Entrepreneurship
Founders
David Senra
Learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs. Every week I read a biography of an entrepreneur and find ideas you can use in your work. This quote explains why: "There are thousands of years of history in which lots and lots of very smart people worked very hard and ran all types of experiments on how to create new businesses, invent new technology, new ways to manage etc. They ran these experiments throughout their entire lives. At some point, somebody put these lessons down in a book. For very little money and a few hours of time, you can learn from someone’s accumulated experience. There is so much more to learn from the past than we often realize. You could productively spend your time reading experiences of great people who have come before and you learn every time." —Marc Andreessen
Open in HintoEpisodes to Learn English458
#328 Tom Murphy (Buffett's favorite manager)
Nov 22, 202343 minWhat I learned from reading The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike. ---- I use EightSleep to get the best sleep of my life. Find out why EightSleep is loved by founders everywhere and get $500 off at eightsleep.com/founders/ ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (5:00) Tom Murphy] gave me one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received. He said, 'Warren, you can always tell someone to go to hell tomorrow'...You haven't missed the opportunity. Just forget about if for a day. If you feel the same way tomorrow, tell them then-but don't spout off in a moment of anger." All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin. (Founders #286) (5:15) Thirty years ago Tom Murphy, then CEO of Cap Cities, drove this point home to me with a hypothetical tale about an employee who asked his boss for permission to hire an assistant. The employee assumed that adding $20,000 to the annual payroll would be inconsequential. But his boss told him the proposal should be evaluated as a $3 million decision, given that an additional person would probably cost at least that amount over his lifetime, factoring in raises, benefits and other expenses (more people, more toilet paper). And unless the company fell on very hard times, the employee added would be unlikely to be dismissed, however marginal his contribution to the business. — A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers From Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Peter Bevelin. (Founders #202) (7:30) The autobiography of the founder of CBS: As It Happened A Memoir by Bill Paley (9:00) The goal is not to have the longest train, but to arrive at the station first, using the least fuel. (10:00) Tom Murphy’s simple formula: 1. Focus on industries with attractive economic characteristics. 2. Selectively use leverage to buy occasional large properties. 3. Improve operations. 4. Pay down debt. 5. Repeat. (13:00) The business of business is a lot of little decisions every day, mixed up with a few big decisions. (16:00) He quickly indoctrinated Burke into the company's lean, decentralized operating philosophy. (17:00) I had an appetite for and a willingness to do things that Murphy was not interested in doing. Burke believed his job was to create the free cashflow and Murphy's job was to spend it. (19:30) Stay in the game long enough to get lucky. The most important thing that he does happens 30 years into his career. (21:30) Q: Is this a case of leading by example? Murphy: Is there any other way? (23:30) Decentralization is the cornerstone of our philosophy. Our goal is to hire the best people we can and give them the responsibility and authority. They need to perform their jobs. We expect our managers to be forever cost conscious. (24:00) Repeated by Murphy: Hire the best people and leave them alone. (24:00) An extreme decentralized approach keeps both costs and rancor down. (25:00) Murphy delegates to the point of anarchy. (26:00) The best defense against the revenue lumpiness inherent in advertising supported businesses was a constant vigilance on costs. (30:00) Why Capital Cities had low turnover: The system in place corrupts you with so much autonomy and authority that you can't imagine leaving. (35:00) To learn more about a Capital Cities like company listen to The 50X Podcast. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#327 Ted Turner
Nov 14, 20231h 27mWhat I learned from reading Ted Turner's Autobiography. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Listen to Art of Investing #4 David Senra Lessons from the Founder Historian. ---- (9:00) My net worth dropped by about 67 million per week, or nearly 10 million per day, every day for two and a half years. (10:00) Once to drive home a point about the difficulties of attracting good loyal employees he told me: Jesus only had to pick 12 disciples and even one of those didn't turn out well. (10:00) Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise . (11:00) Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141) (13:30) The problem isn't getting rich, it's staying sane. — Charlie Munger (17:00) I learned a lesson that would stick with me throughout my career. When the chips are down in the pressure's on it's amazing to how creative people can be. (20:00) My father always maintained many of the different billboard businesses as separate legal entities. (He didn’t want to dilute ownership of his main company and separate entities allowed for periodic reorganization to offset capital gains liabilities. (20:30) When you own an asset your job is to maximize its value. (23:00) He combines the assets he has in a way his competitors can not. (24:00) The more I learned about TV stations the more I realized that ours was a disaster. Of the 35 people who were on the payroll when we took over only two were still there a year later —the custodian and the receptionist. (25:00) Ted Turner believed in the power of television more than almost anybody else. (30:30) My dad taught me early on that longterm relationships with your customers and partners are very important. You never know how the guy who you're friendly with today might be able to help you tomorrow. (31:00) Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux. (Founders #268) (32:00) What other people in his industry sees as a threat, Ted sees as an opportunity. (37:00) These issues were all unchartered territory. All of us, the regulators, the broadcasters, the program suppliers and the leagues were sorting things out on the fly. I was working as hard as I could. I'd go all out during the day, working on sales, distribution, regulatory issues, whatever the battle happened to be, and I'd worked right up until it was time to fall asleep. I had a pull down Murphy bed in my office and I would literally work until the point of total exhaustion. Then I'd put my head on the pillow at night worried about problems. Then I'd wake up and spend the entire next day trying to solve them. (44:00) One of the most important ideas in the book is the power of Belief: Clearly the company for whom the economics of 24 hour news would have made the most sense with a big three broadcasters. They already had most of what was needed: studios, bureaus, reporters, anchors. They had everything but a belief in cable. (45:00) I'm going to be a billionaire. And here's why. I'm going to put this station up on a satellite and I'm going to get a news thing going. Sports, movies and news, 24 hours a day, all over the world. He said this in 1976. (46:00) Henry Ford didn't need focus groups to tell him that people would prefer inexpensive, dependable automobiles over horses. Alexander Graham Bell never stopped to worry about whether people would prefer speaking to each other on a phone. (49:00) I'm always convinced that one of the reasons that I've been successful is that I've almost always competed against people who were bigger and stronger, but who had less commitment and desire than I did. For Turner Broadcasting this dispute meant everything. We had to win. (52:00) Ted’s Superstation idea is printing money: $177 million in revenue and $66 million in profit. This is in the 1980s! (53:00) It would be 13 years before we faced another 24 hour news channel. (57:00) He has a keen understanding of how to combine assets to create an advantage that no one else has. (58:00) The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William C. Rempel. (Founders #65) (58:00) Genius has the fewest moving parts. Never get into deals that are too complicated. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#326 Anna Wintour
Nov 6, 20231h 12mWhat I learned from reading Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell. ---- 1. If you need tax prep and bookkeeping check out betterbookkeeping.com/founders. It's like having a full time CFO and super cheap grandpa sitting on your shoulder. 2. Vesto makes it easy for you to invest your businesses idle cash. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you. Here's the legal disclosures to make the lawyers happy: Vesto Advisors, LLC (“Vesto”) is an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. More information about Vesto and our partnership can be found here We are entitled to compensation for promoting Vesto Advisors, LLC. Accordingly, we have an incentive to endorse Vesto and its team and services. We are not current advisory clients of the Vesto. 3. I went to Notre Dame and spoke to the Art of Investing class. You can listen to the full conversation here. ---- (8:00) She knows the ecosystem in which she operates better than anyone. (8:30) If Anna had a personal tag line it would be: I just have to make sure things are done right. (16:00) He had a desk with nothing on it except a buzzer underneath, so that when he was done with you, which was in about five minutes, his assistant could come in and whisk you away. (17:00) What is the number one thing you hope people learn from you? To be decisive and clear. (19:00) The Vogue 100 is a private club whose members pay $100,000 a year just for access to Anna. (29:00) She did not second guess herself. (30:00) She was meticulous about everything. (32:00) Her focus was singular. She was very clear minded about wanting to do work that she thought was the best. (38:00) She knew that killing stories was necessary to let people know that you had standards. (41:00) Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda. (Founders #281) (44:00) Anna ran the magazine with iron fisted discipline. (48:00) With Anna you get two minutes. The second minute is a courtesy. (49:00) It is slothful not to compress your thoughts. — Winston Churchill (52:00) Anna intentionally builds relationships with the most powerful people in her industry. (52:00) Anna saw the potential for the industry and how she can expand the power and the influence that her individually, and Vogue as a brand, by just combining all these people that are already in the ecosystem and then intentionally putting them together. When they work together it becomes stronger. And as a result of what she created, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. (53:30) The power she has cannot be understated. The way in which she accumulated the power was fascinating. She aligned everybody's interest, with her at the center. (1:05:00) She's not just building up a personal brand. She's not just building up Vogue. She's building up the entire industry. (1:06:00) Relationships last longer than money. (1:06:00) Resist any cheapening of the brand, however popular and lucrative it might be in the short term. (1:08:00) Anna told him don't spend any time and money building out the perfect store in New York. Just roll racks into the unfinished space and start selling clothes. (He ignored this advice and went out of business) (1:11:00) More resources: Front Row: Anna Wintour: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief by Jerry Oppenheimer The September Issue (Documentary) The Devil Wears Prada (Movie) 73 Questions with Anna Wintour 73 More Questions with Anna Wintour ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#325 Larry Gagosian (Billionaire Art Dealer)
