The role of rail transportation in the economy and its potential challenges and opportunities in the face of driverless trucks.: Rail transportation offers advantages in efficiency and cost, while driverless trucks pose a competitive advantage in labor costs. Innovations and adaptations are needed for railways to maintain their competitive edge.
Rail transportation plays a vital role in the economy by enabling the efficient movement of goods. Rails offer advantages such as lower costs, larger carrying capacity, and dedicated assets that improve efficiency compared to trucks. However, trucks excel in certain areas due to their agility, flexibility, and reliability for just-in-time inventories and transportation of goods to specific destinations. The development of driverless trucks poses a potential challenge and opportunity for railways, as it could provide a competitive advantage in terms of labor costs. While driverless trains exist in some parts of the world, implementing them on a wider scale in the United States faces technological and societal challenges, including regulations and the workforce's acceptance of change. Innovations and adaptations will be necessary for railways to maintain their competitive advantage in the evolving transportation landscape.
The challenges of mixing passenger and freight trains and the role of precision scheduled railroading (PSR) in optimizing train operations.: Balancing the needs of passenger and freight trains is crucial for safe and efficient transportation. PSR helps optimize operations by running longer trains and ensuring infrastructure can accommodate their size.
The limitations and complexities of mixing passenger and freight trains create a disconnect in terms of speed and infrastructure. Freight trains are heavy and limited by weight, while passenger trains can move faster but require dedicated tracks. Mixing the two can lead to safety concerns and capacity issues. Precision scheduled railroading (PSR) plays a role in optimizing train operations by running fewer but longer trains and ensuring infrastructure is designed to accommodate their size. PSR involves defining and managing processes to create an efficient service that meets customer needs. Overall, balancing the needs of both passenger and freight trains is crucial to ensure safe and efficient transportation.
Implementing PSR for Efficient Railway Operations: Striking a balance between efficiency and resilience is crucial in implementing PSR. Continuous pursuit of operational excellence ensures the right level of efficiency while maintaining the ability to sustain operations in the long term.
Implementing precision scheduled railroad (PSR) can lead to increased efficiency and cost savings in the railway industry. By optimizing assets, such as locomotives, rail cars, track infrastructure, and switches, companies can do more with less and run their operations more efficiently. This process of refining and executing good practices through people and culture can be applied to various manufacturing businesses, airlines, trucking, and other industries. However, it is important to strike a balance between efficiency and resilience. Overengineering or cutting too deeply can harm a company's ability to sustain its operations in the long term. It is a continuous journey of pursuing operational excellence and finding that sweet spot where efficiency meets the need for redundancy and guardrails.
Importance of Managing Capacity and Meeting Customer Demands: Honesty about limitations, customization, and reliability are key factors in maintaining commitments, offering a superior product, and establishing long-term customer relationships.
Managing capacity and meeting customer demands are crucial for the success of a business. Keith Creel emphasizes the importance of not oversubscribing the network, as it can lead to a meltdown and failure to deliver. He shares an example of a contract negotiation where he had to be honest with the customer about the limitations of his network. By customizing the lanes they serve, they were able to maintain their commitments while still offering a superior product. Keith also highlights the significance of reliability and being a service provider that delivers on their promises. Customers are willing to pay more for a reliable service and establish long-term relationships based on trust.
Importance of Service, Capacity Planning, and Collaboration in Transportation Industry: Service, capacity planning, and collaboration between stakeholders are crucial for optimizing supply chains and meeting customer demands in the transportation industry.
Service and capacity planning are crucial factors in the transportation industry. Keith Creel emphasizes the importance of service and the willingness to pay a premium for faster delivery. He also highlights the risks of solely focusing on price without considering the reliability and capability of the transportation provider. On the other hand, he acknowledges the challenges of forecasting capacity, especially in industries with significant variability like grain. Creel emphasizes the need to balance surge capacity and long-term sustainability, as building for peak demand can be detrimental to the company in the long run. Additionally, he discusses how the rail network must evolve to adapt to changing trends such as onshoring and reshoring. Collaboration between governments, customers, and industry players is essential for optimizing capacity and improving supply chains.
Importance of Coordination and Partnership in Logistics and Transportation Systems: Effective coordination between railroads, ports, and governments is essential to optimize transportation capacity and ensure efficient export. A systematic approach to execution helps prevent overcommitment and promotes cost control and reliable services for customers.
Effective coordination and partnership between various stakeholders are crucial for optimizing logistics and transportation systems. Keith Creel highlights the importance of partnerships between railroads and ports to ensure that the capacity created inland matches the capacity available at the ports for efficient export. He also mentions that railroads do not own terminals due to government ownership or private ownership, which necessitates coordination between railroads, customers, and governments. Creel emphasizes the significance of a systematic approach to execution, where a dedicated team assesses and matches track capacity, yard capacity, personnel, and assets before securing business. This approach helps prevent overcommitment and inefficiencies, promoting cost control, good margins, and reliable services for customers.
The key elements of effective leadership and how they lead to success: Effective leaders create a vision, select the right people, foster a positive culture, and deliver results by assembling a capable team, cultivating a supportive environment, and setting high standards.
Effective leadership requires creating a vision, selecting the right people, fostering a positive culture, and delivering results. According to Keith Creel, who worked with renowned leader Hunter Harrison, the number one job of a leader is to produce results. This can only be achieved by assembling a capable team, cultivating a supportive environment, and providing motivation. When individuals are given the opportunity to contribute to something greater than themselves, they experience a sense of accomplishment and pride, leading to success. Moreover, great leaders like Harrison set high standards and challenge their team members to surpass their limits. They push individuals to stretch their abilities and achieve more than they believed possible, resulting in personal growth.
The Importance of Understanding the Unintended Consequences in Business: Optimizing processes, paying attention to details, and making tough decisions are crucial for achieving better service, lower costs, and improved asset utilization in any business.
Understanding the unintended consequences and long-term impact of our actions is crucial in business. Keith Creel shares his experience of receiving a phone call from Hunter Harrison, the CEO, questioning why he left 10 cars off a shipment. At first, Keith couldn't comprehend the significance, but Hunter explained that it wasn't just about those 10 cars. It affected the entire cycle of operations, causing imbalances, inefficiencies, and additional costs. Hunter emphasized the importance of optimizing processes and deep diving into the details to achieve better service, lower costs, and improved asset utilization. He also emphasized the need for leaders to make tough decisions and drive change, even if uncomfortable. These lessons are universally applicable and lead to success in any business.
Taking Responsibility for a Safe Work Environment: Leaders must not ignore rule violations or unsafe acts, but instead initiate uncomfortable conversations and address conflicts to prioritize safety and set an example for others. Consistently enforcing rules is essential to maintaining a strong safety culture.
Creating a safe work environment requires leaders to take responsibility and address rule violations. Keith Creel emphasizes the importance of not looking the other way when employees engage in unsafe acts or violate rules. He believes that leaders must step into uncomfortable conversations and address conflicts, even if it means confronting their own employees. By doing so, they show that they prioritize safety and set an example for others to follow. Keith also highlights the importance of knowing and enforcing the rules consistently, as failure to do so not only validates bad behavior but also undermines the safety culture within the organization. Ultimately, leaders must prioritize safety over their own comfort to protect the well-being of employees and prevent potential accidents.
Confronting Uncomfortable Situations for Positive Change: Taking responsibility and standing up for what we believe is right, even if it means admitting our own mistakes, is crucial for creating a safer and more sustainable environment.
Sometimes we must confront uncomfortable situations and address them directly in order to create positive change. Keith Creel shared an example where he noticed a crew member smoking on a locomotive and decided to take action, despite the potential backlash or discomfort it may cause. He recognized that allowing this behavior to continue would compromise safety and send the wrong message to other crew members. This story emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility and standing up for what we believe is right, even if it means admitting our own mistakes and investing time and effort into addressing the issue. It also highlights the long-term view and commitment to sustainability that Bill Ackman demonstrated as an activist investor at Canadian Pacific.
Balancing Short-Term Success with Long-Term Sustainability in Business: Prioritizing long-term sustainability and safety is crucial in business, even when facing short-term pressures for quarterly success. Consistently prioritizing safe and efficient operations leads to lasting success.
In business, balancing short-term and long-term goals is crucial. As a publicly traded company, there is pressure to show quarterly success, but it should never come at the expense of long-term sustainability and safety. Keith Creel emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balance between satisfying short-term and long-term investors. He shares his experience of facing the worst financial quarter but being able to explain the reasons and commit to improvement in the next quarter. Creel also highlights the significance of understanding the long game, especially in industries like railroads that play a vital role in the economy. The conversation highlights the importance of considering the long-term consequences and consistently prioritizing safe and efficient operations over short-term gains.
Expanding Reach for Growth and Success: By recognizing the need to expand their reach, investing in infrastructure, and seizing opportunities, the company achieved significant growth, increased revenue, and attractive margins despite pandemic challenges.
The company recognized the need to expand its reach in order to thrive and compete in the market. Despite being financially stable, the company realized that without reaching all markets, it was limited in its ability to serve customers effectively. Therefore, they sought opportunities to expand their network and increase their customer base. Through a successful transaction, they were able to acquire additional reach and tap into a new market, leading to significant growth and success. They utilized their financial stability to invest in infrastructure and create solutions for customers, resulting in increased revenue and attractive margins. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the company continued to create success and identified an opportunity to further grow their network through a strategic merger.
Overcoming Competition and Seizing Opportunity: The Story of a Successful Merger: Facing competition, Keith and his team's superior value proposition and shared vision allowed them to secure a merger agreement, highlighting the importance of preparation, determination, and seizing opportunities.
Keith Creel, the speaker, is sharing the story of how a potential investor's interest in buying their company triggered a process that led to a merger agreement with another company. Despite facing competition from private equity, Keith and his team engaged with the opportunity and ultimately defeated the competition due to the superior value their deal could provide and their shared vision for creating long-term value. The speaker expresses excitement about the potential of the merger and the positive energy surrounding the opportunities it presents. Additionally, Keith mentions being prepared for a competitive response from Canadian National, a railroad company, and the unexpected strength of their entry into the game. Nonetheless, Keith is determined to fight for the merger.
Strategic Negotiations: Trust, Value, and Patience: Strategic negotiations require evaluating scenarios, presenting factual information, and focusing on value. Betting on the trust model and remaining patient can lead to favorable outcomes.
Keith Creel and his team meticulously prepared for negotiations by evaluating different scenarios, considering financial capabilities, and analyzing the balance sheet. They recognized the importance of certainty and value in any deal and focused on presenting factual information to defeat their opponent. Instead of engaging in a bidding war, Keith emphasized the importance of fighting their competitor's ability to get their bid approved by the regulator. They strategically bet on the trust model, knowing that it would only be approved if it served the public interest through increased competition. Despite the aggressive tactics of their opponent, Keith and his team remained patient, waiting for the trust ruling and not allowing themselves to be trapped in a potentially unfavorable transaction.
Keith Creel successfully convinces KCS shareholders to reject CN and rejoin CP, emphasizing the value and network CP offers, and the risks of a trust with CN.: Keith Creel's strategic move to convince KCS shareholders to choose CP over CN aligns with his belief in serving a greater purpose and will create significant value for all stakeholders.
Keith Creel, CEO of Canadian Pacific (CP), successfully convinced Kansas City Southern (KCS) shareholders to reject the deal with Canadian National (CN) and sign back up with CP. Creel emphasized two main points: first, CN could not replicate the value and network that CP offered, and second, the uncertainty of a trust with CN was not worth the risk. The Surface Transportation Board (STB) ultimately turned down CN's trust proposal with a unanimous decision. Creel acknowledges that CP overpaid, but believes the merger will create huge value for all stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, and the communities they serve. This merger is seen as necessary for global commerce and aligns with Creel's core belief in serving a greater purpose than oneself. Overall, CP's strategic move to reengage with KCS aligns with their long-term goals and values.
#153 Keith Creel: Lessons from Life on the Railroad
Recent Episodes from The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish
The Blueberry Billionaire | John Bragg
John Bragg, founder of Oxford Frozen Foods and Eastlink (the largest privately held telecommunications company in North America), shares his journey from growing up in a small village to becoming one of North America’s largest wild blueberry producers and leading a major telecommunications company.
He discusses his early entrepreneurial ventures, why he got into the blueberry business in the first place, and how he pivoted when things didn’t go quite as planned.
Bragg emphasizes key business principles like long-term thinking, efficiency, and maintaining a low-cost mindset. He also reflects on the importance of cultivating strong teams and staying humble despite his success.
John Bragg is the Chairman, President, and co-CEO of Oxford Frozen Foods, a food manufacturing company he founded in 1968. The company operates the largest fruit farm in the world, with over 12,000 acres of wild blueberries. In the 1970s, he started a cable TV company that became North America’s largest privately held telecommunications company. He did all of this from a town of around one thousand people.
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The Mac and Cheese Millionaire: How I Built a Successful Business That Does Everything Differently (Erin Wade #203)
In this episode, Erin Wade discusses her journey from being a practicing lawyer to making mac and cheese...as a business. Wade shares how surfing became a personal escape while managing a busy life as a CEO and mother, and how she applied lessons from her career to build a restaurant known for its strong workplace culture. She introduces the concept of open book management, which empowers employees by involving them in the company's financials and decisions, leading to higher engagement and performance.
Erin also highlights her innovative approach to tackling sexual harassment in the workplace with the “color code of conduct,” a system now used globally in the restaurant industry. She reflects on the power of titles in shaping both external perception and self-identity, and the importance of managing for impact rather than intent. The conversation is packed with insights on leadership, culture-building, and how to create work environments where employees feel valued and empowered.
Erin Wade is a chef, author, and entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of Homeroom, a restaurant in Oakland, California, known in equal parts for its unique workplace culture and incredible macaroni and cheese. She has a degree in public policy from Princeton University and a law degree from UC Berkeley.
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(00:00) Intro
(02:30) Wade's surfing obsession
(04:42) Defeating overthinking
(05:00) Wade's background in food
(06:40) Wade's law detour
(10:20) On being fired
(12:40) Early mistakes and freedom
(20:00) Employee-centric companies
(32:30) Homeroom Hard Times
(34:40) How Wade's law background helped (and hurt)
(42:40) The Color Code of Conduct
(49:30) Why Wade sold Homeroom (and how she felt)
(55:58) Impact vs. Intent
(59:00) Why titles are important
(01:04:00) On success
The Storytelling Expert: How to Speak so That Everyone Listens (Matthew Dicks #202)
Shane Parrish sits down with Matthew Dicks, a renowned storyteller, author, and teacher, to explore the nuanced art of storytelling. They go deep into the techniques that turn mediocre stories into masterful ones.
You’ll learn what makes a story truly resonate with an audience, how to identify and highlight the pivotal moments that create emotional impact, the architecture of compelling stories, how to structure narratives for maximum engagement and how to use techniques like suspense, stakes, and humor to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. This conversation covers broad frameworks, like how to structure a great story—and the granular details, like when you should talk quietly to refocus the audience.
Matthew Dicks is novelist, storyteller, columnist, playwright, blogger, and teacher. He’s published fiction and non-fiction books, the latter of which include: Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling and Someday Is Today: 22 Simple, Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life.
(00:00:00 Intro
(00:03:28) What makes a good story
(00:06:57) Stories vs anecdotes
(00:08:29) A Story: The Spoon of Power
(00:17:42) The art of story architecture
(00:21:28) Create compelling stories
(00:36:30) Common mistakes & how to fix them
(00:55:01) Strategic listening
(01:03:32) Can you lie in stories?
(01:05:10) 'And' stories vs. 'but / therefore' stories
(01:10:05) Finding engaging stories in everyday life
(01:20:05) Structuring a story
(01:24:00) Storytelling for an unforgettable brand
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(01:38:40) Writing vs telling a story
(01:51:53) Teach kids to love writing
(01:55:15) Define success
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#201 April Dunford: Perfecting Your Product's Positioning
What if people aren’t buying your product or service because their idea of what it does is wrong?
In this episode, Shane asks April Dunford to reveal all her secrets about what makes good and bad product positioning, how a startup should differ in its communications from a big company, and the difference between B2B and B2C positioning. Dunford also shares how a startup can better identify pain points their customers face, how to write the best sales page copy, and the best way to objectively evaluate a product’s positioning.
If you’re an executive at a company, this episode will make you reflect on your current marketing and sales pipelines and ask, “Are we doing this right?” If you’re a designer, engineer, or marketer at a company, this episode will teach you the secrets to selling a product that will help get you promoted and earn trust within your organization.
Dunford spent the first 25 years of her career as a startup executive running marketing, product, and sales teams positioning products acquired by companies like IBM and Siebel Systems. Since then, she’s worked with over 200 companies as a consultant, developing a system to better position technology products and companies. She studied Engineering at the University of Waterloo and is most recently the author of Sales Pitch.
Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos
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(00:00) Intro
(02:07) Positioning, explained
(16:47) Why is positioning important?
(20:40) B2B vs. B2C positioning
(29:03) When re-positioning a product failed
(32:31) How to identify customer's pain points
(34:35) How to position a product on a sales page
(38:06) How technology has changed positioning
(41:40) How to evaluate product positioning
(45:43) Who's in charge of positioning at a company?
(50:27) On storytelling
(56:35) Should a company have a point of view on the market?
(1:00:21) Dealing with gatekeepers in B2B marketing
(1:03:02) Mistakes people make with positioning
(1:05:21) What schools get wrong about marketing
(1:08:59) Secrets of B2B decision-making
(1:11:18) On success
#200 Brian Halligan: Scaling Culture from Startup to IPO
Brian Halligan, co-founder and former CEO of HubSpot, discusses the journey of leading a company from the startup phase to IPO. Halligan shares his personal and professional experiences, including a snowmobiling accident that altered his life trajectory, the importance of company culture, the nuances of hiring the right people, and the complications involved in running a growing organization.
This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, CEOs, and anyone interested in the intersection of personal growth and professional success.
Brian Halligan is currently a Senior Advisor at Sequoia Capital. In 2006, he co-founded HubSpot and served as its CEO until 2021. He is also a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
(00:00) Intro
(02:36) Halligan's life-changing snowmobile accident
(09:38) Shane's life-changing medical mystery
(14:38) The different phases a CEO goes through while growing companies
(20:44) Lessons learned from Steve Jobs
(23:18) How to hire and fire people (and when)
(27:55) The problems with "Best Practices" in business
(31:11) The most underrated public CEOs (and why Jerry Garcia from The Grateful Dead is on this list)
(43:38) The history and future of inbound marketing
(51:08) On decision making
(55:18) On work-life balance
(58:28) On success
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#199 Esther Perel: Cultivating Desire (2019)
Few episodes in The Knowledge Project’s nine-year history have impacted people’s relationships and lives more than when Esther Perel shared her infinite wisdom for the first time in 2019.
Shane and Esther discuss how the stories you tell yourself shape how you see the world (and what to do about that), the important conversations to have at the beginning of a relationship, the most common arguments couples have and how to prevent them, what to say to a partner if the relationship isn’t working out, the relationship between desire, love, and pleasure, and so much more. Plus, the conversation starts out on an interesting note: Esther Perel shares stories about her parents surviving the Holocaust and how their experiences shaped her childhood and continue to shape her life today.
(00:00) Intro
(02:38) Coming back to life after the war
(08:09) The myth of stability
(11:30) The power of reflections
(19:48) Important conversations for early relationships
(24:20) Can values change in relationships?
(27:20) Being secure in a relationship
(30:40) Better conversations with your partner
(33:00) What's behind every criticism
(36:52) Too much honesty
(39:37) What happens if I don't love my partner
(47:12) Why does good sex fade in relationships?
(50:59) Love vs. desire
(55:38) How to have difficult conversations with your partner
(01:05:13) Conscious uncoupling
Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos
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#198 Maya Shankar: The Science of Identity
Shane Parrish and Maya Shankar dive into the complexities of identity and personal transformation. They explore how significant life changes can reshape one's sense of self and explain how to navigate these transitions. Maya shares her personal stories and tips on making proactive choices and keeping a flexible, layered sense of self. They also discuss the psychological and philosophical aspects of identity, offering practical advice on goal-setting and personal growth.
Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and the creator, executive producer, and host of the podcast, A Slight Change of Plans. Shankar was a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House Behavioral Science Team. She holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Oxford and a B.A from Yale.
(00:00) Intro
(02:40) Shankar's "almost unbelievable" story of getting into Julliard
(05:30) Why Shankar studied identity
(11:38) What is identity?
(14:52) Using your identity to accomplish your goals
(18:00) Using anti-identities to accomplish your goals
(18:51) What to do when your identity is "attacked"
(26:30) How to re-establish trust in institutions
(32:30) Use identity to start a positive habit
(35:35) How to debunk myths with stories and facts
(37:18) How does how we frame our goals help (or prevent) us from accomplishing them
(43:11) The one motivational technique Shankar uses every day
(45:15) On success
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#197 Michaeleen Doucleff: TEAM Parenting
It's surprising how often we give our kids orders: "Do this!" "Don't do that!" But if we want to raise resilient and independent kids, is this the right approach? Michaeleen Doucleff argues there's a better way, and in this conversation, she explains why and shares practical strategies for solving the parenting "crisis" in the modern world.
In this conversation, Doucleff reveals four parenting principles that will help foster resilience and independence in your kids while protecting and enhancing their emotional well-being. Shane and Doucleff discuss her observations on how different cultures approach parenting and how their practices can help alleviate the burdens we place on ourselves and our children. We also explore the role of technology and its impact on our parenting and our children's development and maturity.
Michaeleen Doucleff is the author of Hunt, Gather, Parent. Her work has taken her all over the world to explore, observe, and learn from the parenting practices of various cultures. She is also a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk.
(00:00) Intro
(04:12) How (and why) we've lost our way as parents
(08:02) The rise of the nuclear family
(13:46) TEAM Parenting: T
(17:20) TEAM Parenting: E
(23:01) Why you don't need to praise your child
(26:12) TEAM Parenting: A
(36:42) TEAM Parenting: M
(38:34) "Kids do not need to be entertained"
(39:12) Technology, parenting, and transmitting values
(1:02:59) Resources parents can use to educate kids about technology
(1:04:50) How you can use the environment to give kids autonomy
(1:09:56) Success and parenting
Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos
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#196 Brent Beshore: Business Brilliance and Happiness at Home
Succeeding in both life and business is very difficult. The skills needed to scale a company often clash with those required to cultivate a thriving home life. Yet, Brent Beshore seems to have cracked the code—or at least he's actively working on it. In this conversation, he spills his secrets on excelling in both arenas.
This episode is split into two parts: the first 45 minutes covers life and how to be a better person. Brent opens up about the evolution of his marriage, physical health, and inner life.
The rest of the episode focuses on business. Shane and Beshore discuss private equity, how to hire (and when to fire) CEOs, incentives, why debt isn’t a good thing in an unpredictable world, stewardship versus ownership, and why personality tests are so important for a functional organization.
After beginning his career as an entrepreneur, Brent Beshore founded Permanent Equity in 2007 and leads the firm as CEO. He works with investors and operators to evaluate new investment opportunities.
Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos
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(00:00) Intro
(05:08) Why Brent examined his life
(09:44) How Brent "fixed" his relationships
(20:04) How helping hurts
(32:13) How Brent was subtly controlling relationships
(40:36) Why Brent stopped drinking (mostly)
(50:29) How to run a business with love yet competitively
(01:00:34) Win-win relationships
(01:05:34) On debt
(01:19:28) On incentives
(01:29:08) How to hire and fire CEOs
(01:34:18) What most people miss about hiring
(01:44:19) Brent's playbook for taking over a company
(01:51:20) On projections
(01:55:52) Revisiting investments
(01:58:44) How "hands-off" is Brent?
(02:08:34) Where people go wrong in private equity
(02:14:07) On success
#195 Morgan Housel: Get Rich, Stay Rich
The skills it takes to get rich are drastically different from the skills it takes to stay rich. Few understand this phenomenon more than Morgan Housel. He's identified unique lessons about wealth, happiness, and money by studying the world's richest families and learning what they did to build their wealth and just how quickly they squandered it all.
In this conversation, Shane and Housel discuss various aspects of risk-taking, wealth accumulation, and financial independence. Morgan explains the importance of understanding personal financial goals and the dangers of social comparison, lets everyone in on his personal financial “mistake” that instantly made him sleep better at night, and why the poorest people in the world disproportionately play the lottery—and why it makes sense that they do. They also touch on the influence of upbringing on financial behaviors, the difference between being rich and wealthy, and the critical role of compounding in financial success. Of course, we can’t have a writer as good as Morgan Housel on the podcast and not ask him about his process, so Housel concludes with insights into storytelling, his writing processes, and the importance of leading by example in teaching financial values to children.
Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund. Previously, he was an analyst at The Motley Fool. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was selected by the Columbia Journalism Review for the Best Business Writing anthology. He's the author of two books: The Psychology of Money and Same as Ever.
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(00:00) Intro
(04:46) Risk and income
(07:40) On luck and skill
(10:10) Buffett's secret strategy
(12:28) The one trait you need to build wealth
(16:20) Housel's capital allocation strategy
(16:48) Index funds, explained
(20:59) Expectations and moving goalposts
(22:17) Your house: asset or liability?
(27:39) Money lies we believe
(32:12) How to avoid status games
(35:04) Money rules from parents
(40:15) Rich vs. wealthy
(41:46) Housel's influential role models
(42:48) Why are rich people miserable?
(45:59) How success sows the seeds of average performance
(49:50) On risk
(50:59) Making money, spending money, saving money
(52:50) How the Vanderbilt's squandered their wealth
(1:04:11) How to manage your expectations
(01:06:26) How to talk to kids about money
(01:09:52) The biggest risk to capitalism
(01:13:56) The magic of compounding
(01:16:18) How Morgan reads
(01:22:42) How to tell the best story
(01:24:42) How Morgan writes
(01:35:42) Parting wisdom and thoughts on success
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