What I learned from reading Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. ---- Microsoft had become the first software company to sell more than a billion dollars worth of software in a single year. Gates was the undisputed mastermind of that success, a brilliant technocrat, ruthless salesman, and manipulative businessman. Gates had slammed his fist into his palm and vowed to put several of his major software competitors out of business. By 1991...
Aug 16, 2020•55 min
What I learned from reading The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. [0:01] This book is about the rise, fall, and resurrection of an American banking empire—the House of Morgan. [1:56] What gave the House of Morgan its tantalizing mystery was its government links. Much like the Rothschilds it seemed insinuated into the power structure of many countries, especially the United States. [2:46] They practiced a brand of banking that has little r...
Aug 09, 2020•1 hr 8 min
What I learned from reading Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell by Charlotte Gray. ---- [0:01] I have my periods of restlessness when my brain is crowded with ideas tingling to my fingertips when I am excited and cannot stop for anybody. Let me alone, let me work as I like even if I have to sit up all night all night or even for two nights. When you see me flagging, getting tired, discouraged put your hands over my eyes so that I go to sleep and let ...
Aug 02, 2020•1 hr 1 min
What I learned from reading Barnum: An American Life by Robert Wilson. ---- [1:23] He is known today primarily for his connection to the circus, but that came only in the last quarter of his long life. Less well known is that he was also a best-selling author, an inspirational lecturer on temperance and on success in business, a real-estate developer, a builder, a banker, a state legislator, and the mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut. [1:54] In all endeavors he was a promoter and self-promotor wit...
Jul 26, 2020•1 hr 3 min
What I learned from reading A Success Story by Estee Lauder. ---- You can probably reach out with comparative ease and touch a life of serenity and peace. You can wait for things to happen and not get too sad when they don’t. That’s fine for some but not for me. Serenity is pleasant, but it lacks the ecstasy of achievement. [0:10] I’ve always believed that if you stick to a thought and carefully avoid distraction along the way, you can fulfill a dream. I kept my eye on the target. I never allowe...
Jul 18, 2020•45 min
What I learned from reading Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power by James McGrath Morris. ---- [0:20] Joseph Pulitzer was the midwife to the birth of the modern mass media. Pulitzer’s lasting achievement was to transform American journalism into a medium of mass consumption and immense influence. [3:04] He was the pioneer of the modern media industry. [5:06] Teddy Roosevelt tried to have Joseph Pulitzer put in jail. [7:11] How one of Pulitzer’s adult sons viewed him: One of the strange...
Jul 12, 2020•1 hr 7 min
What I learned from reading A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein. ---- [0:21] He died in 1991 with 535 patents to his credit, third in U.S. history. His honorary doctorate degrees, too numerous to list, come from the most distinguished academic institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. He received virtually every distinction the scientific community has to offer, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Scien...
Jul 01, 2020•1 hr 18 min
What I learned from reading Land’s Polaroid: A Company and The Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. ---- [1:14] He was revered to an extraordinary extent by most of the people who worked for him. [1:36] Land did not earn a college degree, yet he has received more medals and scientific honors than most living Americans. [3:36] Land's life seemed to be primarily a life of the mind. His great dramas were largely self created, played on the stage of Polaroid, which he constructed for himself. [...
Jun 25, 2020•55 min
What I learned from reading The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker. ---- [1:42] The word “problem” had completely departed from Edwin land's vocabulary to be replaced by the word “opportunity”. [2:01] What was it about this man and his company that allowed such confidence and seeming lack of concern with the traditional top priorities of American business? [2:38] There is something unique about Polaroid having to do both with the human dimension of the company...
Jun 20, 2020•1 hr 2 min
What I learned from reading The Big Score: Robert Friedland and The Voisey’s Bay Hustle by Jacquie McNish. ---- [0:04] Promoting a stock is like making a movie. You've got to have stars, props, and a good script. [2:22] He had learned that there was nothing that Robert Friedland could not sell. [2:50] This book is about how Robert Friedland accidentally discovers the largest nickel deposit in history. He winds up selling that discovery for over $4 billion. [3:50] Robert Friedland and Steve Jobs ...
Jun 14, 2020•1 hr 4 min
What I learned from reading Life of an American Workman by Walter Chrysler. ---- [0:56]The kitchen fire was the only heat we knew in the winter. Often I had to scamper barefoot across a floor where snow had drifted through the cracks of badly fitting windows. [1:56] We never spent money on things we could get without spending. [3:10] This book was written about a year before he had a stroke and about two years before he died. The book is full of memories of parents and friends long dead. [3:29] ...
Jun 09, 2020•1 hr 8 min
What I learned from reading How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets by Felix Dennis. ---- [0:01] How Felix started his first business with no money. [4:30] Human nature does not change. We are cooperative animals. Those who wish to start a company cannot expect a free ride, but they might be surprised at the number of people willing to help them to some degree or another. [5:11] This book was one of the most requested books for me to cover on the podcast. I ...
Jun 04, 2020•59 min
What I learned from reading Master of Precision: Henry Leland by Ottilie Leland and Minnie Dubbs Millbrook. ---- [0:17] Henry Leland laid the foundation for the future of American industry. He had established manufacturing procedures never previously so effectively employed and took a position of leadership. In the next decades would be comparable in statute with, although quite different from, William Durant, Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan. [0:40] It should be pointed out that Leland's contributio...
May 31, 2020•1 hr 10 min
What I learned from reading The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison by Mike Wilson ---- [1:06] You want to know what I think about Larry Ellison? Well, I suppose he had some private sort of greatness but he kept it to himself. He never gave himself away. He never gave anything away. He just left you a tip. He had a generous mind. I don’t suppose anybody ever had so many opinions, but he never believed in anything except Larry Ellison. [1:45] That was th...
May 25, 2020•59 min
What I learned from reading The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the America’s Cup, Twice by Julian Guthrie. ---- [0:01] Larry Ellison to Steve Jobs: I’m talking about greatness, about taking a lever to the world and moving it. I’m not talking about moral perfection. I’m talking about people who changed the world the most during their lifetime. [0:56] Larry’s choice for history’s greatest person could not have been more ...
May 20, 2020•1 hr 9 min
What I learned from reading Professional Amateur: The Biography of Charles Franklin Kettering by Thomas Boyd ---- [3:06] If you had to summarize Charles Kettering this is the way you would do it: “As symbol of progress and the American way of life—as creator of ideas and builder of industries and employment—as inspirer of men to nobler thoughts and greater accomplishments—as foe of ignorance and discouragement—as friend of learning and optimistic resolve—Charles F. Kettering stands among the gre...
May 15, 2020•1 hr 11 min
What I learned from reading Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds. ---- [0:01] Although much of my time with him coincided with a period of adversity for Oracle, I never once saw Ellison downcast. His unquenchable optimism and almost messianic self belief never faltered. [5:06] The single most important aspect of my personality is my questioning of conventional wisdom. My doubting of experts just because they are experts. My questioning of authority. While ...
May 09, 2020•1 hr 12 min
What I learned from reading The Fast Times of Albert Champion: From Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon, An Untold Story of Speed, Success, and Betrayal by Peter Joffre Nye. ---- [0:01] A brief summary of the life of Albert Champion: Champion had been born in Paris April 2, 1878. By age twelve he was an errand and office boy for a Paris bicycle manufacturer. He became interested in bicycle racing, won the middle-distance championship in France, and went to the United States in 1899 for a seri...
May 01, 2020•1 hr 5 min
What I learned from reading My Years with General Motors by Alfred Sloan. ---- [2:40] There are ideas worth billions in a $30 history book: Henry talked to me on several occasions about a book by the former chairman of General Motors. He told me he had learned a very important concept from that book, which he wished to use in the growth of Teledyne. . .during a very difficult economic time of recession, General Motors had needed additional funds to finance their growth and had a plan to sell bon...
Apr 26, 2020•1 hr 5 min
What I learned from reading Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, A Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History by William Pelfrey. ---- [0:01] They were oil and water in all respects. Billy Durant, the high school dropout, was the flamboyant dreamer and gambler, focused on personal relationships and risk. Alfred Sloan, the MIT engineer, was the stern organizer and manager, focused on data, logic, and profit. [4:40] The paradox of this book in two sente...
Apr 19, 2020•1 hr 22 min
What I learned from reading Billy Durant Creator of General Motors: The Story of the Flamboyant Genius Who Helped Lead America into the Automobile Age by Lawrence Gustin. ---- [0:32] DURANT MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT AUTOMOBILE PIONEER: Of all the colorful men who propelled the United States into the automobile age, Billy Durant was perhaps the most unusual, and from an organizational standpoint in the pioneering era, the most important. Durant had a hand in shaping the beginnings of three of the...
Apr 11, 2020•1 hr 11 min
What I learned from reading The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy by Charles Hyde. ---- This is the story of two small town machinists who became enormously successful automobile manufacturers in the early years of the auto industry [0:01] Early life and first jobs [3:02] Moving to Detroit: Arriving at the right place, at the right time, with the right skill set [6:28] Horace Dodge is a gifted engineer like Henry Royce (Founders #81) was + Inventors and bicycle manufacturer...
Apr 05, 2020•54 min
What I learned by reading My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen. ---- Henry Ford’s greatest achievement and his greatest failure [0:01] Henry Ford had one, single idea [4:15] Henry Ford’s management style [5:46] The paradox of Henry Ford [8:27] Henry Ford’s greatest advisor [11:30] A great story about The Dodge Brothers [16:20] Why and how Henry Ford bought out all of the shareholders of Ford [19:15] Henry Ford would tell you to not divert your attention [27:15] Henry Ford would tell you ...
Mar 31, 2020•1 hr 20 min
What I learned from reading Born of This Land: My Life Story by Chung Ju-yung. --- For a long time I was known as the bulldozer. [0:01] How Chung’s son remembers him: He had a wonderfully positive disposition and a rigorous work ethic. [3:15] Memories of his father + Half century of struggle + Why he is writing this book [9:25] Running away from home. Four times. [12:15] A different level of poverty. [15:40] How struggle shaped his personality + Why he had to run away for the last time [17:15] O...
Mar 26, 2020•1 hr 20 min
What I learned from reading Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam by Michael R. Marrus. ---- The story of Sam’s rise to fame and fortune from a hard life on the Canadian frontier is inherently dramatic and yet touches a familiar nerve in a broad spectrum of the population. There is something in Sam’s response to his disappointments that most people recognize in their themselves. [0:01] I found out about the Bronfman family on Founders #53 Mike Ovitz when Mike Ovitz brokered a ...
Mar 21, 2020•1 hr 7 min
What I learned from reading Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. ---- He was, during his 84 year long life, America’s best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist. [0:01] On Founders #62 I covered Ben Franklin’s autobiography [4:10] The family produced dissenters and nonconformists who were willing to defy authority, although not to the point of becoming zealots. They were clever craftsman and inventive blacksmiths with a love of learning. Avid readers a...
Mar 16, 2020•46 min
What I learned from reading The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Timeby Michael Craig. ---- Some Texas banker was playing poker with over $15 million on the table. 15 million on the table? This much cash would weigh over 250 pounds. [0:01] Founders #38 Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos [4:12] Poker players are misfits / Poker as a capital intensive business / How to avoid going o...
Mar 09, 2020•1 hr 20 min
What I learned from reading Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire by Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines ---- The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million [0:01] A 10 year old’s first business idea [5:35] A.G. finds a blueprint to follow: A.B. Loveman [9:00] The remarkable story of Carrie Tuggle and The Tuggle Institute [12:10] The influence of B...
Mar 05, 2020•1 hr 8 min
What I learned from reading Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright by Paul Hendrickson. ---- [0:01] Frank Lloyd Wright suffered a personal catastrophe that would have destroyed a man of lesser will and lesser ego. [7:20] Ben Franklin writing about vanity 250 years ago: Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor. [12:3...
Feb 24, 2020•1 hr 21 min
What I learned from reading The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Tom King. ---- He told me he had recently read Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, Buffett was Geffen's hero.Geffen—with searing focus, unyielding drive, and outlandish nerve—had devised and implemented strategies to propel himself to the top of the heap of Hollywood powerbrokers.I used to have phone conversations with David that would leave me sweaty.David might not have realized it, b...
Feb 16, 2020•1 hr 23 min
