Founders

What I learned from reading Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. 

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The creation of The Home Depot began with two words: "You're fired!" [0:01]

Blinders on focus on the customer [5:45]

Learning how not to manage people from Ming the Merciless [8:37]

Meeting Ken Langone / the prehistory of Home Depot [11:00]

81% private / 19% public partnerships [18:40]

Ken sells to Ming. Predicts Ming will fire Bernie [28:30]

Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened [35:00]

Bernie Marcus at 49 years old: little cash and a ruined reputation [38:15]

How Bernie Marcus walks away from Ross Perot [38:50]

The importance of equity [49:19]

Do not work with people who don't know how to care about other people [51:00]

How they got the money to open The Home Depot [55:30]

The critical importance of selling at the right price [58:32]

Knowing the right way to do something by seeing it done the wrong way [1:08:54]

Mistakes can teach us we're never as smart as we think we are [1:11:25] 

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft by Paul Allen 

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I was 21 years old and at loose ends (0:01)

how Paul Allen works (4:09)

coming up with the idea for Microsoft (4:48)

admiring Bill Gates' bravado (7:56)

advice from his father: do something you love (12:30)

"Paul is an 'enthusiast' and when in the grip of an enthusiasm is almost totally irresponsible in other areas. How can one help such a student to see the error of his ways ? I don't know. He could even be more right than we, who knows ?" (18:30)

Going deep on subjects that interested him (20:56)

Paul's first jobs (24:14)

Paul Allen and Bill Gates first business (26:44)

New Mexico and the start of Microsoft (31:37)

We were certain that the tech establishment was wrong and we were right (34:40)

Unequal cofounders (37:29)

Starting to grow Microsoft (39:00)

Unequal cofounders part two (41:00)

Early Microsoft culture: When I talk about the early days at Microsoft, it's hard to explain to people how much fun it was.( 46:43)

Turning down a millions of dollars from Ross Perot (53:37)

Unequal cofounders part 3 (56:54)

The deal that led to Microsoft becoming the largest tech company of its day (58:00)

Health crisis and Paul Allen leaves Microsoft (1:05:30)

His most important realization (1:09:27)

How Paul makes $75 million from AOL (1:13:00)

I start from a different place , from the love of ideas and the urge to put them into motion and see where they might lead (1:18:10)

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

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Whatever success I've had in life has had more to do with my knowing how to deal with my not knowing than anything I know [0:01]

Ray's first principle and why [5:35]

Ray's key to success [8:07]

The similarities between investors and entrepreneurs [9:27]

Shift your mindset from I know I am right to How do I know I am right? [13:05]

Systemize your decision making [14:09]

Ray on his life story [17:30]

the quality of your decisions determine the quality of your life [19:50]

Like a lot of Founders, Ray was bad at school [21:45]

More about his personality: stubborn and determined + his first jobs [22:45]

Hungry for knowledge he could actually use [24:28]

Terrible is better than mediocre [25:03]

What we think to be true that is not: The future is a slightly modified version of the present [25:30]

Steve Jobs [26:30]

A pivotal lesson for Ray: The same things happen over and over again [28:02]

the founding of Bridgewater [32:33]

the humble beginning of Bridgewater [35:15]

If you know your business A to Z there is no problem you can't solve – Sam Zemurray [36:06]

Watching the richest man in the world go broke [38:00]

Ray loses everything and has to start all over again [40:30]

Successful people change in ways that allow them to continue to take advantage of their strengths while compensating for their weaknesses and unsuccessful people don't [45:10]

The new Bridgewater: Systematizing his decision making process [47:35]

Developing more products and out teaching his competition [48:11]

The results of systematized thinking guided by principles that are written down and adhered to [53:30]

Counterintuitive thoughts on public success [55:19]

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading One From Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock 

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Walking away at the pinnacle of success was the hardest thing I have ever done (0:01)

Through the years, I have greatly feared and sought to keep at bay the four beasts that inevitably devour their keeper – Ego, Envy, Avarice, and Ambition. In 1984, I severed all connections with business for a life of isolation and anonymity, convinced I was making a great bargain by trading money for time, position for liberty, and ego for contentment – that the beasts were securely caged. –Dee Hock (4:14)

Visa was little more than a set of unorthodox convictions about organization slowly growing in the mind of a young corporate rebel (9:03)

Dee's first jobs (21:44)

Learning how mechanistic, Industrial Age organizations really function (28:17)

Useful questions to ask in your organization (34:30)

A failure at 36 years old (38:33)

The environment from which Visa emerged (46:41)

Healthy vs Unhealthy Organizations (55:19)

Focus on how your product or company "ought to be" and nothing else. (57:30)

I had held fast to the notion that until someone has repeatedly said "no!" and adamantly refuses another word on the subject, they are in the process of saying "yes" and don't know it yet. –Dee Hock (1:03:55)

His biggest regret: The fight against duality (monopoly) (1:04:35)

How Dee Hock dealt with stress (1:07:00)

His biggest regret: The fight against duality (monopoly) continued (1:09:52)

Dee's surprising conclusion about his work (1:16:50)

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz.

