
Hosted by David Senra · EN

What I learned from reading How Larry Gagosian Reshaped The Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe. ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----(4:00) The dealer has been so successful selling art to masters of the universe that he has become one of them.(5:45) We think of genius as being complicated, but geniuses have the fewest moving parts. Gagosian is simple. He's basically a shark, a feeding machine.(6:00) A novice is easily spotted because they do too much. Too many ingredients, too many movements. Too much explanation. A master uses the fewest motions required to fulfill their intention.(10:00) His own publicist described him as “A Real Killer”(12:00) The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig by Jerry Shields. (Founders #292)(17:30) There is always a blueprint. Joseph Duveen was the art dealer to the Robber Barons. Biographies of Duveen:Duveen: A Life in ArtSecrets Of An Art DealerDuveenThe Artful Partners: The Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen(18:00) Numerous friends of Gagosian caution me not to mistake this merry-go-round of parties and galas and super yacht cruises for a life of leisure. This guy is always working. This motherfucker works 24/7. The parties are marketing showcases in disguise.(19:00) The Taste of Luxury: Bernard Arnault and the Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton Story by Nadege Forestier and Nazanine Ravai. (Founders #296)(19:30) The best way to raise the price of something is to say that you would never sell it.(23:00) If Gagosian possesses one secret weapon that has equipped him for success it might be his disinhibition.(33:00) The niche Gagosian pursued was seen —at the time —as low status. The secondary business was perceived as a backwater by dealers. It was considered a bit distasteful.(42:00) He disdains formal meetings. He finds bureaucracy and protocol dull. There is no hierarchy. There is Larry and then everyone else.(44:00) Gagosian reaps huge profits from asymmetries of information.(51:00) Art is just money on the walls.(54:00) David Geffen is still as liquid as the day is long.(56:00) The competitive drive of self-made billionaires does not go into remission once they’ve made their fortune.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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 my nature is concerned, I do not meet competition. I destroy competitors.(8:30) Retreat means surrender. Retreat will turn you into a slave. The war is inevitable. Let it come.(9:00) Bring a steel like determination to face all kinds of challenges.(13:45) I firmly believe that our destiny is determined by our actions and not by our origins.(15:45) Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus. (Founders #232)(21:00) The glory and success of the family cannot guarantee the future of a children and grandchildren.(22:30) People of poor backgrounds will actively develop their abilities while also seizing various opportunities because they urgently need to rescue themselves.(26:00) Luck is the remnant of design luck is the remnant of design. — Cyrus McCormick(27:30) Rockefeller explains to his son, in writing, exactly what he was: A conqueror.(28:00) Everyone is a designer and architect of his own destiny.(29:00) If you do everything you will win: All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything. — The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)(32:00) Visionary businessmen are always good at finding opportunities in every disaster. And that is how I did it.(36:00) Anything can happen in this world.(38:30) People who climb up in any industry are fully committed to what they are doing. They sincerely love the work that they do. If you sincerely love the work that you do you will naturally succeed.(41:00) Do it now. Opportunity comes from opportunity.(42:00) Action solves everything.(42:00) Always more audacity. — Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. (Founders #319)(43:00) So at this time we’d better push it. We’d better push it.(43:00) Smart people make things happen.(46:00) Life is an opportunity at a time.(48:00) Get rid of the habit of being distracted.(54:00) No one in the world leads a smooth life.(58:00) Too many people overestimate what they lack and underestimate what they have.(58:00) You cannot sharpen your razor on velvet. — Abraham Lincoln(59:00) When I was a poor boy I was confident that I would become the richest person in the world. Strong self confidence inspired me.(59:00) I never believed that failure is the mother of success. I believe that faith is the father of success. Victory is a habit.(59:00) Believing that there will be great results is the driving force behind all great careers.(1:06:00) A story about Rockefeller’s ruthless competitive drive.(1:07:00) My nature never wears off. What I like is the good feeling of victory.(1:09:00) The people who can get ahead in the world are those who know how to find their ideal environment. If they cannot find it, they will create it themselves.(1:16:00) Enthusiasm is a force multiplier to everything.(1:16:00) The outcome of things is often proportional to our enthusiasm.(1:18:00) I think carefully prepared plans and actions are called luck. I never succumb to luck, I believe in cause and effect.(1:18:00) Ask yourself: Am I using my mind to create history?(1:18:00) I never succumb to luck, I believe in cause and effect.(1:18:00) In the process for pursuing career success the most important step is to prevent yourself from making excuses.(1:19:00) The important thing is that you firmly believe that you are your greatest capital.(1:19:00) Faith [in yourself] is the force that must drive you forward.(1:20:00) No American has completely changed the American way of life like Henry Ford did. He has turned the car from a luxury into a necessity that everyone can afford.(1:23:00) I told myself, I warned myself. You must hold onto this tightly. It can bring you to the realm of your dreams.(1:26:00) Of course I paid a high price, but what I won was freedom and a glorious future. I became my own master.(1:32:00) The end is just the beginning. — Andrew Carnegie(1:33:00) Look at those who fail, and you will find that most people fail not because they make mistakes, but because they are not fully committed. The same goes for companies.(1:35:00) The person who can create value the most is the person who devotes himself completely to his favorite activities.(1:36:00) Match people by their enthusiasm.(1:38:00) THE ROCKEFELLER EPISODES: #307 The World's Great Family Dynasties #254 John D. Rockefeller: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers#248 John D Rockefeller (Titan) #247 Henry Flagler (Rockefeller's partner) #148 John D. Rockefeller's Autobiography #16 John D. Rockefeller (Titan) ----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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 the device that delivers it.[6:27] We knew our core product was data and analytics.[7:01] We were motivated by an idea that we could build something new that just might make a difference.[9:04] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger[10:05] I was willing to do anything that they wanted. I would have never left voluntarily.[16:00] Street smarts and common sense were better predictors of career achievements.[17:40] Almost all occupations have a big selling component: selling your firm, your ideas and yourself.[18:20] It is the doers, the lean and hungry ones, those with ambition in their eyes and fire in their bellies, who go the furthest and achieve the most.[21:36] Comparing John to Bill on leadership, I always thought John was more egalitarian, but less effective.[22:55] It was a lowly start. We slaved in our underwear and an un-air conditioned, a bank vault.[23:57] The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb[24:22] Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman[27:20] David Geffen biography: The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood[30:07] It's said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. I believe that. You can never have complete mastery over your existence. You can't choose the advantages you start out with, and you certainly can't pick your genetic intelligence level. But you can control how hard you work. [31:20] Life, I've found, works the following way: Daily, you're presented with many small and surprising opportunities. Sometimes you seize one that takes you to the top. Most, though, if valuable at all, take you only a little way. To succeed, you must string together many small incremental advances-rather than count on hitting the lottery jackpot once. Trusting to great luck is a strategy not likely to work for most people. As a practical matter, constantly enhance your skills, put in as many hours as possible, and make tactical plans for the next few steps. Then, based on what actually occurs, look one more move ahead and adjust the plan. Take lots of chances, and make lots of individual, spur-of-the-moment decisions.[32:12] Don't devise a Five-Year Plan or a Great Leap Forward. Central planning didn't work for Stalin or Mao, and it won't work for an entrepreneur either.[34:16] I truly pity people who don't like their jobs. They struggle at work, so unhappily, for ultimately so much less success, and thus develop even more reason to hate their occupations. There's too much delightful stuff to do in this short lifetime not to love getting up on a weekday morning.[38:48] Did I want to risk an embarrassing and costly failure? Absolutely. Happiness for me has always been the thrill of the unknown, trying something that everyone says can't be done, feeling that gnawing pit in my stomach that says danger ahead. I want action.[40:28] Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman[41:37] I rented a one room temporary office. It was about a hundred square feet of space with a view of an alley, a far cry from my previous place of employment. I deposited $300,000 of my Salomon Brothers windfall into a corporate checking account. And fifteen years later, I had a billion-dollar business.[45:25] By endurance we conquer.[46:50] Zero to One by Peter Thiel[47:14] Made In Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita[51:19] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness[54:35] Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games[58:30] Each news story is a product demo. More demos lead to more revenue. More revenue leads to more stories and then even more revenue.[1:03:24] He's got a lot of these like roundabout ways to get in front of potential customers. He’s repurposing the information that his unique business collects.[1:15:53] When it comes to competition, being one of the best is not good enough. Do you really want to plan for a future in which you might have to fight with somebody who is just as good as you are? I wouldn't. —Jeff Bezos----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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 only thing standing between Jimmy and the world would be a lack of imagination an an over abundance of caution. All he had to do was leap and the world would be his.(13:00) There is a lot of Mark Twain in Jimmy Buffett. Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. (Founders #312) (13:30) There was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal. The whole idea of a conventional existence was like Kryptonite to me. — Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141)(15:00) Jimmy Buffett and Warren Buffett: Their lives are illustrations of the power of compounding.(16:30) A hit song was nice. But owning the publishing on a hit song was even better.(17:30) Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238)(19:30) You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something. — Steve Jobs(24:00) If you want to create and capture lasting value, don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Futureby Peter Thiel (Founders #278)(28:00) It is ironic that I was never categorizable and now I’m a category. — Jimmy Buffett(28:00) 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. 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. — Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan. (Founders #259)(29:00) No one is ever eager to fix a cash machine that isn't broken.(29:00) You can’t sell a bagless vacuum cleaner to people that make $500 million a year selling vacuum bags. — Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson(Founders #300)(31:00) Something that grows exponentially can become so valuable that it's worth making an extraordinary effort to get it started. — Paul Graham How to Do Great Work (Founders #314)(36:00) My description of Jimmy Buffett:-Blue collar work ethic-Learning machine-Loves it-Won’t quit(37:00) The Business of Phish(42:00) What Jimmy Buffett and Kanye West have in commonSome say he arrogant. Can y'all blame him?It was straight embarrassing how y'all played himLast year shoppin' my demo, I was tryna shineEvery motherfucker told me that I couldn't rhymeNow I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteemOr use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams(46:00) Jimmy kept the main thing the main thing: “I don't give a shit what happens 22 and a half hours of the day. The only thing that matters is the 90 minutes that we're on stage.”(1:04:00) That's what's wrong with the world these days. Nobody wants to put in the time it takes to be legendary. Mythology is not fast food.(1:05:00) Margaritaville Holdings intuitively adopted the asset-light model, where it licenses its intellectual property to owners and operators via franchise agreements(1:09:00) There is nobody who understands who Jimmy Buffett is and what Jimmy Buffett does better than Jimmy Buffett. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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.(5:30) You undergo a lot of stress all the time. How do you handle it? I don’t handle it. I like it.(7:30) He smoked 5 packs of cigarettes a day. He drank Wild Turkey Bourbon daily. He said “Wild Turkey and Phillip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life.”(8:00) He built the most successful airline in history. Southwest was profitable for 47 straight years.(9:30) All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle(18:00) Kelleher didn’t mince any words: “I told Lamar, you roll right over the son of a bitch and leave our tire tracks on his uniform if you have to.”(27:30) No carrier knows its niche as well as Southwest.(28:30) While other carriers have been lured by the temptation to step outside their niche, Southwest has maintained the discipline to stay focused on its fundamental reason for being.(29:00) Herb on why he was conservative with debt: When there are bad times you aren't threatened by debt payments and debt payments are what put other airlines in and out of bankruptcy forever.(30:00) Southwest is obsessed with keeping costs low to maximize profitability instead of being concerned with increasing market share.(30:15) Southwest is willing to forgo revenue generating opportunities in markets that would disproportionately increase its costs.(35:00) Keller has said on many occasions that a company is never more vulnerable to complacency than when it's at the height of its success. The number one threat is us he would say.(38:30) When we look back at the last 20 years it is obvious that a number of large companies were so set in their ways that they did not adapt properly and lost out as a result. 20 years from now, we'll look back and we'll see the same pattern. — Bill Gates(39:00) Herb Kelleher illustrates the speed with which Southwest moves by telling a story about Don Valentine, former VP of marketing.Valentine had just joined from Dr. Pepper when the marketing group met in January to discuss a new television campaign.Valentine was ready with his timeline for producing the spots:-script in March-script approval in April-casting in June-shoot in SeptemberWhen Valentine finished, Kelleher said, “Don, I hate to tell you, but we’re talking about next Wednesday.”----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. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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.(10:30) Single threaded leadership: For each project, there is a single leader whose focus is that project and that project alone, and that leader oversees teams of people whose attention is focused on that one project.(11:00) The best thing I did as a manager at PayPal was to make every person in the company responsible for doing just one thing. Every employee’s one thing was unique, and everyone knew I would evaluate him only on that one thing. I had started doing this just to simplify the task of managing people. But then I noticed a deeper result: defining roles reduced conflict. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Futureby Peter Thiel. (Founders #278) (12:30) Jeff said many times: We need to eliminate communication, not encourage it. Communication is a sign of dysfunction.(14:30) Jeff is insisted that instead of finding new and better ways to manage our dependencies, we figure out how to remove them.(15:30) Jeff on decision making speed: “Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you're probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you're good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure."(16:30) The best way to fail at inventing something is by making it somebody's part-time job.(21:00) Even though you cannot hear it, with a well-written narrative there is a massive amount of useful information that is being transferred in those 20 minutes.(23:00) A simple tip on how to produce unique insights:Jeff has an uncanny ability to read a narrative and consistently arrive at insights that no one else did, even though we were all reading the same narrative. After one meeting, I asked him how he was able to do that. He responded with a simple and useful tip that I have not forgotten: he assumes each sentence he reads is wrong until he can prove otherwise. He's challenging the content of the sentence, not the motive of the writer. Jeff was usually among the last to finish reading.(26:30) Jeff wanted to know exactly what we were going to build and how it would be better for customers. To Jeff a half-baked mockup was evidence of half-baked thinking.(27:00) Founders force the issue.(28:00) Writing required us to be thorough and precise. We had to describe features, pricing, how the service would work, why customers would want it. Half baked thinking was harder to disguise on the written page than in PowerPoint slides.(34:30) Failure and invention are inseparable twins.(35:30) Working backwards exposes skill sets that your company needs but does not yet have.(36:30) Differentiation with customers is often one of the key reasons to invent.(44:00) To read Bezos’ shareholder letters is to get a crash course in running a high-growth internet business from someone who mastered it before any of the playbooks were written.(46:00) The idea that Amazon, a pure e-commerce distributor of retail products made by others, would become a hardware company and make and sell its own reader device was controversial.(46:00) If you outsource then your company doesn’t acquire those skills. Amazon wants the skills.(54:00) Jeff wanted to build a moat around his best customers.(58:00) We had acquired a core competency only a few other companies could match.List of Jeff Bezos episodes to learn more:#282 Jeff Bezos shareholder letters#180 Jeff Bezos (Invention of a Global Empire)#179 Jeff Bezos (Everything Store)#155 Jeff Bezos (Invent and Wander)#71 Jeff Bezos Shareholder Letters#38 Space Barons#17 Jeff Bezos (Everything Store)----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. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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 doubt.(6:00) There was something in Churchill's character that simply wouldn't allow him to give up. He was a dangerous optimist.(8:00) History likes winners.(9:30) The adventures and ordeals of those early years were essential to the making of a man who triumphed in the second world war.(10:00) At 40 he was largely written off as a man whose best days were behind him. (Churchill shares a lot of parallels with Steve Jobs)(10:30) He fashioned his career as a grand experiment to prove that he could work his will on his times. Persevering in that approach, despite repeated setbacks and often harsh ridicule of those who didn't share his high opinion of himself.(13:00) At the heart of this story is an irrepressible spirit.(17:30) Little men let events take their course. I like things to happen. And if they don't happen, I like to make them happen.(15:00) In every age there are great men. Why not us? And why not now?(19:30) Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.(22:00) While other politicians were content to get their information from a scattering of newspapers, Churchill devoured whole shelves.(23:00) Winston Churchill wanted to be the dominant political figure of his time.(23:30) Robert Caro's books on Lyndon Johnson(26:30) Listen to Invest Like The Best #343 David Senra (30:00) If a man is sure of himself it only sharpens him and makes him more effective.(35:00) Another thing Steve Jobs and Winston Churchill had in common: High Energy. This story about Steve Jobs in incredible. (36:00) The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) (44:00) Churchill to his son: “Your idle and lazy life is very offensive to me. You appear to be leading a perfectly useless existence." — The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) (48:00) Larry Ellison: I know that most people think trying to build a hard wing of this size is crazy. But that’s the beauty of the idea. The other side isn’t trying to build one. So we’ll have a wing, and they won’t. — The Billionaire and The Mechanic(Founders #126) (50:30) Winston's opponents never tired of saying that he was unreasonable.(58:00) All of the Winston Churchill episodes: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. (Founders #196) Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard. (Founders #319)----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. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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 thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real.[8:56] Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55)[10:00] Unlike Vanderbilt's other adversaries William Walker was not afraid of Cornelius when he should have been.[12:21] The immigrants of that era could not afford to be children.[12:42] The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen[12:54] He was driven by the same raw energy that has always attracted the most ambitious to America, then pushed them to the head of the crowd. Grasper, climber-nasty ways of describing this kid, who wants what you take for granted. From his first months in America, he was scheming, looking for a way to get ahead. You did not need to be a Rockefeller to know the basics of the dream: Start at the bottom, fight your way to the top.[14:01] There is no problem you can't solve if you understand your business from A to Z.[17:08] Sam spotted an opportunity where others saw nothing.[18:17] As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit and similar firms were too slow-footed to cover ground. It was a calculation based on arrogance. I can be fast where others have been slow. I can hustle where others have been satisfied with the easy pickings of the trade.[18:42] The kid on the streets is getting a shot at a dream. He sees the guy who gets rich and thinks, yep, that'll be me. He ignores the other stories going around. // There's no way to quantify all that on a spreadsheet, but it's that dream of being the exception, the one who gets rich and gets out before he gets got that's the key to a hustler's motivation. —Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238)[26:36] He was pure hustle.[28:15] Preston later spoke of Zemurray with admiration. He said the kid from Russia was closer in spirit to the banana pioneers than anyone else working. "He's a risk taker," Preston explained, “he's a thinker, and he's a doer.”[30:33] They don't write books about people that stopped there.[32:48] Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow (Founders #248) and John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (#254)[34:22] He seemed to strive for the sake of striving.[34:44] If you're on a mans side you stay on that mans side or you're no better than a goddamn animal.[35:11] The world is a mere succession of fortunes made and lost, lessons learned and forgotten and learned again.[39:41] A man whose commitment could not be questioned, who fed his own brothers to the jungle.[40:00] The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacificby Alistair Urquhart.[41:02] Why the Founders of United Fruit were the Rockefellers of bananas.[47:23] He kept quiet because talking only drives up the price.[48:19] There are times when certain cards sit unclaimed in the common pile, when certain properties become available that will never be available again. A good businessman feels these moments like a fall in the barometric pressure. A great businessman is dumb enough to act on them even when he cannot afford to.[53:30] He believed in the transcendent power of physical labor—that a man can free his soul only by exhausting his body.[1:02:04] He disdained bureaucracy and hated paperwork. So seldom did he dictate a letter that he requires no full-time secretary.[1:04:01] He was respected because he understood the trade. By the time he was 40 he had served in every position. There was not a job he could not do nor a task he could not accomplish. He considered it a secret of his success.[1:05:02] Rick Rubin: In the Studio by Jake Brown. (Founders #245)[1:08:00] Zemurray was the founder, forever on the attack, at work, in progress, growing by trial and error.[1:10:44] Here was a self-made man, filled with the most dangerous kind of confidence: he had done it before and believed he could do it again. This gave him the air of a berserker, who says, If you're going to fight me, you better kill me. If you’ve ever known such a person, you will recognize the type at once. If he does not say much, it's because he considers small talk a weakness. Wars are not won by running your mouth. I'm describing a once essential American type that has largely vanished. Men who channeled all their love and fear into the business, the factory, the plantation, the shop.[1:11:44] Founder Mentality vs Big Company Mentality: When this mess of deeds came to light, United Fruit did what big bureaucracy-heavy companies always do: hired lawyers and investigators to search every file for the identity of the true owner. This took months. In the meantime, Zemurray, meeting separately with each claimant, simply bought the land from them both. He bought it twice paid a little more, yes, but if you factor in the cost of all those lawyers, probably still spent less than United Fruit and came away with the prize.[1:13:04] His philosophy: Get up first, work harder, get your hands in the dirt and blood in your eyes.[1:17:02] For every move there is a counter move. For every disaster there is a recovery. He never lost faith in his own agency.[1:17:57] A man focused on the near horizon of costs can sometimes lose sight of the far horizon of potential windfall.[1:20:22] You gentlemen have been fucking up this business long enough. I'm going to straighten it out.[1:23:03] In a time of crisis the mere evidence of activity can be enough to get things moving.[1:23:42] Zemurray was never heard to bitch or justify. He was a member of a generation that lived by the maxim: Never complain, never explain.[1:27:08] The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relationsby Larry Tye[1:28:14] He should link his private interest to a public cause.[1:29:32] In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.[1:32:28] Sam's defining characteristic was his belief in his own agency, his refusal to despair. No story is without the possibility of redemption; with cleverness and hustle, the worst can be overcome. I can't help but feel that we would do well by emulating Sam Zemurray–not the brutality or the conquest, but the righteous anger that sent the striver into the boardroom of laughing elites, waving his proxies, shouting, "You gentlemen have been fucking up this business long enough. I'm going to straighten it out.—“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers. ”— GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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 by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225)(4:30) Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden(5:00) The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. (Founders #175)(8:00) In his open pursuit of fame and popular favor, Churchill seemed far less Victorian than Rooseveltian.(8:30) Winston advertises himself as simply and as unconsciously as he breathes. Churchill was widely criticized for being a self advertiser.(9:30) “I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod."(9:30) Churchill did not need encouragement. He only needed a chance.(11:00) "I have faith in my star. That I am intended to do something in the world."(12:30) "I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending."(13:30) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)(17:30) Winston had spent the best years of his life composing his impromptu speeches.(18:00) He had no one who believed in him quite as much as he believed in himself.(20:30) He was defiantly determined to decide for himself where he would go and what he would do.(27:00) From studying the outcome of past expeditions, he believed that those that burdened themselves with equipment to meet every contingency had fared much worse than those that had sacrificed total preparedness for speed. — Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. (Founders #144)(31:00) Nothing but being shot at will ever teach men the art of using cover.(32:00) The greater the obstacle, the greater the triumph.(34:00) He had hated his captivity with an intensity that surprised even him. He could not bear the thought of being in another man's control.(35:00) Who shall say what is possible or impossible, in these spheres of action one cannot tell without a trial.(36:00) Always more audacity.(43:30) He read for four or five hours every day.(45:00) He would be obliged to rely on someone else's intelligence and cunning. This state of affairs was far less appealing to him than the dangerous he would face if he were on his own.----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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 every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast