Founders

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

What I learned from reading George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones.  --- Lucas unapologetically invested in what he believed in the most: himself.“What we’re striving for is total freedom, where we can finance our pictures, make them our way, release them where we want them released, and be completely free to express ourselves,” explained Lucas. “That’s very hard to do in the world of business. I...

What I learned from reading Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull.  --- Lead with a light touch (18:59) Anchor yourself with your why (23:35) Bet on yourself (39:54) Decentralize problem-solving (52:56) People are more important than ideas (1:00:45) Analyze ways to improve your process after a project is complete (1:24:10) Keep a start...

What I learned from reading Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World by Lynn Downey --- [0:01] Levi was one of the men who set that firm foundation [17:35] I do not have at this time a specific occupation...I will share the fate that has been assigned to me [22:29] Enduring hardship for the ultimate goal [29:24] A hole in the market [42:00] Levi starts his business cold [54:18] The d...

What I learned from reading Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark.  --- Crazy Jack (0:01) The internet is filling the void created by state planning (6:59) Jack has made a career out of being underestimated: “I am a very simple guy. I am not smart. I might have a smart face but I’ve got very stupid brains.” (20:35) Jack’s early life / Discipline and Curiosity (24:43) Jack Magic: “...

What I learned from reading Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future --- Culture Eats Strategy [1:45] Conspiracy as a metaphor for a company [3:56] It is a story of poetic justice on a grand scale plotted silently for nearly a decade [6:02] Something in these pages planted itself deep into Thiel's mind w...

What I learned from reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.  --- I don't want to be the person who ever has to compete with Elon (0:47) Musk expects you to keep up (2:45) Short of building an actual money-crushing machine, Musk could not have picked a faster way to destroy his fortune. He became a one-man, ultra-risk-taking venture capital shop (4:41...

What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard. --- [0:01] How Steve Jobs was inspired by David Packard [1:00] Books are the original hyperlinks [4:30] Profit is the measure of how well we work together [9:00] HP's first product [11:00] Podcasts before podcasts [14:00] Many of the things I learned in this process were invaluable, and not available...

What I learned from reading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough --- Unyielding determination (2:30)  Jocko's concept of GOOD (4:00) The ability to focus on an idea for a long time is the antidote to short bursts of dopamine we get from checking social feeds all day. (6:30) The beginning of their side business (13:00) The importance of heroes (16:00) Rereading / revisiting old ideas (18:30) Boo...

What I learned from reading A Truck Full of Money: Coding, Mania, Love, Genius: The Life of an American Entrepreneurby Tracy Kidder --- [7:00] Kayak sells for $1.8 billion [12:00] "I'm paying attention. I want meetings of three people, not ten." [15:00] "Someday this boy's going to get hit by a truck full of money, and I'm going to be standing beside him." [22:30] A description of Paul's bipolar d...

What I learned from My Life and Work: The Autobiography of Henry Ford. --- A theory of business (0:01) If an old idea works then the weight of the evidence is all in its favor. The Lindy Effect. (7:30) All people are not equal (11:00)  "That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom" (15:00), "I quit my job on August 15th, 1899 and went into the automobile business" (19:30) Henry Ford's philos...

What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson --- I am a creator of products, a builder of things. [0:01] This book is the story of 15 years of struggle to finally invent, own, and sell his own product. [1:35] This is the exposition of a business philosophy which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. [2:11] The first 75% to 80% of the bo...

What I learnd by reading No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet by Molly Knight Raskin.  --- When Danny was excited about something, you couldn't help but get excited too (3:00) Steve Jobs had one speed: GO! (6:00) Danny joins Israel's special forces (10:00) "Life is too short to be bored. Only boring people are bored." (19:00) The idea f...

What I learned from reading The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis --- He grew up poor, dropped out of high school, and made himself 3 or 4 billion dollars (0:01), New Growth Theory (8:00), "Growth is just another word for change." (11:15), "The notion of what constituted useful work had broadened." (15:00), "If everyone was patient there'd be no new companies." (18:00), Turnin...

What I learned from reading How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher.  --- I'm not going to work for someone else (0:01) Early design decisions of Snapchat (7:45) Evan idolized Steve Jobs and Edwin Land (10:00) How Snapchat convinced people to download the app (13:00) How Facebook created the environment for Snapchat to grow (16:00) The problem of standard (21:00)...

What I learned from reading Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. --- [0:35] For a new generation, Carmack and Romero personified an American dream: they were self-made individuals who had transformed their personal passions into a big business, a new art form, and a cultural phenomenon. [1:19] His (John Carmack) game and life aspired to the...

What I learned from reading Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer.  This is not a typical business book (0:30) Why don't you just do what you've been thinking about doing your whole life? (4:00) How Danny learned from other founders on what to do and what to avoid (8:00) The smartest business decision I ever made (18:00) Optionality as a non-negotiable...

What I learned from reading Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. --- Learning from great company-builders (0:30) Steve Jobs verbal mastery (5:00) The failed negotiations between NeXT and IBM (10:00)  "But how can he be a turnaround expert when he eats his lunch alone in his office, with food served to him on china tha...

What I learned from reading Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. --- I had always avoided thinking of myself as a businessman. I was a climber, a surfer, a kayaker, a skier, and a blacksmith. We simply enjoyed making good tools and functional clothes. [0:01]  One day it dawned on me that I was a businessman and would probably be one for a long time....

What I learned from reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone.    ---- 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 epis...

What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow.  [0:01] Rockefeller was a unique hybrid in American business, both the instinctive first-generation entrepreneur who founded the company and the analytical second-generation manager who extends and develops it.  [0:30] Having created an empire of unfathomable complexity, he was smart enough to see that he had to sub...

What I learned from reading Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson.  ---- 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 criti...

What I learned from reading The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich.  Microsoft had offered Mark between $1 million and $2 million to go work for them. Amazingly, Mark had turned them down (1:25) Maybe he knew he was about to cross a line. But he had never been very good at staying in the lines. From Mark's history, it was ob...

What I learned from reading The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why by Tim Urban. In the most recent 1% of our species short existence, we have become the first life on earth to know about the situation (4:38) The total market for satellite manufacturing, the launches that carry them to space, and related equipment and services has ballooned from $60 billion in 2004 to over $200 billion in 2015 (8...

What I learned by reading How Tesla Will Change The World by Tim Urban Kindle version: The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why. ---- 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...