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There's no recipe for complicated, dynamic situations [0:01]

Meeting Marc Andreessen [8:30]

The co-founder relationship between Marc and Ben [11:00]

How they came up with the idea for Loudcloud (Opsware) / A business is just an idea that will make someone's life better. —Richard Branson [13:45]

Ben finds value by asking the question: What would I do if we went bankrupt? [21:05]

Sell the wrong product to find the right one [22:30]

Saving a $20 million a year customer by buying a $10 million company [23:16]

Do not play the odds [27:27]

Discount praise. Focus on what can be fixed [28:32]

Why training is so important (compounding effect) [31:20]

Difference between large company executives and founders [32:00]

Why it is a good idea to collect good ideas [34:00]

Determination is more important than intelligence [35:30]

Your culture should be unique / Using shock to create behavioral change [38:24]

There is no founder school [40:30]

Perseverance is more important than intelligence [41:01]

Copy from great founders [46:50]

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid

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If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it, and don’t think anything of personalities, or emotional conflicts, or of money, or of family distractions; if you just think of, detail by detail, what you have to do next, it is a wonderful dream. [0:01] 

Edwin Land was a pioneer whose inventions were dismissed, and yet he created a great company by dint of pure stubbornness. [2:33] 

He [Steve Jobs] didn't yet have the skills to build a great company, but he admired those who had pulled it off and he would go to great lengths to meet them and learn from them. [3:03] 

Steve admired many things about Land: his obsessive commitment to creating products of style, practicality, and great consumer appeal. His reliance on gut instinct rather than consumer research and the restless obsession and invention he brought to the company he founded. [4:07] 

Recounting his life is a meditation on the nature of innovation. [5:15] 

We use bull’s eye empiricism. We try everything but we try the right things first. [6:06] 

Land clearly did not wish to waste his powers on me too innovations [6:34] 

Don’t do anything that someone else can do. Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible. [6:55] 

He held that the business of business was something different, making things that people didn’t know they wanted until they were available. [7:26] 

He thought and acted on a large stage. [8:34] 

Over and over he talked about his obsessions: autonomy, learning, education, vision, perception, the mind, and the mining of exhausted veins of knowledge for new gold. [9:14] 

Land on the problem with formal education: A student would get a message that a secret dream of greatness is a pipe dream. That it would be a long time before he makes a significant contribution, if ever. [13:18] 

From this day forward, until the day you are buried, do two things each day. First master a difficult old insight and second, add some new piece of knowledge to the world. [17:12] 

Edwin Land on perseverance: I was totally stubborn about being blocked. Nothing or nobody could stop me from carrying through the execution of the experiments. [18:04] 

Edwin Land on the difference between individuals and groups: Intelligent men in groups are —as a rule—stupid. [18:15] 

There's a rule they don't teach you at Harvard business school. It is, if anything is worth doing it's worth doing to excess. [20:02] 

Steve Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land, calling him "a national treasure". [23:33] 

Steve Jobs: I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics. Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences. And I decided that's what I wanted to do. [24:27] 

A shareholder asked Land about his goals when he had been a great student: I wanted to become the world’s greatest novelist and I wanted to become the world’s greatest scientist. [35:40] 

Inventors sometime experience a fevered paranoia just after they had a great idea. It seems so clear and burns so bright that they are sure someone else will come up with the same thing at any moment. [41:56] 

Land had suggested that Polaroid might be able to sell 50,000 cameras per year, far more than anyone else imagined possible. It turned out that even the visionary had low balled himself. By the time the product was retired in 1953, 900,000 units had been sold. [46:27] 

My point is that we created an environment where a man was expected to sit and think for two years. Not was allowed to, but was expected to. [49:25] 

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. [51:53]

If the product was right, not just economically, but also morally and emotionally, the selling would take care of itself. Marketing is what you do if your product's no good. [59:45] 

Walt Disney: We are innovating. I’ll let you know the cost when we are done. [1:00:28] 

Kodak got him all wrong. Kodak terribly miscalculated his personality. One of the reasons he put his heart and soul into the lawsuit was that he was outraged. Land said: We took nothing from anybody. We gave a great deal to the world. The only thing keeping us alive is our brilliance. The only thing that keeps our brilliance alive is our patents. [1:04:36]

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas

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He seemed eager to sum up the lessons he had learned and tell people how he applied them in his life. [0:01]

He worked long hours over drawings in his room. Never revealing a project until he completed it. [5:32]

Walt Disney's first business: Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists [9:34]

Walt Disney's second business: Laugh-O-Gram Films [13:30]

Walt Disney's third business: The Walt Disney Company [17:03]

"Should the idea or name be exploited in any other way, such as toys or merchandise we shall share equally." / Jeff Bezos on the importance of sleep [21:08]

Committees throttle creativity [25:31]

It is normal to doubt yourself when you are creating something. Walt Disney doubted the quality of Steamboat Willie. What would go on to be one of the most famous cartoons ever created. [33:28]

People don't know what is good until the public tells them/Or how to get film distributors to come to you [37:10]

The power of licensing Disney characters [42:06]

Advice from Charlie Chaplin [47:17]

You can't top pigs with pigs [52:29]

A most unusual response to financial calamity [57:42]

The Army takes over Disney's studio [1:00:53]

An amazing meeting with the founder of Bank of America [1:04:00]

Coming up with the idea for Disneyland [1:09:30]

Maniacal focus on the customer [1:18:00]

Disneyland prints money [1:22:30]

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport. 

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[0:54] Musk and Bezos were the leaders of this resurrection of the American space program, a pair of billionaires with vastly different styles and temperaments. Always audacious, Musk had plowed far ahead, his triumphs and failures commanding center stage. Bezos remained quiet and clandestine, his mysterious rocket venture kept hidden behind the curtain.

[1:36] Musk, the brash hare, was blazing a trail for others to follow, while Bezos, the secretive and slow tortoise, who was content to take it step by step in a race that was only just beginning.

[13:46] “How is the situation in the year 2000 different from 1960? What has changed?” he said. “The engines can be somewhat better, but they’re still chemical rocket engines. What’s different is computer sensors, cameras, software. Being able to land vertically is the kind of problem that can be addressed by those technologies that existed in 2000 that didn’t exist in 1960.”

[17:33] He started a company called Zip2 that would help print newspapers get their content online, and it immediately had customers lining up, from the New York Times to Hearst. Musk sold the company to Compaq in 1999 for about $300 million. His next venture was called X.com, an online bank that merged with PayPal. The online financial payment system grew fast, gaining a million customers within two years. eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, netting Musk $180 million. He was thirty-one years old.

[20:27] Musk, a ravenous reader of science fiction, had expected that by this point in his life there’d be a base on the moon and trips to Mars powered by the robust space program built on the Apollo lunar missions. If in the 1960s, the United States could send a man to the moon in less than a decade, surely there were more great things to come. He was overcome with what he called a “feeling of dismay.” “I just did not want Apollo to be our high-water mark,” he said. “We do not want a future where we tell our children that this was the best we ever did. Growing up, I kept expecting we’re going to have a base on the moon, and we’re going to have trips to Mars. Instead, we went backwards, and that’s a great tragedy.”

[21:09] Musk had read every book he could find on the subject, as Beal had. And he came away convinced that the best way to acquire a rocket was to build it himself, no matter how many times friends told him he was crazy.

[23:54] He wasn’t just selling his rocket, but what it represented—the crazy idea that a small startup could succeed in space.

[25:59] Musk was intense, preternaturally focused, and extremely determined. “This was not the kind of guy who was going to accept failure.”

[26:38] Most of us struggle with fear. We dread looking dumb. I found Elon fearless in this regard. He’s not afraid to ask a question that proves he doesn’t understand something.

[29:53] SpaceX’s mantra was to set audacious, nearly impossible goals and don’t get dissuaded. Head down. Plow through the line.

[33:38] The turtle was Blue Origin’s mascot, the embodiment of another of Bezos’s favorite sayings, one derived from US Navy SEAL training: “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

[40:07] Every summer Bezos was shipped off to his grandfather’s ranch. It was rural and isolated, a place where Bezos learned the value of self-reliance from his grandfather.

[43:20] “I was very difficult to punish for my parents because they would send me to my room, and I was always happy to go to my room because I would just read” Bezos said.

[45:42] Blue Orgin’s “Jobs” page ad was less welcoming, even arrogant. Applicants needed to be “highly qualified and dedicated individuals who meet the following criteria: “You must have a genuine passion for space. Without passion, you will find what we’re trying to do too difficult. There are much easier jobs. “You must want to work in a small company. If you can happily work at a large aerospace company, you’re probably not the right person. “Our hiring bar is unabashedly extreme. We insist on keeping our team size small (measured in the dozens), which means each person occupying a spot must be among the most technically gifted in his or her field. “We are building real hardware—not PowerPoint presentations. This must excite you. You must be a builder.”

[50:33] Death was more likely a “when, not if” outcome, an unavoidable fact that they should confront and plan for. But death shouldn’t stop them. It shouldn’t get in the way. Progress was not possible without it. That was true in space as it was in all manner of expeditions, from crossing the Atlantic, to exploring the poles, to opening up the West.

[53:31] Elon on space exploration: “The thing that actually gets me the most excited about it is that I just think it’s the grandest adventure I could possibly imagine. It’s the most exciting thing—I couldn’t think of anything more exciting, more fun, more inspiring for the future than to have a base on Mars,” he once said. “It would be incredibly difficult and probably lots of people will die and terrible and great things will happen along the way, just as happened in the formation of the United States.”

[56:13] Elon added: “For my part, I will never give up, and I mean never.”

[1:08:04] The result: a system that met the air force’s requirements, for a tenth of the cost. “We had to be super scrappy,” Musk said. “If we did it the standard way, we would have run out of money. For many years we were week to week on cash flow, within weeks of running out of money. It definitely creates a mind-set of smart spending. Be scrappy or die: those were our two options. Buy scrap components, fix them up, and make them work.”

[1:12:50] For a while the company had been using a toxic cleaner for its engine nozzles, which it intended to reuse. But that cleaner was expensive and difficult to handle—it had to be used in a separate, clean room because it was so toxic. Then someone discovered that citric acid worked just as well. So, the company started buying it by the gallon, an easier, less expensive solution that worked better. “Now I’m the largest purchaser of lemon juice in the country,” Bezos told her, letting loose one of his trademark cackles.

[1:21:45] “The vast majority of people at the company today have only ever seen success,” Elon said. “You don’t fear failure as much.” And so, when he sent out his e-mail before each launch, asking people to come forward, it didn’t “resonate with the same force” as it had when the company was small and scrappy and feared going out of business. But now even the uninitiated knew the driving power of failure—and fear—“and we’ll be the stronger for it,” he said.

[1:25:12] “The things that you work hardest for, for the longest periods of time, always bring you the most satisfaction,” Bezos explained.

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen.

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When he arrived in America in 1891 at age fourteen, Zemurray was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans sixty-nine years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. In between he worked as a fruit peddler, a banana hauler, a dockside hustler, and the owner of plantations on the Central American isthmus. He batted and conquered United Fruit, which was one of the first truly global corporations. [0:01]

Zemurray’s life is a parable of the American dream. It told me that the life of the nation was not written 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. [0:31]

How Sam Zemurray started: He’d arrived on the docks at the start of the last century with nothing. In the early years, he’d had to make his way in the lowest precincts of the fruit business, peddling ripes, bananas other traders dumped into the sea. He worked like a dog and defied the most powerful people in the country. [2:26] 

He was driven by the same raw energy that has always attracted the most ambitious to America. 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. [3:35] 

He believed in staying close to the action—in the fields with the workers, in the dives with the banana cowboys. You drink with a man, you learn what he knows. There is no problem you can’t solve if you understand your business from A to Z. [4:33] 

His real life began when he saw that first banana. He devised a plan soon after: he would travel to where the fruit boats arrived from Central America, purchase a supply of his own, carry them back to Selma, and go into business. [6:24]

See opportunity where others see nothing: The bananas that did not make the cut were designated “ripes” and heaped in a sad pile. These bananas, though still good to eat, would never make it to market in time. As far as the merchants were concerned, they were trash. Sam grew fixated on ripes, recognizing a product where others had seen only trash. [6:54] 

As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit 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. Zemurray stumbled upon a niche: overlooked at the bottom of the trade. [8:08]

His business grows rapidly: Because Zemurray discovered a patch of fertile ground previously untilled, his business grew by leaps and bounds. In 1899, he sold 20,000 bananas. Within a decade he would be selling more than a million bananas a year. [9:30]

An interesting story about Why was Zemurray’s company so profitable so quickly? Hint: No expenses. [13:47]

Was there a precursor? Of course there was. The world is a mere succession of fortunes made and lost, lessons learned and forgotten and learned again. [17:59] 

If you looked into his eyes you would see the machinery turning. Part of him is always figuring. You listen to a man like that. He knows something that can’t be taught. [20:19]

Study those that came before you. Avoid their fate: He paid special attention to the old-timers who had been in the trade since the days of wind power. They were former big timers now just trying to survive. [20:40] 

Zemurray goes deep into debt to buy as much land as possible: 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 when he cannot afford to. [23:13] 

He believed in the transcendent power of physical labor—that a man can free his soul only by exhausting his body. [26:07] 

Unlike most of his competitors, he understood every part of the business. He was contemptuous of banana men who spent their lives in the North, far from the plantations. Those schmucks, what do they know? They’re there, we’re here! [26:21] 

These banana companies were so powerful that they overthrew presidents. Multiple times. [27:47] 

Pretend you are Sam Zemurray. You’ve been summoned to Washington, called to account by the Secretary of State, warned. What do you do? Put your head down, shut up? Sit in a corner? No Sam Zemurray. [29:57] 

He disdained bureaucracy, hated paperwork. He ran his entire business in his head. He will telephone division managers in half a dozen countries, correlate their reports in his head and reach his decision without touching a pencil. [34:06]

He was respected because he understood the trade. By the time he was 40 he had served in every position. He had worked on the docks, on the ships and railroads, in the fields and warehouses. He had ridden the mules. He had managed the fruit and money, the mercenaries and government men. He understood the meaning of every change in the weather, the significance of every date on the calendar. There was not a job he could not do, nor a task he could not accomplish. He considered it a secret to his success. He refrained from anything that took him away from his work. [37:46] 

Manager vs Maker Schedule [39:43] 

He began to visit boatyards. He wanted to build a fleet so he would never again be dependent on other companies to haul his product. He wanted control. In everything. [40:32] 

It was a contrast of styles: the executives who ran United Fruit had taken over from the founders and were less interested in risking than in persevering. Zemurray was the founder, forever on the attack, at work, in progress, growing by trial and error, ready to gamble it all. [42:53] 

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. [46:42] 

Two different approaches to buying land. One entrepreneurial, one the opposite: United Fruit did what big bureaucracy-heavy companies always do, hired lawyers and investigators to find the identity of the true owner. This took months. In the meantime, Zemurray 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. [47:50]

Why the book is called The Fish That Ate The Whale [49:46] 

The greatness of Zemurray lies in the fact that he never lost faith in his ability to salvage a situation. Bad things happened to him as bad things happen to everyone, but unlike so many he was never tempted by failure. He never felt powerless or trapped. He was an optimist. He stood in constant defiance. For every move there is a countermove. For every disaster, there is a recovery. He never lost faith in his own agency. [51:45]

You gentlemen have been fucking up this business long enough. I’m going to straighten it out. [58:07]

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. [1:04:05] 

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Finding The Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent by Nolan Bushnell. 

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A pong is a piece of advice designed to help enhance creativity. It applies to only where the advice is helpful. Unlike a rule which thinks itself applicable to every situation. (4:36)

Cherish the pink-haired. (16:53)

Hire the obnoxious: Steve Jobs believed he was always right and was willing to push harder and longer than other people who might have had equally good ideas but caved under pressure. (19:07)

Expect to be criticized. Everyone said Atari was nuts. When I explained Chuck E Cheese they laughed. "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad." President of Michigan Savings Bank, advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in Ford Motor Company, 1903 (20:23)

One of the best ways to find creative people is to ask a simple question: What books do you like? (24:15)

When your company establishes that anyone can and should contribute, you will end up hearing some very good suggestions coming from unlikely places. (26:03)

I strongly believe that everyone who wants to be creative must find a place where their mind can be alone and untouched any the insanity of complexity. (30:20)

Champion bad ideas: WD-40 is called that because the first 39 versions of the product failed. WD-40 stands for “Water Displacement, 40th formula.” (32:11)

Any idiot can say no. There’s no mental process there. If you don’t like something, the trick is to think of something better. (37:04)

 Invent haphazard holidays. Unplanned days off for the entire company (38:00)

Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had a good idea. The thing that matters is what you do with the idea once you get out of the shower. So if there’s only one thing you take from this book, it’s this: You must act! Do something! (41:29)

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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. 

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“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. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast