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#258: Jay Gould (Dark Genius of Wall Street)
22 juli 2022 · 1 uur 39 min
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.
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[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]… Lees meer -
#257 Richard Garriott (Video Games and Space Exploration)
15 juli 2022 · 1 uur 18 min
What I learned from reading Explore/Create My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark by Richard Garriott.
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[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… Lees meer -
#256 Edward L. Bernays (Public Relations, Advertising, & Persuasion)
9 juli 2022 · 1 uur 18 min
What I learned from reading The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations by Larry Tye.
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[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 … Lees meer -
#255 Sam Zemurray (Banana King)
2 juli 2022 · 1 uur 30 min
What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen.
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[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 an… Lees meer -
#254 John D. Rockefeller: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers
27 juni 2022 · 1 uur 41 min
What I learned from reading John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke.
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com
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[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 pres… Lees meer -
#253 Henry Goldman (Goldman Sachs)
22 juni 2022 · 56 min
What I learned from reading When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street by June Breton Fisher.
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[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 ra… Lees meer -
#252 Socrates
17 juni 2022 · 47 min
What I learned from reading Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson.
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[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 any… Lees meer -
#251 Ben Franklin and George Washington: The Founding Partnership
13 juni 2022 · 57 min
What I learned from reading Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson.
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[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… Lees meer -
#250 Jacob Fugger (The Richest Man Who Ever Lived)
8 juni 2022 · 57 min
What I learned from reading The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger by Greg Steinmetz.
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[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 innovativ… Lees meer -
Steve Jobs's Heroes
2 juni 2022 · 31 min
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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!
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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 Wa… Lees meer -
#249 Steve Jobs In His Own Words
1 juni 2022 · 50 min
What I learned from reading I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm.
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com
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[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 hi… Lees meer -
#248 John D. Rockefeller (Titan)
28 mei 2022 · 1 uur 51 min
What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow.
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com
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[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… Lees meer -
#247 Henry Flagler (Rockefeller's partner)
19 mei 2022 · 1 uur 16 min
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.
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com
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[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… Lees meer -
#246 Mark Leonard's Shareholder Letters
13 mei 2022 · 56 min
What I learned from reading Constellation Software Inc. President's Letters by Mark Leonard.
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com
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[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 … Lees meer -
#245 Rick Rubin (In the Studio)
8 mei 2022 · 1 uur 21 min
What I learned from reading Rick Rubin: In the Studio by Jake Brown.
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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… Lees meer -
#244 Harry Snyder (In-N-Out Burger)
3 mei 2022 · 1 uur 5 min
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.
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[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 (Fou… Lees meer -
#243 Francis Greenburger (Real Estate Billionaire)
26 april 2022 · 1 uur 16 min
What I learned from reading Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur by Francis Greenburger.
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[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… Lees meer -
#242 Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life
21 april 2022 · 1 uur 29 min
What I learned from reading Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher.
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[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… Lees meer -
#241 The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies
14 april 2022 · 1 uur 27 min
What I learned from reading Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies by Lawrence Goldstone.
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[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 resul… Lees meer -
#240 Mozart: A Life
7 april 2022 · 46 min
What I learned from reading Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson.
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[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 on… Lees meer -
Steve Jobs and His Heroes
2 april 2022 · 30 min
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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!
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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 Wa… Lees meer -
#239 The Wright Brothers
29 maart 2022 · 1 uur 33 min
What I learned from rereading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.
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[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… Lees meer -
#238 Jay Z: Decoded
24 maart 2022 · 1 uur 58 min
What I learned from reading Decoded by Jay Z.
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[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… Lees meer -
#237 Julio Lobo (Cuba's Last Sugar Tycoon)
16 maart 2022 · 1 uur 11 min
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.
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[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 purch… Lees meer -
#236 Nims Purja (Mountain Climber)
12 maart 2022 · 1 uur 4 min
What I learned from reading Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime by Nims Purja.
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[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 beco… Lees meer -
#235 Steve Jobs (The Pixar Story)
7 maart 2022 · 1 uur 18 min
What I learned from reading To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy.
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[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… Lees meer -
#234 Sam Walton: Made In America
28 februari 2022 · 1 uur 55 min
What I learned from rereading Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton.
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[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 b… Lees meer -
#233 Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin (PayPal)
23 februari 2022 · 1 uur 54 min
What I learned from reading The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni.
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[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 Dominati… Lees meer -
#232 Alexander the Great
17 februari 2022 · 1 uur 3 min
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.
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[1:28] Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulleby 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 Andr… Lees meer -
#231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts)
12 februari 2022 · 1 uur 19 min
What I learned from reading Time to Make the Donuts: The Founder of Dunkin Donuts Shares an American Journey by William Rosenberg.
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[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 n… Lees meer -
#230 Lucille Ball (TV's biggest star)
7 februari 2022 · 1 uur 3 min
What I learned from reading Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball.
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[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 … Lees meer -
#229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon)
30 januari 2022 · 1 uur 34 min
What I learned from reading Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life by Sidney Harman
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[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 market… Lees meer -
#228 Michael Bloomberg
27 januari 2022 · 1 uur 21 min
What I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg.
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[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 su… Lees meer -
I read 66 biographies last year— Here are my top 10!
24 januari 2022 · 12 min
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 Lees meer----
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“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 -
#227 The Essays of Warren Buffett
20 januari 2022 · 1 uur 57 min
What I learned from reading The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham.
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[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] Founde… Lees meer -
#226 Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
12 januari 2022 · 1 uur 7 min
What I learned from reading Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson.
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[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 Blitzby 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 Collect… Lees meer -
#225 Winston Churchill
9 januari 2022 · 1 uur 23 min
What I learned from reading Churchill by Paul Johnson.
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[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 … Lees meer -
#224 Charles de Gaulle
6 januari 2022 · 1 uur 50 min
What I learned from reading Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson.
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[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 ex… Lees meer -
#223 Unstoppable: Siggi Wilzig's Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend
29 december 2021 · 1 uur 15 min
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.
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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 hap… Lees meer -
#222 Ed Thorp (My personal blueprint)
20 december 2021 · 1 uur 38 min
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.
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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, enjo… Lees meer -
#221 Charlie Munger
13 december 2021 · 1 uur 25 min
What I learned from reading Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe.
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[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… Lees meer -
#220 Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine
9 december 2021 · 1 uur 22 min
What I learned from reading Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates.
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[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 … Lees meer -
#219 Tony Bourdain: The Definitive Biography
30 november 2021 · 1 uur 47 min
What I learned from reading Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever.
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[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… Lees meer -
#218 Johan Cruyff (A Life of Total Football)
25 november 2021 · 58 min
What I learned from reading My Turn: A Life of Total Football by Johan Cruyff.
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[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. Lees meer----
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“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
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#217 Estée Lauder
18 november 2021 · 1 uur 23 min
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.
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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 a… Lees meer -
#216 Paul Van Doren (Founder of Vans)
14 november 2021 · 1 uur 29 min
What I learned from reading Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans by Paul Van Doren.
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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… Lees meer -
#215: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves (The General and the Genius)
9 november 2021 · 57 min
What I learned from reading The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka.
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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, diffic… Lees meer -
#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
3 november 2021 · 2 uur 12 min
What I learned from rereading Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson.
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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… Lees meer -
#213 Michael Jordan: Driven From Within
27 oktober 2021 · 1 uur 7 min
What I learned from reading Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil.
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[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, bu… Lees meer -
#212 Michael Jordan: The Life
23 oktober 2021 · 1 uur 38 min
What I learned from reading Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby.
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[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. Lees meer----
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