Founders

#104 Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA)

What I learned from reading Leading By Design: The Ikea Story by Ingvar Kamprad and Bertil Torekull. ---- [0:01]  He aims to give his company eternal life  [3:45] Early life and entrepreneurship   [8:00] The beginning of IKEA  [11:40] Learning entrepreneurship by imitating  [16:30] IKEA almost dies in infancy / how Ingvar worked his way through it  [26:00] Ingvar’s greatest regret in life: Neglecting his children for his business. “Everyone with children knows that childhood does not allow itself to be reconquered.”  [32:20] Only those asleep make no mistakes. — Ingvar Kamprad  [36:00] Thinking of the first store as a laboratory  [43:43] Why IKEA stumbled upon self assembled furniture  [46:30] A summary of the early history of IKEA  [49:00] How Ingvar managed  [54:00] Why Ingvar refused to go public  [1:03:30] The IKEA Company Bible: The Testament of a Furniture Dealer  [1:19:10] Ingvar the Misfit   ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#103 Hetty Green (The Richest Woman in America)

What I learned from reading The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach.  ---- [0:10] She was  the smartest woman on Wall Street, a financial genius, a railroad magnate, a real estate mogul, a Gilded Era renegade, a reliable source for city funds. [0:19] “I have had fights with some of the greatest financial men in the country. Did you ever hear of any of them getting ahead of Hetty Green?” [1:10] I go my own way, take no partners, risk nobody else’s fortune. [1:29] She was considered the single biggest individual financier in the world. [1:58]  A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (Founders #95) [2:55] Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. [3:31] Don’t close a bargain until you have reflected on it overnight. [4:00] I am always buying when everyone wants to sell, and selling when everyone wants to buy. [4:51] I never set out for anything that I don’t conquer. [5:55] To live content with small means; To seek elegance rather than luxury, And refinement rather than fashion; To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich. [7:27] Her father’s advice: Never owe anyone anything. [9:44] By the time she is 13 she is the family bookkeeper. [11:53] She paid attention when he (her father) repeated again and again that property was a trust to be taken care of and enlarged for future generations. She obeyed when he insisted that she keep her own accounts in order and later praised the experience. “There is nothing better than this sort of training,” she said. [13:28] Hetty hungered for money itself. [14:08] List of financial panics discussed in the book: Panic of 1857, Panic of 1866, The Long Depression 1873-1896 which had several panics within, (Panic of 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893) Panic 1901 and Panic of 1907. [16:18] She was a master at studying what happened before her. [16:31] The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by TJ Stiles. (Founders #54) and Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55) [17:15] Clever men like Russell Sage, a future role model for Hetty, kept substantial amounts of cash on hand and used it to buy stocks at rock-bottom prices. John Pierpont Morgan told his son there was a good lesson to be learned from other people’s greed and good bargains to be found in the aftermath. In future times, Hetty would always keep cash available and use it to buy when everyone else was selling. Much later, Warren Buffett would do the same. But most people watched their money wash away in the flood. [23:57] This was the start of the contrary investing she followed for the rest of her life: buying when everyone else was selling; selling when everyone else was buying. “I buy when things are low and nobody wants them. I keep them until they go up and people are crazy to get them. That is, I believe, the secret of all successful business,” she said. [26:46] Hetty, like Claude Shannon, Warren Buffett, and Ed Thorp, collected a lot of information. Hetty read more and studied more than most other people. [28:07] The opportunities were enormous for those with the stomach to take the risks. [30:25] The markets may change, the methods may be revamped, but as long as human beings are propelled by greed and ego, they are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. [31:11] She had a pile of cash when others were scouring for pennies, but she also had a deft mind and the colossal courage to push against the crowd. [36:17] Hetty’s investments were not always known: she purchased property under fictitious names, bought stocks under other identities, and was praised by shrewd observers for how closely she held her positions. [37:41] Williams greeted his new customer with all the courtesy and respect due a woman of her wealth. “I have observed that many a tattered garment hides a package of bonds and that gorgeous clothing does not always cover a millionaire,” he told his colleagues. [44:14] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen (Founders #37) [45:52] Hetty didn't like the idle rich. She respected authentic achievement. [48:48] Companies who stocks had skyrocketed collapsed when their lack of capital was revealed. [49:22] The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard. (Founders #29) [49:30] More companies die from indigestion than starvation. —David Packard [50:58] She used her intelligence to increase her wealth, her independence to live as she wished, and her strength to battle anyone who stood in her way. [55:24] They sought her out to sell off their possessions. As rates rose, more and more of “the solidest men in Wall Street,” she said, from “financiers to legitimate businessmen,” came to call, begging to unload everything from palatial mansions to automobiles. “They came to me in droves,” she recalled. [59:30] When it comes to spending your life, there have to be some things neglected. If you try to do too much, you can never get anywhere. [59:53] You see this advice over and over again. You just got to figure out what that thing is that you want to focus on. No one can answer that question for you. [1:00:14] I think the key to a happy life is getting to the end of your life with the least amount of regrets as possible. [1:00:24] She prized the life she led. “I enjoy being in the thick of things. I like to have a part in the great movements of the world and especially of this country. I like to deal with big things and with big men. I would rather do [this] than play bridge. Indeed, my work is my amusement, and I believe it is also my duty.” ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#102 Akio Morita (Sony)