Oct 29, 20231h 12mWhat I learned from reading How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (4:00) The dealer has been so successful selling art to masters of the universe that he has become one of them. (5:45) We think of genius as being complicated, but geniuses have the fewest moving parts. Gagosian is simple. He's basically a shark, a feeding machine. (6:00) A novice is easily spotted because they do too much. Too many ingredients, too many movements. Too much explanation. A master uses the fewest motions required to fulfill their intention. (10:00) His own publicist described him as “A Real Killer” (12:00) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. (Founders #292) (17:30) There is always a blueprint. Joseph Duveen was the art dealer to the Robber Barons. Biographies of Duveen: Duveen: A Life in Art Secrets Of An Art Dealer Duveen The Artful Partners: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen (18:00) Numerous friends of Gagosian caution me not to mistake this merry-go-round of parties and galas and super yacht cruises for a life of leisure. This guy is always working. This motherfucker works 24/7. The parties are marketing showcases in disguise. (19:00) The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. (Founders #296) (19:30) The best way to raise the price of something is to say that you would never sell it. (23:00) If Gagosian possesses one secret weapon that has equipped him for success it might be his disinhibition. (33:00) The niche Gagosian pursued was seen —at the time —as low status. The secondary business was perceived as a backwater by dealers. It was considered a bit distasteful. (42:00) He disdains formal meetings. He finds bureaucracy and protocol dull. There is no hierarchy. There is Larry and then everyone else. (44:00) Gagosian reaps huge profits from asymmetries of information. (51:00) Art is just money on the walls. (54:00) David Geffen is still as liquid as the day is long. (56:00) The competitive drive of self-made billionaires does not go into remission once they’ve made their fortune. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#324 John D. Rockefeller (38 Letters Rockefeller Wrote to His Son)
Oct 21, 20231h 46mWhat I learned from reading The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to His Son by John D. Rockefeller. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (5:00) My Influence had been extended to all corners of the oil industry. If I say that I have the power of life and death over oil producers and oil refiners, that is not a lie. I can make them wealthy or I can make them worthless. (7:25) I never thought I would lose. As far as my nature is concerned, I do not meet competition. I destroy competitors. (8:30) Retreat means surrender. Retreat will turn you into a slave. The war is inevitable. Let it come. (9:00) Bring a steel like determination to face all kinds of challenges. (13:45) I firmly believe that our destiny is determined by our actions and not by our origins. (15:45) Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus. (Founders #232) (21:00) The glory and success of the family cannot guarantee the future of a children and grandchildren. (22:30) People of poor backgrounds will actively develop their abilities while also seizing various opportunities because they urgently need to rescue themselves. (26:00) Luck is the remnant of design luck is the remnant of design. — Cyrus McCormick (27:30) Rockefeller explains to his son, in writing, exactly what he was: A conqueror. (28:00) Everyone is a designer and architect of his own destiny. (29:00) If you do everything you will win: All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything. — The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (32:00) Visionary businessmen are always good at finding opportunities in every disaster. And that is how I did it. (36:00) Anything can happen in this world. (38:30) People who climb up in any industry are fully committed to what they are doing. They sincerely love the work that they do. If you sincerely love the work that you do you will naturally succeed. (41:00) Do it now. Opportunity comes from opportunity. (42:00) Action solves everything. (42:00) Always more audacity. — Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. (Founders #319) (43:00) So at this time we’d better push it. We’d better push it. (43:00) Smart people make things happen. (46:00) Life is an opportunity at a time. (48:00) Get rid of the habit of being distracted. (54:00) No one in the world leads a smooth life. (58:00) Too many people overestimate what they lack and underestimate what they have. (58:00) You cannot sharpen your razor on velvet. — Abraham Lincoln (59:00) When I was a poor boy I was confident that I would become the richest person in the world. Strong self confidence inspired me. (59:00) I never believed that failure is the mother of success. I believe that faith is the father of success. Victory is a habit. (59:00) Believing that there will be great results is the driving force behind all great careers. (1:06:00) A story about Rockefeller’s ruthless competitive drive. (1:07:00) My nature never wears off. What I like is the good feeling of victory. (1:09:00) The people who can get ahead in the world are those who know how to find their ideal environment. If they cannot find it, they will create it themselves. (1:16:00) Enthusiasm is a force multiplier to everything. (1:16:00) The outcome of things is often proportional to our enthusiasm. (1:18:00) I think carefully prepared plans and actions are called luck. I never succumb to luck, I believe in cause and effect. (1:18:00) Ask yourself: Am I using my mind to create history? (1:18:00) I never succumb to luck, I believe in cause and effect. (1:18:00) In the process for pursuing career success the most important step is to prevent yourself from making excuses. (1:19:00) The important thing is that you firmly believe that you are your greatest capital. (1:19:00) Faith [in yourself] is the force that must drive you forward. (1:20:00) No American has completely changed the American way of life like Henry Ford did. He has turned the car from a luxury into a necessity that everyone can afford. (1:23:00) I told myself, I warned myself. You must hold onto this tightly. It can bring you to the realm of your dreams. (1:26:00) Of course I paid a high price, but what I won was freedom and a glorious future. I became my own master. (1:32:00) The end is just the beginning. — Andrew Carnegie (1:33:00) Look at those who fail, and you will find that most people fail not because they make mistakes, but because they are not fully committed. The same goes for companies. (1:35:00) The person who can create value the most is the person who devotes himself completely to his favorite activities. (1:36:00) Match people by their enthusiasm. (1:38:00) THE ROCKEFELLER EPISODES: #307 The World's Great Family Dynasties #254 John D. Rockefeller: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers #248 John D Rockefeller (Titan) #247 Henry Flagler (Rockefeller's partner) #148 John D. Rockefeller's Autobiography #16 John D. Rockefeller (Titan) ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Mike Bloomberg
Oct 10, 20231h 21mWhat I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- [2:08] Answering to no one is the ultimate situation. [3:02] Twitter thread on Michael Bloomberg by Neckar.Substack.com [5:28] We never made the error that so many others have: mistaking their product for the device that delivers it. [6:27] We knew our core product was data and analytics. [7:01] We were motivated by an idea that we could build something new that just might make a difference. [9:04] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger [10:05] I was willing to do anything that they wanted. I would have never left voluntarily. [16:00] Street smarts and common sense were better predictors of career achievements. [17:40] Almost all occupations have a big selling component: selling your firm, your ideas and yourself. [18:20] It is the doers, the lean and hungry ones, those with ambition in their eyes and fire in their bellies, who go the furthest and achieve the most. [21:36] Comparing John to Bill on leadership, I always thought John was more egalitarian, but less effective. [22:55] It was a lowly start. We slaved in our underwear and an un-air conditioned, a bank vault. [23:57] The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb [24:22] Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman [27:20] David Geffen biography: The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood [30:07] It's said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. I believe that. You can never have complete mastery over your existence. You can't choose the advantages you start out with, and you certainly can't pick your genetic intelligence level. But you can control how hard you work. [31:20] Life, I've found, works the following way: Daily, you're presented with many small and surprising opportunities. Sometimes you seize one that takes you to the top. Most, though, if valuable at all, take you only a little way. To succeed, you must string together many small incremental advances-rather than count on hitting the lottery jackpot once. Trusting to great luck is a strategy not likely to work for most people. As a practical matter, constantly enhance your skills, put in as many hours as possible, and make tactical plans for the next few steps. Then, based on what actually occurs, look one more move ahead and adjust the plan. Take lots of chances, and make lots of individual, spur-of-the-moment decisions. [32:12] Don't devise a Five-Year Plan or a Great Leap Forward. Central planning didn't work for Stalin or Mao, and it won't work for an entrepreneur either. [34:16] I truly pity people who don't like their jobs. They struggle at work, so unhappily, for ultimately so much less success, and thus develop even more reason to hate their occupations. There's too much delightful stuff to do in this short lifetime not to love getting up on a weekday morning. [38:48] Did I want to risk an embarrassing and costly failure? Absolutely. Happiness for me has always been the thrill of the unknown, trying something that everyone says can't be done, feeling that gnawing pit in my stomach that says danger ahead. I want action. [40:28] Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman [41:37] I rented a one room temporary office. It was about a hundred square feet of space with a view of an alley, a far cry from my previous place of employment. I deposited $300,000 of my Salomon Brothers windfall into a corporate checking account. And fifteen years later, I had a billion-dollar business. [45:25] By endurance we conquer. [46:50] Zero to One by Peter Thiel [47:14] Made In Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita [51:19] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness [54:35] Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games [58:30] Each news story is a product demo. More demos lead to more revenue. More revenue leads to more stories and then even more revenue. [1:03:24] He's got a lot of these like roundabout ways to get in front of potential customers. He’s repurposing the information that his unique business collects. [1:15:53] When it comes to competition, being one of the best is not good enough. Do you really want to plan for a future in which you might have to fight with somebody who is just as good as you are? I wouldn't. —Jeff Bezos ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#323 Jimmy Buffett
Oct 3, 20231h 6mWhat I learned from reading Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way by Ryan White and A Pirate Looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- (8:00) Q: What are you going to do with your life? A: Live a pretty interesting one. (10:00) A lesson that his grandfather taught him: The only thing standing between Jimmy and the world would be a lack of imagination an an over abundance of caution. All he had to do was leap and the world would be his. (13:00) There is a lot of Mark Twain in Jimmy Buffett. Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. (Founders #312) (13:30) There was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal. The whole idea of a conventional existence was like Kryptonite to me. — Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141) (15:00) Jimmy Buffett and Warren Buffett: Their lives are illustrations of the power of compounding. (16:30) A hit song was nice. But owning the publishing on a hit song was even better. (17:30) Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) (19:30) You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something. — Steve Jobs (24:00) If you want to create and capture lasting value, don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Futureby Peter Thiel (Founders #278) (28:00) It is ironic that I was never categorizable and now I’m a category. — Jimmy Buffett (28:00) Billy asked me who I saw myself like in today's music scene. I told him, nobody. I really didn't see myself like anybody. What really set me apart in these days was my repertoire. It was more formidable than the rest of the players. There were a lot of better musicians around but there wasn't anybody close in nature to what I was doing. — Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan. (Founders #259) (29:00) No one is ever eager to fix a cash machine that isn't broken. (29:00) You can’t sell a bagless vacuum cleaner to people that make $500 million a year selling vacuum bags. — Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson(Founders #300) (31:00) Something that grows exponentially can become so valuable that it's worth making an extraordinary effort to get it started. — Paul Graham How to Do Great Work (Founders #314) (36:00) My description of Jimmy Buffett: -Blue collar work ethic -Learning machine -Loves it -Won’t quit (37:00) The Business of Phish (42:00) What Jimmy Buffett and Kanye West have in common Some say he arrogant. Can y'all blame him? It was straight embarrassing how y'all played him Last year shoppin' my demo, I was tryna shine Every motherfucker told me that I couldn't rhyme Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams (46:00) Jimmy kept the main thing the main thing: “I don't give a shit what happens 22 and a half hours of the day. The only thing that matters is the 90 minutes that we're on stage.” (1:04:00) That's what's wrong with the world these days. Nobody wants to put in the time it takes to be legendary. Mythology is not fast food. (1:05:00) Margaritaville Holdings intuitively adopted the asset-light model, where it licenses its intellectual property to owners and operators via franchise agreements (1:09:00) There is nobody who understands who Jimmy Buffett is and what Jimmy Buffett does better than Jimmy Buffett. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#322 Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)
Sep 26, 202343 minWhat I learned from reading Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg and Herb’s Heroes by David Sanders. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- (2:30) Reality is chaotic; planning is ordered and logical. The two don’t square with one another. (5:30) You undergo a lot of stress all the time. How do you handle it? I don’t handle it. I like it. (7:30) He smoked 5 packs of cigarettes a day. He drank Wild Turkey Bourbon daily. He said “Wild Turkey and Phillip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life.” (8:00) He built the most successful airline in history. Southwest was profitable for 47 straight years. (9:30) All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle (18:00) Kelleher didn’t mince any words: “I told Lamar, you roll right over the son of a bitch and leave our tire tracks on his uniform if you have to.” (27:30) No carrier knows its niche as well as Southwest. (28:30) While other carriers have been lured by the temptation to step outside their niche, Southwest has maintained the discipline to stay focused on its fundamental reason for being. (29:00) Herb on why he was conservative with debt: When there are bad times you aren't threatened by debt payments and debt payments are what put other airlines in and out of bankruptcy forever. (30:00) Southwest is obsessed with keeping costs low to maximize profitability instead of being concerned with increasing market share. (30:15) Southwest is willing to forgo revenue generating opportunities in markets that would disproportionately increase its costs. (35:00) Keller has said on many occasions that a company is never more vulnerable to complacency than when it's at the height of its success. The number one threat is us he would say. (38:30) When we look back at the last 20 years it is obvious that a number of large companies were so set in their ways that they did not adapt properly and lost out as a result. 20 years from now, we'll look back and we'll see the same pattern. — Bill Gates (39:00) Herb Kelleher illustrates the speed with which Southwest moves by telling a story about Don Valentine, former VP of marketing. Valentine had just joined from Dr. Pepper when the marketing group met in January to discuss a new television campaign. Valentine was ready with his timeline for producing the spots: -script in March -script approval in April -casting in June -shoot in September When Valentine finished, Kelleher said, “Don, I hate to tell you, but we’re talking about next Wednesday.” ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#321 Working with Jeff Bezos
Sep 21, 202357 minWhat I learned from reading Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr. --- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. --- (8:00) Principles Jeff Bezos would repeat: customer obsession, innovation, frugality, personal ownership, bias for action, high standards. (10:30) Single threaded leadership: For each project, there is a single leader whose focus is that project and that project alone, and that leader oversees teams of people whose attention is focused on that one project. (11:00) The best thing I did as a manager at PayPal was to make every person in the company responsible for doing just one thing. Every employee’s one thing was unique, and everyone knew I would evaluate him only on that one thing. I had started doing this just to simplify the task of managing people. But then I noticed a deeper result: defining roles reduced conflict. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Futureby Peter Thiel. (Founders #278) (12:30) Jeff said many times: We need to eliminate communication, not encourage it. Communication is a sign of dysfunction. (14:30) Jeff is insisted that instead of finding new and better ways to manage our dependencies, we figure out how to remove them. (15:30) Jeff on decision making speed: “Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you're probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you're good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure." (16:30) The best way to fail at inventing something is by making it somebody's part-time job. (21:00) Even though you cannot hear it, with a well-written narrative there is a massive amount of useful information that is being transferred in those 20 minutes. (23:00) A simple tip on how to produce unique insights: Jeff has an uncanny ability to read a narrative and consistently arrive at insights that no one else did, even though we were all reading the same narrative. After one meeting, I asked him how he was able to do that. He responded with a simple and useful tip that I have not forgotten: he assumes each sentence he reads is wrong until he can prove otherwise. He's challenging the content of the sentence, not the motive of the writer. Jeff was usually among the last to finish reading. (26:30) Jeff wanted to know exactly what we were going to build and how it would be better for customers. To Jeff a half-baked mockup was evidence of half-baked thinking. (27:00) Founders force the issue. (28:00) Writing required us to be thorough and precise. We had to describe features, pricing, how the service would work, why customers would want it. Half baked thinking was harder to disguise on the written page than in PowerPoint slides. (34:30) Failure and invention are inseparable twins. (35:30) Working backwards exposes skill sets that your company needs but does not yet have. (36:30) Differentiation with customers is often one of the key reasons to invent. (44:00) To read Bezos’ shareholder letters is to get a crash course in running a high-growth internet business from someone who mastered it before any of the playbooks were written. (46:00) The idea that Amazon, a pure e-commerce distributor of retail products made by others, would become a hardware company and make and sell its own reader device was controversial. (46:00) If you outsource then your company doesn’t acquire those skills. Amazon wants the skills. (54:00) Jeff wanted to build a moat around his best customers. (58:00) We had acquired a core competency only a few other companies could match. List of Jeff Bezos episodes to learn more: #282 Jeff Bezos shareholder letters #180 Jeff Bezos (Invention of a Global Empire) #179 Jeff Bezos (Everything Store) #155 Jeff Bezos (Invent and Wander) #71 Jeff Bezos Shareholder Letters #38 Space Barons #17 Jeff Bezos (Everything Store) ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#320 The Making of Winston Churchill Part 2
Sep 14, 202355 minWhat I learned from reading Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (5:00) It was better for the world that he had known failure and suffered moments of self doubt. (6:00) There was something in Churchill's character that simply wouldn't allow him to give up. He was a dangerous optimist. (8:00) History likes winners. (9:30) The adventures and ordeals of those early years were essential to the making of a man who triumphed in the second world war. (10:00) At 40 he was largely written off as a man whose best days were behind him. (Churchill shares a lot of parallels with Steve Jobs) (10:30) He fashioned his career as a grand experiment to prove that he could work his will on his times. Persevering in that approach, despite repeated setbacks and often harsh ridicule of those who didn't share his high opinion of himself. (13:00) At the heart of this story is an irrepressible spirit. (17:30) Little men let events take their course. I like things to happen. And if they don't happen, I like to make them happen. (15:00) In every age there are great men. Why not us? And why not now? (19:30) Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. (22:00) While other politicians were content to get their information from a scattering of newspapers, Churchill devoured whole shelves. (23:00) Winston Churchill wanted to be the dominant political figure of his time. (23:30) Robert Caro's books on Lyndon Johnson (26:30) Listen to Invest Like The Best #343 David Senra (30:00) If a man is sure of himself it only sharpens him and makes him more effective. (35:00) Another thing Steve Jobs and Winston Churchill had in common: High Energy. This story about Steve Jobs in incredible. (36:00) The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) (44:00) Churchill to his son: “Your idle and lazy life is very offensive to me. You appear to be leading a perfectly useless existence." — The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) (48:00) Larry Ellison: I know that most people think trying to build a hard wing of this size is crazy. But that’s the beauty of the idea. The other side isn’t trying to build one. So we’ll have a wing, and they won’t. — The Billionaire and The Mechanic(Founders #126) (50:30) Winston's opponents never tired of saying that he was unreasonable. (58:00) All of the Winston Churchill episodes: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. (Founders #319) ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Sam Zemurray (The Fish That Ate the Whale)
Sep 11, 20231h 30mWhat I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- [4:47] This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does. But I found it invigorating, too. It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making grandees in funny hats but also by street-corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real. [8:56] Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55) [10:00] Unlike Vanderbilt's other adversaries William Walker was not afraid of Cornelius when he should have been. [12:21] The immigrants of that era could not afford to be children. [12:42] The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen [12:54] He was driven by the same raw energy that has always attracted the most ambitious to America, then pushed them to the head of the crowd. Grasper, climber-nasty ways of describing this kid, who wants what you take for granted. From his first months in America, he was scheming, looking for a way to get ahead. You did not need to be a Rockefeller to know the basics of the dream: Start at the bottom, fight your way to the top. [14:01] There is no problem you can't solve if you understand your business from A to Z. [17:08] Sam spotted an opportunity where others saw nothing. [18:17] As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit and similar firms were too slow-footed to cover ground. It was a calculation based on arrogance. I can be fast where others have been slow. I can hustle where others have been satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade. [18:42] The kid on the streets is getting a shot at a dream. He sees the guy who gets rich and thinks, yep, that'll be me. He ignores the other stories going around. // There's no way to quantify all that on a spreadsheet, but it's that dream of being the exception, the one who gets rich and gets out before he gets got that's the key to a hustler's motivation. —Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) [26:36] He was pure hustle. [28:15] Preston later spoke of Zemurray with admiration. He said the kid from Russia was closer in spirit to the banana pioneers than anyone else working. "He's a risk taker," Preston explained, “he's a thinker, and he's a doer.” [30:33] They don't write books about people that stopped there. [32:48] Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow (Founders #248) and John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (#254) [34:22] He seemed to strive for the sake of striving. [34:44] If you're on a mans side you stay on that mans side or you're no better than a goddamn animal. [35:11] The world is a mere succession of fortunes made and lost, lessons learned and forgotten and learned again. [39:41] A man whose commitment could not be questioned, who fed his own brothers to the jungle. [40:00] The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacificby Alistair Urquhart. [41:02] Why the Founders of United Fruit were the Rockefellers of bananas. [47:23] He kept quiet because talking only drives up the price. [48:19] 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. [53:30] He believed in the transcendent power of physical labor—that a man can free his soul only by exhausting his body. [1:02:04] He disdained bureaucracy and hated paperwork. So seldom did he dictate a letter that he requires no full-time secretary. [1:04:01] He was respected because he understood the trade. By the time he was 40 he had served in every position. There