Founders

What I learned from rereading My Life and Work by Henry Ford.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[7:45] True education is gained through the discipline of life.[8:00] Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. (Founders #263)[9:40] Reading this book is like having a one-sided conversation with one of the greatest entrepreneurs to ever live who just speaks directly to you and tells you, “Hey this is my philosophy on company building.”[12:40] His main idea is that business exists for one reason and one reason only —to provide service for other people.[12:50] Everything I do is serving my true end — which is to make a product that makes other people's lives better.[13:47] A sale is proof of utility.[15:00] The sense of accomplishment from overcoming difficulty is satisfying in a way that a life of leisure and ease will never be.[16:00] I think Amazon's culture is largely based on one thing. It's not based on 14. It's based o

What I learned from rereading Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[3:11] His mind was never a captive of reality.[5:16] A complete list of every Founders episode on Steve Jobs and the founders Steve studied: Steve Jobs’s Heroes[7:15] Steve Jobs and The Next Big Thing by Randall Stross (Founders #77)[9:05] Steve Job’s Commencement Address[9:40] Driven and curious, even when things were tough, he was a learning machine.[10:20] He learned how to manage himself.[12:45] Anything could be figured out and since anything could be figured out anything could be built.[14:10] It was a calculation based on arrogance. — The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen (Founders #255)[18:00] We were no longer aiming for the handful of hobbyists who liked to assemble their own computers. For every one of them there wer

What I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----(0:01) The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer.Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent.Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius.At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land.Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land.(1:22) Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction.(1:37) Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure.(3:12) All the podca

What I learned from rereading Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:01] Why is Polaroid a nutty place? To start with, it’s run by a man who has more brains than anyone has a right to. He doesn’t believe anything until he’s discovered it and proved it for himself. Because of that, he never looks at things the way you and I do. He has no small talk. He has no preconceived notions. He starts from the beginning with everything. That’s why we have a camera that takes pictures and develops them right away.[1:33] More books on Edwin Land: Insisting on The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land by Victor McElheny The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experienceby Mark Olshaker A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Chris Bonanos [2:18] “Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaro

What I learned from reading The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[1:20] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen (Founders #255)[2:42] You Can Negotiate Anything: How to Get What You Want by Herb Cohen.[3:57] Even our heroes falter.[6:01] Once you see your life as a game, and the things you strive for as no more than pieces in that game, you'll become a much more effective player.[7:20] He was proving what would become a lifelong principle: Most people are schmucks and will obey any type of authority.[7:34] Power is based on perception; if you think you got it, you got it, even if you don't got it.[7:54] Nolan Bushnell to a young Steve Jobs: “I taught him that if you act like you can do something, then it will work. I told him, ‘Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.”  from Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biogr

What I learned from rereading Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 1 and Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 2 by Dee Hock.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[4:39] Quotes: Abraham Lincoln | Pythagoras | Mark Twain | Socrates | Napoleon | Leonardo da Vinci[6:15] One should not read like a dog obeying its master, but like an eagle hunting its prey.[6:48] Humility and generosity have no enemies.[7:12] Powerful writing should take one side and stick to it tenaciously, ignoring the other even though it may have merit. Objective writing is impotent.[8:02] The essential reward of anything well done is to have done it.[8:07] What becomes known is worthless until it is shared.[9:25] No dream is so great as the person you might become by remaining true to it.[11:04] The wise make great use of adversity. The foolish whine about it.[12:02] Impatience is a perpetual barrier between desire

What I learned from rereading One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:00] I feel compelled to open my life to new possibilities.[2:54] Life is a magnificent, mysterious Odyssey to be experienced.[3:12] One From Many (Founders #42)[3:30] Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 1 by Dee Hock and Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 2 by Dee Hock[5:12] Patrick Collison tweet on Dee Hock[7:51] He thought from first principles and questioned everything, even down to the nature of money itself.[8:26] He saw a better way of doing things and he didn't listen to folks who said it couldn't be done.[9:32] Today's magic was yesterday's dream.[13:27] Chaordic 1. The behavior of any self-organizing, self-governing, organ, organization, or system that harmoniously exhibits characteristics of both order and chaos.   2.  Patterne

What I learned from reading Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:51] No one could block his way and he didn't have any time to waste.[2:38] Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. —Bob Dylan[3:01] The best talk on YouTube for entrepreneurs: Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill Gurley[3:21] Estée: A Success Story by Estée Lauder (Founders #217)[7:52] Billy asked me who I saw myself like in today's music scene. I told him, nobody. I really didn't see myself like anybody.[8:12] We may be in the same genre but we don't put out the same product.[16:34] What really set me apart in these days was my repertoire. It was more formidable than the rest of the players. There were a lot of better musicians around but there wasn't anybody close in nature to what I was doing.[18:00] Bob spends a lot of time thinking about and studying history.[20:34] I'd come from a

What I learned from reading Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons by Edward J. Renehan Jr.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:40] John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254)[3:46] From the back cover: Though reviled for more than a century as Wall Street's greatest villain, Jay Gould was in fact its most original creative genius. Gould was the most astute financial and business strategist of his time and also the most widely hated. He was the undisputed master of the nation's railroads and telegraph systems at a time when these were the fastest-growing new technologies of the age. His failed scheme to corner the gold market in 1869 caused the Black Friday panic. He created new ways of manipulating markets, assembling capital, and swallowing his competitors. Many of these methods are now standard practice; others were unique to their circumstances and unrepe

What I learned from reading Explore/Create My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark by Richard Garriott.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[6:49] Richard Garriott’s house[7:39] Past episodes on video game creatorsSid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games by Sid Meier (Founders#195)Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner (Founders #21)[9:31] I was lucky to learn early on that a deep understanding of the world around you makes you its master.[9:52] The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think. — The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50)[10:08] Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. And that is everything around you that you call life was made up b

What I learned from reading The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations by Larry Tye.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:54] The very substance of American thought was mere clay to be molded by the savvy public relations practitioner.[1:48] Bernays saved every scrap of paper he sent out or took in and provided them to be made public after his death.[4:15] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. (Founders #255)[6:43] Thinking unconventionally, operating at the edge, and pushing the boundaries became his trademark over a career that lasted more than 80 years.[10:13] Problems are just opportunities in work clothes.[12:06] Eddie was convinced that understanding the instincts and symbols that motivate an individual could help him shape the behavior of the masses.[12:32] 1. Get hired to promote a product. 2. Attach that product to a cause that gives the consumption of that product a

What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:47] 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 thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real.[4:56] Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55)[6:00] Unlike Vanderbilt's other adversaries William Walker was not afraid of Cornelius when he should have been.[8:21] The immigrants of that era could not afford to be children.[8:42] The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen[8:54] He was driven by

What I learned from reading John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:07] He transmitted messages in code and secrecy covered all of his operations.[0:39]  Rockefeller compared himself to Napoleon.[2:20] He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines than any of them.[2:35] It is always hard to successfully control what you don't understand.[3:32] Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248)[7:27] By the time I was a man — long before it —I had learned the underlying principles of business and the rules of business as well as many men acquire them by the time they are 40. I needed no one to advise me about the nature of transactions with which I had been carrying on since childhood.[8:59] Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. (Founders #148)[10:55] You should try to expose yourself to experiences that are slightly ahe

What I learned from reading When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street by June Breton Fisher.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:30] The Uses of Adversity by Malcolm Gladwell[2:40] Business Breakdowns: Goldman Sachs: Fortune Favors The Old[3:00] Men can learn from the past, and I've been shocked how little some of the younger executives in the present firm know about its origins. They don't even know that my grandfather, whose picture is on the wall there, founded the firm.[3:46] My grandfather, Henry Goldman, was the son of a poor German immigrant named Marcus Goldman. Marcus Goldman is the founder of Goldman Sachs.[5:45] Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World by Lynn Downey (Founders #33)[7:10] The job Marcus Goldman was grateful to have: Walking the streets peddling goods seven days a week. Working regardless of rain, or snow, or the humid summer heat.[9:13] Henry had been slow learning t

What I learned from reading Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:54] I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates. — Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm. (Founders #249)[1:20] 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)[2:07] It’s fascinating how great entrepreneurs would arrive at similar conclusions even though they lived at different times in history, they lived in different parts of the world, and they worked in different industries.[3:43] It was Confucius's view that education was the key to everything.[4:57] Socrates was in no doubt that education was the surest road to happiness.[7:05] Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, P

What I learned from reading Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[0:59] Both men have been called The First American but they were friends first and never rivals.[1:32] Leadership at this level is a rare quality and well-worth study.[1:53] The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. (Founders #62) and  Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #115)[3:53] He was bookish and inquisitive. Franklin quickly displayed a seemingly inexhaustible capability for hard work and was self-taught by reading.[5:36] Franklin was convinced that acts mattered more than beliefs.[6:06] Franklin advised fellow tradesmen. The way to wealth depends chiefly on two words: Industry and Frugality. Waste neither time nor money. Make the best use of both.[7:06] The years roll around and the last one will come. When it does I would rather have it said he lived usefully than he

What I learned from reading The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger by Greg Steinmetz.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[1:55] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191)[5:05] It is well known that without me your majesty might not have acquired the Imperial crown. You will order that the money which I've paid out, with the interest, shall be paid without further delay.[6:20] There's many examples in the book where Jacob is constantly pushing the pace and going further than you would expect when the consequences of making certain mistakes at this time in history was death.[6:51] He wanted to see how far he could go even if it meant risking his freedom and his soul.[7:01] He is the German Rockefeller. He thought that he was blessed with a talent for money-making by God. And so he couldn't retire. He couldn't live a life of leisure because God told him to

----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! ----On Steve Jobs#5 Steve Jobs: The Biography#19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader#76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple#77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing#204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography#235 To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment HistoryBonus Episodes on Steve JobsInsanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success (Between #112 and #113)Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs (Between #110 and #111)On Jony Ive and Steve Jobs#178 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest ProductsOn Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs#34 Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True InspirationOn Steve Jobs and several other technology company founders#157

What I learned from reading I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[1:05]On Steve Jobs#5 Steve Jobs: The Biography#19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader#76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple#77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing#204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography#235 To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment HistoryBonus Episodes on Steve JobsInsanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success (Between #112 and #113)Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs (Between #110 and #111)On Jony Ive and Steve Jobs#178 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest ProductsOn Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs#34 Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True InspirationOn Steve Jobs and several othe

What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[2:15]  Rockefeller trained himself to reveal as little as possible[4:22] Once Rockefeller set his mind to something he brought awesome powers of concentration to bear.[4:44] My whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people resources they didn’t know they had. —Edwin Land[9:00] When playing checkers or chess, he showed exceptional caution, studying each move at length, working out every possible countermove in his head. "I'll move just as soon as I get it figured out," he told opponents who tried to rush him. "You don't think I'm playing to get beaten, do you?"[9:20] To ensure that he won, he submitted to games only where he could dictate the rules. Despite his slow, ponderous style, once he had thoroughly mulled over his plan of action, he had the power of quick de