What I learned from reading Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita.   --- [0:01] Forty years ago, a small group gathered in a burned-out department store building in war-devastated downtown Tokyo. Their purpose was to found a new company, their optimistic goal was to develop the technologies that would help rebuild Japan's economy. [5:00] I was born the first son and fifteenth-generation heir to one of Japan's finest and oldest sake-brewing families. The Morita family has been making sale for three hundred years. Unfortunately, the taste of a couple of generations of Morita family heads was so refined and their collecting skills so acute that the business suffered while they pursued their artistic interests, letting the business take care of itself, or, rather, putting it in other hands. They relied on hired managers to run the Morita company, but to these managers the business was no more than a livelihood, and if the business did not do well, that was to be regretted, but it was not crucial to their personal survival. In the end, all the managers stood to lose was a job. They did not carry the responsibility of the generations, of maintaining the continuity and prosperity of the enterprise and the financial well-being of the Morita family.  [8:18] Tenacity, perseverance, and optimism are traits that have been handed down to me through the family genes. [9:25] I was taught that scolding subordinates and looking for people to blame for problems—seeking scapegoats—is useless. These concepts have stayed with me and helped me develop the philosophy of management that served me very well. [10:28] I had to teach myself because the subjects I was really interested in were not taught in my school in those days. [14:09] The emperor, who until now had never before spoken directly to his people, told us the immediate future would be grim. He said that we could “pave the way for a grand peace for all generations to come," but we had to do it "by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." [23:58] When some of my relatives came to see me, they were so shocked by the shabby conditions that they thought I had become an anarchist. They could not understand how, if I was not a radical, I could choose to work in a place like that. [24:28] Ibuka and I had often spoken of the concept of our new company as an innovator, a clever company that would make new high technology products in ingenious ways. [29:36] We were engineers and we had a big dream of success. We thought that in making a unique product, we would surely make a fortune. I then realized that having unique technology and being able to make unique products are not enough to keep a business going. You have to sell the products, and to do that you have to show the potential buyer the real value of what you are selling.  [32:20] There was an acute shortage of stenographers because so many people had been pushed out of school and into war work. Until that shortage could be corrected, the courts of Japan were trying to cope with a small, overworked corps of court stenographers. We were able to demonstrate our machine for the Japan Supreme Court, and we sold twenty machines almost instantly! Those people had no difficulty realizing how they could put our device to practical use; they saw the value in the tape recorder immediately. [38:03] Marketing is really a form of communication. We had to educate our customers to the uses of our products. [39:15] We would often have the market to ourselves for a year or more before the other companies would be convinced that the product would be a success. And we made a lot of money, having the market all to ourselves. [40:20] The public does not know what is possible, but we do. So instead of doing a lot of market research, we refine our thinking on a product and its use and try to create a market for it by educating and communicating with the public. [42:33] Everybody gave me a hard time. It seemed as though nobody liked the idea [the Walkman]. “It sounds like a good idea, but will people buy it if it doesn't have recording capability? I don't think so." I said, “Millions of people have bought car stereo without recording capability and I think millions will buy this machine.” [46:38] "We definitely want some of these. We will take one hundred thousand units." One hundred thousand units! I was stunned. It was an incredible order, worth several times the total capital of our company. When he told me that there was one condition: we would have to put the Bulova name on the radios. That stopped me. We wanted to make a name for our company on the strength of our own products. We would not produce radios under another name. When I would not budge, he got short with me. "Our company name is a famous brand name that has taken over fifty years to establish," he said. "Nobody has ever heard of your brand name. Why not take advantage of ours?" I understood what he was saying, but I had my own view. “Fifty years ago," I said, “your brand name must have been just as unknown as our name is today. I am here with a new product, and I am now taking the first step for the next fifty years of my company. Fifty years from now I promise you that our name will be just as famous as your company name is, today." [49:04] When I attended middle school, discipline was very strict, and this included our physical as well as our mental training. Our classrooms were very cold in winter; we didn't even have a heater; and we were not allowed to wear extra clothes. In the navy,I had hard training. In boot camp every morning we had to run a long way before breakfast. In those days I did not think of myself as a physically strong person, and yet under such strict training I found I was not so weak after all, and the knowledge of my own ability gave me confidence in myself that I did not have before. It is the same with mental discipline; unless you are forced to use your mind, you become mentally lazy and you will never fulfill your potential. [52:06] Norio Ohga, who had been a vocal arts student at the Tokyo University of Arts when he saw our first audio tape recorder back in 1950. He was a great champion of the tape recorder, but he was severe with us because he didn't think our early machine was good enough.He was right, of course; our first machine was rather primitive. We invited him to be a paid critic even while he was still in school. His ideas were very challenging. He said then, "A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique." [54:21] Nobody can live twice, and the next twenty or thirty years is the brightest period of your life. You only get it once. When you leave the company thirty years from now or when your life is finished, I do not want you to regret that you spent all those years here. That would be a tragedy. I cannot stress the point too much that this is your responsibility to yourself. So I say to you, the most important thing in the next few months is for you to decide whether you will be happy or unhappy here. [59:40] My argument again and again was that by saving money instead of investing it in the business you might gain profit on a short-term basis, but in actual fact, you would be cashing in the assets that had been built up in the past. [1:00:00] One must prepare the groundwork among the customers before you can expect success in the marketplace. It is a time-honored Japanese gardening technique to prepare a tree for transplanting by slowly and carefully binding the roots over a period of time, bit by bit, to prepare the tree for the shock of the change it is about to experience. This process, called Nemawashi, takes time and patience, but it rewards you, if it is done properly, with a healthy transplanted tree. Advertising and promotion for a brand-new, innovative product is just as important. [1:01:19] If Japanese clients come into the office of a new and struggling company and see plush carpet and private offices and too much comfort, they become suspicious that this company is not serious, that it is devoting too much thought and company resources to management's comfort, and perhaps not enough to the product or to potential customers. Too often I have found in dealing with foreign companies that such superfluous things as the physical structure and office decor take up a lot more time and attention and money than they are worth. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#101 Warren Buffett (The Tao of Warren Buffett)

What I learned from reading The Tao of Warren Buffett by David Clark and Mary Buffett.  --- [0:01]The more I heard Warren speak, the more I learned. Not only about investing, but about business and life.  [4:02] The great personal fortunes in this country weren’t built on a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified one wonderful business.  [5:45] It is impossible to unsign a contract, so do all your thinking before you sign.  [8:35] I don’t try to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over.  [14:27] The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.  [19:00] My idea of a group decision is to look in the mirror.  [22:14] When management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.  [23:07] Managing your career is like investing—the degree of difficulty does not count. So you can save yourself money and pain by getting on the right train.  [24:55] There is a huge difference between the business that grows and requires lots of capital to do so and the business that grows and doesn’t require capital.  [27:00] I look for businesses in which I think I can predict what they’re going to look like in ten or fifteen year; time. Take Wrigley’s chewing gum. I don’t think the Internet is going to change how people chew gum  [28:50] You want to learn from experience, but you want to learn from other’s people’s experience when you can.  [29:20] The really good business manager doesn’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘This is the day that I am going to cut costs,’ any more than he wakes up and decides to practice breathing.  [30:07] A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought / A story from a young Steve Jobs  [31:55] The business schools reward difficult, complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.  [32:42] If you let yourself be undisciplined on the small things, you will probably be undisciplined on the large things as well.  [35:15] George Lucas unapologetically invested in what he believed in the most: Himself.  [41:15] No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.  ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#100 Warren Buffett (The Snowball)

What I learned from reading The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. ---- [0:01] What he was teaching were the lessons that had emerged from the unfolding of his own life  [4:35] The dichotomy of Warren Buffett  [9:20] Warren Buffett wants to be remembered as a teacher  [11:52] Buffett’s idea of Inner scorecard vs Outer scorecard  [13:49] Warren Buffett’s early family life  [18:03] Learning to avoid the habit of thinking in only one direction (18:03),  [24:30] Warren’s WHY  [29:58] A young troublemaker and how Warren’s dad convinced him to change his behavior  [32:20] Warren did what you are doing right now: Since a young age Warren had studied the lives of men like Jay Cooke, Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie. [33:48] Turning a rejection into one of the best things to ever happen to him [38:30] Mimicry instead of independent thought: Warren didn’t understand why they couldn’t see what was right before their eyes.  [42:20] One of the most inspiring things about reading biographies is you are constantly reminded that we all have the ability to improve. A young Warren Buffett was so afraid of public speaking he would vomit.  [48:06] Warren learning from and working with his idol: Ben Graham [52:20] Warren’s advice for everyone: Sell yourself an hour a day  [57:28] Intensity is the price of excellence and examples of people Warren wanted to do business with  [1:01:08] Warren Buffett is an obsessive/Munger would later call Buffett an implacable acquirer, like John D. Rockefeller in the early days of assembling his empire, who let nobody and nothing get in his way. (1:01:08),  [1:13:10] Warren Buffett on his biggest mistake  [1:16:11] What Buffett valued in the lives of others/His idea about claim checks  [1:19:25] His “Twenty Punches” approach to investing  [1:22:38] Warren’s answer to the question, “What has been your greatest success and greatest failure?”  ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#99 Carroll Shelby (My name is Carroll Shelby and performance is my business)

What I learned from reading Carroll Shelby: The Authorized Biography by Rinsey Mills.  --- [3:27] I love everything about this person. I like the way he thought. I like the way he lived his life. [3:38] It is almost unbelievable all the different events that could happen in one human lifetime. [3:52] He lived to 89 years old and he used every single year that he was alive. [5:22] He could talk his way out of anything. [6:40] He knew what he wanted. He didn't want anybody else telling him what to do. [7:41] He had a love for anything that would go fast. [10:48] He didn’t know what to do with his life. [15:54] Follow your natural drift. —Charlie Munger [17:00] I can't work for anybody. [18:42]  He has fun his entire life. As soon as they stop being fun he runs away. [22:20] A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #93 and #222)  [24:17]  Money only solves money problems. [26:32] Scratching around doing insignificant races with inferior machinery wasn't an option in which he could see any future. [27:26] Whatever setbacks he encountered he was invariably able to bounce back through a combination of self-belief and an aptitude for making other people believe in him. [27:45] Enthusiasm and passion are universal attractive traits. [28:05] Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97) and Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automobile Empire by Luca Dal Monte. (Founders #98)  [30:29] The Purple Cow by Seth Godin [32:22] Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It by Dr. George Roberts. (Founders #110) [32:38] Having extreme focus in the information age is a superpower. [36:13] Racing was a means to an end. He wanted to build his own car. That was his main goal. [42:34] He still didn't know quite how he was going to do it but if he was finally going to produce his own sports car. [53:48] All big things start small. [58:31] 12 months after Shelby was deeply depressed his life is completely different and the Shelby Cobra starts to take shape. [1:00:06] A summary of the early days of Shelby Automotive: Everything had to be done tomorrow and by the cheapest method possible. [1:01:12] It wasn't uncommon for them to work until two or three in the morning and be back down there at 7:30 the next morning. [1:02:22] There's just something special about a group of highly talented, smart people working together for a common goal. [1:03:48] Shelby hates company politics. That is why he wanted to run a smaller company. [1:17:30] My name is Carroll Shelby and performance is my business.  ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#98 Enzo Ferrari (the making of an automobile empire)

What I learned from reading Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automobile Empire by Luca Dal Monte. --- [0:01] Ferrari was animated by an extraordinary passion that led him to build a product with no equal [3:52] Lee Iacocca on why Enzo Ferrari will go as the greatest car manufacturer in history: "Ferrari spent every dollar chasing perfection."  [8:50] Business lessons from his father   [11:47] Enzo Ferrari was not interested in school. He wanted to start working immediately.  [16:36] The deaths of his father and brother  [18:20] No job. No money. No connections. A young man desperate to succeed in life.  [23:06] He learned something that he would never forget for the rest of his life: Not even the best driver had any chance of victory if he was not at the wheel of the best car.  [24:20] Starting his first business which ends in bankruptcy. [28:31] Enzo learned from those who already accomplished what he was trying to do.  [31:10] He does the best possible job at whatever task he is given. Even if he doesn't want to do it. Enzo focuses on being useful.  [33:35] A young Enzo Ferrari is plagued with doubts and close to a nervous breakdown.  [38:28] The large leave gaps for the small: The start of Scuderia Ferrari.  [49:38] Enzo Ferrari at 33 years old.  [51:30] For Enzo Ferrari it was always day 1. [52:33] Alfa Romeo pulls the plug/the end of Scuderia Ferrari, the birth of Ferrari. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#97 Enzo Ferrari (Ferrari vs Ford)

What I learned from reading Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. ---- [0:01] Racing was the most magnificent marketing tool the industry had ever known. [2:42] Founders vs Managers  [3:43] Founders Podcasts on Henry Ford: #9, #26, and #80.  [4:29] The passion Enzo Ferrari had for his products  [5:50] The same broad features keep recurring over and over again/ In their detailed appearance these broad features are never twice the same.  [8:09] Steve Jobs on passion.  [12:00] Steve Jobs on building the Macintosh/ Artisans have soul in the game.  [13:05] Enzo Ferrari’s schedule at 58 years old / His early life  [17:08] Ferrari’s 3 principles for winning  [20:20] How Enzo Ferrari started his company / Racing as marketing / Ferrari’s personality and his philosophy on building a business [24:49] Enzo Ferrari’s extreme level of dedication  [25:48] How Enzo Ferrari described his product  [26:54] How and why the Ford/Ferrari negotiations begin [35:37] How Enzo Ferrari described the process of building a product [38:07] The advantage founder led companies have / I made a mistake here. I said Les Miles when I meant Ken Miles. Les Miles is a football coach. Ken Miles is a race car driver.  [40:58] Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda  [42:06] Enzo Ferrari on why he doesn’t have a social life.  [42:57] You don’t understand. When I go in there, if I don’t really and truly believe I am the best in the world, I had better not go in at all. [49:05] Enzo Ferrari played chess while everyone else was playing checkers. [52:20] It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability.  ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#96 James J. Hill (Empire Builder of the Northwest)

What I learned from reading James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest by Michael P. Malone. ---- James J. Hill demonstrates the impact one willful individual can have on the course of history [1:00] If you want to know whether you are destined to be a success or a failure in life, you can easily find out. The test is simple and it is infallible: Are you able to save money? If not, drop out. You will lose. You may think not, but you will lose as sure as you live. The seed of success is not in you. –James J. Hill [3:30] Early life and education [7:58] What James Hill learned from history: The power of one dynamic individual [9:09] Hill strikes out for adventure [10:48] Hill makes it a priority to seek out mentors to learn from [14:44] Starting his first business [18:22] Hill’s strategies on building businesses & insights into his business philosophy [21:50] Hill’s edge: An obsession with knowing every detail of his business [29:22] Burn the boats/ going all in/ when you have an edge, bet heavily [34:31] Stay close to where the money is being spent [36:51] Hill had an edge because he took the time to educate himself more than others would [38:49] The power of maintaining your focus [40:00] The best defense against invading railroads was a better built system that could operate at lower rates [45:05] Great idea to think of your business as a living organism [55:40] A well run business is built slowly [56:32] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#95 Claude Shannon

What I learned from reading A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman  ---- [0:25] Claude Shannon trained a powerful intellect on topics of deep interest, and continued to do so beyond the point of short term practicality [5:50] Insulated from opinion of all kinds [9:09] A simple way to describe the impact of information theory [10:39] Resourceful at a young age [11:50] An ordinary childhood [12:41] Follow your natural drift [14:40] Too many facts; too few principles [16:10] His indecisive nature inadvertently helps him [17:00] An important turning point in Shannon’s life [18:30] Vannevar Bush: The first person to see Claude Shannon for who he was  [21:00] The results of Claude Shannon’s thesis [23:20] How Claude Shannon worked in his 20s [25:30] The main takeaway from the book: The world isn’t there to be used, but to be played with, manipulated by hand and mind [30:00] Succeeding with no prior knowledge in the specific field [31:20] Working on what naturally interests you is time well spent [32:45] Working at Bell Labs / The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation [36:49] Fire Control / What he worked on during the war [38:15] Claude Shannon’s work on cryptography [40:05] Take many different ideas from unrelated fields [43:35] Leaving Bell Labs for MIT [48:52] Claude Shannon on investing [1:01:15] Shannon’s design for his own funeral ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#94 Henry Singleton (The Outsiders)

What I learned from reading The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike. ---- [0:30] The failure of business schools to study men like Henry Singleton is a crime— Warren Buffett [2:40]Buffett and Singleton: Separated at birth? [8:35]The Singular Henry Singleton [14:40] Supremely indifferent to criticism [19:50] Teledyne breaks up huge business into a bunch of small profit centers [29:30] Risk is controlled. Divisions will remain relatively small.[32:00} Building a cash generating machine [36:30] Bet heavily when you have an edge. [44:00] Singleton has found a way to run a multibillion dollar company in an entrepreneurial, innovative way. [50:16] Singleton had a different focus: Capital allocation. [50:37] Getting Rich vs Staying Rich  [55:18] What the people profiled in this book have in common [59:00] Early career and the founding of Teledyne [1:00:38] How Henry Singleton thought about acquisitions 1:02:00] Actions express priority [1:07:12] Ruthlessly cut fat [1:11:20] Stay within your cirlce of competence and bet heavy[1:16:30] Singleton on Time Management [1:19:19] If everyone is doing them, there must be something wrong with them. — Henry Singleton ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#93 Ed Thorp (A Man for All Markets)

