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Submit ReviewWhat I learned from reading Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness: Being Very Good Is No Good,You Have to Be Very, Very, Very, Very, Very Good by David Ogilvy and Ogivly & Mather.
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Some questions other subscribers asked SAGE:
I need some unique ideas on how to find new customers. What advice do you have for me?
What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors?
How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent?
What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs?
Can you give me more ideas about how to avoid competition from Peter Thiel?
Have any of history's greatest founders regretted selling their company?
What is the best way to fire a bad employee?
How did Andrew Carnegie know what to focus on?
Why was Jay Gould so smart?
What was the biggest unlock for Henry Ford?
Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffetts best ideas?
If Charlie Munger had a top 10 rules for life what do you think those rules would be?
What did Charlie Munger say about building durable companies that last?
Tell me about Cornelius Vanderbilt. How did he make his money?
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(0:01) But what did David actually mean by divine discontent? Here's an interpretation:
DON'T BOW YOUR HEAD.
DON'T KNOW YOUR PLACE.
DEFY THE GODS.
DON'T SIT BACK.
DON'T GIVE IN.
DON'T GIVE UP.
DON'T WIN SILVERS.
DON'T BE SO EASILY HAPPY WITH YOURSELF.
DON'T BE SPINELESS.
DON'T BE GUTLESS.
DON'T BE TOADIES.
DON'T GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT.
AND DON'T EVER, EVER ALLOW A SINGLE SCRAP OF RUBBISH OUT OF THE AGENCY
(5:00) We have to work equally hard to replace the old patterns of self-defeating behaviors. An old Latin proverb tells us how: a nail is driven out by a nail, habit is overcome by habit.
(7:00) Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel. (Founders #278)
(7:00) Fear is a demon that devours the soul of a company: it diminishes the quality of our imagination, it dulls our appetite for adventure, it sucks away our youth. Fear leads to self-doubt, which is the worst enemy of creativity.
(10:00) Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth. — The NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger. (Founders #329)
(13:00) How great we become depends on the size of our dreams. Let's dream humongous dreams, put on our overalls, go out there and build them.
(14:00) 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” — How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. (Founders #314)
(17:00) Only dead fish go with the flow.
(18:00) If I have to choose between agreement and conflict, I’ll take conflict every time. It always yields a better result. — Jeff Bezos
(20:00) It's the cracked ones that let light into the world.
(20:00)
Rule #1. There are no rules.Rule #2. Never forget rule #1.
(21:00) Bureaucracy has no place in an ideas company.
(23:00) You see, those who live by their wits go to work on roller coasters. The ride is exhilarating, but one has to have a stomach of titanium. For starters, you're never a hundred per cent certain you'll ever get there. If you (even) get to your destination, you sometimes wonder why you've ever bothered.
Other times the scenery pleasantly surprises you.
(24:00) Discovery consists of seeing what everyone has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
(25:00) God is with those who persevere.
(25:00) Dogged determination is often the only trait that separates a moderately creative person from a highly creative one.
That's because great work is never done by temperamental geniuses, but by obstinate donkey-men.
(26:00) Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300)
(26:00) We are what we repeatedly do. Our character is a composite of our habits. Habits constantly, daily, express who we really are.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from reading The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant.
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(1:00) This is a 100 page biography of the human species
(1:00) The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant (Full Set)
(2:30) Generations of men establish a growing mastery over the earth, but they are destined to become fossils in its soil.
(4:00) Ruthlessly prioritize how you spend your time.
(4:00) The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows.
(4:30) ALL OF THE NAPOLEON EPISODES:
Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. (Founders #294)
The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Wordsedited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)
Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon and Col. Lanza. (Founders #337)
(8:00) Our job is to make our companies and ourselves better equipped to meet the test of survival.
(11:30) Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group.
(12:30) The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191)
(14:30) In the end, superior ability has its way.
(16:30) Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the forces they deposed.
(19:00) The imitative majority follows the innovating minority and this follows the originative individual, in adapting new responses to the demands of environment or survival.
(20:00) If you can identify an enduring human need you can build a business around that.
(21:00) In every age men have been dishonest and governments have been corrupt.
(25:00) Survival at all costs: Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under.
(25:00) Victory in our industry is spelled survival. — Steve Jobs
(25:00) All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. (Founders #224)
(26:00) By being so cautious in respect to leverage and having loads of liquidity, we will be equipped both financially and emotionally to play offense while others scramble for survival. — The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham (Founders #227)
(27:00) History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.
(31:00) The Iron Law of Oligarchy
(32:00) Every advance in the complexity of the economy puts an added premium upon superior ability.
(33:00) The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka. (Founders #215)
(34:00) Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman
(37:00) All technological advances will have to be written off as merely new means of achieving old ends
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from rereading Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins.
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(0:01) Vanderbilt was only interested in two things: making money and winning
(3:00) Cornelius Vanderbilt, the descendant of poor Dutch immigrants, would die in 1877 possessing more money than was held by the United States treasury.(3:00) The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
(5:00) The NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger. (Founders #329)
(6:00) “If I had learned education. I would not have had time to learn anything else.”
(7:00) Vanderbilt wrote nothing down, keeping every detail of his business dealings in his head, and at any given time he knew his income and expenditures down to the last cent.
(10:00) From Founders Notes. I asked the chat feature:
Tell me about Cornelius Vanderbilt. How did he make his money?
One trait it identified in Vanderbilt was this:
Vanderbilt's approach to business was often marked by a sly concealment of his intentions, keeping information close while simultaneously gathering intelligence on competitors. This strategic obfuscation allowed him to make moves that others often couldn't predict or comprehend until it was too late
(This feature will be available to Founders Notes subscribers very soon!)
(15:00) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields (Founders #292)
(24:00) The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni. (Founders #233)
(26:00) Gentlemen, you have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you, for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt.
(37:00) He's turning everyone against Walker by appealing to their interests. He’s not saying do this for me to get my ships back. He appeals to their interests and aligns their interests with his own.
(40:00) Vanderbilt had more money than all the Central American governments combined.
(41:00) As far as my nature is concerned, I do not meet competition, I destroy competitors.
— The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to His Son by John D. Rockefeller. (Founders #324)
(41:00) Vanderbilt said why don’t you pay me to not compete with you?
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from reading Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover and Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness by Tim Grover.
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----(3:00) What I am giving you is insight into the mentality of those who have found unparalleled success by trusting their own instincts.
(3:00) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240)
(6:00) Michael was the best because he was relentless about winning. No matter how many times he won he always wanted more and he was always willing to do whatever it took to get it.
(6:00) Michael never cared about achieving mere greatness. He cared about being the best ever.
(7:00) These are the most driven individuals you'll ever know, with an unmatched genius for what they do: they don't just perform a job, they reinvent it.
(8:00) Alex Rodriguez interviews Kobe Bryant
(11:00) The most important thing, the one thing that defines and separates him from any other competitor: He's addicted to the exquisite rush of success and he'll alter his entire life to get it.
(11:00) The mind will play tricks on you. The mind was telling you that you couldn't go any further. The mind was telling you how much it hurt. The mind was telling you these things to keep you from reaching your goal. But you have to see past that, turn it all off if you are going to get where you want to be. —
—Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil. (Founders #213)
(12:30) If one thing separated Michael from every other player, it was his stunning ability to block out everything and everyone else. He was able to shut out everything except his mission.
(14:00) At some point you made something simple into something complicated.
(16:00) Being at the extreme in your craft is very important in the age of leverage. The best person in the world at anything gets to do it for everyone.
(20:00) A 600 page biography of Kobe Bryant: The Life of Kobe Bryant by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #272)
(21:00) This could be an ad for FOUNDERS NOTES
The greats never stop learning.
All the hours of work have created an unstoppable internal resource you can draw on in any situation.
(22:00) Mostly he tested himself. It seemed that he discovered the secret quite early in his competitive life: the more pressure he heaped on himself the greater his ability to rise to the occasion.
— Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #212)
(23:00) Kobe and Ahmad Rashad interview
(23:00) Be indifferent to the opinions of other people. Michael does not care what you think. Kobe does not care what you think. There is no one that can hold them to a higher standard than themselves.
(34:00) How Kobe Bryant knew he was going to win a lot of championships:
It was easy to size other players up in the NBA. I found that a lot of guys played for financial stability. Once they got that financial stability the passion, the work ethic, and the obsessiveness was gone. Once I saw that I thought, “This is going to be like taking candy from a baby. No wonder Michael Jordan wins all these fucking championships.”
(35:00) Michael Jordan worked on consistency, relentlessly.
(49:00) A good competitor always evaluates his oppenent. And you understand him for what he really is. You never try to give him confidence you try to take it at all times. — Michael Jordan video
(53:00) Everyone wanted to be like Mike. Mike did not want to be like anyone else.
(1:07:00) Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda. (Founders #281)
(1:07:00) Stop adding. Start deleting. Winning demands total focus.
(1:11:00) It started with hope.
It started with hope.
We went from a shitty team to one of the all time greatest dynasties.
All you needed was one little match to start that whole fire.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from reading Decoded by Jay Z.
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(1:39) I would practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep
(2:10) Even back then I though I was the best.
(2:57) Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography (Founders #219)
(4:32) Belief becomes before ability.
(5:06) Michael Jordan: The Life (Founders #212)
(5:46) The public praises people for what they practice in private.
(7:28) Lock yourself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers.
(7:50) Sam Walton: Made In America (Founders #234)
(9:50) He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own — from Steven Spielberg: A Biography (Founders #209)
(12:47) The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50)
(13:35) I'm not gonna say that I thought I could get rich from rap, but I could clearly see that it was gonna get bigger before it went away. Way bigger.
(21:10) Over 20 years into his career and dude ain’t changed. He’s got his own vibe. You gotta love him for that. (Rick Rubin)
(21:41) Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #200)
(25:27) I believe you can speak things into existence.
(27:20) Picking the right market is essential.
(29:29) All companies that go out of business do so for the same reason – they run out of money. —Don Valentine
(29:42) There are two things in business that matter, and you can learn this in two minutes- you don’t have to go to business school for two years: high gross margins and cash flow. The other financial metrics you can forget. —Don Valentine
(31:54) I went on the road with Big Daddy Kane for a while. I got an invaluable education watching him perform.
(33:12) Everything I do I learned from the guys who came before me. —Kobe
(34:15) I truly hate having discussions about who would win one on one or fans saying you’d beat Michael. I feel like Yo (puts his hands up like stop. Chill.) What you get from me is from him. I don’t get 5 championships without him because he guided me so much and gave me so much great advice.
(34:50) Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography (Founders #214)
(37:20) This is a classic piece of OG advice. It's amazing how few people actually stick to it.
(38:04) Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success(Founders #56)
(39:04) The key to staying on top of things is to treat everything like it's your first project.
(41:10) The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley (Founders #233)
(44:46) We (Jay Z, Bono, Quincy Jones) ended up trading stories about the pressure we felt even at this point in our lives.
(45:22) Competition pushes you to become your best self. Jordan said the same thing about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
[46:43] If you got the heart and the brains you can move up quickly. There's no way to quantify all of this on a spreadsheet, but it's the dream of being the exception.
(52:26) He (Russell Simmons) changed the business style of a whole generation. The whole vibe of startup companies in Silicon Valley with 25 year old CEOs wearing shell toes is Russell's Def Jam style filtered through different industries.
(54:17) Jay Z’s approach is I'm going to find the smartest people that that know more than I do, and I'm gonna learn everything I can from them.
(54:49) He (Russell Simmons) knew that the key to success was believing in the quality of your own product enough to make people do business with you on your terms. He knew that great product was the ultimate advantage in competition.
(55:08) In the end it came down to having a great product and the hustle to move it.
(56:37) Learn how to build and sell and you will be unstoppable. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness (Founders #191)
(58:30) We gave those brands a narrative which is one of the reasons anyone buys anything. To own not just a product, but to become part of a story.
(59:30) The best thing for me to do is to ignore and outperform.
(1:01:16) Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. (Founders #90)
(1:06:01) Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth With Commentary (Founders #78)
(1:08:42) Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products(Founders #178)
(1:11:46) Long term success is the ultimate goal.
(1:12:58) Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love - Bill Gurley
(1:15:11) I have always used visualization the way athletes do, to conjure reality.
(1:18:14) The thing that distinguished Jordan wasn't just his talent, but his discipline, his laser-like commitment to excellence.
(1:19:42) The gift that Jordan had wasn't just that he was willing to do the work, but he loved doing it because he could feel himself getting stronger and ready for anything. That is the kind of consistency that you can get only by adding dead serious discipline of whatever talent you have.
(1:21:37) when you step outside of school and you have to teach yourself about life, you develop a different relationship to information. I've never been a purely linear thinker. You can see it to my rhymes. My mind is always jumping around restless, making connections, mixing, and matching ideas rather than marching in a straight line,
(1:27:41) Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam (Founders #116)
(1:34:15) The real bullshit is when you act like you don't have contradictions inside you. That you're so dull and unimaginative that your mind never changes or wanders into strange, unexpected places.
(1:36:25) There are extreme levels of drive and pain tolerance in the history of entrepreneurship.
(1:38:45) Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business
(1:42:24) I love sharp people. Nothing makes me like someone more than intelligence.
(1:44:17) They call it the game, but it's not. You can want success all you want but to get it you can't falter. You can't slip. You can't sleep— one eye open for real and forever.
(1:51:49) The thought that this cannot be life is one that all of us have felt at some point or another. When a bad decision and bad luck and bad situations feel like too much to bear those times. When we think this, this cannot be my story, but facing up to that kind of feeling can be a powerful motivation to change.
(1:54:18) Technology is making it easier to connect to other people, but maybe harder to keep connected to yourself.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from reading The Days of Duveen by S.N. Behrman.
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Patrick and I are looking for partners. If you are building B2B products get in touch here.
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(0:01) Duveen noticed that Europe had plenty of art and America had plenty of money, and his entire astonishing career was the product of that simple observation.
(2:30) The great American millionaires of the Duveen Era were slow-speaking and slow-thinking, cautious, secretive, and maddeningly deliberate.
(3:30) How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. (Founders #325)
(4:30) Invest Like The Best #342 Will England: A Primer on Multi-Strategy Hedge Funds
(6:00) There is an old two-part rule that often works wonders in business, science, and elsewhere:
1. Take a simple, basic idea and
2. Take it very seriously. — the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger. (Founders #329)
(10:00) The art dealer Joseph Duveen insisted on making the paintings he sold as scarce and rare as possible. To keep their prices elevated and their status high, he bought up whole collections and stored them in his basement. The paintings that he sold became more than just paintings—they were fetish objects, their value increased by their rarity. — The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.
(14:00) Duveen had enormous respect for the prices he set on the objects he bought and sold. Often his clients tried, in various ways, to maneuver him into a position where he might relax his high standards, but he nearly always managed to keep them.
(16:00) Wildcatters: A Story of Texans, Oil, and Money by Sally Helgesen. (Founders #338)
(18:00) You don’t need many customers if the few customers you do have are the riches people in the world.
(22:00) His enthusiasm was irrepressible.
(26:00) Duveen felt that his educational mission was two fold —to teach millionaire American collectors what the great works of art were, and to teach them that they could get those works of art only through him.
(27:00) When you pay high for the priceless, you're getting it cheap.
(31:00) He was interested in practically nothing except his business.
(31:00) Certain men are endowed with the faculty of concentrating on their own affairs to the exclusion of what's going on elsewhere in the cosmos. Duveen was that kind of man.
(32:00) Monopoly was his method.
(38:00) Duveen would pay the servants of staff that worked in the homes of his clients. This was the result: They developed a feeling that it was only fair to transmit to Duveen any information that might interest him.
(41:00) The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a terrible problem.
The millionaires who had paid so dearly for Duveen’s paintings were running out of wall space, and with inheritance taxes getting ever higher, it seemed unlikely that they would keep buying.
The solution was the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which Duveen helped create in 1937 by getting Andrew Mellon to donate his collection to it. The National Gallery was the perfect front for Duveen.
In one gesture, his clients avoided taxes, cleared wall space for new purchases, and reduced the number of paintings on the market, maintaining the upward pressure on their prices. All this while the donors created the appearance of being public benefactors.
— The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.
(48:00) His clients felt better when they paid a lot. It gave them the assurance of acquiring rarity.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from reading Wildcatters: A Story of Texans, Oil, and Money by Sally Helgesen.
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Vesto shows you all of your company's finances in one view. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you.
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(0:01) Family and business were the same thing to him.
(1:00) We're one-hundred percent family owned, unincorporated, and independent, and we intend to stay that way.
(1:00) He possessed the directness and the utter simplicity of the old and the truly great.
(2:00) His unquestioning confidence in the worthiness of his enterprise made him seem impervious to doubts.
(5:00) The Morgans always believed in absolute monarchy. While Junius Morgan lived, he ruled the family and the business. Until Junius died his massive shadow dominated his son’s life. — The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. (Founders #139)
(8:00) Everywhere they looked, they saw opportunity without limits. The land itself was empty, and so these men built cities upon it and founded dynasties. They left behind them a world made in their own image.
(9:00) The old wildcatters had neither the time nor the inclination to question their own purposes, or to agonize about what the future consequences of their efforts might be. They just went out and did whatever was there to be done.
(10:00) The trouble with this business is that everybody expects to find oil on the surface. If it was up near the top, it wouldn't be any trick to it. You've got to drill deep for oil. — The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes by Bryan Burrough (Founders #149)
(14:00) Charlie’s surfing model. One thing I learned from having dinner with Charlie was the importance of getting into a great business and STAYING in it. There’s a tendency in human nature to mess up a good thing because of an inability to sit still:
"There are huge advantages for the early birds. When you're an early bird, there's a model that I call surfing—when a surfer gets up and catches the wave and just stays there, he can go a long, long time.
But if he gets off the wave, he becomes mired in shallows. But people get long runs when they're right on the edge of the wave, whether it's Microsoft or Intel or all kinds of people."
— the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger. (Founders #329)
(18:00) Ted Turner's Autobiography (Founders #327)
(19:00) All the stories seem to be about the same prickly individual. They are giants, successful predators, acute and astute, tamers of the untamable and defenders of vast treasure.
(26:00) 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. — The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. (Founders #255)
(29:00) Delusional optimism: Go from one setback to another setback without any loss of enthusiasm.
(31:00) There's no what if. There's only what happened.
(33:00) Rainmakers Podcast
(34:00) I’d rather be lucky than smart, because a lot of smart guys go hungry.
(36:00) Optimism is the personal quality that nurtures luck.
(36:00) Chaos and defiance ruled the day, and those who led the way made little secret of their refusal to be controlled.
(44:00) Anybody who's got an idea of his own has to be a little bit crazy. Being crazy is something big companies just don't understand.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from reading Roots of Strategy by Thomas R. Phillips and Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon and Col. Lanza.
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(0:01) Napoleon fought more battles than Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar combined.
(5:00) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)
(7:00) Insull: The Rise and Fall of A Billionaire Utility Tycoon by Forrest McDonald. (Founders #336)
(8:00) No one should believe more in your business than you do. If this is not the case you are in the wrong business.
(11:00) If you do everything you will win.
(13:00) Napoleon episodes:
Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. (Founders #294)
The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)
(14:00) What is the bigger number, five or one? One. One army, a real army, united behind one leader, with one purpose. A fist instead of 5 fingers. — Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones (YouTube)
(17:00) Keep your forces united. Be vulnerable at no point. Bear down with rapidity upon important points. These are the principles which insure victory.
(17:00) Read over and over again the campaigns of Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederic. Make them your models. This is the only way to become a great general and to master the secrets of the art of war. With your own genius enlightened by this study, you will reject all maxims opposed to those of these great commanders. [If Napoleon was alive you know he’d listen to Founders podcast]
(20:00) The Tao of Charlie Munger by Charlie Munger and David Clark (Founders #295)
(20:00) Advance orders tend to stifle initiative. A commander should be left free to adapt himself to circumstances as they occur.
(23:00) The art of war consists in a well organized and conservative defense, coupled with an audacious and rapid offensive.
(26:00) Ten people who yell make more noise than ten thousand who keep silent.
(29:00) Long orders, which require much time to prepare, to read and to understand are the enemies of speed. Napoleon could issue orders of few sentences which clearly expressed his intentions and required little time to issue and to understand.
(31:00) A great leader will resort to audacity.
(32:00) “Alexander the Great thought, decided, and above all, moved swiftly. He appreciated the importance of speed and the terrifying surprises speed made possible. His enemies were always stunned and shocked by his arrival. He invented the blitzkrieg.” — Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. (Episode #226)
(34:00) It is no harm to be too strong; it may be fatal to be too weak.
(41:00) Napoleon on single threaded leadership: Once a campaign has been decided upon there should be no hesitation in appointing one commander to assure its success. When authority is divided, opinions and actions differ, and confusion and delay arises. A single chief proceeds with vigor; he is not delayed by necessity to confer.
(42:00) Posess obstinate will.
(43:00) Experience must be supplemented by study. No man's personal experience can be so inclusive as to warrant his disregarding the experiences of others. (This is a great reason why you should invest in a subscription to Founders Notes )
(44:00) It is profitable to study the campaigns of the great masters.
(47:00) Skill consists in converging a mass of fire upon a single point. He that has the skill to bring a sudden, unexpected concentration of artillery to bear upon a selected point is sure to capture it. (A lesson from Peter Thiel: Don’t divide your attention: focusing on one thing yields increasing returns for each unit of effort.)
(49:00) All great captains have been diligent students [of history].
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
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What I learned from reading Insull: The Rise and Fall of A Billionaire Utility Tycoon by Forrest McDonald.
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(0:01) Insull had been in the electric business as long as there had been an electric business.
(4:00) He awoke early, abruptly, completely, bursting with energy; yet he gained momentum as the day wore on, and long into the night. Sam had near-demonic energy.
(5:00) Sam's most obvious attribute was a capacity for racing through large quantities of reading material, effortlessly perceiving its important assumptions and generalizations, and thoroughly assimilating its salient details.
(7:00) He eagerly embraced platitudes:
• Idle hands are the devil's workshop
• Time is money
• Things are simply "done" or "not done"
• One reveres one's family
• Only that which is useful is good
• Survival of the fittest
(8:00) Opportunity handled well leads to more opportunity.
(12:00) He developed an ability to concentrate on a single subject and to completely shut out everything else, no matter how pressing.
(13:00) A theme from the robber baron era: How do we turn a luxury product into a necessity?
(18:00) If you do everything you will win. — Working by Robert Caro. (Founders #305) and The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)
(19:00) Insull reread every one of Edison's European contracts, and he took it upon himself to write weekly letters to Johnson, summarizing the fluctuations in the telephone situation and outlining Edison's shifting interests in connection with it. These letters proved to be the best selling points Johnson could have in recommending Insull to Edison.
(20:00) One of his most deep-rooted traits was that he was absolutely unable to imagine the possibility of his own failure; he entirely lacked the sense of caution of those who doubt themselves.
(21:00) Caution, like relaxation, was unnatural to him.
(21:00) We will make electric lights so cheap that only the rich will be able to burn candles.
(27:00) Edison had an almost pathological hostility to any form of system, order, or discipline imposed from without.
(33:00) Warren Buffett on leverage:
Unquestionably, some people have become very rich through the use of borrowed money. However, that's also been a way to get very poor. When leverage works, it magnifies your gains. Your spouse thinks you're clever, and your neighbors get envious. But leverage is addictive. Once having profited from its wonders, very few people retreat to more conservative practices.
And [to repeat] as we all learned in third grade-and some relearned in 2008–any series of positive numbers, however impressive the numbers may be, evaporates when multiplied by a single zero. History tells us that leverage all too often produces zeroes, even when it is employed by very smart people.
Leverage, of course, can be lethal to businesses as well. Companies with large debts often assume that these obligations can be refinanced as they mature. That assumption is usually valid. Occasionally, though, either because of company-specific problems or a worldwide shortage of credit, maturities must actually be met by payment. For that, only cash will do the job.
— The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham. (Founders #227)
(35:00) Smart men go broke three ways: liquor, ladies and leverage. — Charlie Munger
(42:00) To make electricity as cheap as possible we need the largest base of customers. The way to get the largest base of customers is through monopoly.
(45:00) He understood the potential of his industry in a way others did not.
(45:00) We are only going to do things that other people can not do.
(47:00) While money may not buy friends it will keep many a man from becoming an enemy.
(50:00) The moment of applause was the moment for action.
(1:00:00) You need to tell your customers what goes into making your product. It may be normal to you because it is your everyday thing. It is not normal to them. And if you explain and you educate your customers they will find it fascinating. And as a result it will make the service and the product you provide more valuable in their eyes.
(1:00:00) Sam Insull made electric power so abundant and cheap in the United States that people who had never expected to use it, found it as natural and as necessary as breathing.
(1:06:00) He took his leverage too high and the structure of the leverage was a problem. — Ted Turner's Autobiography.(Founders #327)
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
What I learned from reading How To Make A Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs.
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(0:01) I'm what's called a moneymaker. I've started five companies from scratch—seven if you include two spin-offs and turned them all into billion dollar or multibillion-dollar enterprises.
(2:00) I love working with outrageously talented people to deliver outsized returns for shareholders in public stock markets.
(5:00) All of the successful people I know have rearranged their brains to prevail at achieving big goals in turbulent environments where conventional thinking often fails.
(5:00) The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places and they do this by thinking about business from first principles. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (Founders #335)
(7:00) So much of success in business comes from keeping your head in a good place.
(8:00) I'm an ambitious person by nature and a dealmaker by inclination.
(9:00) Episode #295: I Had Dinner With Charlie Munger
(13:00) Listen to Think Big and Move Fast: Brad Jacobs on Invest Like the Best
(14:00) Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer. (Founders #20)
(15:00) If you want to make money in the business world, you need to get used to problems, because that's what business is.
(20:00) I am not surprised when things don’t go perfectly. That is the nature of the universe.
(21:00) Listen to this incredible conversation between Charlie Munger and John Collison on Invest Like The Best.
(28:00) Invest in technology. The savings compound, it gives you an advantage over a slower moving competitor, and can be the difference between a profit and a loss. (Lesson from Andrew Carnegie)
(31:00) How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. (Founders #325)
(36:00) While the rental industry overall was slow to computerize, the larger regional players were more tech-savvy. By 1997, nearly all of them were running on software developed by a company called Wynne Systems.
I bought Wynne.
Owning Wynne accomplished two things.
We had an industry-best platform that we could continue to develop internally for our own use, and the acquisition gave us access to aggregated, anonymized data on macro-trends across the industry.
This gave us a high-level view of emerging market trends, such as equipment gluts or shortages in the making. We could proactively adjust our pricing and asset management, while the rest of the industry was being reactive.
(40:00) The deals I've avoided have contributed more to my success than the deals I've done.
(42:00) I love these questions for a business and a family:
“What's your single best idea to improve our company?"
and
"What's the stupidest thing we're doing as a company?"
(47:00) There are few mistakes costlier than hiring the wrong person. An empty seat is less damaging than a poor fit.
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Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
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