Founders

What I learned from reading Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It by Dr. George Roberts. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---Henry was much more than a salesman, mathematician, engineer, inventor, and chess champion. He was a student. An observer of the history of manufacturing, of the progress and growth of corporations from the days of Henry Ford, the growth of General Motors, the manner of successful corporations in growing by acquisition. [0:01]Henry reminds me of de Gaulle. He has a singleness of purpose, a tenacity that is just overpowering. He gives you absolute confidence in his ability to accomplish whatever he says he is going to do. [2:00]Henry spent time doing exactly what we are doing — learned from entrepreneurs and great

What I learned from reading Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and The Family Feud That Forever Changed The Business of Sports by Barbara Smit.---Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---This story begins at a time in history when money and sports were still two separate worlds [0:01]A family business struggling to survive / drafted into WWI / Adi Dassler’s EXTREME resourcefulness and personality / [3:15]Early distribution and marketing of sports shoes [10:06]The Dassler Brothers were opposites: Adi was the quiet craftsman with soul in the game. Rudolf was ostentatious and loud. [12:46]The chronicle and biography of Adi Dassler: A story about someone obsessed with making high quality products [14:00]Was Adi Dassler a Nazi? / My experience with the totalitarianism of the Castro regime / tearing up thinking of having to risk the lives of your children [24:30]Adi Dassler reminds me of Henry Royce [29:3

What I learned from reading The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---The story of the greatest moneymaker of all time [0:01]Simons prefers to move in silence [1:40]Unknown Unknowns > Known Knowns / Wise people always know exactly why something won’t work. That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom. —Henry Ford [2:42]A one word summary of the book: PERSISTENCE [4:15]Simons’ early life / Only the arrogant are self-confident enough to push their creative ideas on others. —Nolan Bushnell [4:44]Advice from his father: Do what you like in life, not what you feel you should do. [6:16]Personality: Jim had a persistent and burning desire to be wealthy [7:20]A seed has been planted + Jim’

What I learned from reading Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary & Social Innovator by Robert E. Price.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---What was it about this man that engendered so much admiration and respect? [0:01]Sol Price’s early life  [4:39]Sol Price was a misfit / “If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, "This sucks. I'm going to do my own thing.”  [5:40] Learning to love being productive / Sol Price on the importance of time / DO IT NOW! [12:20]The beginning of FedMart [16:00] Sol Price learned from other founders [21:25] Sol Price’s business philosophy [28:50]What happened when Sol opens a pharmacy in FedMart / A creative solution to being cut off by gasoline suppliers [36:25] Sol Price’s

What I learned from reading The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01] I believe it’s much the same in one’s profession: Superb, reliable results take time. [4:55] How Jack Dorsey describes The Score Takes Care of Itself: He took at team that was at the bottom and brought them to the top. He focused on the details. He didn’t say you need to win games. He said you need to tuck in your shirts. You need to clean your lockers. This is how we answer the phones here. He set a new standard of performance. [6:53] Bill Walsh on his father / What he learned from his early life [10:15] Bill Walsh on why should you care about your standard of performance: Pursuing your ambitions, especially those of any magnitude,

What I learned from reading Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---16 ideas from the book: Intensity is the price of excellence —Warren BuffettI am 68 years old now. And I've run it in overdrive my whole life. I've always wanted to be the best tire dealer, not necessarily the largest tire dealer.The people serving your customers are the most important people in your company:We have had over the years some people in the office that sometimes think they are more important than the stores. The office serves only one purpose, and that is to serve the stores. Some of our office people sometimes wonder about this. But I’ve warned them, don’t bitch to me because that is the way I want it. If you want to go out and start at t

What I learned from reading Leading By Design: The Ikea Story by Ingvar Kamprad and Bertil Torekull.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01]  He aims to give his company eternal life [3:45] Early life and entrepreneurship  [8:00] The beginning of IKEA [11:40] Learning entrepreneurship by imitating [16:30] IKEA almost dies in infancy / how Ingvar worked his way through it [26:00] Ingvar’s greatest regret in life: Neglecting his children for his business. “Everyone with children knows that childhood does not allow itself to be reconquered.” [32:20] Only those asleep make no mistakes. — Ingvar Kamprad [36:00] Thinking of the first store as a laboratory [43:43] Why IKEA stumbled upon self assembled furniture [46:30] A summary of the early history of IKEA [49:00] How Ingvar manag

What I learned from reading The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:10] She was  the smartest woman on Wall Street, a financial genius, a railroad magnate, a real estate mogul, a Gilded Era renegade, a reliable source for city funds.[0:19] “I have had fights with some of the greatest financial men in the country. Did you ever hear of any of them getting ahead of Hetty Green?”[1:10] I go my own way, take no partners, risk nobody else’s fortune.[1:29] She was considered the single biggest individual financier in the world.[1:58]  A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (Founders #95)[2:55] Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselv

What I learned from reading Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01] Forty years ago, a small group gathered in a burned-out department store building in war-devastated downtown Tokyo. Their purpose was to found a new company, their optimistic goal was to develop the technologies that would help rebuild Japan's economy.[5:00] I was born the first son and fifteenth-generation heir to one of Japan's finest and oldest sake-brewing families. The Morita family has been making sale for three hundred years. Unfortunately, the taste of a couple of generations of Morita family heads was so refined and their collecting skills so acute that the business suffered while they pursued their artistic interests, letting the business take ca

What I learned from reading The Tao of Warren Buffett by David Clark and Mary Buffett. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01]The more I heard Warren speak, the more I learned. Not only about investing, but about business and life. [4:02] The great personal fortunes in this country weren’t built on a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified one wonderful business. [5:45] It is impossible to unsign a contract, so do all your thinking before you sign. [8:35] I don’t try to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over. [14:27] The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. [19:00] My idea of a group decision is to look in the mirror. [22:14] When management with a reputation

What I learned from reading The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01] What he was teaching were the lessons that had emerged from the unfolding of his own life [4:35] The dichotomy of Warren Buffett [9:20] Warren Buffett wants to be remembered as a teacher [11:52] Buffett’s idea of Inner scorecard vs Outer scorecard [13:49] Warren Buffett’s early family life [18:03] Learning to avoid the habit of thinking in only one direction (18:03), [24:30] Warren’s WHY [29:58] A young troublemaker and how Warren’s dad convinced him to change his behavior [32:20] Warren did what you are doing right now: Since a young age Warren had studied the lives of men like Jay Cooke, Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J

What I learned from reading Carroll Shelby: The Authorized Biography by Rinsey Mills. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[3:27] I love everything about this person. I like the way he thought. I like the way he lived his life.[3:38] It is almost unbelievable all the different events that could happen in one human lifetime.[3:52] He lived to 89 years old and he used every single year that he was alive.[5:22] He could talk his way out of anything.[6:40] He knew what he wanted. He didn't want anybody else telling him what to do.[7:41] He had a love for anything that would go fast.[10:48] He didn’t know what to do with his life.[15:54] Follow your natural drift. —Charlie Munger[17:00] I can't work for anybody.[18:42]  He has fun his entire life. As soon as they stop being fun he r

What I learned from reading Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automobile Empire by Luca Dal Monte.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01] Ferrari was animated by an extraordinary passion that led him to build a product with no equal[3:52] Lee Iacocca on why Enzo Ferrari will go as the greatest car manufacturer in history: "Ferrari spent every dollar chasing perfection." [8:50] Business lessons from his father  [11:47] Enzo Ferrari was not interested in school. He wanted to start working immediately. [16:36] The deaths of his father and brother [18:20] No job. No money. No connections. A young man desperate to succeed in life. [23:06] He learned something that he would never forget for the rest of his life: Not even the best driver had any chance of victory

What I learned from reading Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01] Racing was the most magnificent marketing tool the industry had ever known.[2:42] Founders vs Managers [3:43] Founders Podcasts on Henry Ford: #9, #26, and #80. [4:29] The passion Enzo Ferrari had for his products [5:50] The same broad features keep recurring over and over again/ In their detailed appearance these broad features are never twice the same. [8:09] Steve Jobs on passion. [12:00] Steve Jobs on building the Macintosh/ Artisans have soul in the game. [13:05] Enzo Ferrari’s schedule at 58 years old / His early life [17:08] Ferrari’s 3 principles for winning [20:20] How Enzo Ferrari started his company / Raci

What I learned from reading James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest by Michael P. Malone.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---James J. Hill demonstrates the impact one willful individual can have on the course of history [1:00]If you want to know whether you are destined to be a success or a failure in life, you can easily find out. The test is simple and it is infallible: Are you able to save money? If not, drop out. You will lose. You may think not, but you will lose as sure as you live. The seed of success is not in you. –James J. Hill [3:30]Early life and education [7:58]What James Hill learned from history: The power of one dynamic individual [9:09]Hill strikes out for adventure [10:48]Hill makes it a priority to seek out mentors to learn from [14:44]Starting his fi

What I learned from reading A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:25] Claude Shannon trained a powerful intellect on topics of deep interest, and continued to do so beyond the point of short term practicality[5:50] Insulated from opinion of all kinds[9:09] A simple way to describe the impact of information theory[10:39] Resourceful at a young age[11:50] An ordinary childhood[12:41] Follow your natural drift[14:40] Too many facts; too few principles[16:10] His indecisive nature inadvertently helps him[17:00] An important turning point in Shannon’s life[18:30] Vannevar Bush: The first person to see Claude Shannon for who he was [21:00] The results of Claude Shannon’s thesis[23:20] How

What I learned from reading The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:30] The failure of business schools to study men like Henry Singleton is a crime— Warren Buffett[2:40]Buffett and Singleton: Separated at birth?[8:35]The Singular Henry Singleton[14:40] Supremely indifferent to criticism[19:50] Teledyne breaks up huge business into a bunch of small profit centers[29:30] Risk is controlled. Divisions will remain relatively small.[32:00} Building a cash generating machine [36:30] Bet heavily when you have an edge.[44:00] Singleton has found a way to run a multibillion dollar company in an entrepreneurial, innovative way.[50:16] Singleton had a different focus: Capital

What I learned from reading A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Edward Thorp. ----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---[0:01] Ed Thorp’s memoir reads like a thriller—mixing wearable computers that would have made James Bond proud, shady characters, great scientists, and poisoning attempts. The book reveals a thorough, rigorous, methodical person in search of life, knowledge, financial security, and, not least of all, fun. Thorp is also known to be a generous man, intellectually speaking, eager to share his discoveries with random strangers.  [1:23] Ed Thorp is the first modern mathematician who successfully used quantitative methods for risk taking—and most certainly the first mathematician who met financial success doing it

What I learned from reading Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street by William Poundstone.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---Claude Shannon was as close to a sure thing as existed [2:53]The beginning of information theory [7:11]Project X [9:09]introduction to Ed Thorpe [15:05]using math and physics to beat Las Vegas [18:03]Ed Thorp and Claude Shannon meet [20:45]testing Thorpe’s Blackjack theory [26:00]The core of John Kelly’s philosophy of risk can be stated without math. It is that even unlikely events must come to pass eventually. Therefore, anyone who accepts small risks of losing everything will lose everything, sooner or later. The ultimate compound return rate is acutely sensitive to fat tails. [28:23]I

What I learned from reading First A Dream by Jim Clayton.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---