Books & Notes

People think they can eat you up and swallow you whole. The head of Fabergé, Mr. Sam Rubin, once asked me the same question: Was I for sale? He'd like to buy our business. "You don't know much about cosmetics. Perfume is your specialty," I answered. "Why buy my business? I'll buy yours."

The greatest female entrepreneur ever. She invented a category at a time when people scoffed at women working. At its peak, Estee Lauder was worth 100 billion.

Early flyers—“Birdmen,” as they were called—were pioneers, heeding the same draw to riches or fame or illumination of the unknown that motivated those who had crossed uncharted oceans centuries before, and so aviation was replete with outsized personalities, brutal competition, and staggering bravery.

At the peak of the bicycle bubble (yes, really), comes the dawn of a new technology: flight.

So the first biological lesson of history is that life is competition. Competition is not only the life of trade, it is the trade of life—peaceful when food abounds, violent when the mouths outrun the food.

Too many judge their lives by fleeting, happy moments. Life was never about happiness. Embrace the struggle.

[O]ne day when the brothers were discussing what was then the new-fangled horseless carriage. Since it was an original idea, it appealed to them. Orville suggested that they might engage in the automobile business. “No,” replied Wilbur, “you’d be tackling the impossible. Why, it would be easier to build a flying machine.”

Amazing what happens when you believe certain things are or are not impossible. Belief ends up shaping reality.

Huang was now a centimillionaire, but his newfound wealth did not distract from his objective of crushing and absorbing the competition until only his firm remained. Dwight Diercks recalled no parties, no champagne, no sense of relief, not even congratulations from the boss.

Similar to Elon in many respects, Jensen is a true execution machine. When he famously wished the Standford graduating class 'great pain', I don't think many of them realized just how much.

Mrs. B drove her cart into a metal post and broke her ankle. “I got mad. I drove the cart too fast and I drove into a post.” She didn’t go to the hospital until the next day when she couldn’t stand up. “It was just a crack, it didn’t hurt.” She was back at work the next day. The next year she took a corner with too much speed and turned the cart completely over, gashing her head on a grandfather clock. The wound required several stitches, yet she was back in the store two hours later.

A hard woman. The type who rolls her eyes when you complain about unemployment during the peak of the Depression.

In 1983, after four years of building and testing 5,127 handmade prototypes of my cyclonic vacuum, I finally cracked it.

One of the greatest stories of dogged determinism by one lonely person against an entire industry.

“Calling us a mafia is an insult to mafias,” joked John Malloy, an early board member. “A mafia is far better organized than we were.” During its first two years of existence, PayPal cycled through three CEOs, and its senior management team threatened to resign en masse—twice.

Product market fit and a high IQ team are the only two things that matter. Seriously.

“You know what this means?” Romero said. “They’re going to put her to sleep! No one’s going to want to claim her. She’s going down! Down to Chinatown!” Carmack shrugged it off and returned to work. The same rule applied to a cat, a computer program or, for that matter, a person. When something becomes a problem, let it go or, if necessary, have it surgically removed.

Carmack is the greatest programmer of our generation. The sheer amount of focus he had for decades is unparalleled.

Within the span of twenty years, ads went from being bought and sold by humans, over the stereotypical “three martini lunches,” to globally traded commodities bought and sold like stocks.

The best explanation of a highly complex, technical industry. Fantastic read cover to cover.

One time I asked Bill, “If everything went right, how big do you think our company could be?” He said, “I think we could get it up to thirty-five programmers.” That sounded really ambitious to me.

While Bill Gates did the selling, Paul Allen was the technical visionary behind most of Microsoft's success.

The truth is that no business plan survives a collision with a real customer. So the trick is to take your idea and set it on a collision course with reality as soon as possible.

You really can iterate your way into a multi billion dollar company.

It's a pity to get a man into a place in an argument where he is defending a position instead of considering the evidence.

When the greatest to ever do it writes a book, you read it. That simple.

I was pretty sure we could also create a whole operating system for a personal computer. One day, if things went as we hoped, Micro-Soft would be what we called a “software factory.” We’d provide a broad range of products that would be regarded as the best in the business.

A look at Gates' youth, up until the time he moves Microsoft to Seattle. The signs of greatness were there from the beginning.

Gates looks at everything as something that should be his. He acts in any way he can to make it his. It can be an idea, market share, or a contract. There is not an ounce of conscientiousness or compassion in him. The notion of fairness means nothing to him. The only thing he understands is leverage.

With enough charities and cardigans, people have forgotten what a true killer Bill Gates really was.

Everyone should tackle some great project at least once in their life. I devoted most of my life to inventing new kinds of looms. Now it is your turn. You should make an effort to complete something that will benefit society.

The most impressive thing I've seen a father do for his son.

Atari didn’t find Steve Jobs. We made it easy for him to find us. A good company is a 24/7 advertisement for itself.

Written by the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese - and Steve Jobs's first boss.

An organization, as a whole, is more conservative and resistant to change than the individuals who comprise it. Do not assume that general agreement will lead to change—it takes substantial energy to move a group, even when all are on board.

Pixar was the only company Steve Jobs ever said that had all A-players. A fascinating insight into organizational design.

Sometimes great innovators are risk-seeking man-children who resist potty training. They can be reckless, cringeworthy, sometimes even toxic. They can also be crazy. Crazy enough to think they can change the world.

The greatest entrepreneur of our time. A ruthless execution machine.

So in this dark hour, Musk chose not to play the blame game. Certainly, he could dish out brutally honest feedback, crushing feelings without regard. Instead he rallied the team with an inspiring speech. As bad as Flight Three had gone, he wanted to give his people one final swing. Outside that room, in the factory, they had the parts for a final Falcon 1 rocket. Build it, he said. And then fly it. What they did not have was much time.

Space X is truly the most improbable success story of our lifetimes. Seconds away from company ending collapse.

That wasn’t enough to cover Pixar’s expenses, though. “How do you cover the shortfall?” I asked. “Steve,” Ed explained. “Every month we go to Steve and tell him the amount of the shortfall, and he writes us a check.” That caught me by surprise. I understood that Steve was funding Pixar, but I hadn’t expected it to be in the form of a personal check each month.

Written from a CFO's perspective, it's amazing how a revolutionary company could be such a bad business!

People will not be bored in print. They may listen politely at a dinner table to boasts and personalities, life history, etc. But in print they choose their own companions, their own subjects.

The greatest copywriting course money can buy.

I expect you to stand out from the crowd in future and outdo me. However, I have decided to keep you by my side, because I want to bring you to a higher starting point in life, so that you can indulge in the rapid opportunities without having to face obstacles.

Your father is truly the only man who ever wants you to be better than him. It is a blessing.

The irony was that Abraham, who owned a medical company, was not a doctor or even a researcher. In fact, he had no college education at all. He was simply an entrepreneur with a nose for what the public wanted.

Too much talk in modern times of how billionaries are evil. A must read.

No one can fully appreciate the Colonel’s life and character without understanding both how desperate and how unexceptional was his mother’s situation. To be a relatively secure farmer in that time and place meant, at best, a level of desperation and privation that most Americans can barely imagine.

One of the greatest rags to riches stories. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's makes an appearance!

It was a satanic setup, but I didn’t see that then. It was the only way out, it seemed, and I had to take it.

One of the great stories of determination. Also the origin of the McDonalds fries is revealed!

Kentucky Colonel is bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and is the highest among the titles of honor given by the government of the state.

Wait, he was never even an army colonel? It was a civilian title all along?

Sales were dismal, our credit was zero, and even the Colonel insisted on making his deliveries C.O.D. And the Colonel didn’t spare me any advice when he saw me. “I’m telling you for the last time, Dave,” he said. “As your friend, get out now while you can. Things are just too far gone here. Listen to the Colonel, boy.” I thanked him, paid him, and told him, “It’ll turn around. It will. You’ll see, in a few months, it’ll turn.”

One of the greatest operators in the fast food industry. Many of KFC's innovations are actually his ideas!

Doriot achieved success by staying true to his patient investment philosophy. He believed in building companies for the long haul, not flipping them for a quick profit. Returns were the by-product of hard labor, not a goal. Doriot often worked with a company for a decade or more before realizing any return. That is why he often referred to his companies as his “children.”

The origins of venture capital. Many a modern day VC should read this book, if only to remind themselves what they are supposed to be doing.

This is the story of the greatest might-have-been in the history of the fast-food business. In the summer of 1971, the Burger Chef Systems Corporation directed a 1,200-restaurant empire spread across 39 states. The company—that invented the milkshake machine, the first practical soft-serve ice cream machine and the gas-powered hamburger flame broiler—was adding a new restaurant every other day, while McDonald’s, run by the enigmatic Ray Kroc, was growing at a slower rate and led by fewer than 100 locations.

If things had worked out slightly differently, nobody would even know about McDonalds and Ray Kroc. One of the great cautionary tales.

I have to admit the truth, that I regret having sold Trader Joe’s. And I have had to pay something for this, beyond the loss of my shadow.

For real entrepreneurs, it's not valuations or funding or prestige. It's a dream. The company is their soul. We could all use a reminder of that.

In an industry that has come to be seen as a scourge on modern society, responsible for everything from obesity to urban blight to cultural imperialism, this modest, low-slung eatery with the big yellow arrow is unique among fast-food breeds: a chain revered by hamburger aficionados and epicureans, anti-globalization fanatics and corporate raiders, meat-eaters and even vegetarians.

How one man's relentless pursuit of quality made an ever-lasting brand. And how succession plans are absolutely vital.

I’ve made many mistakes in life, but I believe one of my biggest mistakes was trying too hard to accommodate my son’s desires. Whatever my son wanted to pursue, I backed him up, though many times I disagreed. Harsh as this may sound, if there’s any lesson I can impart to others from this, it is to never assume others will treat you as you treat them. I presumed that my son would do for me as I would for him. But I was wrong.

Entrepreneurship is tough. Family businesses are even tougher. Similar to the sad story of In-N-Out, succession planning needs to be taken seriously.

Land had made the daring gamble of committing more than half a billion dollars of Polaroid laboratory research funds to the pursuit of his ultimate instant photography system. He did so without having done a single dollar’s worth of market research to determine whether people would actually buy the product. This leap of faith would later be characterized as “the biggest gamble ever made on a consumer product.” Articulating a philosophy that would later become the mantra of Apple’s Steve Jobs, Land proclaimed, “We don’t do market surveys. We create the markets with our products.”

The third most patents in US history and the hero of Steve Jobs. One of the most technical founders in history and a true visionary.

While Dior made changes twice a year, Balenciaga was always fundamentally the same, especially in his splendid evening dresses, which were his specialty. A woman could buy one of them as an investment because properly looked after, it would last forever. In 2003, I saw a young woman of eighteen wearing a superb dress. “Is that not a Balenciaga?” “Yes. It belonged to my grandmother.” He wanted his dresses to be bequeathed, as they were in imperial Spain. In a sense he was antifashion.

A fascinating anthology comparing and contrasting the greatest creators in history.

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

The most long-term, anti-fad entrepreneur. His writing has fundamentally re-shaped my thinking forever.

The customers were buying; they just weren’t buying our product. This was not a time to pivot. So I said the same thing to every one of them: “There are no silver bullets for this, only lead bullets.” They did not want to hear that, but it made things clear: We had to build a better product. There was no other way out. No window, no hole, no escape hatch, no back door. We had to go through the front door and deal with the big, ugly guy blocking it. Lead bullets.

Just because there is not an easy way out, does not mean there is no way out. Buckle up and get to it.

He combed trash piles on the edge of Selma, searching for discarded scraps of sheet metal, the cast-off junk of the industrial age, which he piled on his cart and pushed from farm to farm, looking for trades—wire for a chicken coop in return for one of the razorbacks in the pen. After the particulars were agreed on, Sam was told to get moving.

An immigrant who barely speaks English competes with, and takes down, the most powerful corporation of its day.

In what would become a recurring theme for Musk, he finished one venture and immediately dove into a new, harder, more complex one.

The most impressive aspect of Elon is how he becomes more risk-seeking the older he gets.

What Musk has developed that so many of the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley lack is a meaningful worldview. He’s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He’s less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory. Where Mark Zuckerberg wants to help you share baby photos, Musk wants to . . . well . . . save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation.

You cannot read a book on Musk and walk away feeling less ambitious. It is not possible.

You accept the world as it is, and find the best way of maximising your fortunes as a society, or you are left behind by the relentless pace of change found everywhere else. The world cannot possibly stop spinning for your sake.

A clear thinking who does not project his wishes onto other people. Some incredibly un-politically correct, but true, opinions.

I can honestly say that if I had the choices to make all over again, I would make just about the same ones. Preachers are put here to minister to our souls; doctors to heal our diseases; teachers to open up our minds; and so on. Everybody has their role to play. The thing is, I am absolutely convinced that the only way we can improve one another’s quality of life, which is something very real to those of us who grew up in the Depression, is through what we call free enterprise—practiced correctly and morally.

In another life, Walmart would have been a Berkshire Hathaway company. That's the greates compliment I can give.

“Mr. Bezos, can you even spell ‘profit’?” Brokaw asked, highlighting the fact that Amazon was hemorrhaging money as it grew. “Sure,” Bezos replied, “P-R-O-P-H-E-T.”

The business bible. Yes, I said it.

Bezos also had some worrisome blind spots about smartphones. “Does anyone actually use the calendar on their phone?” he asked in one meeting. “We do use the calendar, yes,” someone who did not have several personal assistants replied.

I will never stop reading books about Bezos, but fine I will admit he is not perfect.

Jack is different from most of his Internet billionaire peers. He struggled in math as a student and wears his ignorance of technology as a badge of honor. His outsize ambitions and unconventional strategies won him the nickname “Crazy Jack.”

One of the most atypical stories of a juggernaught. A late bloomer. Non traditional background. And eighteen cofounders!

[T]he Nobel story has been largely shrouded in darkness because Lenin and Stalin in seizing power have kept it dark, as they have kept the mass of Russians in darkness. They have renamed the factories, harbors, dwellings and rest homes after Bolshevik leaders and done their best to make the Nobels into unpersons and their works into apparent achievements of the Soviet regime. But in the long run, history will not be so cheated.

Most people think of the Nobel Prize and assume Alfred Nobel was the most distinguished member of his family. In my opinion, he was third place.

“How much more money are you willing to invest in Kindle?” Jeff calmly turned to our CFO, Tom Szkutak, smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and asked the rhetorical question, “How much money do we have?”

What first principles thinking actually looks like.