What I learned from reading A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Edward Thorp.  ---- [0:01] Ed Thorp’s memoir reads like a thriller—mixing wearable computers that would have made James Bond proud, shady characters, great scientists, and poisoning attempts. The book reveals a thorough, rigorous, methodical person in search of life, knowledge, financial security, and, not least of all, fun. Thorp is also known to be a generous man, intellectually speaking, eager to share his discoveries with random strangers.   [1:23] Ed Thorp is the first modern mathematician who successfully used quantitative methods for risk taking—and most certainly the first mathematician who met financial success doing it.   [3:19] Ed was initially an academic, but he favored learning by doing, with his skin in the game. When you reincarnate as practitioner, you want the mountain to give birth to the simplest possible strategy, and one that has the smallest number of side effects, the minimum possible hidden complications.  [4:33] As Warren Buffet said: “In order to succeed you must first survive.” You need to avoid ruin. At all costs.  [6:48]  It is vastly less stressful to be independent—and one is never independent when involved in a large structure with powerful clients. It is hard enough to deal with the intricacies of probabilities, you need to avoid the vagaries of exposure to human moods. True success is exiting some rat race to modulate one’s activities for peace of mind.  [7:51] Read the forward by Nassim Taleb  [9:14] Ed’s 4 rules for learning  First, rather than subscribing to widely accepted views—such as you can’t beat the casinos—I checked for myself.  Second, since I tested theories by inventing new experiments, I formed the habit of taking the result of pure thought—such as a formula for valuing warrants—and using it profitably.  Third, when I set a worthwhile goal for myself, I made a realistic plan and persisted until I succeeded.  Fourth, I strove to be consistently rational, not just in a specialized area of science, but in dealing with all aspects of the world. I also learned the value of withholding judgement until I could make a decision based on evidence.   [11:15] I admired the heroes who, through extraordinary abilities and resourcefulness, achieved great things. I may have been inspired to mirror this in the future by using my mind to overcome obstacles.  [14:29] They told us that my aunt Nona and her husband had been beheaded in front of their children.  [16:45] At its core, this is a book about how to live well.  [17:55] Ed develops simple systems for everything in his life.  [20:37] If anyone knew whether physical prediction at roulette was possible, it should be Richard Feynman. I asked him, “Is there any way to beat the game of roulette?” When he said there wasn’t, I was relieved and encouraged. This suggested that no one had yet worked out what I believed was possible. With this incentive, I began a series of experiments.  [21:15] “Try to figure out what your skill set is and apply that to the markets.” Thorp likes to stay within his circle of competence. This is a hallmark of people who are rational. In that sense, Thorp reminds me of Warren Buffett. A Dozen Things I learned from Ed Thorp   [21:50] 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.   [23:50] He wrote a book that sold over a million copies: Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One   [26:48] In the abstract, life is a mixture of chance and choice. Chance can be thought of as the cards you are dealt in life. Choice is how you play them.  [27:52] Ed’s philosophy on life: My thoughts then were much like I expected his to have been: that acknowledgment, applause, and honor are welcome and add zest to life but they are not ends to be pursued. I felt then, as I do now, that what matters is what you do and how you do it, the quality of the time you spend, and the people you share it with.   [30:01] 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. [33:09] A good defense keeps other people from taking your money.  [36:39] History doesn’t repeat, human nature does: The frauds, swindles, and hoaxes, a flood reported almost daily in the financial press, have continued unabated during the more than fifty years of my investment career. But then, hoaxes, scams, manias, and large-scale financial irrationalities have been with us from the beginnings of the markets in the seventeenth century.  [40:24] You are unlikely to have an edge on anything you hear in the news.   [46:24] As we chatted about compound interest, Warren gave one of his favorite examples of its remarkable power, how if the Manhattan Indians could have invested $24, the value then of the trinkets Peter Minuit paid them for Manhattan in 1626, at a net return of 8 percent, they could buy the land back now along with all the improvements. Warren said he was asked how he found so many millionaires for his partnership. Laughing, he said to me, “I told them I grew my own.”    [52:07] How Ed selected employees: For this to work, I needed people who could follow up without being led by the hand, as management time was in short supply. 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.  [57:13] Life is really about spending time well.   [1:01:45] When Princeton Newport Partners closed, Vivian and I had money enough for the rest of our lives. Though the ending of PNP was traumatic for us all, and the future wealth destroyed was in the billions, it freed us to do more of what we enjoyed most: spend time with each other and the family and friends we loved, travel, and pursue our interests. Taking to heart the lyrics of the song “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later than You Think),” Vivian and I would make the most of the one thing we could never have enough of—time together. Success on Wall Street was getting the most money. Success for us was having the best life.  [1:04:30] 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.  [1:07:19] As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Time is the stuff life is made of,” and how you spend it makes all the difference.  [1:07:37] Whatever you do, enjoy your life and the people who share it with you, and leave something good of yourself for the generations to follow.  ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#92 Ed Thorp and Claude Shannon

What I learned from reading Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street by William Poundstone. ---- Claude Shannon was as close to a sure thing as existed [2:53] The beginning of information theory [7:11] Project X [9:09] introduction to Ed Thorpe [15:05] using math and physics to beat Las Vegas [18:03] Ed Thorp and Claude Shannon meet [20:45] testing Thorpe’s Blackjack theory [26:00] The core of John Kelly’s philosophy of risk can be stated without math. It is that even unlikely events must come to pass eventually. Therefore, anyone who accepts small risks of losing everything will lose everything, sooner or later. The ultimate compound return rate is acutely sensitive to fat tails. [28:23] I’d be a bum in the street with a tin cup if the markets were efficient. —Warren Buffett [44:30] how Claude Shannon begins studying the stock market [46:45] Claude Shannon and Henry Singleton [48:16] why and how Ed Thorp started investing in stocks [49:49] Thorp starts a hedge fund and starts working remotely [52:49] Ed Thorp meets Warren Buffett [54:20] An acid test of Princeton/Newport’s market neutrality came in the Black Monday crash of October 19, 1987. The Dow Jones index lost 23 percent of its value in a single day. Princeton/Newport’s $ 600 million portfolio shed only about $ 2 million in the crash. Princeton Newport’s return for the year was an astonishing 34 percent. [59:36] the implosion of Long Term Capital Management [1:07:00] The thing you should do is the opposite of what you feel you should do. –Jim Clayton [1:09:10] A quote from 1738: A man who risks his entire fortune acts like a simpleton, however great may be the possible gain. — Daniel Bernoulli [1:13:00] Claude Shannon: A smart investor should understand where he has an edge and invest only in those opportunities. The methods Claude Shannon used to invest [1:17:10] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#91 Jim Clayton (Sold to Warren Buffett)

What I learned from reading First A Dream by Jim Clayton.   ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#90 Charlie Munger (Poor Charlie's Almanack)

What I learned from reading Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. ---- Cicero, learned man that he was, believed in self-improvement so long as breath lasts.In business we often find that the winning system goes almost ridiculously far in maximizing and/or minimizing one or a few variables-like the discount warehouses of Costco."Invert, always invert." It is in the nature of things, as Jacobi knew, that many hard problems are best solved only when they are addressed backward.It's quite interesting to think about Wal-Mart starting from a single store in Arkansas-against Sears with its name, reputation and all of its billions. How does a guy in Bentonville, Arkansas, with no money, blow right by Sears? And he does it in his own lifetime-in fact, during his own late lifetime because he was already pretty old by the time he started out with one little store. He played the chain store game harder and better than else. Walton anyone invented practically nothing. But he copied everything anybody else ever did that was smart. So he blew right by them all.Charlie's redundancy in expressions and examples is purposeful: for the kind of deep "fluency" he advocates, he knows that repetition is the heart of instruction.He enjoyed challenging the conventional wisdom of teachers and fellow students with his ever-increasing knowledge gained through voracious reading, particularly biographies.He never forgot the sound principles taught by his grandfather: to concentrate on the task immediately in front of him and to control spending.I would say everything about Charlie is unusual. I've been looking for the usual now for forty years, and I have yet to find it. Charlie marches to his own music, and it's music like virtually no one else is listening to. So, I would say that to try and typecast Charlie in terms of any other human that I can think of, no one would fit. He's got his own mold.Charlie Munger has spent a professional lifetime studying lives that have worked well and others that have glitches or have experienced failures.Despite his healthy self-image, Charlie would prefer to be anonymous.I am a biography nut myself. And I think when you're trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them. I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among 'the eminent dead,' but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better for you in life and work better in education. It's way better than just giving the basic concepts.His underlying philosophical view was one of deep and realistic cynicism about human nature, including a distaste for pure mob rule and demagogues.Find out what you're best at and keep pounding away at it. This has always been Charlie's basic approach to life.Take a simple idea and take it seriously.Charlie likes the analogy of looking at one's ideas and approaches as "tools." “When a better tool (idea or approach) comes along, what could be better than to swap it for your old, less useful tool?Warren and I routinely do this, but most people, cling to their old, less useful tools."Henry Singleton has the best operating and capital deployment record in American business...if one took the 100 top business school graduates and made a composite of their triumphs, their record would not be as good as Singleton's.You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don't, you're going to lose. And that's as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you've got an edge. And you've got to play within your own circle of competence.The other aspect of avoiding vicarious wisdom is the rule for not learning from the best work done before yours. . .There once was a man who assiduously mastered the work of his best predecessors, despite a poor start and very tough time. Eventually, his own work attracted wide attention, and he said of his work: “If I have seen a little farther than other men, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants."In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time-none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads-and at how much I read.There is no better teacher than history in determining the future. There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#89 David Ogilvy (Confessions of an Advertising Man)

What I learned by reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy.     ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#88 Warren Buffett's Shareholder Letters— All of them!

What I learned from reading Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders by Warren Buffett.   ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#87 Thomas Watson (IBM)

What I learned from reading The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and The Making of IBM by Kevin Maney. ---- ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#86 Carl Bosch and Fritz Haber (A Genius and a Doomed Tycoon)

What I learned from reading The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#85 Walter and Olive Ann Beech (Aviation Legends)

What I learned from reading The Barnstormer and The Lady: Aviation Legends Walter and Olive Ann Beech by Dennis Farney.   ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#84 Aristotle Onassis

What I learned from reading Onassis: The Definitive Biography by Willi Frischauer. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#83 Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World

What I learned from reading Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes. Jeff Bezos on The Electricity Metaphor for the Web's Future ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#82 David Ogilvy (Ogilvy on Advertising)

What I learned from reading Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. --- In my Confessions of an Advertising Man I told the story of how Ogilvy & Mather came into existence, and set forth the principles on which our early success had been based. What was then little more than a creative boutique in New York has since become one of the four biggest advertising agencies in the world, with 140 offices in 40 countries. Our principles seem to work. I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.  When Aeschines spoke, they said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, ‘Let us march against Philip.’ Does old age disqualify me from writing about advertising in today’s world? Or could it be that perspective helps a man to separate the eternal verities of advertising from its passing fads? Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on. All I do is report on how consumers react to different stimuli. I ask you to forgive me for oversimplifying some complicated subjects, and for the dogmatism of my style – the dogmatism of brevity. We are both in a hurry. I have seen one advertisement actually sell not twice as much, not three times as much, but 19½ times as much as another. Both advertisements occupied the same space. Both were run in the same publication. Both had photographic illustrations. Both had carefully written copy. The difference was that one used the right appeal and the other used the wrong appeal. Do your homework You don’t stand a tinker’s chance of producing successful advertising unless you start by doing your homework. I have always found this extremely tedious, but there is no substitute for it. On product positioning: Now consider how you want to ‘position’ your product. This curious verb is in great favor among marketing experts, but no two of them agree what it means. My own definition is ‘what the product does, and who it is for.’ I could have positioned Dove as a detergent bar for men with dirty hands, but chose instead to position it as a toilet bar for women with dry skin. This is still working 25 years later. When asked what was the best asset a man could have, Albert Lasker – the most astute of all advertising men – replied, ‘Humility in the presence of a good idea.’ It is horribly difficult to recognize a good idea. I shudder to think how many I have rejected. Make the product the hero. There are no dull products, only dull writers. The idea of a positively good product: It may be sufficient to convince consumers that your product is positively good. If the consumer feels certain that your product is good and feels uncertain about your competitor’s, he will buy yours. ‘If you and your competitors all make excellent products, don’t try to imply that your product is better. Just say what’s good about your product – and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it. Repeat your winners If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops selling. Scores of good advertisements have been discarded before they lost their potency. You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade. In my experience, committees can criticize, but they cannot create. Search the parks in all your cities You’ll find no statues of committees. The good ones know more. I asked an indifferent copywriter what books he had read about advertising. He told me that he had not read any; he preferred to rely on his own intuition. Why should our clients be expected to bet millions of dollars on your intuition?’ This willful refusal to learn the rudiments of the craft is all too common. For 35 years I have continued on the course charted by Gallup, collecting factors the way other men collect pictures and postage stamps. If you choose to ignore these factors, good luck to you. A blind pig can sometimes find truffles, but it helps to know that they are found in oak forests. Most good copywriters all into two categories poets and killers. Poets see an ad as an end. Killers as a means to an end. If you are both killer and poet, you get rich.Set yourself to becoming the best-informed person in the agency on the account to which you are assigned. If, for example, it is a gasoline account, read books on oil geology and the production of petroleum products. Read the trade journals in the field. Spend Saturday mornings in service stations, talking to motorists. Visit your client’s refineries and research laboratories. At the end of your first year, you will know more about the oil business than your boss, and be ready to succeed him.Be personal, direct and natural. You are a human being writing to another human being. Neither of you is an institution. You should be businesslike and courteous, but never stiff and impersonal. Don’t get a job in advertising unless it interests you more than anything in the world. St Augustine had this to say about pressure: To be under pressure is inescapable. Pressure takes place through all the world: war, siege, the worries of state. We all know men who grumble under these pressures, and complain. They are cowards. They lack splendor. But there is another sort of man who is under the same pressure, but does not complain. For it is the friction which polishes him. It is pressure which refines and makes him noble. Any service business which gave higher priority to profits than to serving its clients deserved to fail. Here I go, boasting again. There are better copywriters than I am, and scores of better administrators, but I doubt if many people have matched my record as a new business collector. Focus on value not price: They want to know what commission you will charge. I answer, ‘If you are going to choose your agency on the basis of price, you are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. What you should worry about is not the price you pay for your agency’s services, but the selling power of your advertising. Tell your prospective client what your weak points are, before he notices them. This will make you more credible when you boast about your strong points. If you are lucky enough to have some news to tell, don’t bury it in your body copy, which nine out of ten people will not read. State it loud and clear in your headline. Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing each of them a letter on behalf of your client. One human being to another. All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short. I suspect that there is a negative correlation between the money spent on producing commercials and their power to sell products. My partner Al Eicoff was asked by a client to remake a $15,000 commercial for $100,000. Sales went down. Don’t dawdle. Most big corporations behave as if profit were not a function of time.  When Jerry Lambert scored his breakthrough with Listerine, he speeded up the whole process of marketing by dividing time into months. He reviewed progress every 30 days, with the result that he made a fortune in record time. Pricing is guesswork.  Advertising is a production cost: I have come to regard advertising as part of the product, to be treated as a production cost, not a selling cost. It follows that it should not be cut back when times are hard, any more than you would stint any other essential ingredient in your product. What did these six giants have in common? All six of them were American. All six had other jobs before they went into advertising. At least five were gluttons for work, and uncompromising perfectionists. Four made their reputations as copywriters. Only three had university degrees. Advertising is salesmanship in print. A definition that has never been improved. Albert Lasker made more money than anyone in the history of the advertising business. Lasker held that if an agency could write copy which sold the product, nothing else was needed. He once defined an administrator as somebody without brains. He once said: I didn’t want to make a great fortune. I wanted to show what I could do with my brains. After the war I decided to try my luck in advertising, but I stood in such awe of Young & Rubicam that I did not dare apply to them for a job. As I thought they were the only agency where I would like to work, I had no choice but to start my own. In one of his last letters before he died, Rubicam wrote, ‘We knew you before you started your agency. How come we missed you?’ By that time we had become great friends. ‘Friends’ is not the right word. He was my patron, inspiration, counselor, critic and conscience. I was his hero-worshipping disciple. He didn’t leave behind a list of rules. He did leave behind an aphorism: resist the usual. In advertising, the beginning of greatness is to be different, and the beginning of failure is to be the same. His attitude to the creative process can be summed up in three things he said:  1 There is an inherent drama in every product. Our No. 1 job is to dig for it and capitalize on it.  2 When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either. 3 Steep yourself in your subject, work like hell, and love, honor and obey your hunches. Claude Hopkins’ book Scientific Advertising changed the course of my life. It is not uncommon for a change in headlines to multiply returns from five to ten times over. Bill was asked what changes he expected in advertising in the eighties. He replied: Human nature hasn’t changed for a billion years. It won’t even vary in the next billion years. Only the superficial things have changed. It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#81 Henry Royce (Founder of Rolls-Royce)

What I learned from reading Rolls-Royce: The First Forty Years of Britain's Most Prestigious Company by Peter Pugh. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#80 Henry Ford (Today and Tomorrow)

What I learned from reading Today and Tomorrow by Henry Ford.   ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#79 Charlie Munger (The Complete Investor)

What I learned from reading Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor by Tren Griffin ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#78 Charlie Munger (the Tao of Charlie Munger)

What I learned from reading Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth With Commentary by David Clark How is it that Charlie—who trained as a meteorologist and a lawyer and never took a single college course in economics, marketing, finance, or accounting—became one of the greatest business and investing geniuses of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? Therein lies the mystery. [0:44] Charlie Munger was learning this important investment skill while playing poker with his army buddies. That’s where he learned to fold his hand when the odds were against him and bet heavy when the odds were with him, a strategy he later adapted to investing. [11:12]  Charlie thought a lot about business during that time. He made a habit of asking people what was the best business they knew of. He longed to join the rich elite clientele his silk-stocking law firm served. He decided that each day he would devote one hour of his time at the office to work on his own real estate projects, and by doing so he completed five. He has said that the first million dollars he put together was the hardest money he ever earned. It was also during that period that he realized he would never become really rich practicing law; he’d have to find something else. [12:18] Warren, in summing up Charlie’s impact on his investment style over the last fifty-seven years, said, “Charlie shoved me in the direction of not just buying bargains, as Ben Graham had taught me. This was the real impact that he had on me. It took a powerful force to move me on from Graham’s limiting view. It was the power of Charlie’s mind.” [15:33] Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant. [17:39] “People are trying to be smart—all I am trying to do is not to be idiotic, but it’s harder than most people think.” [17:58] All good things in life come from compounding. [19:34] This important investment philosophy assumes that one is better off buying a business with exceptional business economics working in its favor and holding it for many years than engaging in a lot of buying and selling. [19:42] Charlie knows that time is a good friend to a business that has exceptional economics working in its favor, but for a mediocre business time can be a curse. [20:25] Andrew Carnegie says in his autobiography you should study how the great fortunes are made. It's not a scattershot approach. They identified the best business possible and they put all their energy and effort into it. That's certainly what Andrew Carnegie did. [22:39] Charlie makes the point that Berkshire Hathaway probably has the most successful investment record in humanity. That is a hell of a statement and he is probably right. [26:10] Charlie advocates keeping $10 million in cash, and Berkshire keeps $72 billion sitting around in cash, waiting for the right deal to show up. The lousy return their cash balances are getting is a trade-off—poor initial rate of return in exchange for years of high returns from finding excellent businesses selling at a fair price. This is an element of the Munger investment equation that is almost always misunderstood. Why? Because most investors cannot image that sitting on a large pool of cash year after year, waiting for the right investment, could possibly be a winning investment strategy, let alone one that would make them superrich. [27:11] “I think that, every time you see the word EBITDA, you should substitute the word ‘bullshit earnings.’ ” [28:52] You have to wait for the right company—one with a durable competitive advantage—that is selling at the right price. And when Charlie says wait, he means wait as long as it takes, which can mean years. Warren got out of the stock market in the late 1960s, and he waited five years before he found anything he was interested in buying. [31:10] When Charlie and Warren say that they intend to hold an investment forever, they mean forever! Who on Wall Street would ever make such a statement? That’s one of the reasons Charlie and Warren have never worried about anyone mimicking their investment style—because no other institution or individual has the discipline or patience to wait as long as they can. [31:46]  Charlie and Warren’s theory is that a company with a durable competitive advantage has business economics that will expand the underlying value of the business over time, and the more time passes, the more the company’s value will expand. Thus, once the purchase is made, it is wisest to sit on the investment as long as possible, because the longer we own the company, the more it grows in value, and the more it grows in value, the richer we become. [34:48] “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent. There must be some wisdom in the folk saying: ‘It’s the strong swimmers who drown.’ ” [36:14]  One is actually better off reading a hundred business biographies than a hundred books on investing. Why? Because if we learn the history of a hundred different business models, we learn when the businesses had tough times and how they got through them; we also learn what made them great, or not so great. [38:44] “In business we often find that the winning system goes almost ridiculously far in maximizing and or minimizing one or a few variables—like the discount warehouses of Costco.” [41:53] “If you’re not willing to react with equanimity to a market price decline of 50% two or three times a century you’re not fit to be a common shareholder and you deserve the mediocre result you’re going to get compared to the people who do have the temperament, who can be more philosophical about these market fluctuations.” [46:23]  “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day—if you live long enough—most people get what they deserve.” [48:42] He implemented a self-education regime for one hour a day to learn such things as real estate development and stock investing. It was slow going at first, but after a great number of years and thousands of books read, he started to see how different areas of knowledge interplay with each other and how knowledge, like money, can compound, making one more and more aware of the world in which he or she lives. He has often said that he is a much better investor at ninety than he was at fifty, a fact he attributes to the compounding effect of knowledge. [49:09] There is another point that I’ve noticed with men and women who truly excel at their craft or profession: they keep on learning and improving themselves long after most people would have retired. [54:02] “Look at this generation, with all of its electronic devices and multitasking. I will confidently predict less success than Warren, who just focused on reading. If you want wisdom, you’ll get it sitting on your ass. That’s the way it comes.” [54:16]  “In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time—none, zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads—and how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.” [55:04] “I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up, and boy, does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.” [55:22] ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#77 Steve Jobs (The NeXT Years)

What I learned from reading Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing by Randall Stross. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#76 Steve Jobs: The Early Years of Apple

What I learned from reading Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and the Creation of Appleby Michael Moritz. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

#75 Henry Clay Frick: Andrew Carnegie's Partner

What I learned from reading Henry Clay Frick: The Life of the Perfect Capitalist by Quentin Skrabec Jr. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here.  ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast