Founders

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 my friends I wanted to be successful. I didn’t know what that meant. [2:11]Deep down I was searching for something else, something more. I had an aching sense that our time is short, shorter than we ever know. And I wanted mine to be meaningful. And purposeful. And creative. And important. Above all . . .different. [2:35]I asked myself: What if there were a way, without being an athlete, to feel what athletes feel? To play all the time, instead of working? Or to enjoy work so much that it becomes essentially the same thin

What I learned from reading I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow.

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.

What I learned from reading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc.

What I learned from reading Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton.

What I learned from reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

What I learned from reading The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

What I learned from reading The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented The Modern World by Randall StrossEdison 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)A list of all the books featured on Founders Podcast.

What I learned from reading Walt Disney based on the book Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler. 

What I learned from reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee VanceThe 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 venture capital shop and doubled down on making super-complex physical goods in two of the most expensive places in the world, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. [2:13]What Musk has developed that so many of the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley lack is a meaningful worldview. He’s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He’s less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory. [9:17]The life that Musk has created to manage all of these endeavors is preposterous. [9:53]H