What I learned from reading The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to His Son by John D. Rockefeller. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- (5:00) My Influence had been extended to all corners of the oil industry. If I say that I have the power of life and death over oil producers and oil refiners, that is not a lie. I can make them wealthy or I can make them worthless. (7:25) I never thought I would lose. As far as...
Oct 21, 2023•2 hr 46 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg . ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- [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...
Oct 10, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way by Ryan White and A Pirate Looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (8:00) Q: What are you going to do with your life? A: Live a pretty interesting one. (10:00) A lesson that his grandfather taught him: The...
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- (2:30) Reality is chaotic; planning is ordered and logical. The two don’t square with one another....
Sep 26, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr. --- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . --- (8:00) Principles Jeff Bezos would repeat: customer obsession, innovation, frugality, personal ownership, bias for action, high standards. (...
Sep 21, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden. ---- Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here . ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (5:00) It was better for the world that he had known failure and suffered moments of self dou...
Sep 14, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- [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...
Sep 11, 2023•2 hr 30 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (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 ...
Sep 05, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from the first 6 years of making Founders. I recorded a new episode with Patrick. It should be out soon. Follow Invest Like the Best in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss it. ---- 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...
Sep 03, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific by Alistair Urquhart. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (4:00) I hope that this book will be inspirational and offer hope to those who suffer adversity in their daily lives. (10:00) You might as well send a cow in pursuit of a rabbit. The Indians were accustomed to these woods. — Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson....
Aug 27, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here !
Aug 25, 2023•59 sec•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from rereading Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:00) Walt Disney created a made-up world, used cutting-edge technology to enable it, and then told us how he’d done it. (7:30) Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #187) (7:30) Both Einstein and Disney inspired me, but Disney affected me more because of his...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading The Bugatti Story by L’Ebe Bugatti. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:01) If there was a prototype operation for what Enzo Ferrari envisioned it had to be what the legendary Ettore Bugatti built in Molsheim. — Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates. (Founders #220) (7:00) Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. (Founders #97) (14:30) I determined to bu...
Aug 14, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:20) Among the masters of Parisian fashion, Balenciaga was the greatest. (3:00) Christian Dior called Balenciaga “the master of us all" and Coco Chanel said that Balenciaga was "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word. The others are simply fashion designers". (3:30) Jay Gould episodes #258 and #285 (5:0...
Aug 07, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (2:00) All you need to do is find something you have an aptitude for and great interest in. (2:10) Doing great work means doing something important so well that you expand people's ideas of what's possible. (4:15) How many even discover something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand, perhaps, out of billions. — How to Do What You Love by Paul ...
Jul 31, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan by Tom Shone. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:00) The only way I know how to work is to sort of burrow in on one project very obsessively. (7:25) People will say to me, "There are people online who are obsessed with Inception or obsessed with Memento.” They're asking me to comment on that, as if I thought it were weird or something, and I'...
Jul 25, 2023•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. --- One of the best podcasts I've heard this year: Listen to Invest Like The Best #336 Jeremy Giffon Special Situations in Private Markets --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (7:20) A great way to think about power law people: Their absence leaves of void that no one else can fill. (8:00) His death would not have lengthen...
Jul 19, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron by Rebecca Keegan and The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King by Zach Baron. (4:00) I watched Titanic at the Titanic. And he actually replied: Yeah, but I made Titanic at the Titanic. (7:10) I like difficult. I’m attracted by difficult. Difficult is a fucking magnet for me. I go straight to difficult. And I think it probably goes back to this idea that there are lots of smart, really gifted, really talented filmma...
Jul 12, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney by Paul Johnson. --- (3:30) Disney made use of the new technologies throughout his creative life. (4:45) Lists of Paul Johnson books and episodes: Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle by Paul Johnson.(Founders #226) Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. (Founders #240) Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252) (5:55)...
Jul 04, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. --- (5:07) His competence was exceeded only by his confidence. (5:58) He worked at the game, and if he wasn't good at something, he had the motivation to be the best at it. (6:33) It seemed that he discovered the secret quite early in his competitive life: the more pressure he heaped on himself, the greater his ability to rise to the occasion. (14:06) At each step along his path, others would express amazement at how hard he...
Jun 30, 2023•2 hr 39 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak by Barbara Outland Baker. --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (6:30) He forced his sons to eat with silverware at perfect right angles. They had to keep their elbows to their waists. If the boys did not obey, the back of his hand was quick to strike their cheeks. (7:30) His life began to flourish through the art and science of bodybuilding. Arnold ate it, slept it, worked it...
Jun 26, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Glock: The Rise of America's Gun by Paul Barrett. Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain . --- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book --- (5:22) What struck me is how his inexperience was a great advantage. He didn't assume anything about how to design a handgun because he's never designed one before. Consequently he designed the best one ever. He didn't know what was out of bounds. (8:20) Gaston Glock hims...
Jun 19, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses by David Landes. ---- Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain . Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (4:25) Success causes failure. As the family develops power and prestige, the heirs find many interesting and amusing things to do rather than run their business. (6:00) Those on the margins often come to control the center. (9:...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. ---- Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best ---- Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book ---- (4:15) When Fortune published an article about me and titled it: "Is David Ogilvy a Genius?," I asked my lawyer to sue the editor for the question mark. (4:45) The people who built the companies for which America is famous, all worked obsessively to create strong cultures...
Jun 05, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Working by Robert Caro. ---- Listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best: Sam Hinkie: Find Your People ---- [3:40] You can't get very deep into Johnson's life without realizing that the central fact of his life was his relationship with his father. [8:00] It was the hill country and his father's failures that taught him how terrible could be the consequences of a single mistake. [8:45] Lyndon Johnson wouldn't understand. He would refuse to understand. ...
May 29, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary by Robert Price. ---- [6:50] He believed in developing strong operating efficiencies, and he continually emphasized passing on savings to customers. [8:48] It's pretty incredible to think about that Sol's ideas have created trillions of dollars of value. [11:18] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. — Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (...
May 22, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading The Women of Berkshire Hathaway: Lessons from Warren Buffett's Female CEOs and Directors by Karen Linder. ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts: Invest Like the Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas—A New Blueprint for Homebuilding ---- Episode outline: Mr. Buffett, we're going to put our competitors through a meat grinder. — Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. (Founders #182) There are several "Going Out of Business" advertiseme...
May 14, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas ---- (3:45) A man who combined energy of thought and energy of action to an exceptional degree. (4:45) He knows that men have always been the same, that noth...
May 08, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 326 Alexis Rivas ---- [3:00] He was someone no one had ever seen or will ever see again. [5:20] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. — Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. (Founders #242) [7:15] His output was enormous, much greater than th...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson for the 4th time. You can also find the book on Book Finder . ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra: Passion and Pain ---- Episode Outline: [4:30] Invention: A Life by James Dyson (Founders #205) [2:41] I am a creator of products, a builder of things, and my name appears on them. That is how I make a living and they are what have made my name at least familia...
Apr 24, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast