Founders

What I learned from reading Explore/Create My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark by Richard Garriott. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [6:49] Richard Garriott’s house [7:39] Past episodes on video game creators Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games by Sid Meier (Founders#195) Masters of Doom:...

What I learned from reading The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations by Larry Tye. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:54] The very substance of American thought was mere clay to be molded by the savvy public relations practitioner. [1:48] Bernays saved every scrap of paper he sent out or took in and provid...

What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:47] This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does. But I found it invigorating, too. It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making grandees in funny...

What I learned from reading John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:07] He transmitted messages in code and secrecy covered all of his operations. [0:39]  Rockefeller compared himself to Napoleon. [2:20] He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines...

What I learned from reading When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street by June Breton Fisher. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:30] The Uses of Adversity by Malcolm Gladwell [2:40] Business Breakdowns: Goldman Sachs: Fortune Favors The Old [3:00] Men can learn from the past, and I've been s...

What I learned from reading Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:54] I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates. — Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm. (Founders #249) [1:20] Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225) Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Cae...

What I learned from reading Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [0:59] Both men have been called The First American but they were friends first and never rivals. [1:32] Leadership at this level is a rare quality and well-worth study. [1:53] The Autobiography of Benjamin Frank...

What I learned from reading The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger by Greg Steinmetz. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:55] The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191) [5:05] It is well known that without me your majesty might not have...

---- Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City.  Get your tickets here!  ---- On Steve Jobs #5 Steve Jobs: The Biography #19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader #76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple #77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing #204 Inside Ste...

What I learned from reading I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:05] On Steve Jobs #5 Steve Jobs: The Biography#19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader#76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple#77 Steve Jobs & The...

What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow.  ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:15]  Rockefeller trained himself to reveal as little as possible [4:22] Once Rockefeller set his mind to something he brought awesome powers of concentration to bear. [4:44] My whole life has been spent trying to teach...

What I learned from reading Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:14] The building of the railroad across the ocean was a colossal piece of work born of the same impulse that made individuals believe that pyramid...

What I learned from reading Constellation Software Inc. President's Letters by Mark Leonard. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:10] Business lessons from Mark Leonard by Tren Griffin [2:11] Newsletter: Liberty’s Highlights The Serendipity Engine: Investing & business, science & technology, and the arts. [2:59] I don’t like anyone tellin...

What I learned from reading Rick Rubin: In the Studio by Jake Brown. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- Rick Rubin on Lex Fridman Podcast #275 Rick Rubin on The Peter Attia Drive Podcast #57 Shangri-La Documentary Rick’s podcast Broken Record [1:39] Decoded by Jay Z. (Founders #238) [3:19] Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. [3:31]...

What I learned from reading In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:03] This is an absorbing case study on how a family business came to be at the center of its own cheerful cult. [2:42] Aliens, Jedi, & Cults: A Mental Model for Poten...

What I learned from reading Risk Game: Self Portrait of an Entrepreneur by Francis Greenburger. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:26]  I can be extremely stubborn when I have a hunch about something. [3:31] I knew all too well that markets can turn on a dime. [5:40] Money that had once flowed freely dried up over night. [6:41] I always...

What I learned from reading Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life by Michael Schumacher. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:49] You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son. [5:33] I had spent a lifetime with a frustrated, and often unemployed man, who hated anybody who...

What I learned from reading Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies by Lawrence Goldstone. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:07] The Wright Brothers (Founders #239) [3:47] Avoid any activity that distracts you from improving the quality of your product and the quality of your business. [5:58] Co...

What I learned from reading Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:52] Churchill by Paul Johnson (Founders #225) [2:15] A life of constant hard work, lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration. [3:05] Mozart worked relentlessly. [3:56] He started earlier than anyone else and was still compo...

---- Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City.  Get your tickets here!  ---- On Steve Jobs #5 Steve Jobs: The Biography #19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader #76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple #77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing #204 Inside Ste...

What I learned from rereading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:40] Relentlessly Resourceful by Paul Graham [4:11] If I were running a startup, this would be the phrase I'd tape to the mirror. "Make something people want" is the destination, but "Be relentlessly resourceful" is how you get there...

What I learned from reading Decoded by Jay Z.  ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:39] I would practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep [2:10] Even back then I though I was the best. [2:57] Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography  (Founders #219) [4:32] Belief becomes before ability. [5:06] Michael Jordan: The L...

What I learned from reading The Sugar King of Havana: The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba's Last Tycoon by John Paul Rathbone. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:02] Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime (Founders #236) [3:22] This is a cautionary tale. [6:18] One of the main lesson...

What I learned from reading Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime by Nims Purja. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [3:36] Walking out on my career felt risky, but I was prepared to gamble everything for my ambition. [4:20] Your extremes are my normal. [12:04] Wow, this is my shit. I'd b...

What I learned from reading To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [1:34] The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley (Founders #233) [3:42] Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in...