Podcast Notes Playlist: Business

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Episode 609: Sam Parr ( https://twitter.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://twitter.com/ShaanVP ) break down the genius marketing tactics used by the brands you can’t get out of your brain–no matter how much you want to. 

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My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

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"When I was a child, my mother said to me, If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the pope. Instead, I was a painter And became Picasso."

What made Picasso such a great artist? And what made him such a legend both in his own time, and since his death? On this episode, we explore Picasso's life, his art, his impact, and the strategies he used to take over the art world.

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Writing, production, and sound editing by Ben Wilson with support from Michael Lackner.

• Following your curiosity is the best approach for making scientific discoveries 
• Some of Ben Franklin’s favorite quotes:
  • “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
  • “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
  • “Lost time is never found again.”  
  • “Love your enemies for they tell you your faults.” 
  • “Fish and visitors stink in three days.” 
• Learn how to turn disadvantages and obstacles into advantages 
• Benjamin Franklin made a key edit to Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence regarding the phrase “self-evident”

• This change was significant because it emphasized the idea that the truths stated in the Declaration—such as equality and unalienable rights—are universally and intuitively understood, not dependent on external validation

Benjamin Franklin was one of the greatest scientists, writers, diplomats, and statesmen of all time. How does one man accomplish so much in one life?

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What I learned from reading Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance Trimble. 

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(2:30) Sam Walton built his business on a very simple idea: Buy cheap. Sell low. Every day. With a smile.

(2:30) People confuse a simple idea with an ordinary person. Sam Walton was no ordinary person.

(4:30) Traits Sam Walton had his entire life: A sense of duty. Extreme discipline. Unbelievable levels of endurance.

(5:30) His dad taught him the secret to life was work, work, work.

(5:30) Sam felt the world was something he could conquer.

(6:30) The Great Depression was a big leveler of people. Sam chose to rise above it. He was determined to be a success.

(11:30) You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you’re too inefficient. — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234)

(15:30) He was crazy about satisfying customers.

(17:30) The lawyer saw Sam clenching and unclenching his fists, staring at his hands. Sam straightened up. “No,” he said. “I’m not whipped. I found Newport, and I found the store. I can find another good town and another store. Just wait and see!”

(21:30) Sometimes hardship can enlighten and inspire. This was the case for Sam Walton as he put in hours and hours of driving Ozark mountain roads in the winter of 1950. But that same boredom and frustration triggered ideas that eventually brought him billions of dollars. (This is when he learns to fly small planes. Walmart never happens otherwise)

(33:30) At the start we were so amateurish and so far behind K Mart just ignored us. They let us stay out here, while we developed and learned our business. They gave us a 10 year period to grow.

(37:30) And so how dedicated was Sam to keeping costs low? Walmart is called that in part because fewer letters means cheaper signs on the outside of a store.

(42:30) Sam Walton is tough, loves a good fight, and protects his territory.

(43:30) His tactics later prompted them to describe Sam as a modern-day combination of Vince Lombardi (insisting on solid execution of the basics) and General George S. Patton. (A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.)

(43:30) Hardly a day has passed without Sam reminding an employee: "Remember Wal-Mart's Golden Rule: Number one, the customer Is always right; number two, if the customer isn't right, refer to rule number one.”

(46:30) The early days of Wal-Mart were like the early days of Disneyland: "You asked the question, What was your process like?' I kind of laugh because process is an organized way of doing things. I have to remind you, during the 'Walt Period' of designing Disneyland, we didn't have processes. We just did the work. Processes came later. All of these things had never been done before. Walt had gathered up all these people who had never designed a theme park, a Disneyland.

So we're in the same boat at one time, and we figure out what to do and how to do it on the fly as we go along with it and not even discuss plans, timing, or anything.

We just worked and Walt just walked around and had suggestions. — Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow. (Founders #347)

(1:04:30) Sam Walton said he took more ideas from Sol Price than any other person. —Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary by Robert Price. (Founders #304)

(1:07:30) Nothing in the world is cheaper than a good idea without any action behind it.

(1:07:30)  Sam Walton: Made In America  (Founders #234)

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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

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• One person’s freedom is another person’s unfreedom 
• Unanimity theorem, also known as the Stiglitz-Greenwald theorem, posits that in the presence of incomplete markets and imperfect information, the competitive equilibrium is generally not Pareto efficient
• Sharecropping can create poor incentives for tenants to work hard or invest in land improvement because they only receive a fraction of the output, leading to lower agricultural productivity compared to other forms of land tenure
• Cities can achieve optimal sizes by balancing the benefits of agglomeration economies (such as increased productivity and innovation due to proximity) against the costs (such as congestion and pollution)
• Carefully designed tax policies and urban planning can help cities grow in a way that maximizes economic efficiency and equity
• Markets cannot be perfectly efficient because if prices fully reflect all available information, there would be no incentive for traders to acquire information, leading to a paradox
• Markets are not very good at pricing risk into the decision-making process 
• Credit availability of monetary policy is what matters – not the money supply or interest rate 
• Hierarchies are particularly problematic when the people the at the top of them are not good decision makers 

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz joined Tyler for a discussion that weaves through Joe’s career and key contributions, including what he learned from giving an 8-lecture in Japan, how being a debater influenced his intellectual development, why he tried to abolish fraternities at Amherst, how studying Kenyan sharecropping led to one of his most influential papers, what he thinks today of Georgism and the YIMBY movement, why he was too right-wing for Cambridge, why he left Gary, Indiana, his current views on high trading volumes and liquidity, the biggest difference between him and Paul Krugman, what working in Washington, DC taught him about hierarchies, what he’ll do next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded April 22nd, 2024.

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• Check out the episode page

George Mack is a writer, marketer and an entrepreneur.

• Hardship will show you who your real friends are; don’t eat with people that you wouldn’t starve with
• On evolving: You do something for awhile, you do it at the highest possible level for you, and then at some point you pivot and start supporting the young talent that eventually emerges
• For certain individuals, high-THC cannabis can induce psychosis 
• The Jungian shadow is the unconscious part of the personality that holds repressed weaknesses, desires, and instincts
  • Integrating the shadow is essential for personal growth, as it involves acknowledging these hidden aspects to achieve a more balanced and complete self-awareness
• Being in a state of silence – either while sitting or walking – can help you to discover a better understanding of yourself and allow you to really tap into your unique gifts
• Nicotine is an interesting compound; it will raise blood pressure, and it is probably not safe for everybody 
• While Andrew does not recommend for people to use nicotine frequently, or at all – especially young people who are 25-years-old or younger – he will allow himself two pieces of Nicorette total, per week 
• Just because a compound is a pharmaceutical does not mean that it is “bad”
• On fostering meaningful relationships: Obviously pick the right partner, but also do the work on yourself 

Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist at Stanford and host of the Huberman Lab Podcast. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/andrew-huberman-5-transcript

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Show Notes:

(0:00) Audio issue

(0:51) Introduction

(3:40) Deals are long-term relationships

(6:02) Facebook-WhatsApp acquisition story

(12:04) The most important part of deal-making

(16:44) Don’t come off as desperate

(19:35) Maintaining momentum during a deal

(25:53) Know everything about the person you’re dealing with

(33:37) How we closed our London home

(37:54) Mistakes we often see

(44:40) Managing emotions while deal-making

(50:19) What to do if the deal falls through

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

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• “Uncertainty is the only certainty.” – John Paulos 
• People use terms like millions, billions, and trillions as if they are the same thing; when in reality, these are vastly different amounts! 
• “We live in a probabilistic world, and yet we remain deterministic thinkers.” – Jim O’Shaughnessy 
• The Law of Large Numbers is a fundamental principle in probability and statistics that states that as the size of a sample increases, the average of the sample becomes closer to the expected value
• Apophenia: The phenomenon of seeing patterns where none exist as a form of cognitive bias or psychological tendency
• Humans are excellent pattern-recognition machines; but sometimes, we wrongly attribute patterns to random data that can lead us astray 
• The human operating system is more driven by the emotional centers of the brain than the rational centers of the brain 
• There is a tension between objective likelihood (probability) and subjective belief or reasonableness (plausibility)
• The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a scenario in game theory where two individuals acting in their self-interest end up with a worse outcome than if they had cooperated
• Cognitive foibles such as confirmation bias, the anchoring effect, and negativity bias should be taught in mathematical courses 
• Dunning-Kruger Effect: The phenomenon where people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability, while those with high ability underestimate their competence
• The concept of “nudging” involves subtly influencing people’s decisions by altering the presentation of choices without restricting options or significantly changing incentives
• It is wise to develop a particular skepticism and wariness about the uncertainties of life 

Professor, Mathematician and Writer John A. Paulos joins the show to discuss math education, the power of puzzles, cognitive biases, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• John’s Website
• John’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Why Do People Hate Math?
• The Power of Posing Problems with Counterintuitive or Shocking Results
• Using Everyday Examples to Understand Math Concepts
• Systems Designed to Take Advantage of Innumeracy
• People’s Ignorance of Randomness and Random Samples
• The Strange Power of Anchoring Bias
• Tradeoffs between Probability and Plausibility
• The Prisoner’s Dilemma & Math Anxiety
• Improving the Monty Hall Problem
• Designing an Ideal Intro Math Course
• The Big Brother Aspect of Nudging
• John as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Innumeracy - Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences; by J.A. Paulos
• A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market; by J.A. Paulos
• A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper; by J.A. Paulos
• Statistics; by D.A. Freedman, R. Pisani, and R.A. Purves
• Thinking Fast and Slow; by Daniel Kahneman

• Check out the episode page

Succeeding in both life and business is very difficult. The skills needed to scale a company often clash with those required to cultivate a thriving home life. Yet, Brent Beshore seems to have cracked the code—or at least he's actively working on it. In this conversation, he spills his secrets on excelling in both arenas.

This episode is split into two parts: the first 45 minutes covers life and how to be a better person. Brent opens up about the evolution of his marriage, physical health, and inner life.

The rest of the episode focuses on business. Shane and Beshore discuss private equity, how to hire (and when to fire) CEOs, incentives, why debt isn’t a good thing in an unpredictable world, stewardship versus ownership, and why personality tests are so important for a functional organization.
After beginning his career as an entrepreneur, Brent Beshore founded Permanent Equity in 2007 and leads the firm as CEO. He works with investors and operators to evaluate new investment opportunities.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(05:08) Why Brent examined his life

(09:44) How Brent "fixed" his relationships

(20:04) How helping hurts

(32:13) How Brent was subtly controlling relationships

(40:36) Why Brent stopped drinking (mostly)

(50:29) How to run a business with love yet competitively

(01:00:34) Win-win relationships

(01:05:34) On debt

(01:19:28) On incentives

(01:29:08) How to hire and fire CEOs

(01:34:18) What most people miss about hiring

(01:44:19) Brent's playbook for taking over a company

(01:51:20) On projections

(01:55:52) Revisiting investments

(01:58:44) How "hands-off" is Brent?

(02:08:34) Where people go wrong in private equity

(02:14:07) On success