Plainview." (56:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, March 20, 2018
#22 How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story
What I learned from reading How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher. --- I'm not going to work for someone else (0:01) Early design decisions of Snapchat (7:45) Evan idolized Steve Jobs and Edwin Land (10:00) How Snapchat convinced people to download the app (13:00) How Facebook created the environment for Snapchat to grow (16:00) The problem of standard (21:00) Evan on conforming (23:00) Mark Zuckerberg's first move on Snapchat (27:00) A great quote from Jeff Bezos (34:30) Digital Dualism (36:30) Snapchat Stories (39:00) Evan's framework for Snapchat and the Internet Everywhere (44:45) Learning from messaging apps in Asia (50:00) Brands are not social. People are. (55:00) Evan's philosophy on the distinction between privacy and secrecy (59:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, March 01, 2018
#21 Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
What I learned from reading Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. --- [0:35] For a new generation, Carmack and Romero personified an American dream: they were self-made individuals who had transformed their personal passions into a big business, a new art form, and a cultural phenomenon. [1:19] His (John Carmack) game and life aspired to the elegant discipline of computer code. [1:40] Romero wants an empire. I just want to create good programs. [3:07] No matter what Romero suffered he could always escape back into games. [4:55] Romero’s stepdad smashed Romero’s face into the machine as punishment for playing video games. [5:24] He beat Romero until the boy had a fat lip and a black eye. Romero was grounded for two weeks. The next day he snuck back to the arcade. [7:40] One afternoon his father left to pick up groceries. Romero wouldn't see him again for two years. [8:53] Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark. (Founders #32) [10:20] Arcade games were bringing in $5 billion a year. Home systems were earning $1 billion. His stepfather did not believe game development to be a proper vocation. You'll never make any money making games he often said. [11:28] A business is just an idea or service that makes somebody's life better. —Richard Branson [12:58] Richard Garriott came to fame in the early eighties through his own initiative + Explore/Create: My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark by Richard Garriott. [13:20] Ken and Roberta Williams also pioneered the Ziploc distribution method, turning their homemade graphical role-playing games into a $10 million–a–year company. [14:19] Carmack quickly distinguished himself when he was only seven years old. He scored nearly perfect on every standardized test placing himself at a ninth grade comprehension level. [15:03] The Cook and The Chef by Tim Urban [16:05] Carmack had never worked on a computer before but took to the device as if it were an extension of his own body. [16:39] All they desired is be able to create their own world. [17:08] The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich. (Founders #14) [17:44] He read the passage about computers in the encyclopedia a dozen times. [18:36] He relished this ability to create things out of thin air. As a programmer he didn't have to rely on anyone else. [18:54] A book that inspired John Carmack: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Stephen Levy [20:35] When Carmack finished
Tue, February 06, 2018
#20 Danny Meyer (The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business)
What I learned from reading Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer. This is not a typical business book (0:30) Why don't you just do what you've been thinking about doing your whole life? (4:00) How Danny learned from other founders on what to do and what to avoid (8:00) The smartest business decision I ever made (18:00) Optionality as a non-negotiable (20:00) Inadequate focus on core product (23:30) The founding of Shake Shack is an example of this great quote from Jeff Bezos: "We know from our past experiences that big things start small. The biggest oak starts from an acorn. If you want to do anything new you’ve got to be willing to let that acorn grow into a little sapling and finally into a small tree and maybe one day it will be a big business on its own." (27:00) Advice from Stanley Marcus (Neiman Marcus): "The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled." (38:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, January 19, 2018
#19 Becoming Steve Jobs
What I learned from reading Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. --- Learning from great company-builders (0:30) Steve Jobs verbal mastery (5:00) The failed negotiations between NeXT and IBM (10:00) "But how can he be a turnaround expert when he eats his lunch alone in his office, with food served to him on china that looks like it came from Versailles?" (18:00) "You can't go to the library and find a book titled The Business Model for Animation . The reason you can't is because there's only one company [Disney] that's ever done it well, and they were not interested in telling the world how lucrative it was." (22:00) Bill Gates on Steve's simplicity (29:00) Steve Jobs on being an artist (33:00) Apple pays half billion dollars to rehire Steve Jobs (34:00) "The company is one of the most amazing inventions of humans, this abstract construct that is incredibly powerful." (38:00) Unlocking secrets (42:00) Who gives a fuck about the channel? (45:00) "It's not about how fast you do something, it's about doing your level best." (52:00) Deep Restlessness (55:00) "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." (59:00) Bill Gates on the negotiations between Pixar and Disney (1:08:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, January 08, 2018
#18 Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
What I learned from reading Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. --- I had always avoided thinking of myself as a businessman. I was a climber, a surfer, a kayaker, a skier, and a blacksmith. We simply enjoyed making good tools and functional clothes. [0:01] One day it dawned on me that I was a businessman and would probably be one for a long time. I knew that I would never be happy playing by the normal rules of business ; I wanted to distance myself as far as possible from this pasty-faced corpses in suits I saw in airline magazine ads. If I had to be a businessman, I was going to do it on my own terms . [0:32] One of my favorite sayings about entrepreneurship is: If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing . [1:00] Work had to be enjoyable on a daily basis. [1:18] I’ve always thought of myself as an 80 percent. I like to throw myself passionately into an activity until I reach about an 80 percent proficiency level . To go beyond that requires an obsession and degree of specialization that doesn’t appeal to me. Once I reach that 80 percent level I like to go off and do something totally different. [4:05] Tom Brokaw on Yvon: It’s been helpful to me to be Yvon’s friend. He makes me think about things in new ways. [5:36] Can a company that wants to make the best-quality outdoor clothing in the world be the size of Nike? Can a ten-table, three-star French restaurant retain its third star when it adds fifty tables? The question haunted me throughout the 1980s as Patagonia evolved. [7:35] I continued to practice my MBA theory of management, management by absence, while I wear-tested our clothing and equipment in the most extreme conditions of the Himalayas and South America. [10:13] Throughout the book he’s has a really beautiful idea of comparing business and organizing human labor, to nature. Part of this idea is he intentionally puts Patagonia through a lot of stress because he feels you need stress to grow . [11:42] Doing risk sports had taught me another important lesson: Never exceed your limits. You push the envelope, but you don’t go over. You have to be true to yourself; you have to know your strengths and limitations and live within your means. The same is true for business. The sooner a company tries to be what it is not, the sooner it tries to have it all, the sooner it will die . [18:05] I did not yet know what we would do to get our company out of the mess it was in. But I did know we had to look to the Iroquois and their seven-generation planning, and not to corporate America, as models of stewardship and sustainability.
Mon, January 01, 2018
#17 Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
What I learned from reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, December 08, 2017
#16 Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller
What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. [0:01] Rockefeller was a unique hybrid in American business, both the instinctive first-generation entrepreneur who founded the company and the analytical second-generation manager who extends and develops it. [0:30] Having created an empire of unfathomable complexity, he was smart enough to see that he had to submerge his identity in the organization. [0:43] Don’t say that I out to do this or that. We ought to do it. Never forget that we are partners. Whatever is done for the general good is done for the good of us all. —John D. Rockefeller. [0:55] He preferred outspoken colleagues to weak-kneed sycophants. [1:14] That he created one of the first multinational corporations, selling kerosene around the world and setting a business pattern for the next century, was arguable his greatest feat. [2:48] The spot chosen for the new refinery tells much about Rockefeller’s approach to business. . . Able to ship by water or over land, Rockefeller gained the critical leverage he needed to secure preferential rates on transportation which was why he agonized over plant locations throughout his career. [6:02] This is before the invention of the car. Kerosene was the main byproduct of oil. People used it to have lighting in their houses. Before Rockefeller, only rich people were able to do this. After Rockefeller, everyone could do it. [6:41] There’s a lot of people making money in refining. People hear about other people making money in refining. They follow in like lemmings and this causes refining capacity to be triple the amount that is actually needed. By then 90% of refineries were operating in the red. [7:46] “So many wells were flowing that the price of oil kept falling, yet they went right on drilling.” — John D. Rockefeller. [8:08] “Often-times the most difficult competition comes, not from the strong, the intelligent, the conservative competitor, but from the man who is holding on by the eyelids and is ignorant of his costs, and anyway he's got to keep running or bust!” —John D. Rockefeller [8:57] As someone who tended toward optimism, seeing opportunity in every disaster, he studied the situation exhaustively instead of bemoaning his bad luck. [10:55] Rockefeller is hated for the creation of a cartel. He is hated for succeeding at it. There are many people trying to do very similar things. They would criticize Rockefeller for what they were attempting to do themselves. [14:46] From the outset, Rockefeller’s plans had a wide streak of megalomania. He said, “The Standard Oil company will someday refine all the oil and make all the barrels.” [15:35] Rockefeller decided that the leading men [executives] would receive no salary but would profit solely from the appreciation of their shares and rising dividends which Rockefeller thought
Fri, November 17, 2017
#15 Leonardo da Vinci: The Biography
What I learned from reading Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, September 17, 2017
#14 The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal
What I learned from reading The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich. Microsoft had offered Mark between $1 million and $2 million to go work for them. Amazingly, Mark had turned them down (1:25) Maybe he knew he was about to cross a line. But he had never been very good at staying in the lines. From Mark's history, it was obvious that he didn't like the sandbox. He seemed the type of kid that wanted to kick out all the sand. (8:01) He didn't care what time it was. To guys like Mark time was another weapon of the establishment. The great engineers and hackers didn't function under the same time constraints as everyone else. (11:23) Mark wondered: If people want to go online and check out their friends couldn't they build a website that did just that? (14:36) Mark. Founder. Master and Commander. Enemy of the State. (21:19) Instead of attacking Baylor head on they made a list of schools within 100 miles of it and dropped Facebook in those schools first. Within days the kids at Baylor begged for Facebook on their campus. (24:20) Mark Zuckerberg had found his place in the world (32:38) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 27, 2017
#13 Elon Musk and Why SpaceX Will Colonize Mars
What I learned from reading The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why by Tim Urban. In the most recent 1% of our species short existence, we have become the first life on earth to know about the situation (4:38) The total market for satellite manufacturing, the launches that carry them to space, and related equipment and services has ballooned from $60 billion in 2004 to over $200 billion in 2015 (8:41) Here is what SpaceX does: it takes things to space for people for money. Here is what SpaceX really does: it is an innovation machine trying to solve one big problem. The astronomical cost of space travel (9:13) For 1% we can buy life insurance (20:35) Up until 25 years ago there had never been such a thing as a global brain of god like information access and connectivity on this planet (23:26) Musk has said he doesn't care that much about your degree. Just raw talent, personality, and passion for the SpaceX mission (31:21) For domestic launches the ULA charges the government and the US taxpayer $380 million per launch. For a similar launch, the US government pays SpaceX $133 million (40:14) Life has to be about more than just solving problems. There have to be things that inspire you. (45:55) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 20, 2017
#12 Elon Musk & How Tesla Will Change The World
What I learned by reading How Tesla Will Change The World by Tim Urban Kindle version: The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why . ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, August 13, 2017
#11 The Cook & The Chef: Elon Musk's Secret Sauce
What I learned from reading The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why by Tim Urban Read The Cook & The Chef: Elon Musk's Secret Sauce on WaitButWhy . Quotes from this episode: Which leaves only two options: create or copy Conventional wisdom: If something is both a good idea and possible, it's already been done. I'm fascinated by those rare people in history who managed to dramatically change the world during their short time here, and I've always liked to study those people and read their biographies. Those people know something the rest of us don't and we can learn something valuable from them. Musk calls this reasoning from first principles. One of the most important parts of this podcast. Conventional wisdom screamed at the top of its lungs for him to stop. Your entire life runs on the software in your head. Why wouldn't you obsess over optimizing it? We mistake the chef's originality for brilliant ingenuity. The reason these outrageously smart people are so humble about what they know is that they are aware that unjustified certainty is the bane of understanding and the death of effective reasoning. Conventional wisdom worships the status quo and always assumes that everything is the way it is for a good reason. And history is one long record of status quo dogma being proven wrong again and again, every time some chef comes around and changes things. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Thu, July 27, 2017
#10 Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
What I learned from reading Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. The best teacher I ever had, one of the finest men I ever knew, spoke of the Oregon Trail often. It’s our birthright, he’d growl. Our character, our fate—our DNA. “The cowards never started, the weak died along the way—that leaves us.” [0:35] Some outsized sense of possibility mixed with a diminished capacity for pessimism. [1:03] I found it difficult to say what or who exactly I was, or might become . Like all my friends I wanted to be successful. I didn’t know what that meant. [2:11] Deep down I was searching for something else, something more. I had an aching sense that our time is short, shorter than we ever know. And I wanted mine to be meaningful . And purposeful. And creative. And important. Above all . . .different . [2:35] I asked myself: What if there were a way, without being an athlete, to feel what athletes feel? To play all the time, instead of working? Or to enjoy work so much that it becomes essentially the same thing? [4:23] The only answer was to find some prodigious, improbable dream that seemed worthy, that seemed fun, that seemed like a good fit, and chase it with a single-minded dedication and purpose . [4:47] Maybe my Crazy Idea just might . . . work? Maybe. No, no, I thought. It will work. By God, I’ll make it work. No maybes about it . [5:29] So much about those days has vanished. Faces, numbers, decisions that once seemed pressing and irrevocable, they’re all gone. [6:39] What remains is this one comforting certainty, this one anchoring truth that will never go away. At 24 I did have a Crazy Idea, and somehow, despite being dizzy with existential angst, and fears about the future, and doubts about myself, as all young men and women in their mid - twenties are, I did decide that the world is made up of crazy ideas. History is one long processional of crazy ideas . The things I loved most — books, sports, democracy, free enterprise — started as crazy ideas. [7:03] So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy. Just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there. Whatever comes, just don’t stop . [7:45] That is the advice I managed to give myself, out of the blue, and somehow managed to take. Half a century later, I believe it’s the best advice — maybe the only advice — any of us should ever give. [8:08] I knew Japanese cameras had made deep cuts into the camera market, which had once been dominated by Germans. I argued in my paper that Japanese running shoes might do the same thing. [9:00] He was impressed. It took balls to put together an itinerary like that, he said. Balls. He wanted in. [12:01] Carter ne
Mon, July 10, 2017
#9 I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford
What I learned from reading I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Tue, June 20, 2017
#8 The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company
What I learned from reading The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company by Michael Malone. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sat, May 27, 2017
#7 Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's
What I learned from reading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, May 14, 2017
#6 Sam Walton
What I learned from reading Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sun, April 30, 2017
#5 Steve Jobs
What I learned from reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Wed, April 19, 2017
#4 The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
What I learned from reading The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Fri, March 24, 2017
#3 The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Edison Invented The Modern the Modern World
What I learned from reading The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented The Modern World by Randall Stross Edison starts his first business at 12 years old (11:00) Edison's discipline (20:00) Edison's rivalry with Alexander Graham Bell (38:00) Edison's friendship with Henry Ford (1:00:00) Edison's stoic nature (1:15:00) The death of Thomas Edison (1:21:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, October 10, 2016
#2 Walt Disney
What I learned from reading Walt Disney based on the book Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- “ I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers . ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mon, September 19, 2016
#1 Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, & the Quest for a Fantastic Future
What I learned from reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance The conventional wisdom of the time said to take a deep breath and wait for the next big thing to arrive in due course. Musk rejected that logic by throwing $100 million into SpaceX, $70 million into Tesla, and $10 million into SolarCity. Short of building an actual money crushing machine, Musk could not have picked a faster way to destroy his fortune. He became a one-man-ultra-risk taking venture capital shop and doubled down on making super-complex physical goods in two of the most expensive places in the world, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. [2:13] What Musk has developed that so many of the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley lack is a meaningful worldview. He’s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He’s less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory. [9:17] The life that Musk has created to manage all of these endeavors is preposterous. [9:53] He felt as if the public had lost some of its ambition and hope for the future. [14:34] His fears that mankind had lost much of its will to push the boundaries were reinforced one day when Musk went to the NASA website. He expected to find a detailed plan for exploring Mars and instead found bupkis. [14:58] The men were heading to Russia at the height of its freewheeling post-Soviet days when rich guys could apparently buy space missiles on the open market. [24:32] Musk wheeled around and flashed a spreadsheet he’d created. “Hey guys, I think we can build this rocket ourselves.” [27:53] Some of these people had spent years on the island going through one of the most surreal engineering exercises in human history. They had been separated from their families, assaulted by the heat, and exiled on their tiny launchpad outpost— sometimes without much food — for days on end as they waited for the launch windows to open and dealt with the aborts that followed. So much of that pain and suffering and fear would be forgotten if this launch went successfully. [32:17] It took six years-about four and half more than Musk had once planned — and five hundred people to make this miracle of modern science and business happen. [34:38] Well that was freaking awesome. There are a lot of people who thought we couldn’t do it. There are only a handful of countries on Earth that have done this. It’s normally a country thing, not a company thing. My mind is kind of frazzled, so it’s hard for me to say anything, but this is definitely one of the greatest days in my life. [35:19] To avoid bankruptcy Musk made a last-ditch effort to raise all the personal funds he could and put them into the company. “It was like the fucking Matrix,” Musk said, describing his financial maneuvers. [42:53] The 2008 period told him everything he would ever ne
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