business memoir

What I learned from reading The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo 

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(1:00) You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology—not the other way around.  —Steve Jobs in 1997

(6:00) Why should I care = What does this do for me?

(6:00) The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy.  (Founders #348)

(7:00) Easy to understand, easy to spread.

(8:00) An American Saga: Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire by Robert Daley 

(8:00) The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. (Founders #255)

(9:00)  love how crystal clear this value proposition is. Instead of 3 days driving on dangerous road, it’s 1.5 hours by air. That’s a 48x improvement in time savings. This allows the company to work so much faster. The best B2B companies save businesses time.

(10:00) Great Advertising Founders Episodes:

Albert Lasker (Founders #206)

Claude Hopkins (Founders #170 and #207)

David Ogilvy (Founders #82, 89, 169, 189, 306, 343) 

(12:00) Advertising which promises no benefit to the consumer does not sell, yet the majority of campaigns contain no promise whatever. (That is the most important sentence in this book. Read it again.) — Ogilvy on Advertising 

(13:00) Repeat, repeat, repeat. Human nature has a flaw. We forget that we forget.

(19:00) Start with the problem. Do not start talking about your product before you describe the problem your product solves.

(23:00) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. (Founders #292)

(27:00) Being so well known has advantages of scale—what you might call an informational advantage.

Psychologists use the term social proof. We are all influenced-subconsciously and, to some extent, consciously-by what we see others do and approve.

Therefore, if everybody's buying something, we think it's better.

We don't like to be the one guy who's out of step.

The social proof phenomenon, which comes right out of psychology, gives huge advantages to scale.

—  the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger (Founders #329)

(29:00) Marketing is theatre.

(32:00) Belief is irresistible. — Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight.  (Founders #186)

(35:00) I think one of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t look so good. But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts.

And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

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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 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 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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“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 transcripts of Young Oprah on Her Life and Career and Oprah on Career, Life and Leadership. 

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(1:00) Oprah fired her agent and replaced him with a Chicago lawyer named Jeffrey Jacobs. "I heard Jeff is a piranha. I like that. Piranha is good."

(3:00) I will just create. And if it works, it works. And if it doesn’t, I’ll create something else. I don’t have any limitations on what I think I could do or be.

(4:30) Dr. Julie Gurner’s Ultra Successful newsletter 

Dr Julie Gurner's Website 

(7:00) Imitation precedes creation.  — Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. (Founders #210)

(9:00) On getting demoted from anchor to talk show host: I was embarrassed by the whole thing because I had never failed before. It was that “failure” that led to the talk show. (Opportunity is a strange beast. It frequently appears after a loss.)

(9:00) The talk show immediately felt right to her: This is what I should have been doing because it was like breathing to me. It was like breathing. I knew it was the right thing to do.

(10:00) Oprah has an intense, powerful belief in herself. And she has had that since she was 4.

(11:00) I truly believe that thoughts are the greatest vehicle to change power and success in the world. Everything begins with thoughts.

(12:00) If you actually have to choose between the most experienced person, or the most educated person, or the person who actually wants it the most, you always pick the person who wants it the most. — Josh Kushner on the Invest Like the Best podcast 

(14:00) Visualize.

If in your mind's eye you see a successful venture, a deal made, a profit accomplished, it has a superb chance of actually happening. Projecting your mind into a successful situation is the most powerful means to achieve goals.

If you spend time with pictures of failure in your mind, you will orchestrate failure.

Countless times, before the event, I have pictured a heroic sale to a large department store every step of the  way and the picture in my mind became a reality. I've visualized success, then created the reality from the image.

Great athletes, business people, inventors, and achievers from all walks of life seem to know this secret.

— Estée Lauder: A Success Story by Estée Lauder. (Founders #217)

(17:00) I am going to have what I deserve.

(19:00) I was watching my grandmother boiling clothes (they had no indoor plumbing) and I was four years old and I remember thinking: My life won’t be like this. My life won’t be like this. It will be better.

(22:00) I thank whatever God there is for my unconquerable soul.

(22:00) And whatever you do, if you do a lot of it, you get good at it. And that is how this broadcasting career started for me. I’ve been an orator for a long time. I’ve been an orator all of my life.

(27:00) I feel that my show is a ministry.

(27:00) I loved books so much as a child. They were my outlet to the world.

(29:00) I had a very strict father. I remember my father saying you can not bring C’s in this house because you are not a C student. You’re an A student. It was just so matter of fact.

(31:00) Paul Graham on how to make yourself a big target for luck:

“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)

(33:00) Her schedule in college was intense: I’d do all my classes from 8am to 1pm. Then I worked at the tv station from 2pm to 10pm. Then I’d study until 1am and then do the routine all over again the next day.

(34:00) I demand only the best for myself.

(35:00) Oprah on the parasocial relationship with her audience: It’s not like other celebrities. I see people react to other people and it’s not like it is to me.

(37:00) Asking for help is a superpower no one uses.

(39:00) The ability to read at an early age saved my life. I knew there was a better way. I knew there was a way out because I had read about it.

(41:00) I sign every check. It is tedious. It gets to be a lot. I have piles of checks. The idea of having money and not being responsible and knowing how much money you have and keeping control of it is not something that I personally can accept. I watch it very carefully.

(42:00) Henry Singleton pays all the bills and signs all the checks, calling it "a form of discipline. Through doing the signing it's amazing how much you learn about the business. There's a reminder of each event or action behind each check. — Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It by Dr. George Roberts. (Founders #110)

(42:00) How do you learn to be a founder? You do it the same way you do anything else: 14, 15 hour days. I feel most comfortable working.

(43:00) For me, work just meant discovery and fun. If I heard somebody complaining, “Oh, I work so hard, I put in ten- and twelve-hour days,” I would crucify him. “What the fuck are you talking about when the day is twenty-four hours? What else did you do?”  —Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141)

(43:00) It doesn’t feel like work.

(46:00) Intuition is a very powerful thing. More powerful than intellect in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work. — Steve Jobs

(48:00) I am only a little dress-maker, trying to make women young and pretty. These other designers that do the pretty little sketches, the boys, they don't understand women, they don't know how they live. Their idea is to make them weird, freaks. — Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie. (Founders #199)

(51:00) I live from the inside out.

(54:00) Acquired’s podcast episode on Oprah and Harpo 

(54:00)

Self belief

Ownership

Do the same thing for 25 years

Stay within your circle of competence

(55:00) Find what feeds your passion. Your real job is to find out why you are really here and then get about the business of doing that.

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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 Red Bull Story by Wolfgang Fürweger and Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac by Duff McDonald. 

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(1:30) "In literal financial terms, our sports teams are not yet profitable, but in value terms, they are," he says. "The total editorial media value plus the media assets created around the teams are superior to pure advertising expenditures."

(2:30) "It is a must to believe in one's product. If this were just a marketing gimmick, it would never work."

(5:00) He doesn't place a premium on collecting friends or socializing: "I don't believe in 50 friends. I believe in a smaller number. Nor do I care about society events. It's the most senseless use of time. When I do go out, from time to time, it's just to convince myself again that I'm not missing a lot."

(7:30) The most dangerous thing for a branded product is low interest. (Edwin Land: The test of an invention is the power of an inventor to push it through in the face of the staunch-not opposition, but indifference-in society. (Indifference is your enemy)

(9:00) Nike, Adidas and Vans episodes:

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. (Founders #186)

Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and The Family Feud That Forever Changed The Business of Sports by Barbara Smit. (Founders #109)

Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans by Paul Van Doren. (Founders #216)

(11:00) The lines between Red Bull, Red Bull athletes, and Red Bull events are blurry on purpose. To Mateschitz, it's just one big image campaign with many manifestations.

(12:00) He has no plans to sell or take Red Bull public. "It's not a question of money. It's a question of fun. Can you imagine me in a shareholders' meeting?”

(13:00) Red Bull’s Billionaire Maniac https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-05-19/red-bulls-billionaire-maniac

(16:00) He is universally described as a person with great charisma.

(16:30) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. (Founders 292)

(17:00) He has a fierce desire for privacy. He buys a society magazine to make sure he never appears in it.

(22:00) There is no market for Red Bull. We will create one.

(24:00) Estée Lauder: A Success Story by Estée Lauder.  (Founders #217)

(30:00) the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger. (Founders #329)

(31:00) Gossip and malicious rumors are worth more than the most expensive publicity campaign in the world.” — Dior by Dior: The Autobiography of Christian Dior (Founders #331)

(36:00) Control your costs and maintain financial discipline even when making record profits.

(38:00) Cult brands have their own laws, otherwise they would not be cultish.

(38:00) Red Bull is Dietrich Mateschitz and Dietrich Mateschitz is Red Bull.

(38:00) Many companies outsource their marketing and advertising activity. Red Bull consistently took the opposite route: It outsourced production and distribution and takes care of sales and advertising itself.

(40:00) Charlie Munger and John Collison on Invest Like The Best #355 

Rolex: Timeless Excellence on Invest Like The Best 

(41:00) If you are making a physical product make it look different from its competitors from the start.

(43:00) Everything is marketing.

(45:00) Never do anything that compromises your survival.

(46:00) He keeps his empire constantly in motion

(46:00) All corporate projects like Formula 1, football, Air Race, and media serve the core business: the sale of the energy drink.

(47:00) This is a battle for attention.

(49:00) Red Bull owns their events. They never relinquish media rights to any event. They invest in making the content and then they give their content to other media distributors for free. A very clever way to multiply their advertising and marketing spend.

(52:00) The Bugatti Story by L’Ebe Bugatti. (Founders #316)

The Dream of Solomeo: My Life and the Idea of Humanistic Capitalism by Brunello Cucinelli. (Founders #289)

(54:00) Why he moved Red Bull’s headquarters to a little village on a lake: The aim was to create a more pleasant working atmosphere.

(54:00) On why fitness is so important to him: “Everything that gives me pleasure in life is connected with a certain physical fitness and physical well-being. I like going to the mountain, I like skiing, I like sailing, I like riding a motorbike, I like fooling around - and everything is connected with a minimum of physical agility, motor skills, dexterity, strength, stamina. In order to enjoy it outdoors, I need the indoor program.”

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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 Jesus: A Biography from a Believer by Paul Johnson. 

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(3:00) 

Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) 

Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252)

Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240)

Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson. (Founders #226) 

(10:00) Jesus was:

-observant

-detail oriented

-maintained intense eye contact

-confident

-decisive

-charismatic

-gifted communicator

(11:00) The most important step when starting anything new is recruiting the people who are going to help you on your mission.

(12:00) No prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

(16:00) Jesus emphasized the importance of humility, gentleness, non aggression. The importance of the pursuit of justice and righteousness. He encourages acts of compassion and forgiveness towards others.  He focuses on inner purity, sincerity, and a genuine heart. He commends those who work towards reconciliation, harmony, and peace.

(17:00) Some of Jesus’s maxims:

Love your enemies.

If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.

Judge not and you will not be judged.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

(18:00) A summary of Jesus’s teaching in two words: Be kind.

(18:00) He turned compassion, which all of us feel from time to time for a particular person, into a huge overarching gospel of love. He taught the love of mankind as a whole.

(26:00) Jesus taught to change and improve yourself. He led by example and encouraged imitation. Those that changed themselves, changed the world.

(27:00) Jesus’s new 10 commandments:

1. Each of us must develop a true personality. Each of us is unique. Develop your character.

2. Abide by universality. See the human race as a whole.

3. Give equal consideration to all.

4. Use love in all your human relationships, at all times, and in every situation.

5. Show mercy.

6. Balance. Keep your head even when others are losing theirs.

7. Cultivate an open mind.

8. Pursue truth.

9. Judiciously use your power.

10. Show courage.

(34:00) Join my personal email list to get updates about the new Founders 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

What I learned from reading Dior by Dior: The Autobiography of Christian Dior and Creators by Paul Johnson. 

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(4:00) The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. (Founders #296)

(5:00) Opportunity is a strange beast. It frequently appears after a loss.

(6:00) Dior was a nobody in his forties, with nothing in his design career to suggest genius.

(6:00) 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)

(7:00) Dior told him: “I am not interested in managing a clothing factory. 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.”

(8:00) He spat in the face of postwar egalitarian democracy and said, in so many words, “I want to make the rich feel rich again.” His first collection turned out to be the most successful in fashion history.

(18:00) I envisioned my fashion house as a craftsman’s workshop rather than a clothing factory.

(19:00) A fortune teller tells Dior he must do found his fashion house in spite of his fears and doubts: She ordered me sternly to accept the Boussac offer at once. You must create the house of Christian Dior, whatever the conditions, she told me. Nothing anyone will offer you later will compare with the chance which is open to you now.

(22:00) Dior said Balenciaga was "the master of us all" — Balenciaga (Founders #315)

(26:00) Gossip and malicious rumors are worth more than the most expensive publicity campaign in the world.

(29:00) The most passionate adventures of my life have been with my clothes. I am obsessed with them.

(30:00) When asked what was the best asset a man could have, Albert Lasker replied, ‘Humility in the presence of a good idea.’ It is horribly difficult to recognize a good idea. I shudder to think how many I have rejected. Research can’t help you much, because it cannot predict the cumulative value of an idea. — Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy.

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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 Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. 

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(8:00) I didn't know how to ride a bike. We never had one. All the other young kids delivered newspapers on a bike. 

He's got no money. He doesn't have a bike. So he ran his routes for two months in order to get enough money to buy his first bike. He’d run nine or 10 miles a day. 

(8:00) I was too proud to complain.

(10:00) For a poor boy, money was much more important than pride.

(10:00) Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. (Founders #269)

(13:00) I was young. I was cocky. But the same cockiness helped me a lot in going through life.

(15:00) The very first sentence describing his very first day in business is mind blowing: I had never fixed a flat tire in my life.

(15:00) the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger (Founders #329)

(29:00) Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance H. Trimble (Founders #150)

(35:00) I always knew that if we fixed all the flat tires in town, we'd have all the tire business in town.

(40:00) If we become complacent, then brother, it's all over with.

(52:00) Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc (Founders #293)

(56:00) If you’re not serving the customer, or supporting the folks who do, we don’t need you. —Sam Walton

(1:00:00) The company paid low wages and had a lower overhead. The flaw was they didn’t get —with the low pay— near the quality of employees we had.

(1:01:00) Life is hard for the man who thinks he can take a shortcut.

(1:06:00) Decision making should always be made at the lowest possible level.

(1:08:00) Whatever you do, you must do it with gusto, you must do it in volume. It is a case of repeat, repeat, repeat.

(1:08:00) Charlie Munger analyzes why Les Schwab was successful.

(1:11:00) Extreme success is likely to be caused by some combination of the following factors:

1 Extreme maximization or minimization of one or two variables. Think Costco.

2 Adding success factors so that a bigger combination drives success, often in nonlinear fashion, as one is reminded by the concept of breakpoint and the concept of critical mass in physics. Often, results are not linear. You get a little bit more mass and you get a lollapalooza result. And, of course, I've been searching for lollapalooza results all my life, so I'm very interested in models that explain their occurrence.

3 An extreme of good performance over many factors. Example, Toyota or Les Schwab.

4 Catching and riding some sort of big wave. Example, Oracle.

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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 NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger. 

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Listen to this incredible conversation between Charlie Munger and John Collison on Invest Like The Best. 

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(2:00) The practical wisdom of Poor Charlie's Almanack, this ode to curiosity, generosity, and virtue will similarly compound at successive generations of entrepreneurial readers extend his lessons to their own circumstances.

(12:00) Education is the process whereby the ability to lead a good life is acquired.  — Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252)

(22:00) Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth.

(29:00) Charlie is content to trust his own judgment when it runs counter to the wisdom of the herd.

(31:00) Animated: Charlie Munger: The Psychology of Human Misjudgement

(31:30) Aim for durability. Durability has always been a first rate virtue in Charlie’s eyes.

(32:00) Charlie only focuses on great businesses and great businesses have moats.

(33:00) Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin. (Founders #183)

(42:00) You can flourish in a niche: People who specialize in the business world —and get very good because they specialize— frequently find good economics that they wouldn't get any other way.

(45:00) Being so well known has advantages of scale. This is what you might call an informational advantage. It increases social proof.

(46:30) Business Breakdowns episode on Coca Cola 

(49:00) Occasionally scaling down and intensifying gives you a big advantage. (You can find great profit margins this way)

(50:00) Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234)

(51:00) Scale and fanaticism combined is very powerful. (Think Sam Walton)

(57:00) I also believed then, as I do now after more than fifty years as a money manager, that the surest way to get rich is to play only those games or make those investments where I have an edge. — A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #222)

(1:08:00) The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more.

(1:14:00) Optimism is a moral duty. — Edwin Land

(1:17:00) You want to maximize the playing time of your top players.

(1:17:00) The game of competitive life often requires maximizing the experience of the people who have the most aptitude and the most determination as learning machines.

(1:22:00) The most important rule in management is get the incentives right.

(1:25:00) Never, ever think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.

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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 Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike. 

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(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.

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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 Ted Turner's Autobiography.

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Listen to Art of Investing #4 David Senra Lessons from the Founder Historian. 

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(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.

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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 Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell. 

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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. 

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(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 

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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 Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg. 

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[2:08] Answering to no one is the ultimate situation.

[3:02] Twitter thread on Michael Bloomberg by Neckar.Substack.com

[5:28] We never made the error that so many others have: mistaking their product for the device that delivers it.

[6:27] We knew our core product was data and analytics.

[7:01] We were motivated by an idea that we could build something new that just might make a difference.

[9:04] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger

[10:05] I was willing to do anything that they wanted. I would have never left voluntarily.

[16:00] Street smarts and common sense were better predictors of career achievements.

[17:40] Almost all occupations have a big selling component: selling your firm, your ideas and yourself.

[18:20] It is the doers, the lean and hungry ones, those with ambition in their eyes and fire in their bellies, who go the furthest and achieve the most.

[21:36] Comparing John to Bill on leadership, I always thought John was more egalitarian, but less effective.

[22:55] It was a lowly start. We slaved in our underwear and an un-air conditioned, a bank vault.

[23:57] The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb

[24:22] Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman

[27:20] David Geffen biography: The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood

[30:07] It's said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. I believe that. You can never have complete mastery over your existence. You can't choose the advantages you start out with, and you certainly can't pick your genetic intelligence level. But you can control how hard you work. 

[31:20] Life, I've found, works the following way: Daily, you're presented with many small and 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

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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 Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg and  Herb’s Heroes by David Sanders. 

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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.

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(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.”

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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 Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr.

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(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)

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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 Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden. 

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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.

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(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)

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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 rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen.

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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. 

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[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

What I learned from reading Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. 

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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.

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(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.

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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