Read & Repeat

This week, we continue our journey with Arnold by learning how he rose to the top of the bodybuilding world in only an 8 year span!! As a 15 year old kid in Austria, Arnold wasn't on anybody's radar to become the next bodybuilding sensation. Certainly no one thought he would become the Mr. Universe champion as a teen... yet his unbreakable self confidence and relentless work ethic just cat...

This week we dive into Arnold Schwarzenegger's book 'Be Useful,' offering insights into how he reached the pinnacle of success across bodybuilding, acting, and politics. Arnold shares the 7 tools that were most influential for his life, including setting an ambitious vision, outworking his peers, and giving back. He describes how he was able to sell the sport of bodybuilding into the m...

We loved making this episode because it's part Darwin evolutionary biology and part Buffett investing wisdom! In the book, Pulak Prasad shares how he has built his investment philosophy based on evolutionary survival, and how many lessons surprisingly cross over into the finance world. His approach may seem simple, but it is effective: 1) Avoid Big Risks 2) Buy High Quality at a Fair Price 3)...

In this episode we cover Andy Grove's famous book, Only the Paranoid Survive. Andy Grove was a co-founder and former CEO of Intel, leading the company through some of its best years as it established a stronghold over the growing PC market. In this book, he talks about the many challenges they faced before getting to that point. Andy Grove views technological change through the lens of strateg...

An episode dedicated to the investing legend, Charlie Munger. Enjoy! ---- The Tao of Charlie Munger - David Clark ---- Please share with a friend or rate 5 stars if you enjoyed this episode! | Find us at  ReadnRepeat.com  and on Twitter  @ReadnRepeatPod ---- Recommendation of the Week: Trader Joe's Peanut Thai Salad is back!!! ---- The Web of Ideas: The Tao of Charlie Munger (my notes on the b...

In this episode, we cover Influence - Robert Cialdini's seminal book on the 6 principles of persuasion. This book was so influencial on Charlie Munger that he even gave Cialdini shares of Berkshire's class A stock, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today! We discuss how the principles of reciprocation, commitment & consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity are use...

This episode continues our two part series on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. In this episode, we learn the origin story of the terrorist group Hamas, told firsthand by their founder's son, Mosab Hassan Yousef. We share his perspective growing up in the Palestinian region of the West Bank, internalizing a deep hatred of Jews and their role in the Palestinian people's suffering. As he r...

This week's episode is extra special to us. In this episode, we dive into the history of Israel and the conflict in the Middle East, attempting to provide nuance to an extremely polarizing subject. We answer questions like: are Israelis colonizers? Is Israel an apartheid state? Why do we even need a Jewish state? Who is the real threat in the Middle East? Based on the fantastic book by Noa Tis...

In this episode, we cover the rapid rise and stunning fall of crypto darling, FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried and his firm FTX provide us with a number of incredible INVERT lessons, such as never installing a board or CFO, hiring anyone who walks through the front door, spending hundreds of millions on sports marketing in a non-core market, and lacking all forms of accountability. We discuss how the intern...

In this episode we tell the story of Marvel, going back to way before Robert Downey Jr donned the Iron Man suit! Our story starts in 1961, when Stan Lee created the relatable Fantastic Four comics to compete with the superheroes Batman and Superman. Over the next 3 decades, Stan Lee went on to create incredible heroes such as Spiderman and Iron Man, sparking a tulipmania-like bubble in adult comic...

The story of CRISPR reads like one straight out of a science fiction novel. It is filled with scientific breakthroughs, mad scientists, patent wars, and eventually, the ability to edit our own genes! As a young kid, Jennifer Doudna was inspired by James Watson's The Double Helix. She wanted to learn more about this incredible field of DNA, but soon realized that thousands of other scientists h...

The year was 2003. LEGO, the beloved company known for popularizing the little plastic building brick, was on the brink of bankruptcy. After overexpanding beyond their core business and taking on too much debt, the LEGO family felt they may have to sell their crown jewel. As a last-ditch effort, they decided to hand the keys to 35-year-old, former McKinsey consultant Jurgen Vig Knudstorp to turn a...

LEGO is one of the most beloved brands in the world, with 7 sets sold every second and 4 billion minifigures walking this Earth! The company's founding traces back 100+ years, as Ole Kirk Christiansen opened up a carpentry shop in the small Danish town of Billund. Over the years, he persisted through countless adversities - his wife passing away early, two World Wars, his workshop burning down...

In this episode, we dive into Morgan Housel's new book, Same as Ever, which chronicles a series of human behaviors that tend to repeat over time. We talk about how we're all constantly tempted to change and evolve, when sometimes the most powerful things in our lives are the ones that never change. The book offers great timeless insights into both life and business, such as how to sustain...

We're back with an absolute banger of an episode - Capital Returns! The core idea behind Capital Returns is that high returns tend to attract more capital, aka competition, so over time what may have been an incredibly profitable company can deteriorate into a commoditized business. This is a crucial insight for both operators and investors alike. In the episode, we discuss different ways to t...

Mike Michalowicz's book, Profit First, provides a simple yet foundational idea: take your profit first. His theory flips the traditional sales - expenses = profits formula on its head, by telling small business owners to take their profit before paying expenses. He shares how we are all hardwired to spend what's available to us, so we must put those profit dollars out of sight, out of mind...

This episode will cap off our month-long deep dive into the mind of David Ogilvy. We'll explore how he used internal memos to ingrain his powerful ideas onto his team, such as becoming a company of giants and the teaching hospital of the advertising world. Ogilvy also shows us his playbook for excellence in any domain, which involves studying the precedents, doing the work, and relentlessly ed...

This is my favorite book on David Ogilvy - it combines his memorable mantras with the stunning visual ads that established his legacy, creating a masterclass in effective advertising & leadership. If you are a high-achiever in any realm, you will find this episode inspiring. You will learn how Ogilvy consistently increased the quality of talent within his company, studied the greats who came b...

In this episode, we dive deeper into the mind of advertising legend, David Ogilvy. He shares with us how his endless pursuit of knowledge led him to the top of the advertising industry, a path that any high-achiever can emulate. Ogilvy gives us the keys to creating successful ad campaigns, such as offering the customer a benefit and packing the copy with facts - essential advice to entrepreneurs l...

David Ogilvy is the godfather of the modern advertising industry. He started his agency, Ogilvy & Mather, at 38, and quickly catapulted to the top of the advertising profession. Today, we'll learn exactly how he did that. Through a combination of relentless persistence and "professional research", Ogilvy was deemed the king of advertising only a decade after entering the business...

In part two, we explore how Elon Musk went from a crazy innovator to one of the richest people in history. After raising crucial funds for Tesla during its early days, Musk proceeded to double down on a new mass-market car, the Model 3. He leaned into vertical integration and a software-driven competitive advantage, ensuring that Tesla would stand out compared to its auto industry peers. Over at S...

In this two-part series, I'll dive into Walter Isaacson's brand new book on Elon Musk! Musk has an unbelievable story, overcoming his traumatic childhood in South Africa to create two of the greatest hard tech companies of our last century. In this first part, we'll discuss how his troubled relationship with his father led to an addiction to risk, unlike any other entrepreneur. You&#39...

"Scientific Advertising", written 100 years ago, offers timeless wisdom on advertising at scale. Claude Hopkins teaches us how he was able to convince the entire nation to care about brushing teeth daily, through his famous Pepsodent ads, by appealing to our simple desire for beauty. He shares effective tactics for sparking action in customers, such as using the word FREE and offering sa...

In this episode, we continue our INVERT focus with an all-time classic, "The Big Short". We'll dive into the misaligned incentives that encouraged banks to pursue growth at all costs and led to the Great Financial Crisis. We'll explore the value investing strategies of Michael Burry, the first big short investor, who spotted the trouble ahead and bet on it through credit default...

Roger Lowenstein's book "When Genius Failed" is one of the best business failure case studies I've ever read. As we come up on the 25-year anniversary of Long-Term Capital Management's downfall, I thought it would be a great time to explore the lessons behind their fall from grace. LTCM started as a hot new hedge fund in the mid-90s, ready to deliver outstanding returns throu...