#335 How To Make A Few Billion Dollars: Brad Jacobs
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During my forty four years as A C, E, O in a series entrepreneurship, ve made every possible mistake in business, have overpaid for acquisitions and botched immigrations. I've run Operations for cash when I should have invested for growth. I've delegated tasks i've should have done myself.

I've hire the wrong people. I've made strategic bets that didn't pay off. And yet my teams and I have managed create tens of billions of dollars of value for our shareholder.

This book is about what i've learned from my blenders and how you can replicate our successes. I was called a mony's ker. I've started five companies from scratch, seven, if you include two spinoffs, and turn them all into a billion dollar or multi billion dollar enterprises.

My teams and I have completed approximately five hundred acquisitions in total. These ventures have created hundreds of thousands of jobs and raised about thirty billion dollars in outside capital. My career began in one thousand and seventy nine when I started a privately owned oil broker company called ex oil associates.

I wish twenty three with just a few thousand books and no experience. Within four years, my partners and I had four point seven billion an annual broken age volume with offices worldwide. We sold amErica in one thousand and eighty three, and I moved from new york to london to start an oil trading company called hamilton resources.

Hamilton generated about a billion dollars a year in revenue, and we made this money to an opportunist accommodation of crude oil trading, counter trade, refinance and refinery processing deals in one thousand and eighty nine. So six years later, I moved back to the united states and entered a new sector, the rapidly expanding field of solid waste management. I called my new venture, united wave systems, and took a public in nineteen ninety two.

So found to the company takes the public in ninety two is going to sell IT. In ninety seven we became the industry s fifth largest player. And in one thousand nine hundred and ninety seven, we sold united waste for two point five billion dollars.

United waste taught me that I love working with ourageous, sly, talented people to deliver outsize returns for shareholders in public stock markets. So he sells united waste in one thousand nine hundred ninety seven. That same year, he says, I started a new company, united rentals, to rent construction equipment for job sites.

I took this venture public later that same year with a growth strategy that emphasize acquisitions from the start. Within thirteen months, we had built the largest equipment rental company in the world. There's a hilarious story later in the book about a launch that brad had with the C O.

Of the his major competitor in that industry. I'll get to a later on the episode. Within thirteen months, we had built the largest equipment rental company in the world.

United rental stock is a hundred baggar. The share Price at inception with three dollars and fifty cents, and in now trades and more than one hundred times that Price. In two thousand and eleven, I was onto my next big thing, X P O logistics.

X P O was the seventh best performing stock in the fortune five hundred of the last decade, its main focus with straight transportation, matching truckers with shippers, forwarding freight and expiring urgent shipments. We built X P O into an integrated global logistics leader. I divided X P O into three separate publicly traded companies as a value creation strategy.

We spin off g XO, the largest contract logistics provide in the world, and R, X, O, A freight brokers platform that runs on technology that we developed in house. I currently chair all three companies, and each businesses hold by a strong C. E.

O. These experiences have allowed me to share thought experiments that can help you learn to think differently, which is an a central prerequisite to accomplishing big things. This book is a guide. If you have a burning passion to make enormous amounts of money in business or want a turbo charge, your chances of success in sports, the arts, politics, philanthropy or any part of your life.

Read on that was an expert from the book and we talked about today, which is how to make a few billion dollars, and returned by brad Jacobs, in addition to starting seven separate billion dollar companies. Brad also listens to founder seme a very saying that he was addicted to listen to this book reviews, and he was kind enough to send me an early copy of this book a few months ago. And I read IT and wanted to to make an episode to really see episode ther, uh, when it's available so you can actually order IT, which I highly recommend that you do and you want to be.

Obviously, we go through some of the ideas contained brads book so much to have break into IT. He says, i've come to know a lot of extremely successful people in my life. They all have one thing in common.

They think differently than most people. All of them, to a person, have arranged their brains to prevail at achieving big goals, turbulent environments where conventional thinking often fail. So I want to read one more sentence, and I am going to read you this code computer till that part to my mind when I got to the section of the book.

I love that what he said. All of them, to a person, have arranged their brains to prevail at achieving big goals, intervolved environments where conventional thinking often fails. Making a few billion dollars doesn't just happen, but it's possible with intense focus and a willingness to transform how you use your mind. That is the first chapter. So I got to this section immediately when I read that the one of my favorite tes from Peter tio, pop into my mind.

And Peter said, the single most powerful pattern that I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas, that idea of finding value unexpected places, and thinking from first principles and set of formulas, a set of using commercial thinking. Remember that later i'm going to talk about this outrageous thing that happened. Brad ones are making about four billion dollars buying back a bunch of his stock even though bankers and advisers around him, we're saying, hey, no one's ever done something like this before and his response was perfect because you could tell he was taking for first principles.

He's like just because we're the first company to buy back such a hypercar stock in the situation doesn't mean it's a bad idea. And I turned out to be a phenomenal idea. So I like that he starts the book with this words like you need to return your brain to prevail.

Achieving big goals and turbulent environments were conventional thinking often fails if brad are another way thing about that in this situation would look ver later. If brad had listened in IT here to conventional thinking, he'd be four billion him in his company would be four billion dollars poor. And so spread to out the book, you're going to see these like boxed, standalone maxims or pieces of advice.

They were late to what he's currently try to teach us, and they really like the way talking about he's just selling down his knowledge from intel, simple to remember maxims. And so said, so much of success in business comes from keeping your head in a good place. He talks about expecting the importance of expecting positive outcomes.

And I think IT says a lot that the first chapter of this book is called how to reran er brain. And he spends a lot of time on the importance of managing your mind and attitude. Entrepreneurship is difficult and stressful, require sound judgment, and you cannot make high court decisions.

If you don't manage your in your monologue, in your feelings. And I love this idea of expecting positive outcomes, expect positive outcomes. Stop beating yourself up mentally.

I have the next time you can tasio y something that isn't bad, understand that your reaction is a genetic survival trait that you inherit from your hunter gather ancestors. The only time that i've ever felt truly lost was when I stepped down from united rental in two thousand and seven. So he's going to talk about this is really this entire section is why understanding and controlling your mind is so important for founders and you.

I ve talked about this before. There's a great quote and mark and Jason that said, entrepreneurs ever experience uh to emotions, emporia and terror. Nothing in between.

It's the highest highs in the lower lows. You got to learn to control your your mindset in your motions. Only time I felt truly losses.

When I stepped down from united in two thousand and seven, I started looking for my next big thing, and I couldn't find. I became depressed. I'm an ambitious person by nature and a deal maker by inclined. Now I had no deal going, no industry sector where I could envision working my magic. And so he starts reading like a library of psychological, trying to figure out how to fix.

He said, I learned to turn my internal chatter to my advantage by reframing negative thoughts as useful data, as useful data, rather than objective reality that is tied to another idea that he's going to use over over against you. And I ve talked about over over comes for this is fantastic quote from this legendary founder name, Henry kiser, who was building companies around war war two. I read his biography because charlie monger recommended to me and actually when I went to rolling monger's house to have dinner with them, uh, the book was sitting behind charley on the shelf and actually got to ask him about IT.

He was incredible. Charles had read that book trying like fifteen years, but his recall, you could be IT, was impacted. I told me like essentially recited, all of the facts are in that book as if he had read IT yesterday.

But heritage has a great quote in the bike phy, uh, that says problems are just opportunities in workplace. And so I think it's a similar analogy to what he saying here. It's OK everybody is onna have negative internal chatter in your mind.

Why don't we reframe, use those negative thoughts as useful data, rather than as objective reality? Back to bread? Inevitably, the process of running a business will test your bias towards hope or fear, you a or terrorists.

The way you and I talk about this, when I know something, feels ious about something, I ask, this is fantastic. I ask, what's the worst that can happen? And how would I cope with IT? And then he is another question.

He asked yourself, if a friend had a similar worry, how would I advise them to handle this? So this idea of stepping outside of yourself, something i've tried to practice as well. Step outside, it's your problem. Attended some else se's problem with friend, a love one. You have been a competitor, maybe.

And so, kay, if I had that similar warrior, the similar problem, and IT wasn't me, how would I tell them to solve them and just take your own advice? So saying putting this is between yourself personally, the source of your anxiety actually helps you think more objectively about positive outcomes. This idea I think about, yeah, the guy has started seven separate billion dollar companies.

And his the first chapter of the book is all about the importance of managing your mind and attitude. So he says, not beating myself up has been a hard learn lesson for me. I've become much happier in my middle age when I stop expecting unrealistic levels of perfection for myself and my family.

I still struggled this all the time. I'd be myself up, have a varied. I always say my inner on a og sounds a lot like David.

If you ever heard his audio book can hurt me. That mind seems like someone gona have to take breads ice here. I become much hipper of middle age. When I stop, I think, unrealistic levels of perfection from myself and my family, my friends, my coworker, not to mention customers, vendors and shareholders.

Uh, the reality is that when you're trying to make a few billion dollars, your team is likely running in multiple directions at a fast pace, except that some goffs s are innovation able. And you'll find that is much easier to maintain your mental equal. Liberum, as you pursue big goals.

This goes over several pages. Try to summary this for myself. I can remember in the future, don't beat yourself up, emotions blind judged, keep a positive mental attitude and stay. And one way that brad does all of that is he's a big fan of thought experiments.

The reason you I mean, you just I think it's a no brainer to buy the book, but there's a bunch of suffer, uh, that not going to cover the post is in here uh, that the apple antic I think of this is what I would do is I got to registry through and then i'd keep him on a shell for keeping your desk and then use IT as a reference and you'll go back. And there's a bunch of things like all the chapters are separate things. So like how to run great meetings ah, how to do a lot of A M N A without imploding your company, how to build our raggedly sly talented team.

I really do think this is a fantastic reference that should say close um at hand. And so one of the things he has in this book is a bunch of thought experiment city use. So I just want to go outline why those six important.

He says, Albert einstein was a consulate daydreamer. And then he prefer the term, uh, at its german and not even know, try to pronounce that, but daydreaming, thought experiments. So says, thought experiments are not limited to genius scientists, gifted artists, composers, mathematics.

I'll use them for creative work or problem solving. I usually spend about half an hour a day meditating. Much of this time is spent in thought experiments. This a produces a profound sense of commons and is when many of my best decisions materialized. I know I came body, said this, but brad was kind enough to invite me to uh, the book launch party they had in new york.

I flew up a to york just like sixteen hours just to go to the book launch and and meat bread um what was fascinating I had this inclinations like he just got great energy. He's got great hate to say I know other way to say, just just a great personal vibe when you're like in person with them. And I talk to people that work for me, they said the same thing.

They like love him. They enjoy like the work environment has created and the best source I know to experience, like how brad is, is I would listen to uh the investment the best episode that brad day with my friend Patrick. It's episode three fifty two of investing the best and bread in that interview.

Talk a lot about the importance of meditating. He's been meditating a thing for over fifty years and as he says were here in the book, he he feels it's been A A huge benefit to his crew because that's where he feels many of his best decisions actually materialized. So let's go to this.

What I mentioned earlier that businesses problems, this comes up over regan, that business, business problems and great companies. The way I think about IT is great companies are just effective problem solving machines. And I first heard that idea.

That idea was planted into my mind maybe seven years ago when I read dane mayor, the famous, famous restaurant tour, his autobiography, brides are going to talk about his most important business, or and the lesson that he taught, brad, when brad was in his twenties. I've had multiple businessman tories over the years, but none have been more important than ludwig Justin. mr.

Justin ran the largest commodity trading company in the world. I got to know him in my chinese when his company was a kind of my oil brogger business. Before long, we were having lunch regularly, and he would share bits of business ism that have stayed with me ever since.

At one memorable lunch, I arrived. burdened. Member of brain is china. At this point of I, one lunch arrived, burden with problems that I began to unload on him.

Mister justice, listen carefully and waiting until I had finish speaking, then he put down his fork, turn to me and said, look bad. If you want to make money in the business world, you need to get used to problems, because that's what business is. It's actually about finding problems, embracing and even enjoying them, because each problem is an opportunity to remove an obscure and get closer to success.

I want to put this book down, and i'm gna go to where I had my highlight stored from danira's book, which is called setting the table it's in. If you have access to founders notes, I highly recommend going searching rows, setting the table and then this, and then reading all them takes less ten minutes. And IT gives you a good overview of of the lessons that Daniel I was trying teach you an eye from his book.

But he had this a very small experience. I'm pretty sure he was in chinese at the time as well. He's having dinner with another older, more success comprenez.

The time is guiding staining markets of the new man mark family. And it's remarkable it's very almost dead on with what's happened with brad when he was in the chinese, when he is talking to mr. justice.

And so danny mires, kind of unloading his problems in his stresses to an older, wise entrepreneurs, says opening the new restaurant might be the worst mistake ever made. Stanley set his Martini down, looked me in the eye and said, so you, this is one of my favorite quotes, have ever read any book, so you made a mistake. You need to understand something important and listen to me carefully.

The road to success is paved with mistakes. Well handled. His words remain with me through the night.

I repeated them over and over to myself and IT LED to a turning point in the way I approached business Stanleys lesson, reminding me of something my grandfather, irving haris, who was a famous, are not famous, successful as well, a same the lesson of money. We have something my grandfather, erving Harris, had always told me, the definition of businesses. Ms, exactly what mr.

Justice is telling a Young brad Jacobs, the definition, businesses, problems. His philosopher came down to A, A, to a simple fact of business life. Successful is not in the elimination of problems, but in the art of creative profitable problem solving.

That's an excEllent line to success lies not in the elimination of problems, but in the art of creative profitable problem solving. The best companies are those that distinguish themselves by solving problems effectively. The way the maxim is still that downs I could remember myself, is that business is problems and great companies are just effective problem solving machines.

Es, as we're going to see, will continue in this page. They get A A lot of the best entrepreneurs would get excited. They would get excited when they found businesses or are problems in their businesses.

And so brad continues what he learned from this lunch, uh, with mr. justice. In that moment, I earned something valuable. Problems are an asset, not something to avoid, but something to run towards. Big ambitions that's so excEllent, not something to avoid, but something to run towards.

You know, let me interpret, let me interrupt, because when I got to this part again, just pop right in my mind, I road down jeff basis hrk already told you hundreds of love problems, said problems of your opportunities and workload. Jeff visus multiple books in the everything store, the first biography of jeff ISIS in my bread stone. There's actually one of one of jeff and one of his, one of his employees.

And he tells them like some bad news, something that like they need to improve on or whatever. And he goes, I brought a very bad news about our business and for some reason he got excited. Is that not exactly a project saying problems an asset, not something to avoid, but something to run towards later on in I think this is in jeff s, uh, one of jeff basis shareholder TTS.

But he said that he finds waste, uh, very exciting. So he says, uh, the customer experience path that we've chosen requires us to have an efficient cost structure. This is jeff is was writing, by the way, the good news for shareholders is that we see much opportunity for improvement in that regard.

Everywhere we look, we find what experienced japanese manufacturers would call mu da uh, translates into waste. What experience manufacturer recall waste. I find this incredibly energizing.

I see IT as potential years in years are variable and fixed productivity gains and more efficient, higher velocity and more flexible capital expenditure that is from the book, invent and wander. Uh, highly recommended them. I think two podcast on that already it's jeff faces all jeff phase s sharer letters and then transcripts of like his best speeches.

But I love I A reference to a couple of time is exactly what you are, mother, is that all I get excited? Oh, this is waste good. This is incredibly energizing its potential years and years and years of improvements in our business, very similar to A A, to a project, sand big ambitions, often to get even bigger problems.

If your initial reaction to a major setback is overwhelming frustration that is counter productive, instead, do this great. This is an opportunity for me to create a lot of value. Is that not the exact same idea that basis just told let us is that is the same thing.

It's exactly the same. great. This is an opportunity for me to create a lot of value if you can figure out how to solve this problem, or if I think if I can figure out how to solve this problem, i'll be much closer to my goal.

In the four decades since I launching mr. Justice, I ve doubt with nearly every problem you can imagine chAllenges with acquisitions, people, tech, branding, you named. And I am not surprised when things don't go perfectly.

That's the nature of this universe. The big bunny problems can be where the best opportunities live reminded me of a when I got to to talk to charly mother he said same thing and it's you notice um in his last. I think the last published interview here he did, or one of last ones was with john collin, found her stripe viewing room is actually publish on the best, the best feet too.

It's also obviously, after spending a few hours talking to when I got back to my hotel and I said I had looked this, I immediately just put all like everything we talk, because I look at my phone one time on us with the most like, man. This is once a lifetime experience I need, I want document as I want to remember this. And one of the things that I wrote was that charlie had a complete, almost a complete indifference to problems.

He said, they should be expected. You should tough and up, but you just essentially suck up and cope when you have problems that come away, and then you should be wise enough to try to prevent any any other problems. But this idea like very so much waiting, i'm not surprised when things don't go perfectly.

It's impossible. He's been a CEO entrer for forty four years. You don't think he's rounded every single problem.

Like, of course, that makes the books of valuable. I think I saw selling for like twenty seven dollars, absurd, absurd amount of value that you get. You get almost half a century of wisdom is still down.

At his book launch party, he said this. He said, I don't have another book at me. I'm not running another book I gave you own ideas, get by if you want IT.

Uh but I just think it's it's it's incredible how you know everything talking about this is three, four pages and we see similarities and we brad ths, the danny mie thought that the guy from name marketa the jet than Henry cars are thought that charlie monger thought, I just love IT excites me when all these ideas um connect very, very fascine moving on this is great. He's got these great stories spread through the book and uh this is how to lose five hundred million dollars. So I want to go back actually before I get to how to lose five hundred million.

He's got a very unique um acknowledged section section I read. I have to confess that I read a lot of the acknowledged sections in the book that read, they are usually boring. And like tiny diller, every once in a while you find like an interesting source or interesting book or something.

Brad, what brad did was put at the front of the book, which is unusual. And then when he did is like he just made his acknowledge section a list of maxims that he learned from other people. You have all the conversations and you just still down one of the main ideas.

And like that, he earned this from Michael mortes. Small amounts of capital can generally dragon returns. Uh from ludwig justice, who which stock get the major train rate to, uh you know, dare to do you things see the world for what IT is not what you wish IT to be as one of the maxims in the acknowledge section.

I'm glad I read that before I got to this story, how to lose five million dollars, see the world for what IT is and not what you wish to be, is exactly what bread did. And so he says he calls us radical acceptance, radical acceptance. Quite the noise created by yesterday's decisions in today's wishful thinking.

Here's a story about radically accepting a five hundred million dollar loss. So in the late nineties, congress came up with this new law called the tea china one, the transportation equity act for the china first century. In theory, this what bad thought was gonna en this legislation going to allocate about six hundred billion dollars to rebuild the nations infrastructure.

So as like, okay, there's can be a bunch of all the funding up for grabs. I started scooping a big, uh, road rental companies, the ones I provide barricades, cos, stripping and leg. Then I waited for the market to come to me, but that never happened.

Only about a third of the allocated government funding was spent, and that was spent in little bit over time. My decision turned out to be a huge mistake, and there was no point in compounded. We ended up selling those road rental companies that about a half a billion dollar ss, because IT was the best way forward under those circumstances.

So the idea of see the world for what IT is not, you know what you want, wish IT to be. He's ago. This is going to be great.

They're going to spend out there to six hundred billion. Lars, when that didn't happen, he didn't hold onto IT. What did you go? Uh, radical action.

Quite the noise created by yesterday's decisions in today's wishful thinking. No reason to compound this loss to cut our losses and move on. The next story I want to tell you about is how to keep your head and make four billion dollars.

This is my, that was my summary. What's about to happen? So heat at the time he is running X, P, O, which is is his third public company.

And I think this is in two thousand and eight, and they got hit with a short report. And so the short report is picked up by the media saying this, all kinds of problems with expo suck everything else. And so this is the story from bread.

The short report was packed with a lot of balloony, but of course, the market acted first and analyze latter in a stark Price, went into free fall, down twenty percent are twenty six percent. In one day, his response was facing, we did exactly what i've been describing in this chapter. We concentrate on the situation at hand without judging what had happened to us.

We spend hours going over the short report page by page, identifying the many places where the data had been twisted. And so he takes a problem and he spots an opportunity, which is what he's been talking about, right? The short seller crisis had made our stock extremely cheap.

And instead of fixing on that as bad, we focus on achieving a good outcome from that perspective. The share Price was mona from heaven, and we decided to buy back two billion dollars with the sock image earlier, where the makers are like to going to wait too high. You can do that.

Two high person. Mark cap, no one has ever done something like that. And breads I, who cares, just because we were the first company to buy back such a higher percent of our stock member goes from the opening like you have, that you can rest on conventional wisdom is the way bread put IT.

You have to rearrange your brain, the way Peter till says, say you successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do so by thinking about business from first principles instead of formula. There is no formula for the situation that bras dealing with. Or if there was, I would like, oh, you know, a little bit, but like a hundred million back.

But you can buy two years. You not just because we were the first completed by by such a high percent of stock, any similar situation didn't mean that was a bad idea. In fact, I was at once in in a lifetime opportunity a couple of years later, those two going out of share with we brought back, we book back, ended up being worth six billion dollars, giving them a profit on that one transaction of four billion dollars.

Okay, moving on what this this might be my favorite section and enter book. I love how he describes all the research he does before he jumps into an industry, and it's this idea that he gets, he said, when the most valuable piece of advice I received from my mentor, mr. Justice, if you can mess up a lot of things in business and still do well, as long as you get the big trend right, I make sure I understand the major trends that could dream the business are helped.

sore. I'm obsessive when learning about an industry. This this part is entire. I'd read the entire chapter. I'm going to go over the parts that obviously most interesting to me.

But it's it's another illustration of this idea that you do I speak about over over ground you see in the box and IT came came from gave og phy and he says, the good ones no more. They just do more research. They read more.

They talk to more people. They just know more about what they're doing, the good ones no more. Um and so his ideas, like one of the same things themes of the mega trend uh, is that technologies that the dominant metra or universe, if you want to make a lot of money in almost any industry, plan to invest heavily in tech.

And that idea, as is true today, as IT, was a couple hundred years ago. I remember reading Andrew carne's autobiography of many years ago, I don't know, maybe four years ago. And he's talking about building businesses in eighteen hundreds.

And he was talking about building corner, he steal the time. And I D. Sumi zed, the advice was giving in that book, uh, specifically run technology as this and this, this comes up in the books. Invest in technology. The savings compound IT gives you an advantage over slowing moving competitors and can be the difference between a profit and a loss.

That is from that's a summary of Andrew Carter these ideas, which I think brad h, based on the chapter, would definitely agree with if you want to make a lot of money, nor most any interstate plan to invest heavily tech. This is how he searching research before he starts a new company. I served by reading everything I can get my hands on, journal's periodical newspapers, trade publications, employee reviews on web base recruiting sites, you name IT.

I look up. I look at all the websites and social media of the major players and the open commerce in the industry. I watched a lots of interviews with the ceos.

I use paid services like bloomers, office sence and Thomas rooters. H. I look at analysis from outside and bytes analysts.

And I searched the S, C, C. Data base, uh, which has large amounts of information on every publicly traded U. S.

Company, including IPO documents, financial reports and proxies. I scope out the most valuable industry conference, and I attend them. He goes to suicide conference because there an opportunity to meet manager teams face to face.

And here the questions investors are asking, trade associations have a wealth of industry data. I interview experts. Ah, I see out people who live and breathe the industry that i'm considering.

This phase of the research is about getting face to face and listen intently. I love talking to ceos. In addition to ceos, I seek out investment bankers who are most active in the industry and who know IT deeply. Just look at how much work and how much information uh, is collected, right? This is IT keeps going.

So says in addition to C, O, to see our investment backers who are most active in the industry and who know deeply to talk to venture capital firms because they spend a lot of time looking at the big trans different I tap bytes institutions and successful fund managers who have battle scars from investing in that industry. Uh, industry vendors keeps going. Industry vendors are also a good source.

They have a sense of the trends that could drive changes in the market and finally, are not. Finally, there's two more shareholder activists, uh, often have important insights as well. And I reach out to journalists who know the industry because by nature, there a skeptical bunch, and I want to hear their perspectives.

So then what he'll do is he runs through like short descriptions of how to get the major trend right in a bunch of the IT are how he did in a bunch of the business is that he started and you know, that goes over forty years. What's interesting is, uh, the first one. So he talks about amx and hamilton resources and it's about like his time in the oil industry.

IT reminded me of a very important idea that I think that is that you see applied to a bunch different industries. This idea that you can identify a market with valuable but hard to get data and my favorite application of this because its just so nuts, was, uh the episode did on the the billionaire dela eric agos an a epsom to be twenty five if you haven't, if you have to listen to that, that episode was fascine because that's exactly he did. He identified the market with valuable, hard to get data and essentially made made a like a personal treasure map that is entire business uh, recipient that came to mind when I was reading this section a little bit of lot putting in the oil industry in thousand and seventy nine when I started my oil portraits company, max IT was a highly profitable business.

And my realization was that a big trend was forming around the need to capture and share information more quickly. Remember, this is one hundred seventy nine three internet. This whole section is nuts.

Also says that was a trend transformed the industry in the late one thousand eighties. We made a lot of money by being the first oil broker to get ahead of the trend at the time. There is no internet, no email, no centralize databases with easy global access.

The main. So this is going to boy your mind, the main source of information about the Price of oil was a news letter that came in the mail. And so he talks about, like, listen, we're making verbal handshakes with clients in europe and asia for fifty and seventy five million dollars over the phone, with nothing on paper for days.

And so the next sentence is a description of the problem. The lack of timely information was a big problem for oil workers. We made our money by matching buyers and cellars and taking a commission just like to go.

And I could see that there was isolated pockets of valuable oil pricing data trapped all over the globe. And I knew that if we could figure out a Better way to share that information, we can unlock a lot of value. And so there's no off the shelf solution.

So he built his own. I think this is something he does multiple times. And he says, essentially, they built like their own crude version of the internet.

But IT allowed us to do something revolutionary. Every time in a marx A, I learned something you so about a buyer sellar buyer cellar activity or the Price of oil. They entered IT into our database.

Then we could share that information much more quickly with our brokers around the globe. That process took hours, not days, which was closed to instantaneous back then in the seventies and eighties. So takes took days.

Now takes hours. We had had a way to obtain objective inside into global ly trends. And then here is the trends that he identified when he set up united wave systems. Uh the red ball episode that he did, episode three thirty three, I think um it's pretty well all that you know that business is gonna make him network beaching, summer beaching in twenty and forty billion dollars he was paying himself before he died, some reach five hundred nine million dollars a year.

He identified the opportunity from reading a magazine article and like, hey, uh the richest guy in japan I think was the country makes these like energy tonics because there was no energy drink market at the time. That's interesting. And the chair that in the article change his life forever detrick, which I think is, he says, name.

But we see praja c. ops. Coming over the idea too. This is like, well, the idea from united systems. This is fast. I remember via the moment the industry caught my attention, in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine, I was reading marrow linch research reports in bed on a lazy sunday morning.

I love that, and came across the report written by the top rank analyst for environmental services, then the two largest companies in the whistle industry at that time were each making about a half a billion dollars year in profit. Member, that's why brought up the red bow guy. He's like, what this guy is, not high, the paying the most.

He's making the most money in the entire country, and he sells energy tonics. And then brad said in bed, reading research reports, right? And is like that. These guys are making half a billion dollars in in profit in one thousand eighty nine.

And I thought, how hard can to be to have trucks pick up trash to posit in a safe place and then senate an invoice? Ce, I wanted to know more. And so he identifies the two big trends at the time.

Uh, landfill capacity was becoming precious because regulations were pushing small trash dumps out of business. So that's try number one. Try number two, integration of halling in disposal. This created an opportunity for enter and consolidation. I looked for a way to capitalize both trans and found a in tech based truck routing to think about the entire oil industry kind of Operating blind, waiting for this this letter in the mail down the Prices.

He sees a very similar trend, uh, problem in the waste management business, mom and pop owner for running trash collection companies by the seat of their pants and making money at IT, few companies were planning their truck routes method ally, much less using technology to do that. I think he says they use like a map and like push pins. So these, these, these are details.

They did not focus on optimize zing routes. And so he starts optimizing rights. And this is the result. Instead of sending fifty trucks out over five days to pick up x tons of waste, twenty trucks. So more lesson and half could now perform the same service in three days.

So instead of fifty trucks in five days, he's doing the same work in which twenty trucks in three days. Our cost kept coming down as our processes improved and our profit margin group significantly. That is the company that he sells for two point five billion dollars.

Then he talks about where he gets his idea for his other company, united rentals. I was looking up to roll. I was looking to roll up another industry, and so I set up half day meetings with nine different groups of bankers and analysts.

And mary linch, one of those analysts, asked if I thought about going into the construction equipment rental. So that's how he finds the idea for his next billion other company. And even though a different industry, he sees the same problem.

This is the part that I text IT up, but a france actually love. While the rental industry overall was slow to computerize, the larger regional players were more tech savi. By one thousand eight ninety seven, nearly all of them were running on software, develop, a company called wind systems.

This is how to get god mode. And when I worked to myself, when I was a kid, played a lot of games, and you use like cheated, like game gene stuff like that. Uh, and you one of the things that you were tried on lock is something that was referred to god model, which essentially give you, on the present a like view of the entire world.

And like what you want to do. You can think of what's happening here, this this idea, what that I absolutely love, they did. He gets on the present data of his entire industry TM.

Most like Operating a god mode and video games. When I was a kid, by one thousand nine hundred eighty, nearly all of them, all the larger, larger players in this indication. Now, right, we're running on software, developed a company called wind systems.

This told me that software was capable of managing hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment flowing on and off job sites because they buy construction comment, and then they went out very new state for business. So what did he do? I bought wind systems.

He bought, he bought the software that all of the main players were using, owning. We accomplish two things. One, we had an industry best platform that we can continue develop internally for our news.

And the acquisition gave us access to aggregated anonymized data on macro trends cost across the industry. This gave us a high level view of emerging market trades such as equipment lots are shortages in the make making. What is buying the software company allow him to do.

We could now proactively adjust our pacing an asset management while the rest of the industry was being reactive. I want to that, that is so important, we can proactively adjust our pricing and asset managment while the rest of our the industry, the rest of our competitors was being reactive. okay.

So then I love this story that comes from the chapter on how to do lots of high quality ema without including. And if we're mentioning one of my favorite things that I bring up a lot, that opportunity is a strange beast. And IT frequently appears after a loss.

What can appear to be a terrible thing actually be, actually once have been a blessing in disguise. And so he gives us some advice. He says, be sure to cover your flank.

It's the stuff that comes at a left eld that can take a deal down. In two thousand and seven, I sold united rentals to the private equity firm serb rus. No way i'm pronoun right.

So this private equity and by, uh, for seven billion dollars, or at least that's what brad that happened. Highly satisfied that I just saw the company, I stepped down as chairman and wandered off to my private investment firm to begin planning my next venture. The great financial crisis arrived.

Remember, this is two thousand and seven. Uh, great financial crisis arrived. Private equity firms began watching on deals, and serb defaulted on the united rentals agreement.

As a result, our stock plunged thirty one percent in twenty four hours over the course of the following year, the stock fell of five dollars. We collected a hundred million dollar break up fee, decided not to seek another buyer, and eventually got things riot. Today, the market cap of united rentals is thirty eight billion dollars.

So tried to sell IT, thought they sold IT in for seven billion in two thousand and seven. Fast forward with fifteen years, something like that. Good, good thing.

They did not sell up for seven billion because the market cap is now thirty one billion dollars higher. The deals i've avoided have contributed more to my success than the deals i've done. And I love this advice.

He talks about the importance to set, setting up feedback loops. This is something that brads gna have in common with, did just in ones to come to have my mind lesh. Wab, sam walton of walmart and jim casey of U.

P. S. They all prioritize this. And what is this is getting data from front line employees. They want data from the people are actually interacting with the customers they all talk about in their bike pies and on a bargrave hies over over again.

SHE says, when we buy a company, we discovered that the front line employees, middle managers and even some senior executives have never been asked, what would you do to improve the company? And this is insane. You would think that the owners would want to know that.

And so a lush wab walton in gym cases would say about in gym cases case, any time he was driving, he ups truck he'd pulled over or have his driver pulled over and he d talk to them, he'd wanted know what actually happening. They all make, they all say differently. But the the idea behind this the same, they're like your executives and team have around you, like the overtime.

They start like filter information too much and they can give you like an overly rosy or like false like positive view of what actually happened in your company. Is so the way you penetrate oh basis is this too? I just remember he would um work he has everybody name is on including himself would work uh customer service like in the call centers and actually answer calls directly from customers.

So we are your executives and the people around you are over time tend to give you like an overly like optimistic view of your company. And so one way to cut do that is like sam want to go on stores and he talked to people, are the cashiers? You talk to the people different door? He talked to people on loading, uh, the trucks.

Like, tell me what the how is going on this company? I wanted know this, like what would you do to improve the company? Why are you not asking them that? Of course you should ask that to them IT was very obvious but like almost I what I realized to is like almost at the end of the book he has another um he has two questions I thought genius, that I want to add in this section too because I think that tied to what he saying here.

And so what he would do IT doesn't have to just be in a company requiring to you could be in your existing company so he asks, I love these questions. He has two questions, what is your single best idea to improve our company? What is your single best idea to improve our company? And what's the stupidest thing we're doing as a company? And so he would send that our company wide, you know, send an email, I would know, said you try this email one at a time to everyone in company.

Respond back to sima was your single best idea to improve our company? I think about interesting data ideas that you could get. And IT was a stupid thing we're doing as a company.

I love this. I love these questions for business. And I was actually thinking that you good for a family too like i've talked about this before where, you know, i'm obsessed with what i'm doing. I work seven days a week.

Uh, you know, if you're listen to the issue, highly likely you're in a obsessive person as well and yet I don't want i'm also dead so like i'm not going to be a shit dad like this is not an option for me and so sounds aware that this kind of mind but my sons too Young for this, but my daughter is not and so like I solicit feedback from so far I think I i've told this before ah but I would literally go you know not like I would just like, hey like how I doing is that and I ask questions like this like like when do I feel for a who told me to do this? Like I asked and our taxi is too, she's all enough to tax so just funny like what do I do that makes you feel the most special? Uh, like what do you like that i'm doing or like just how i'm doing but this idea it's almost basically like I think it's get ready the business but also the idea like what you are your single best idea to improve our family is another way to think about that, right?

Instead of what's your single best idea, improve our company, what's the study thing that we're doing as a family? What's the study thing and i'm doing as a dad, what your single best idea to improve what i'm doing as your father? I love the simplicity of IT, and I love the idea of like sending IT out because you could bury the problem is like what I like about the idea of sending IT as a set, like an individual question, right?

Just country to the simplicity as opposed to putting IT in. You know, maybe like a survey where there's like ten or twelve other questions there. I think those questions are so powerful that they're good enough to stand on their own, so absolve the idea.

And again, so as a feedback from from the this is good intel, like why wouldn't you do that? So one thing that pops up open over again that's really important is you just is like have so many notes in the books, like damn guy is moving fast and like there's speed oh, there's more speed just happens over over and so imagine this earlier is hilary story where his main competitor, the sea of uh hurts, which was the largest uh now they have the grant car company, but the at the time the the largest a equipment rental chain uh, in the country as well. And brad has a great line here is like yet hurts to this.

And they built up a national equipment rental chain, about a billion dollars of annual revenue over the course of thirty seven years. United rentals did that in thirteen months. And so he gets his invitation, come have lunch with the CEO means that maybe like trying to buy me out what happening.

Let's just let me go to see what's any was ridiculous and know myself is a losing strategy. Take your competitor out to lunch and ask him to slow down. And essentially that's what he did.

Needs like, you know, you maybe change one of my tag lines. I had the largest car rents accompany and the largest equipment rents accompany in the world. And now i've got the largest car company and the second largest equipment rental company.

I don't want to be second and anything and he still and slow down. You're making a messes of this industry. You're going too fast.

You're going to mess this up and fast. Ford, uh, several years, and their universes is making like six times amount of money. So that is a losing tragedy.

Do not take your competitor to launch bly. Please slow down. Please be nice to me. No, put on the gas and foot on their neck.

I want to go back to the maxims that are in the acknowledged um because the sink maximum is they're not hard rules and you need to know when to break the rules. And so is the idea that you should lose perfectionism. And so but there's one domain where you don't wanna actually lose perfectionism.

And that is in hiring. The most important thing A C E O does is recruit great people. Yes, I made the point that aiming for profession can be counter productive.

Good is usually good enough. But if you're going to break that rule, you break IT for people. Make your hiring choices as perfect as they can be because there are few mistakes.

Cost lier, then hiring the wrong person. This is so good with members. An empty seat is less damaging than a poor fit.

Make your hiring choices as perfect as they can be because their few mistakes costlier than hiring the wrong person in empty seat is less damaging than a poor fit. This entire section is about the difference between super talented people on what they bring uh, to your company. So I love this.

Um i'm going to read Steve job was asked one time, uh, what talent do you think you consistently brought to apple? This is his answer. Uh, this was his answer rather and i'm going to read you first because I think IT sets up what what brad's trying to teach us her here he says, I think i've consistently ly figured out who the really smart people were to hang around with. You must find extraordinary people.

The key observation is that in most things in life, the dynamic range between average quality and best quality is that most to the one pick, anything can to be basically two to one, right? But in the field that I was interested in, I noticed the dynamic range between what an average person could accomplish and what the best person could accomplish was fifty or hundred to one. Given that your well advice to go after the cream of the cream, you can build a team that pursues the a plus players.

A small team of a players can run circles around a giant team of b and c players. So then he is going to talk about how to build outrageously talented team and what he feels his most valuable member. c.

Jo said, hey, I think one of the things I did was I fired out who the really more people hung around them, try to hire them. I built incredibly, outrageously talented teams, brad said. Screening for super superior intelligence eliminates ninety percent of all candidates.

So that's the first thing I look for. There's just no substitute for smarts. There is no substitute for brains. The CEO trade most closely, according ted, with organization success, is a high I Q double down on hiring the the bridge. When he is interviewing people, he will ask himself, can this person think dialectically? I'm going to define that for us because I love this definition dialectically.

The the ability to think dialectically is the ability to view issues from multiple perspectives to arrive with the most economical and reasonable reconciliation of seemingly contradictory information that so important ability to view issues from multiple structures and to arrive with the most economical and reasonable reconciliation of seemingly contradictory diction information, can this person think dialectically? That is, are they capable of thinking from multiple perspectives and reconciling streams of information that seem to flow in different directions? And second, second question, are they capable of changing their opinion, rigid thinkers at any level of intelligence, or less valuable because they're mired in their own points of view?

More advice. You should hire ambitious people who want to accomplish big things and make a lot of money. More advice IT is Better to be slightly understated.

Ed, I find a slightly understated teams or more focused and spend less time doing redundant busy work. Brad is big on vibe. I think he calls IT the love vibe and he says, my team and I spend a lot of time together.

So the big deal that we like one another, an organization, is like a party. You only want to White people who bring the vibe up. And so he talks about listening.

I have advice for you. This is how you're going to different at between the A, B, C, players and your team. His old thing is that you cannot have sea players ever.

And when you figure out b players, it's inevitable that you're gonna have some, but you can have sea players. And this all point that if you if you hire b players, they're likely to higher c players. So I can be very careful to b players too.

But organization scales, you can have all a players, is something Steve jobs said that pigs are when I had foreigner, foreigner, mpl, yees. It's the first team of all players that ever saw in his life. And he said, you know, apple, I think that time had three thousand people.

Needs like it's impossible to have a team, have a company with uh, three thousand a players. So of course, you going to have some b players, but you got to be careful because they love hiring sea players and c players. Sock, this is how you difference between A, B and c players.

And he does this in his mind, again, thought experiment. I I imagine this person coming into my office and quitting without warning, just by imagining the scenario, I can immediately tell for my own inner response whether this person is an A B, C player. If my first thought is I was gonna fire, this person sooner later says, no big deal, that's a sea player.

If my action is, I don't like this, but I can live with that, the transition period might be a little bumpy bubble. Find somebody else, maybe even somebody Better. We are talking about to be player but if my reaction is an internal dialogue of panic and IT sounds like were so screw, how did we get into the situation? There's no way we're going to find somebody as fantastic as this person that is an a player.

And what do you do with a players? You overpay the hell out of them because here's to think the reason should overpay them is the reason overpay for talent is because it's nearly impossible to overpay for talent. Think about what Steve jobs said earlier, right in in some fields, the the, the, the best person is not.

Choice is good. There are hundred times is good. Think about when Steve jobs came back to apple, apple bought next for almost a half a billion dollars, right? The way to think about that is apple paid half a billion dollars to rehire Steve jobs, and they got the deal of the century.

IT is almost impossible to overpay for talent and bread talks about this, a lot of things that motivate people. But you you're silly if you don't think compensation yeah, they have to believe in the mission. They have like to work, work to do to find IT until you chAllenging, there is a later team.

They also should be paid odors and odds of money. So he says there's one hundred and twenty four thousand employees uh, out of all the three companies that he currently chairs, not a single one of them shows up for work because they want to make money for brad Jacobs. They come because they want to make money for themselves and their families.

Money animates people everywhere. So we make, I have employed all over the world. This is not just a united states thing.

Money animates people everywhere. That's why i've overpaid corn code. Almost every direct report i've ever had to ensure I had top team people in place overpay for talent.

IT is nearly impossible to overpay for talent. That's such an important thing to remember. Never, ever, ever forget the dynamic view of humans.

IT makes no financial sense to skip on salary and centres to save one hundred thousand thousand a year when hiring a second best candidate may cost you millions of dollars in lost profit. Oh, this guy is good. He's in a player.

Let me, I can save money. Hate when people, people try to like, obviously huge. S what's the two biggest themes in the local entrepreneurs? Focus and watch your costs.

That's the repeated over and over again by the vast majority people unstudied watch your cost does not count when you're doing talent. That's now it's like, oh, I have a great a player, but I can hire the a for the same job. I can have A B pair player for a hundred thousand lus.

No, it's not one hundred thousand years. You lost millions, millions. And in save hot case, if they didn't hire him, what if they said they, they know, I think, was a one hundred IT only be two hundred million.

And whatever that is, they tried a short changing by a couple hundred million years to come back. Apple, what's apple Price of business? Apple Price doesn't exist this day. Never, ever, ever forget the dynamic range of human beings and overpay for talents because it's nearly impossible to overpay for.

And then I want to close on what I feels almost like a manifesto, that it's incredible honour and a good thing for the world to build products and services that make up the people's lives Better, to create jobs for hundreds of thousands of people in reactive case, to create wealth for your shareholders um and really is a testament to the all important entrepreneur spirit. I love being A C O. There's a joy in creating value and in even greater joy in knowing that so many people beyond our organization are benefiting from more accomplishments.

The best way to perform our duty is to fill an unmet need in the economy. With a strong business model and a responsible organization. We create a healthy workplace environment for our people, and we pay them well.

We pampa our customers and we approach chAllenges with practical optimism that open our minds to solutions. The grave majority of the tens of billions of dollars of value that my teams and I have created have flowed outside of my companies. I am extremely proud that our company could be counted on to create value.

This is only possible because we Operate in free markets where creating prosperity is a virtue. I want to share a personal experience I had with a small biz sooner, whose work ethic and customer focus echo the value system that I am still in my own companies. The small business under his name is Steve.

Steve handles the h. Vx system at my home. Steve had originally worked for the large h. VC company that had installed the system, but that company was sold, and Steve decided to set out on its own.

So again, the all important entrepreneur spirit, Steve is a hard working, take pride in your work entrepreneur who puts his customers first. He cares a great deal about doing his job the way he should be done. He told me.

His selfish teem goes up and down with his customer satisfaction scores. Naturally, he also measures his worth by how much money he's making to support his family. There's a fair amount of criticism being voice about profit seeking these days.

Some people are embarrassed to talk about the importance of money, but Steve is totally comfortable IT and in his pursuit of happy customers and a good living for his family, he built a successful business. As a result, customers flocked him. Steve is the face of the entrepreneur spirit.

I wrote this book with people like him in mind, people who want to work their tails off, who want to smart competition, who wanna put their customers on a pistol, and who wanna make a lot of money for their families. The summer after eighth grade, I attended the road island governor school for the gifted in art and music, a summer enrichment program for kids who'd been nominated by their schools. I wasn't sure what to expect on the first night, I was captivated by a speech given by one of the leaders I have remember goose bombs rising on my arms as he spoke.

This program is a special opportunity, but it's up to you to take advantage of IT. He said. You have a choice.

You can waste the next couple months and not accomplish much, or you can go all in. This is an opportunity to go deep on a project and do the best work that you've ever done. But you have to decide if you want IT.

He said IT was there that I learned what I meant to go, all in that magical connection between intensity of focus and the end result. If I put my whole heart and soul into a project, I had IT in me to create really cool stuff. We have IT in our own hands to either make life meaningful or just past time until we die.

That's up to us. I hope you inspire to run hard and making a few billion dollars or achieving some other big dream. And I wish you the exhilaration of seeing IT through to success. And that is, well, leave IT highly, highly, highly recommend buying the book. As I said before, I really do think it's a reference I read through all, uh I read all through and that keep IT close at hands of referencing pandies uh, has a bunch of thought experiments.

This is really interesting history of technology mine because it's a huge influence in the way broad approaches as business because the mega in universe he's get interview questions for job candidates, recommended books, how to conduct meetings that the appendix is like full of, uh, you could buy the book just for the pen is obviously read whole thing. But anyways, if you buy the book using the link that is in the shoots, you'll be supporting the podcast at the same time. That is where at three hundred, three hundred and thirty five books one thousand ago, and not talking again soon, IT was fascinating in brad story.

How many times, if you just listen, that products or opportunities will be pulled out of you, like if you think about him sitting in bed reading anal supports, realizing, hey, maybe this waste management company is this waste management industry is IT, could we could be a good opportunity or meeting with the those analysts and getting an idea to enter into a new industry? The same thing has been happening to me, so I want to give you an update. Were quick on two things before you go.

One is founders only. Founders only is the first ever in person i'm calling in a conference is taking place in awesome taxes on march twelve to the fourteen th. Really is uh a way for founders to build in person relationships with founders.

That is the purpose, that is the north star, that is the mission of the event is limited to one hundred and fifty people. You can apply by going to founders only that com that's founders with an s founders only that com that link obviously be in the show notes as well. So if you already applied and haven't heard back, i'm versus thers way more.

The reason I started this was saying that you just listen um you'll find opportunities because for years, people have been asking for a ways to connect with other founders of other founders that listen to founders. And so that that product was kind of pulled out of me. And so as a result, the demand has been higher than I anticipated, I guess, and it's taking me a White like I just have a lot of applications to go through.

So if you have already applied, you don't have to reapply. I'm going through them. I promise you will hear back from me.

Um if you haven't yet applied, even though there's more way more applications than there are slots go and apply for, are interested to meet to come to these in person events, these in person conferences and build relationships. Something that comes up on the potential of over again is relationships to run the world. A single relationship can be like changing braja.

C. S. Just talked about the relationship that he built with mr. Justice and that he had a bunch of business mentors and a bunch of relationships to a business somewhere.

Obviously, me more important than but one can literally change your life. And so that is what i'm trying to to do because this has happened in my life, because of the podcast, because so many founders listen to founders the network. I have the relationships of friendship I D like before and after of my life.

IT is not comparable at all um and so maybe the most the most valuable asset I have isn't even something that you can put a Price on or that you could buy. And and the most valuable asset I have by far as my network, it's the friendships and the relationships that i've built, and they all came from the podcast. So i'm in a unique position, I feel, to be able to connect other people that have the same interests.

So the reason I would say is even though there is way more people on the list and I can then we can do for that I can do for the first time is if you're interest in doing this, go and apply um and then what i'll be able to do is like figure, okay, where's that we live. Where can I do? Other event like i'm gonna like this gives me the ability to real, really figure out like how many people want to do this.

And then I can immediate put my events team. I have a world class events team behind me. I'm using the same people that planned capital camp. So if you ever go on a capital camp, you know, you know that once in your event, know when the highest stand investor conferences in the country, there's a massive demand. Usually there's ten ten x amount of people that want to go to that, then they can actually fit.

So they have been doing this for many years there i've gone to IT it's a world cost event, says I go, i'm going to use the same people and so that just helping me not only do all logistic the planning, but also helping me go through and really figure out, okay, if there's I may be vastly under this point telling you this. I'm known rambling the I may be vac unrested mate, the demand here and I shouldn't have because people have been asking me this for years. So it's really important.

The sooner you get in on the list, the sooner you put in your application, the higher priority you have for at future vents. And you can kind of help me figure OK. This is the map. This is where everybody's at and i'm willing to travel you know anywhere.

I don't live in Austin and i'm going to awesome because the venue where i'm hosting the first founders only event, I spent a few days there at this other event last year um and I thought I was incredible, was like this is perfect and so as I go, okay well, at least I i've spent a few days here. I liked IT. I enjoyed IT.

IT makes perfect sense for what i'm trying to do, what my overall mission is. I should just the first one should do, just be here. And so i'm going to be doing this, assuming this successful, assume i'm good at doing this, which you know I can learn, you know, i'm going to be doing this every year.

There's people coming in already. This is insane. And I really do appreciate IT these people flying in from all over the world already for the first founders only, but that's insane.

May point here is apply as soon as you can. It's helpful for you because you will have priority for either future events or maybe even this one. And IT really helps to understand like where I should be doing this in the future.

So founders only dog m sounds only document that's place to do that. Again, I think it's no brainer. Relationships around the world, a meeting another founder, another another person that is interesting, the same things that you're doing, these driven a players, the relation to train these two people, they produce a non lenna returns.

So I think this is something that you should prioritize. And something i'm definitely prioritizing now have I ve been for the past few years, but definitely even more so moving forward. okay.

So that's that founders only 点 com， founders only dot com. The second thing is founders notes dot com, founders with the next founders notes dot com. This is another example of how just listening, paying attention to what's going around you, you're going to find opportunity and ways to serve other people.

So people for years, for years, this is the most common request. So like I want access to your notes. You're kind of this psychopaths obsess person sitting in the room documenting the history of neural.

For now, eight years. You have all these ways to tie these ideas together, how they hold. Did you do that? People think, have a good memory, I promise I don't.

It's because I have what at the time was what I said over over is the the most valuable APP that have ever pay for, which is really wise. And all read wise allowed me to do is like store all of my notes and highlights for all the books I read, right? I have a history and I can go back and search them.

And what IT allows me is like, you know, let's say, have a couple. I think there's two hundred and eighty books in there right now, and I still have more have to enter. I can go to search any term, anything that i'm thinking about.

So if you set up for founders notes that com once you sign up, once you get A A welcome email for me and IT explains in detail how I use the product. So use that as a reference. And the second thing is gone to drop you on this page and the page, you're going to have a bunch of option.

So the first one is search highlights and this big box at the top. And that's very soft monitor anything that are thinking about a person, a place, something that you need in your business, hiring, recruiting talent. We talked a lot about that in the project of episode.

In fact, brad, the higher become example, the highlights from the brad Jacobs book are already in the other notes they're waiting for you to explore. So search I lights I use all the time I is in the browser. This is right now.

It's only available on the web. So just keep the browser open or keep the tab open in your browser. Eventually it's going to be in an APP.

You just got to give me some time to to work through everything. I'm still testing and making sure everything is functioning as I wanted to functions or we're making improvements all time. So keep the tab, open your browser, search IT for anything that comes to mind.

okay? The next thing I do this is I think the searching is invaluable to me. I could not make the post without IT. I use IT in conversations with friends or founders when we're trying to figure out, promising they may have and wait is like such a on demand. Tap into the collective knowledge of history of grade entrepreneurs is what i'm trying to do, and I will keep improving.

So if you think about that now, if if you invest in description today, by next year, be another fifty books in there before. I don't know four thousand highlights or something like that. More connections to be mate, more notes to be met.

So the product improves every single day. Uh, you can also also just go buy books if you type on books. And then obviously, what I would do think I mentioned in that episode that you just listen to like you know go and find dani marries book and just read through all the highlights takes ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes pretty lessen that if you're really focused. I just click on books like how to make a few billion dollars there. My highlights from Opera, uh, the bed, a book that is impossible to find.

There is fifty nine highlights there. You could probably read that in fifteen minutes and have a good idea and remind yourself like what was important to the founder, bagi apple, entire world. Turner, charlie.

Monger, Christian, deal over over again. So what I would do is when you have extra time and you want to read something, instead of wasting time, social media go and read the highlights of a book. Now the I think the most valuable feature, and I hate to say this because the search feature is str is the most valuable feature.

But the feature that is like a really interesting to me and when I use a lot is the highlight feed because the highlight feed is think about my friend Morgan housel, the best selling author. His spook psychology money is so like four million copies. It's crazy. Um I talked to all time he's a massive fan of founders.

Um he called he said he heard me say this on the part cast one time that I think the highlight feed is a smart twitter feed and so he's like that any starts using and he like that's exactly what IT is and so I just clicked on the highlight feed and what he does is instead of reading, think about when you go on any social media. It's just like random collection to be their posts if it's in text, if it's like, you know twitter, random collection of videos, if it's no real or tiktok. Well, the highlight feed is random highlights presented to you from all the books set of ever covered.

And if you can train yourself now, I need to back up. I built this product for people already running successful companies, right? That I think you are, you know this, you probably always see the founders has the most valuable entrepreneurs diene the world. If you knew who was listening to this and who I get to interact with and talk to, you blow your mind.

So those are the people that are going to get the most value from this because they already have existing successful businesses and empire, where if they read one thing, they can apply that lesson immediately, just like radically s he already had a lot of success, so he's reading that ano support in his bed in london. He already has the resources to act on that idea, right? When he goes to have a meeting with mary inch, he has the resources to act on that idea.

So this is not people always like, can I get a free trial? The podcast is the free trial. If you're not in a position where you don't you know already when successful business do not sign up for founders notes, don't listen to the pocket, get yourself into a user lessons to build to get your business is into a position where IT makes perfect sense like a no brain.

Of course, I would subscribe to this. I would invest this question because I could read IT for forty years. You only, you only need one idea.

Think about what charlie monger said. No, he read barns for fifty years. He made four hundred million dollars. He is like, I found one idea that I can act on in barron's magazine. He acted on IT because he had the resources to do so.

He turned up, I think, he made eighty million dollars from that one idea that he got a bearance magazine, and they gave that eighty million dollars to luu. And leleu, one of his favorite of vectors, turn that eighty million and to four hundred million. And this like, oh, this is, if charger mongers alive right in his eyesight was Better, he would be using this because of such a giant.

Like, of course, you would do that. So the highlights you and i'm going to wrap this up because I don't want to believe where this point too much. The highlights E I really feel magic and that is why i'm so so um adamant like we have a bunch of ideas on the product road map. The first one we're doing next is the founder gp t so we've able to like query um and like to use a chat on your face.

But after that it's got to be the APP because you can read founder the highlight feet in the browser and i'm doing that right now and I do IT all the time um because I have this big s imac that i'd like to to use, but I also love in on the go and it's just perfect as an APP. You know any time i'm stuck at a light waiting for you, meeting somebody for lunch and they are running late, i'm at a doctor's office, whatever but getting in the habit of just reading the highlights feed, I really think that's like the killer feature here um because it's just again so almost like history goes to talking to speaking to you. Like mostly these highest are like tweet sized so you can read IT.

Some of them don't apply IT at all. Okay, move on to next one. Just like if you're reading any random you know anything on mind that is implied to me that's unhelpful. Okay, move on, but get in the habit of spending time with us.

And then when you do that, you want to be constant reminded of these lessons because now you have a way that you apply them, you can take knowledge and turn them into profit. And so if that is you and you're in a position to take knowledge and turn into a profit, then I would heavily, I would heavily advise you to invest in description to founders notes. And you can do that.

The founder notes that com, i've already been speaking a time I got to work on to go reading, uh, read and work on the next episode, the next episode to give you your new peak. So this episode, how to make a few billion dollars, the next episode is going to be how to lose a few billion dollars, the rise and fall of a billionaire utility tycoon is coming next week. Thank you very much for your support.

I hope you do an application for founders only. Hope you come to one of these events. And I hope suing you in the right position. I hope you invest in a sufficent to foundation of that com. I will talk you again.