was not a job he could not do nor a task he could not accomplish. He considered it a secret of his success. [1:05:02] Rick Rubin: In the Studio by Jake Brown. (Founders #245) [1:08:00] Zemurray was the founder, forever on the attack, at work, in progress, growing by trial and error. [1:10:44] Here was a self-made man, filled with the most dangerous kind of confidence: he had done it before and believed he could do it again. This gave him the air of a berserker, who says, If you're going to fight me, you better kill me. If you’ve ever known such a person, you will recognize the type at once. If he does not say much, it's because he considers small talk a weakness. Wars are not won by running your mouth. I'm describing a once essential American type that has largely vanished. Men who channeled all their love and fear into the business, the factory, the plantation, the shop. [1:11:44] Founder Mentality vs Big Company Mentality: When this mess of deeds came to light, United Fruit did what big bureaucracy-heavy companies always do: hired lawyers and investigators to search every file for the identity of the true owner. This took months. In the meantime, Zemurray, meeting separately with each claimant, simply bought the land from them both. He bought it twice paid a little more, yes, but if you factor in the cost of all those lawyers, probably still spent less than United Fruit and came away with the prize. [1:13:04] His philosophy: Get up first, work harder, get your hands in the dirt and blood in your eyes. [1:17:02] For every move there is a counter move. For every disaster there is a recovery. He never lost faith in his own agency. [1:17:57] A man focused on the near horizon of costs can sometimes lose sight of the far horizon of potential windfall. [1:20:22] You gentlemen have been fucking up this business long enough. I'm going to straighten it out. [1:23:03] In a time of crisis the mere evidence of activity can be enough to get things moving. [1:23:42] Zemurray was never heard to bitch or justify. He was a member of a generation that lived by the maxim: Never complain, never explain. [1:27:08] The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relationsby Larry Tye [1:28:14] He should link his private interest to a public cause. [1:29:32] In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world. [1:32:28] Sam's defining characteristic was his belief in his own agency, his refusal to despair. No story is without the possibility of redemption; with cleverness and hustle, the worst can be overcome. I can't help but feel that we would do well by emulating Sam Zemurray–not the brutality or the conquest, but the righteous anger that sent the striver into the boardroom of laughing elites, waving his proxies, shouting, "You gentlemen have been fucking up this business long enough. I'm going to straighten it out. — “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#319 The Making of Winston Churchill Part 1
Sep 5, 202348 minWhat I learned from reading Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:30) He was meant not just to fight for his country, but one day to lead it. Although he believed this without question, he still had to convince everyone else. (3:30) He didn't even have a plan. Just the unshakeable conviction that he was destined for greatness. (4:00) Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) (4:30) Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden (5:00) The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. (Founders #175) (8:00) In his open pursuit of fame and popular favor, Churchill seemed far less Victorian than Rooseveltian. (8:30) Winston advertises himself as simply and as unconsciously as he breathes. Churchill was widely criticized for being a self advertiser. (9:30) “I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod." (9:30) Churchill did not need encouragement. He only needed a chance. (11:00) "I have faith in my star. That I am intended to do something in the world." (12:30) "I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending." (13:30) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (17:30) Winston had spent the best years of his life composing his impromptu speeches. (18:00) He had no one who believed in him quite as much as he believed in himself. (20:30) He was defiantly determined to decide for himself where he would go and what he would do. (27:00) From studying the outcome of past expeditions, he believed that those that burdened themselves with equipment to meet every contingency had fared much worse than those that had sacrificed total preparedness for speed. — Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. (Founders #144) (31:00) Nothing but being shot at will ever teach men the art of using cover. (32:00) The greater the obstacle, the greater the triumph. (34:00) He had hated his captivity with an intensity that surprised even him. He could not bear the thought of being in another man's control. (35:00) Who shall say what is possible or impossible, in these spheres of action one cannot tell without a trial. (36:00) Always more audacity. (43:30) He read for four or five hours every day. (45:00) He would be obliged to rely on someone else's intelligence and cunning. This state of affairs was far less appealing to him than the dangerous he would face if he were on his own. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
The best interview I've ever done about Founders
Sep 3, 20231h 21mWhat I learned from the first 6 years of making Founders. I recorded a new episode with Patrick. It should be out soon. Follow Invest Like the Best in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss it. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#318 Alistair Urquhart (Listen to this when you’re stressed)
Aug 27, 202348 minWhat I learned from reading The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific by Alistair Urquhart. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (4:00) I hope that this book will be inspirational and offer hope to those who suffer adversity in their daily lives. (10:00) You might as well send a cow in pursuit of a rabbit. The Indians were accustomed to these woods. — Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. (Founders #251) (13:30) When you reach a large goal or finally get to the top, the distractions and new assumptions can be dizzying. First comes heightened confidence, followed quickly by overconfidence, arrogance, and a sense that “we’ve mastered it; we’ve figured it out; we’re golden.” But the gold can tarnish quickly. Mastery requires endless remastery. In fact, I don’t believe there is ever true mastery. It is a process, not a destination. — The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. (Founders #106) (15:30) Invaders are always organized. (23:00) Stay at the front and do not look back. (29:00) Every morning I would tell myself over and over: Survive this day. Survive this day. Survive this day. (32:00) On countless occasions I've seen two men with the same symptoms and same physical state and one will die and one will make it. I can only put that down to sheer willpower. (35:00) Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts (41:00) Dan Carlin's Nightmares of Indianapolis podcast episode(48:00) Alistair Urquhart was conscripted into the British military to fight during World War II. He was 19 years old. He was sent to Singapore. The Japanese invaded and he was taken hostage. He survived 750 days in the jungle working as a slave on The Death Railway and the bridge on the River Kwai. Most of the time he worked completely naked. He contracted dysentery, malaria, and tropical ulcers. A lot. He was transferred to a Japanese hellship. The ship was torpedoed. Almost everyone on the ship died. He survived. He spent 5 days adrift at sea until he was picked up by a Japanese whaling ship. He was sent to Nagasaki and forced to work in a mine. Two months later he was struck by the blast from the Atomic bomb. He was freed by the US Marines shortly thereafter. He returns home to Scotland and finds out his best friend died in the war and the girl he loved got married and moved to Canada. At 90 years of age he wrote the book to inspire others to persevere when they are faced with hardships in their life. I think it is a great book for entrepreneurs. The story demonstrates the adaptability of humans, our fierce desire to survive, and puts the stress of building companies into the proper perspective. The entire story only takes 3 hours and 14 minutes ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#317 Ed Catmull (Founder of Pixar)
Aug 21, 20231h 5mWhat I learned from rereading Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:00) Walt Disney created a made-up world, used cutting-edge technology to enable it, and then told us how he’d done it. (7:30) Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #187) (7:30) Both Einstein and Disney inspired me, but Disney affected me more because of his weekly visits to my family's living room. (7:45) Every time some technological breakthrough occurred, Walt Disney incorporated it. (9:30) His dad was the son of an Idaho dirt farmer. His dad was one of 14 kids. 5 of his dad's siblings died as infants. His dad was the first person in his family ever to go to college. He had to work while he was going to college and pay his own way. His dad built the family house with his own hands. (10:30) When you read biographies of people who've done great work, it's remarkable how much luck is involved. They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up. So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions. — How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. (Founders #314) (12:30) The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis (Founders #274) (14:00) George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones (Founders #35) (15:00) We [Ed Catmull and George Lucas] worked with a blinders on intensity. George had relentless practicality. He wasn't some hobbyist trying to bring technology into filmmaking for the heck of it. His interest in computers began and ended with their potential to add value to his filmmaking process. (19:00) George Lucas believed in the future and his ability to shape it. (20:30) The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world. — Steve Jobs (20:30) The art of storytelling is critically important. Most of the entrepreneurs who come talk to us can't tell a story. Learning to tell a story is incredibly important because that's how the money works. The money flows as a function of the stories — Don Valentine (22:30) Steve used the phrase insanely great products to explain what he believed in. (26:30) This guy told me that the way to establish his authority in the room was to arrive last. His thinking was this would establish him as the most powerful player in the room since he could afford to keep everyone else waiting. All it ended up establishing was that he had never met anyone like Steve jobs. (38:30) If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better. (42:00) Everything associated with our name needed to be good. Quality is the best business plan. (42:30) Steve understood that every interaction a customer had with Apple could increase or decrease his or her respect for the company. As he put it, a corporation "could accumulate or withdraw credits" from its reputation, which is why he worked so hard to ensure that every single interaction a customer might have with Apple-from using a Mac to calling customer support to buying a single from the iTunes store and then getting billed for it-was excellent. — Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli (Founders #265) (48:30) Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos (Founders #282) (52:30) People discover and realize their visions over time and through dedicated, protracted struggle. (53:30) If you’re sailing across the ocean and your goal is to avoid weather and waves, then why the hell are you sailing? You have to embrace that sailing means that you can’t control the elements and that there will be good days and bad days and that, whatever comes, you will deal with it because your goal is to eventually get to the other side. You will not be able to control exactly how you get across. That’s the game you’ve decided to be in. If your goal is to make it easier and simpler, then don’t get in the boat. (59:00) It is difficult to understand people who deviate so radically from the norm like Steve did. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#316 Bugatti
Aug 14, 202358 minWhat I learned from reading The Bugatti Story by L’Ebe Bugatti. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:01) If there was a prototype operation for what Enzo Ferrari envisioned it had to be what the legendary Ettore Bugatti built in Molsheim. — Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates. (Founders #220) (7:00) Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. (Founders #97) (14:30) I determined to build a car of my own. I had realized by then that I was completely taken by mechanics. My ideas gave me no rest. (16:00) The two inventors described to each other a singular experience: Each had imagined a perfect new product, whole, already manufactured and sitting before him, and then spent years prodding executives, engineers, and factories to create it with as few compromises as possible. — Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264) (22:00) Faster progress would be made in all fields if conceit did not cause us to forget or disdain the work done by others before us. There is a tendency to believe that nothing worthy of note has been done in the past, and this has an unfortunate bearing on our judgment; thus the present trend toward mediocrity. (23:45) I was hypnotized, drawn more and more to the mechanics of motors. These exciting problems had me completely under their sway, and so began for me the hard uphill task, the thankless labor of constructing and destroying and beginning again, without a break or rest, and for days, months, years even, until success finally rewarded all my efforts. (27:00) Bugatti made no attempt to compete with the low price models already on the market. The price of the Bugatti was higher than any other car of equal horsepower. (37:00) Bugatti is the personification of Paul Graham’s essay How To Do Great Work(Founders #314) -Work on what you have a natural aptitude for and a deep curiosity about. -Make a commitment to be the best in the world at what you do. -Care deeply about making truly great work. (42:00) All the finest trophies were won easily by engaging in every important race without pause. (44:00) Nothing is too good. Nothing is too dear. You've got to win whatever the cost. You work day and night if necessary. (44:30) There was a factory. However Molsheim was more than that. It was a house and a family. It was a little world where the attitude to things and the relations between people were out of the ordinary. (45:30) The personality of its founder continued to show in even the smallest details and unexpected ways. (46:00) You get the feeling of being suddenly confronted with something unusual and beyond classification. (49:30) His starting point was always to create the most extraordinary things. (50:30) Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300) (52:00) The root principle was to do things your way. It didn't matter how other people did it. As long as it works and it is exciting people will follow you. (58:30) A human life, by its very nature, has to be devoted to something or other, to a glorious or humble enterprise, an illustrious or obscure destiny. This is a strange but inexorable condition of things. — The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#315 Balenciaga
Aug 7, 202336 minWhat I learned from reading Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:20) Among the masters of Parisian fashion, Balenciaga was the greatest. (3:00) Christian Dior called Balenciaga “the master of us all" and Coco Chanel said that Balenciaga was "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word. The others are simply fashion designers". (3:30) Jay Gould episodes #258 and #285 (5:00) For the next seventy-four years Balenciaga did a piece of sewing every day of his life. (5:20) Being prolific is underrated. — Paul Graham (Founders #314) (8:45) From the age of three to his mid-twenties he learned thoroughly every aspect of his trade. (17:00) Bernard Arnault (Founders #296) (23:00) What Dior told Boussac: What you need, and I would like to run, is a craftsman’s workshop, in which we would recruit the very best people in the trade, to reestablish in Paris a salon for the greatest luxury and the highest standards of workmanship. It will cost a great deal of money and entail much risk.” (26:00) Balenciaga never commented on other designers. (28:00) Balenciaga had a religious like devotion to his craft: Balenciaga regarded making dresses as a vocation, like the priesthood, and an act of worship. He felt that he served God by suitably adorning the female form, which God had made beautiful. (29:00) Customers were called patrons. (30:00) His remoteness was not a pose but part of his dedication to his art. He worked fanatically hard. (31:00) His fundamental principles as a dressmaker: Make women happy. Make dresses the customer never wants to take off. Permanence. You should bequeath your dress to your daughter. And her to her daughter. Best material from the best textile creators. (33:00) You don’t wear a Balenciaga dress, you present it. (Make up your own terms!) (35:00) The essence of his creations was the work of human hands, bringing into existence the images projected on paper from his powerful and inventive brain. The archives of his firm survive intact, and they reveal the extent to which everything was done by hand: (37:00) Cut against the bias. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- 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
#314 Paul Graham (How To Do Great Work)
Jul 31, 202358 minWhat I learned from reading How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:00) All you need to do is find something you have an aptitude for and great interest in. (2:10) Doing great work means doing something important so well that you expand people's ideas of what's possible. (4:15) How many even discover something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand, perhaps, out of billions. —How to Do What You Love by Paul Graham (5:10) Always preserve excitingness. (Let what you are excited about guide you) (8:15) If you're excited about some possibility that everyone else ignores, and you have enough expertise to say precisely what they're all overlooking, that's as good a bet as you'll find. (9:15) How To Work Hard by Paul Graham (10:05) When you follow what you are intensely interested in this strange convergence happens where you're working all the time and it feels like you're never working. (10:20) You can't tell what most kinds of work are like except by doing them. You may have to work at something for years before you know how much you like it or how good you are at it. (13:00) When it comes to figuring out what to work on, you're on your own. (14:00) Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. (Founders #312) (17:15) One sign that you're suited for some kind of work is when you like even the parts that other people find tedious or frightening. (17:50) Make what you are most excited about. (19:00) If you're interested, you're not astray. (19:30) Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300) (20:15) At each stage do whatever seems most interesting and gives you the best options for the future. I call this approach "staying upwind." This is how most people who've done great work seem to have done it. (22:50) In many projects a lot of the best work happens in what was meant to be the final stage. (25:00) A Mathematician’s Apology by G.H. Hardy (26:00) Great work usually entails spending what would seem to most people an unreasonable amount of time on a problem. (26:30) The reason we're surprised is that we underestimate the cumulative effect of work. Writing a page a day doesn't sound like much, but if you do it every day you'll write a book a year. That's the key: consistency. People who do great things don't get a lot done every day. They get something done, rather than nothing. (27:10) Something that grows exponentially can become so valuable that it's worth making an extraordinary effort to get it started. (27:30) Taylor Swift (Acquired’s Version) (30:00) If you don't try to be the best, you won't even be good. This observation has been made by so many people in so many different fields that it might be worth thinking about why it's true. (36:00) Originality isn't a process, but a habit of mind. Original thinkers throw off new ideas about whatever they focus on. (38:00) Change breaks the brittle. (43:45) What might seem to be merely the initial step — deciding what to work on — is in a sense the key to the whole game. (45:00) Being prolific is underrated. + Examples of outlandishly prolific people (48:30) Just focus on the really important things and ignore everything else. (50:30) One of the most powerful kinds of copying is to copy something from one field into another. History is so full of chance discoveries of this type that it's probably worth giving chance a hand by deliberately learning about other kinds of work. You can take ideas from quite distant fields if you let them be metaphors. (51:30) Seek out the best colleagues. (54:30) Solving hard problems will always involve some backtracking. (56:30) Don't marry someone who doesn't understand that you need to work, or sees your work as competition for your attention. If you're ambitious, you need to work; it's almost like a medical condition; so someone who won't let you work either doesn't understand you, or does and doesn't care. (57:50) The prestige of a type of work is at best a trailing indicator and sometimes completely mistaken. If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious. (58:00) Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what's worth paying attention to. If you asked an oracle the secret to doing great work and the oracle replied with a single word, my bet would be on "curiosity." The whole process is a kind of dance with curiosity. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#313 Christopher Nolan
Jul 25, 202349 minWhat I learned from reading The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan by Tom Shone. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:00) The only way I know how to work is to sort of burrow in on one project very obsessively. (7:25) People will say to me, "There are people online who are obsessed with Inception or obsessed with Memento.” They're asking me to comment on that, as if I thought it were weird or something, and I'm like, Well, I was obsessed with it for years. Genuinely obsessed with it. So it doesn't strike me as weird. . . I feel like I have managed to wrap them the up in it way I try to wrap myself up. (8:30) The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron by Rebecca Keegan and The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron. (Founders #311) (11:00) I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m a craftsman. I don’t make a work of art; I make a movie. — George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. (15:30) Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride. (Founders #209) (22:45) Nolan is relentlessly resourceful. He wants to spend as as little money as possible so he can maintain as much control over the project as possible. (23:30) He makes his first movie on the weekends while he working a full-time job! (29:30) The efficiency of filmmaking is for me a way of keeping control. The pressure of time, the pressure of money. Even though they feel like restrictions at the time, and you chafe against them, they're helping you make decisions. They really are. If I know that deadline is there, then my creative process ramps up exponentially. (34:00) The result of making a billion dollar blockbuster: Suddenly his position at Warner Brothers went from solid to unassailable. (37:00) Stories can add to your own thinking but you need your own foundation to add them to first. (38:00) I know it's more fun when we're all together and we can do the thing together. That's why we keep it as a family business. (39:00) Rolls-Royce: The Magic of a Name: The First Forty Years of Britain s Most Prestigious Company by Peter Pugh. (Founders #287) (43:30) Every time a new feature or product was proposed, he decreed that the narrative should take the shape of a mock press release. The goal was to get employees to distill a pitch into its purest essence, to start from something the customer might see—the public announcement—and work backward. Bezos didn’t believe anyone could make a good decision about a feature or a product without knowing precisely how it would be communicated to the world. — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. (Founders #179) (45:30) Once your children are born, you can never look at yourself through your own eyes anymore; you always look at yourself through their eyes. (49:30) I often have terrible luck with the weather, but my philosophy is to shoot no matter what the weather is, always shooting no matter what weather, just keeping going, keeping going. Letting everybody on the crew and cast know we're really serious about doing that, no matter what the conditions are, so they're not looking out the window first thing and going, Oh, we will or won't shoot today. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#312 Mark Twain
Jul 19, 202355 minWhat I learned from reading Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. --- One of the best podcasts I've heard this year: Listen to Invest Like The Best #336 Jeremy Giffon Special Situations in Private Markets --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:20) A great way to think about power law people: Their absence leaves of void that no one else can fill. (8:00) His death would not have lengthened the life of the Confederacy or the Union, by a single day. It would, however, have reduced the literary inheritance of the United States by an incalculable amount. (11:20) Opportunity is a strange beast. It frequently appears after a loss. (13:00) In another life Mark Twain would be a cocaine dealer. (17:30) I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating. (21:15) The ad itself became legendary: “Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.” Hundreds of adventure-seeking young men quickly responded. (24:30) Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides (27:45) The purest veins were usually the deepest. (28:00) The trouble with this business is that everybody expects to find oil on the surface. If it was up near the top, it wouldn't be any trick to it. You've got to drill deep for oil. — The Big Rich (Founders #149) (32:30) Get the facts first, then you can distort them as much as you like. (33:30) People are attracted to confidence and repelled from nuance. (37:00) The whole point of the performance was not so much what was being said, as how it was being said. (47:30) Ambassador Burlingame gave the author a well-meaning piece of advice. “You have great ability; I believe you have genius,” Burlingame said. “What you need now is refinement of association. Seek companionship among men of superior intellect and character. Refine yourself and your work. Never affiliate with inferiors; always climb.” It was an admonishment Twain would take to heart and follow, virtually to the letter, for the next forty-four years. (53:00) When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it. — Jeff Bezos (57:30) Mark Twain produced a remarkable stream of novels, short stories, essays, and travel pieces that today stands as one of the great bodies of work in English literature. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#311 James Cameron
Jul 12, 20231h 12mWhat I learned from reading The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron by Rebecca Keegan and The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron. (4:00) I watched Titanic at the Titanic. And he actually replied: Yeah, but I madeTitanic at the Titanic. (7:10) I like difficult. I’m attracted by difficult. Difficult is a fucking magnet for me. I go straight to difficult. And I think it probably goes back to this idea that there are lots of smart, really gifted, really talented filmmakers out there that just can’t do the difficult stuff. So that gives me a tactical edge to do something nobody else has ever seen, because the really gifted people don’t fucking want to do it. (7:20) At 68 years old, Cameron wakes up at 4:45 AM and often kick boxes in the morning. (7:45) Self doubt is not something Cameron has a lot of experience with. His confidence preceded his achievements. (9:00) I was going through this stuff, chapter and verse, and making my own notes and all that. I basically gave myself a college education in visual effects and cinematography while I was driving a truck. (16:00) Every idea is a work in progress. (17:30) He's been on a planet of his own making ever since. (18:00) The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron (22:00) Cameron's career has been built on questioning accepted wisdom and believing in the power of the individual. His outlook is that we can take fate in our own hands. (27:00) All creative individuals build on the works of their predecessors. No one creates an a vacuum. — Walt Disney and Picasso (Founders #310) (31:00) Cameron would go to the library at the University of Southern California, photocopying graduate student theses on esoteric filmmaking subjects. He filled two fat binders with technical papers. For the cost of a couple hundred dollars in photocopying, he essentially put himself through a graduate course in visual effects at the top film school in the country without ever meeting a single professor. (34:00) Cameron had only been at Corman's for a matter of days, but he was already taking charge. He seems constitutionally incapable of doing otherwise. (What a line!) He had a very commanding presence. (35:30) Your mediocrity is my opportunity. (37:40) Cameron finds writing torture. He does it anyway. (43:00) Cameron is willing to let ideas marinate for decades. (43:45) "I like doing things I know others can’t.” That's part of what attracts him to shooting movies in water. "Nobody likes shooting in water. It's physically taxing, frustrating, and dangerous. But when you have a small team of people as crazy as you are, that are good at it, there is deep satisfaction in both the process of doing it and the resulting footage." (49:15) I was stunned by Jim's allegiance to the project and the extent of his physical abilities. Jim was there for every minute of it. It was beyond belief, his commitment to what we were doing. (55:30) I'd just made T2 for Carolco and I admired how they rolled, being their own bosses, mavericks, entrepreneurs. I’d been fed up with the studio system. So I figured I could set up a structure which would allow me to call the shots myself. (57:30) Mute the world. Build your own world. (1:04:50) Opportunity is a strange beast. It commonly appears after a loss. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#310 Walt Disney and Picasso
Jul 4, 202352 minWhat I learned from reading Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. --- (3:30) Disney made use of the new technologies throughout his creative life. (4:45) Lists of Paul Johnson books and episodes: Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson.(Founders #226) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) (5:55) Picasso was essentially self-taught, self-directed, self-promoted, emotionally educated in the teeming brothels of the city, a small but powerfully built monster of assured egoism. (7:30) Most good copywriters fall into two categories. Poets. And killers. Poets see an ad as an end. Killers as a means to an end. If you are both killer and poet, you get rich. — Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. (Founders #306) (10:00) Whatever you do, you must do it with gusto, you must do it in volume. It is a case of repeat, repeat, repeat. — Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. (Founders #105) (11:30) Picasso averaged one new piece of artwork every day of his life from age 20 until his death at age 91. He created something new every day for 71 years. (15:30) Power doesn't always corrupt. But what power always does is reveal. — Working by Robert Caro (Founders #305) (17:30) Many people find it hard to accept that a great writer, painter, or musician can be evil. But the historical evidence shows, again and again, that evil and creative genius can exist side by side in the same person. In my judgment his monumental selfishness and malignity were inextricably linked to his achievement. He was all-powerful as an originator and aesthetic entrepreneur precisely because he was so passionately devoted to what he was doing, to the exclusion of any other feelings whatever. He had no sense of duty except to himself, and this gave him his overwhelming self-promoting energy. Equally, his egoism enabled him to turn away from nature and into himself with a concentration which is awe-inspiring. (21:30) It shows painfully how even vast creative achievement and unparalleled worldly success can fail to bring happiness. (24:00) Walt Disney (at age 18) wanted to run his own business and be his own master. He had the American entrepreneurial spirit to an unusual degree. (27:00) Recurring theme: Knowing what you want to do but not knowing how to do it—yet. (26:20) All creative individuals build on the works of their predecessors. No one creates in vacuum. (28:30) Why Walt Disney moved to Hollywood: The early 1920s, full of hope and daring, were a classic period for American free enterprise, and for anyone interested in the arts—Hollywood was a rapidly expanding focus of innovation. (28:00) Filmaker episodes: Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride. (Founders #209) George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. (Founders #35) (30:10) The relentless resourcefulness of a young Walt Disney! (34:30) This is wild: It is significant that Mickey Mouse, in the year of his greatest popularity, 1933, received over 800,000 fan letters, the largest ever recorded in show business, at any time in any century. (36:00) Something that Disney does his entire career —he has this in common with other great filmmakers— he is always jumping on the new technology of his day. (37:00) Lack of resources is actually a feature. It’s the benefit. — Kevin Kelly on Invest Like the Best #334 (38:45) Imagination rules the world. — The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (41:15) Disney put excellence before any other consideration. (41:45) Disney hired the best artists he could get and gave them tasks to the limits of their capacities. (47:45) Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow. (Founders #158) (49:30) I Had Lunch With Sam Zell (Founders #298) --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Michael Jordan (The Life)
Jun 30, 20231h 39mWhat I learned from reading Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. --- (5:07) His competence was exceeded only by his confidence.(5:58) He worked at the game, and if he wasn't good at something, he had the motivation to be the best at it. (6:33) It seemed that he discovered the secret quite early in his competitive life: the more pressure he heaped on himself, the greater his ability to rise to the occasion. (14:06) At each step along his path, others would express amazement at how hard he competed. At every level, he was driven as if he were pursuing something that others couldn't see.(16:10) Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I'd close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it, and that got me going again. (19:29) Jordan could sense immediately that he had something the others didn't. (59:53) The Jordan Rules succeeded against the Bulls so well that they became textbook for guarding athletic scorers. The scheme helped Detroit win two NBA championships, but it also helped in the long run, by forcing Jordan to find an answer. "I think that 'Jordan Rules' defense, as much as anything else, played a part in the making of Michael Jordan," Tex Winter said. (1:16:35) Jordan had been surprised to learn how lazy many of his Olympic teammates were about practice, how they were deceiving themselves about what the game required. (1:19:56) I have always liked practice and I hate to miss it. When you miss that one day, you feel like you missed a lot. You take extra work to make up for that one day. I've always been a practice player. I believe in it.(1:29:47) Jordan presented a singleness of purpose that was hard to dent. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#309 Arnold Schwarzenegger (Before He Was Successful)
Jun 26, 202340 minWhat I learned from reading Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak by Barbara Outland Baker. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (6:30) He forced his sons to eat with silverware at perfect right angles. They had to keep their elbows to their waists. If the boys did not obey, the back of his hand was quick to strike their cheeks. (7:30) His life began to flourish through the art and science of bodybuilding. Arnold ate it, slept it, worked it, imagined it, thought it, believed it, and trusted it. Bodybuilding became his existence. (8:10) He had no time to waste on naysayers. He aligned only with those who shared his passion. (8:15) He knew that to succeed according to his manic standards he needed to master an individual sport. (8:30) His intelligence did not show on his report cards yet he mastered his goals like a wizard. (If you do everything you will win) (8:50) His singular concentration provided a rock solid belief in his potential. (9:30) Not even his peers could understand the enormity of his lifetime dreams. (11:00) Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Founders #193) (11:15) Gradually a conflict grew up in our relationship. She was a well-balanced woman who wanted an ordinary, solid life, and I was not a well-balanced man and hated the very idea of ordinary life. She had thought I would settle down, that I would reach the top in my field and level off. But that's a concept that has no place in my thinking. For me, life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer. (13:40) If you do everything you will win. (13:45) And I then saw very clearly what I could achieve, and that gave me a tremendous amount of motivation. (13:55) Instead of training two hours a day like most kids did, I would train twice a day, two hours. Totally abnormal. Sometimes three times a day and sometimes four times a day. I would go home during my lunch time, and then do, for an hour straight, just sit-ups to get that extra hour that no one else has gotten in, just to be ahead of everyone else. (16:20) Arnold was not a man of many surprises. He was clear in his focus, firm in his decisions, and egocentric at all costs. (17:55) Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners. — The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. (Founders #106) (21:20) He made it clear that his world was huge and I must learn to accept that other people and activities demanded his attention. (23:30) His family foundation was instrumental in setting up his intense motivation to succeed. This negative motivation pushes him to achieve the maximum potential in every activity. (27:30) No one could restrain his mutinous energy. (27:55) Arnold always felt self-confident, no matter the disparity in sophistication, income or status. (29:30) Francis could sell ice to the Eskimos, Lucas said later. He has charisma beyond logic. I can see now what kind of men the great Caesars of history were, their magnetism. — George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. (Founders #35) (31:30) I’m not so dominant that I can’t listen to creative ideas coming from other people. Successful people listen. Those who don’t listen, don’t survive long. — Driven From Within by Michael Jordan (Founders #213) (22:40) Problems are just opportunities in work clothes. — Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West by Mark Foster. (Founders #66) (33:10) Optimism is a moral duty. — Edwin Land A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein. (Founders #134) (33:50) A sunny disposition is worth more than fortune. — The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie. (Founders #283) (35:30) Stay public. You gotta promote, promote, promote, or it all dies. You just gotta be out there all the time. — Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever. (Founders #219) (37:00) He maintained his rigorous training schedule. (38:30) He craved the interaction with each new expert and remembered every tip. Arnold already recognized that he had the ability to learn any content he chose. (38:45) The best jobs are neither decreed nor degreed. They are creative expressions of continuous learners in free markets. — The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191) (39:15) Imitation precedes creation. — Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. (Founders #210) (44:35) Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141) Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #193) --- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#308 The Founder of Glock
Jun 19, 202340 minWhat I learned from reading Glock: The Rise of America's Gun by Paul Barrett. Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (5:22) What struck me is how his inexperience was a great advantage. He didn't assume anything about how to design a handgun because he's never designed one before. Consequently he designed the best one ever. He didn't know what was out of bounds. (8:20) Gaston Glock himself put it in an interview: "That I knew nothing was my advantage.” (8:55) He began disassembling the guns, putting them back together, and noted the contrasting methods used to make them. (9:00) More on Glock’s initial research process: I started intensive studies in such a manner that I visited the Austrian patent offices for weeks examining generations of handgun in innovation. (9:10) Learning from history of a form of leverage. (10:25) Crucially, the gun should have no more than 40 parts. This is one of the most important ideas in the book. He designed a product —and a company— based on limiting the amount of moving parts. (12:00) My intention was to learn as much as possible as fast as possible. (12:30) Move fast: I worked for two years, day and night, to bring the sample to the Army on time. (12:45) Difference for the sake of it and retention of total control. — Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300) (15:00) The important thing that gave him his big price advantage was that he designed the pistol for complete production on computer controlled tools. (15:20) The book is all simplicity, focus, and differentiation. (15:30) Glock produced the simplest handgun with only 34 components. (18:30) He's got all these very unique and unusual forms of distribution. (18:35) How did a pistol produced by an obscure engineer in Vienna, a man who barely spoke English and had no familiarity with America, become in the space of a few years, an American icon? The answer to that question is distribution. (20:20) There's a lot of money to be made if we could convert U.S police departments from revolvers to pistols. (22:50) The only conventional thing about the Glock was the method of operation he adopted for his handgun. Glock borrowed his basic mechanics from John Moses Browning, the greatest gun designer of the late 19th century. (24:08) He objected to the Pentagon's insistence that the rights to manufacture the winning gun design would be open to competitive bidding. Glock intended to collect all profit from the production of his gun himself. (24:35) Quality will always bring you more money. (25:50) Glock's gross margins exceeded 65%. The Glock's simpler design and the computerized manufacturing methods allowed for larger profits. (27:45) Working by Robert Caro. (Founders #305) (30:40) David Ogilvy said the word FREE is magical to customers. (31:00) Glock began putting some of the country's most admired shooting instructors on contract to spread the word about the Austrian pistol. (32:00) Cut the prices, scoop the market, watch the costs, and the profits will take care of themselves. + The deals worked financially because of the company's startingly low manufacturing costs. (32:30) Glock is just running Sam Colt’s playbook — just doing it 140 years later. — Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America by Jim Rasenberger. (Founders #147) (33:00) Sam Colt relentlessly pursued public contracts, regardless of the profit margin. “Government patronage, Sam Colt once said, is an advertisement, if nothing else.” Gaston Glock became the Sam Colt of the 20th century. (34:30) Glock was able to focus. They put all of their effort and resources behind a single product: American handgun makers offered many diverse models in the fashion of the Detroit car companies. Glock saw that as competing with himself and resisted the temptation. (36:20) He evolved from a provincial manager of a radiator factory to a world traveling industrialist. (41:45) That was Glock's theme. I did it my way. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#307: The World's Great Family Dynasties: Rockefeller, Rothschild, Morgan, & Toyada
Jun 12, 20231h 3mWhat I learned from reading Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses by David Landes. ---- Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain. Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (4:25) Success causes failure. As the family develops power and prestige, the heirs find many interesting and amusing things to do rather than run their business. (6:00) Those on the margins often come to control the center. (9:00) Great industrial leaders are always fanatically committed to their jobs. They are not lazy, or amateurs. — Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. (Founders #306) (9:50) For many of the great founders “Appetite comes with eating.” (11:00) Rothschild episodes: Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild by Amos Elon. (Founders #197) The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets by Niall Ferguson. (Founders #198) JP Morgan episodes: The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. (Founders #139) The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield. (Founders #142) Rockefeller episodes: Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. (Founders #148) Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248) John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254) (13:30) Mayer Rothschild thought that long term relationships were more valuable than immediate profit. (15:45) Nathan Rothschild has extreme levels of self belief: When his prospective father-in-law asked for proof of his prospects, Nathan told him that if he was concerned about having his daughters provided for, he might just as well give them all to Nathan, and be done with it. (19:00) The Rothschilds developed the technique of absolute direction to perfection. (21:15) Wal-Mart stock is staying right where it is. We don’t need the money. We don’t need to buy a yacht. And thank goodness we never thought we had to go out and buy anything like an island. We just don’t have those lands of needs or ambitions, which wreck a lot of companies when they get along in years. Some families sell their stock off a little at a time to live high, and then—boom—somebody takes them over, and it all goes down the drain. One of the real reasons I’m writing this book is so my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will read it years from now and know this: If you start any of that foolishness, I’ll come back and haunt you. So don’t even think about it. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) (26:00) If you want to build a family dynasty you need to have a bunch of kids. This is the number one factor for increasing the chance that your family dynasty outlives you. (29:45) Larry Ellison didn’t have the methodical relentlessness that made Bill Gates so formidable and feared. By his own admission, Ellison was not an obsessive grinder like Gates: “I am a sprinter. I rest, I sprint, I rest, I sprint again.” Ellison had a reputation for being easily bored by the process of running a business and often took time off, leaving the shop to senior colleagues. — Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds. (Founders #124) (36:13) A man always has two reasons for the things he does, a good one, and the real one. — J.P. Morgan (38:00) Andrew Carnegie celebrated too quickly. He later admitted to Morgan that he had sold out too cheap, by $100 million. Morgan replied, “Very likely, Andrew.” — The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield. (Founders #142) (38:35) Henry Villard had come to Morgan for help in taking over Edison's company. This was a mistake. Morgan was not by nature, a helper. He was a driver. He arranged a counter coup. (41:45) Properly understood, any new and better way of doing things is technology. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel. (Founders #278) (43:30) “It is impossible to create an innovative product unless you do it yourself, pay attention to every detail, and then test it exhaustively. Never entrust the creation of a product to others, for that will inevitably lead to failure and cause you deep regret.” —Sakichi Toyada (45:00) You should make an effort to make something that will benefit society. (45:30) Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary by Robert Price. (Founders #304) (48:50) Mailman is a Gmail plugin that allows you to control when and what emails should land in your inbox. https://www.mailmanhq.com (58:30) Rockefeller believed that he would be rich and he believed that this was because God wanted him to be. (58:45) Rockefeller’s competitors and associates were amateurs by comparison, and he saw them for what they were. (1:01:00) Published railway tariffs were for the small man. They were not for major shippers who could play one railroad against another while promising steady cargo. (Rockefeller’s initial edge) (1:03:15) His clincher was to offer the victim a look at the books of Standard. A potential seller was dumbfounded to learn that standard was able to sell at less than his own cost of production. They could kill him whenever they pleased. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#306 David Ogilvy (Confessions of an Advertising Man)
Jun 5, 202348 minWhat I learned from reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. ---- Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (4:15) When Fortune published an article about me and titled it: "Is David Ogilvy a Genius?," I asked my lawyer to sue the editor for the question mark. (4:45) The people who built the companies for which America is famous, all worked obsessively to create strong cultures within their organizations. Companies that have cultivated their individual identities by shaping values, making heroes, spelling out rites and rituals, and acknowledging the cultural network, have an edge (5:30) We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles. A blind pig can sometimes find truffles, but it helps to know that they grow in oak forests. (5:48) We hire gentlemen with brains. (6:16) Only First Class business, and that in a First Class way. (6:25) Search all the parks in all your cities; you'll find no statues of committees. (9:45) Buy Ogilvy on Advertising (10:45) One decent editorial counts for a thousand advertisements. + You simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. A consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two, or even several. — Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300) (15:22) It was inspiring to work for a supreme master. M. Pitard did not tolerate incompetence. He knew that it is demoralising for professionals to work alongside incompetent amateurs. (16:66) You have to be ruthless if you want to build a team of A players. It's too easy, as a team grows, to put up with a few B players, and they then attract a few more B players, and soon you will even have some C players. The Macintosh experience taught me that A players like to work only with other A players, which means you can't indulge B players. (18:12) In the best companies, promises are always kept, whatever it may cost in agony and overtime. (18:33) I have come to the conclusion that the top man has one principal responsibility: to provide an atmosphere in which creative mavericks can do useful work. (19:38) I admire people who work hard, who bite the bullet. (19:58) I admire people with first class brains. (20:23) I admire people who work with gusto. If you don't enjoy what you are doing, I beg you to find another job. Remember the Scottish proverb, "Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead." (20:50) I admire self-confident professionals, the craftsmen who do their jobs with superlative excellence. (21:40) The best way to keep the peace is to be candid. (23:18) That’s been the most important lesson I’ve learned in business: that the dynamic range of people dramatically exceeds things you encounter in the rest of our normal lives—and to try to find those really great people who really love what they do. — Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words. (Founders #299) (24:39) The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing (but True!) Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and Arthur W. Schultz. (Founders #206) (25:09) Claude Hopkins episodes: My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins. (Founders #170) Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. (Founders #207) (25:47) Talent is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels. (26:49) The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked. (28:21) This podcast studies formidable individuals. (31:40) Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam by Michael R. Marrus. (Founders #116) (37:47) I doubt whether there is a single agency (or company) of any consequence which is not the lengthened shadow of one man. (39:51) Don't bunt. Aim out of the park. Aim for the company of immortals. (40:13) Most big corporations behave as if profit were not a function of time. When Jerry Lambert scored his first breakthrough with Listerine, he speeded up the whole process of marketing by dividing time into months. Instead of locking himself into annual plans, Lambert reviewed his advertising and his profits every month. The result was that he made $25,000,000 in eight years, where it takes most people twelve times as long. In Jerry Lambert's day, the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company lived by the month, instead of by the year. (41:30) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (41:36) I am an inveterate brain picker, and the most rewarding brains I have picked are the brains of my predecessors and my competitors. (43:27) We make advertisements that people want to read. You can't save souls in an empty church. (44:05) You aren't advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade. (45:13) The headline is the most important element in advertisements. (47:47) Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill Gurley (48:15) Set yourself to becoming the best-informed man in the agency on the account to which you are assigned. If, for example, it is a gasoline account, read text books on the chemistry, geology and distribution of petroleum products. Read all the trade journals in the field. Read all the research reports and marketing plans that your agency has ever written on the product. Spend Saturday mornings in service stations, pumping gasoline and talking to motorists. Visit your client's refineries and research laboratories. Study the advertising of his competitors. At the end of your second year, you will know more about gasoline than your boss. Most of the young men in agencies are too lazy to do this kind of homework. They remain permanently superficial. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#305 Robert Caro on power, poverty, ruthlessness, & obsession
May 29, 202355 minWhat I learned from reading Working by Robert Caro. ---- Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best: Sam Hinkie: Find Your People ---- [3:40] You can't get very deep into Johnson's life without realizing that the central fact of his life was his relationship with his father. [8:00] It was the hill country and his father's failures that taught him how terrible could be the consequences of a single mistake. [8:45] Lyndon Johnson wouldn't understand. He would refuse to understand. He would threaten you, would cajole you, bribe you or charm you. He would do whatever he had to do, but he would get that vote. [9:00] What mattered to him was winning because he knew what losing could be. What its consequences could be. [9:50] Robert Caro books I've read: The Power Broker The Path to Power Means of Ascent Master of The Senate (currently reading) [11:00] About what I wanted to do with my life and my books (which are my life) [11:40] I am a reflection of what I do. — Steve Jobs [23:20] There are certain moments in your life when you suddenly understand something about yourself. I loved going through those files, making them yield up their secrets to me. [24:10] Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamn page. [27:50] Robert Caro snaps: No, that's not why highways get built where they get built. They get built there because Robert Moses wants them there. [28:15] Robert Moses had power that no one understood. Power that nobody else was even thinking about. [29:50] There are sentences that are said to you in your life that are chiseled into your memory. [34:00] Three of the editors took me to some fancy restaurant and told me they could make me a star. Bob Gottlieb said, Well, I don't go out for lunch but we can have a sandwich at my desk and talk about your book. So of course I picked him. [37:15] Robert Moses was a ruthless genius with savage energy. [38:30] Ambitious people are rare, so if everyone is mixed together randomly, as they tend to be early in people's lives, then the ambitious ones won't have many ambitious peers. When you take people like this and put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water. Probably most ambitious people are starved for the sort of encouragement they'd get from ambitious peers, whatever their age. — Paul Graham’s essays. (Founders #275-277) [42:30] in a couple of sentences these two men —idols of mine — had wiped away five years of doubt. [42:50] There is not a more mysterious craft than entrepreneurship. [48:15] I now had a picture of Lyndon Johnson's youth, that terrible youth, that character hardening youth. [54:00] I wasn't fully understanding what these people were telling me about the depth of Lyndon Johnson's determination, about the frantic urgency, the desperation, to get ahead, and to get ahead fast. As if the passions, the ambitions that he brought to Washington, strong though they were, were somehow intensified by the fact that he was finally there, in the place where he had always wanted to be. I wanted to show the contrast between what he was coming from the poverty, the insecurity —and what he was trying for. [55:15] I wanted to make the reader see the contrast between what he was coming from and what he was trying for. Something on the way to work had excited him and thrilled him so much that he'd break into a run every morning. [56:15] And as Lyndon Johnson came up Capitol Hill in the morning, he would be running. Well, of course he was running—from the land of poverty to this. Everything he had ever wanted, everything he had ever hoped for, was there. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#304: Sol Price (The Founder Who Taught Jim Sinegal, Sam Walton, Jeff Bezos, Bernie Marcus)
May 22, 20231hWhat I learned from reading Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary by Robert Price. ---- [6:50] He believed in developing strong operating efficiencies, and he continually emphasized passing on savings to customers. [8:48] It's pretty incredible to think about that Sol's ideas have created trillions of dollars of value. [11:18] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. —Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) [14:00] Stephen King on the belief and support he received from his wife: “Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference”— Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craftby Stephen King. (Founders #210) [16:00] True education is gained through the discipline of life. —Henry Ford [19:45] Sol kept a small sign in his office: “Do it now.” [24:00] Sol finds an idea future generations of entrepreneurs will use: A membership retail store targeted to a specific niche. [24:45] When you have people driving far distances to save money that is a very good sign. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234) [26:45] Daniel Ek interview on the Acquired podcast. [39:10] If you’re not spending 90% of your time teaching, you’re not doing your job. —Jim Sinegal. [39:45] You train an animal, you teach a person. [40:00] He was not a fan of training manuals because he believed that manuals were a substitute for thinking. [43:00] What does limited selection have to do with efficiency? Because payroll and benefits represent 80% of a retailer’s cost of operations, pricing advantage follows labor productivity. Fewer items result in reduced labor hours throughout all of the product supply channels. Put simply, the cost to deal with 4,500 items is a lot less than the cost to deal with 50,000 items. [50:21] The operating efficiencies of the warehouse concept and the direct delivery of products from the suppliers to Price Club made it possible to sell merchandise for less. [55:00] Costco and Sam's were expanding aggressively while Price Club remained tentative. [1:03:30] Sol was a poster child for the American dream. His immigrant parents were born in a small Russian village. Sol was the first in his family to graduate college. He earned a law degree. He became an exceptionally successful businessman and philanthropist, celebrated 70 years of marriage, was a good father who instilled high values in his sons, and he never walked away from responsibility. It doesn’t get much better than that. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
#303 Rose Blumkin (Warren Buffett's Favorite Founder)
May 14, 202333 minWhat I learned from reading The Women of Berkshire Hathaway: Lessons from Warren Buffett's Female CEOs and Directors by Karen Linder. ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas—A New Blueprint for Homebuilding ---- Episode outline: Mr. Buffett, we're going to put our competitors through a meat grinder. — Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. (Founders #182) There are several "Going Out of Business" advertisements from competitors' stores framed and hanging on the wall. As a general rule, bet on the quality of the business, not on the quality of the management-unless, of course, you've got a Mrs. B. in your hand. If that is the case, go all in. She was a business genius. — The Tao of Charlie Munger (Founders #295) Retirement is fatal. — David Ogilvy (Founders #189) Business like raising a child, you want a good one. A child needs a mother and a business needs a boss. What is your favorite thing to do on a nice evening? Drive around to check the competition and plan my next attack. He was 52 and famous. I was 33 and a junior account executive. Early on, he wrote a letter to one of my clients. After listing eight reasons why some ads prepared by the company’s design department would not be effective, he delivered his ultimate argument: The only thing that can be said in favor of the layouts is that they are “different.” You could make a cow look different by removing the udder. But that cow would not produce results. So began my “David” file. Almost everyone who worked at the agency kept one. — The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising by Kenneth Roman. (Founders #169) Buffet said: If she ran a popcorn stand I’d wanna be in business with her. She's just plain smart. She's a fierce competitor and she's a tireless worker. Buffett “on how Mrs. B ran her business: One question I always ask myself in appraising a business is how I would like, assuming I had ample capital and skilled personnel, to compete with it. I'd rather wrestle grizzlies than compete with Mrs. B. They buy brilliantly, they operate at expense ratios on to t competitors don't even dream about, and they then pass on to their customers much of the savings. It's the ideal business—one built upon exceptional value to the customer that in turn translates into exceptional economics for its owners." She hired a chauffeur who drove her around Omaha each day. The driver took her to other stores. She looked in the windows and checked to see how many cars were in their parking lots. It didn't take long for her to plan her revenge. There was no looking back. She just swung. Aspiring business managers should look hard at the plain, but rare, attributes that produced Mrs. B’s incredible success. Students from 40 universities visit me every year, and I have them start the day with a visit to NFM. If they absorb Mrs. B’s lessons, they need none from me. ---- Join my email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
