What I learned from reading Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer. This is not a typical business book (0:30) Why don't you just do what you've been thinking about doing your whole life? (4:00) How Danny learned from other founders on what to do and what to avoid (8:00) The smartest business decision I ever made (18:00) Optionality as a non-negotiable (20:00) Inadequate focus on core product (23:30) The founding of Shake Shack is an example of this g...
Feb 06, 2018•43 min
What I learned from reading Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. --- Learning from great company-builders (0:30) Steve Jobs verbal mastery (5:00) The failed negotiations between NeXT and IBM (10:00) "But how can he be a turnaround expert when he eats his lunch alone in his office, with food served to him on china that looks like it came from Versailles?" (18:00) "You can't go to the library and find a book titled Th...
Jan 19, 2018•1 hr 14 min
What I learned from reading Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. --- I had always avoided thinking of myself as a businessman. I was a climber, a surfer, a kayaker, a skier, and a blacksmith. We simply enjoyed making good tools and functional clothes. [0:01] One day it dawned on me that I was a businessman and would probably be one for a long time. I knew that I would never be happy playing by the normal rules of business; I wanted to distance mys...
Jan 08, 2018•57 min
What I learned from reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the ...
Jan 01, 2018•1 hr 4 min
What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. [0:01] Rockefeller was a unique hybrid in American business, both the instinctive first-generation entrepreneur who founded the company and the analytical second-generation manager who extends and develops it. [0:30] Having created an empire of unfathomable complexity, he was smart enough to see that he had to submerge his identity in the organization. [0:43] Don’t say that I out to do this or that. We ought to do...
Dec 08, 2017•1 hr 4 min
What I learned from reading Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so ...
Nov 17, 2017•47 min
What I learned from reading The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich. Microsoft had offered Mark between $1 million and $2 million to go work for them. Amazingly, Mark had turned them down (1:25) Maybe he knew he was about to cross a line. But he had never been very good at staying in the lines. From Mark's history, it was obvious that he didn't like the sandbox. He seemed the type of kid that wanted to kick out all the sand...
Sep 17, 2017•38 min
What I learned from reading The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why by Tim Urban. In the most recent 1% of our species short existence, we have become the first life on earth to know about the situation (4:38) The total market for satellite manufacturing, the launches that carry them to space, and related equipment and services has ballooned from $60 billion in 2004 to over $200 billion in 2015 (8:41) Here is what SpaceX does: it takes things to space for people for money. Here is what SpaceX re...
Aug 27, 2017•55 min
What I learned by reading How Tesla Will Change The World by Tim Urban Kindle version: The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podc...
Aug 20, 2017•41 min
What I learned from reading The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why by Tim Urban Read The Cook & The Chef: Elon Musk's Secret Sauce on WaitButWhy. Quotes from this episode: Which leaves only two options: create or copy Conventional wisdom: If something is both a good idea and possible, it's already been done. I'm fascinated by those rare people in history who managed to dramatically change the world during their short time here, and I've always liked to study those people and read their biog...
Aug 13, 2017•45 min
What I learned from reading Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. The best teacher I ever had, one of the finest men I ever knew, spoke of the Oregon Trail often. It’s our birthright, he’d growl. Our character, our fate—our DNA. “The cowards never started, the weak died along the way—that leaves us.” [0:35] Some outsized sense of possibility mixed with a diminished capacity for pessimism. [1:03] I found it difficult to say what or who exactly I was, or might become. Like all ...
Jul 27, 2017•1 hr 5 min
What I learned from reading I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the boo...
Jul 10, 2017•1 hr 11 min
What I learned from reading The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company by Michael Malone. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would ha...
Jun 20, 2017•1 hr 1 min
What I learned from reading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I ...
May 27, 2017•1 hr 3 min
What I learned from reading Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am intereste...
May 14, 2017•1 hr 4 min
What I learned from reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor...
Apr 30, 2017•1 hr 36 min
What I learned from reading The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usu...
Apr 19, 2017•57 min
What I learned from reading The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented The Modern World by Randall Stross Edison starts his first business at 12 years old (11:00) Edison's discipline (20:00) Edison's rivalry with Alexander Graham Bell (38:00) Edison's friendship with Henry Ford (1:00:00) Edison's stoic nature (1:15:00) The death of Thomas Edison (1:21:00) ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. U...
Mar 24, 2017•1 hr 27 min
What I learned from reading Walt Disney based on the book Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podca...
Oct 10, 2016•1 hr 18 min
What I learned from reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance The conventional wisdom of the time said to take a deep breath and wait for the next big thing to arrive in due course. Musk rejected that logic by throwing $100 million into SpaceX, $70 million into Tesla, and $10 million into SolarCity. Short of building an actual money crushing machine, Musk could not have picked a faster way to destroy his fortune. He became a one-man-ultra-risk taking ...
Sep 19, 2016•58 min
