New podcast with my friend @ChrisWillx on 15 recurring traits of history’s greatest founders:

1. Excellence is the capacity to take pain.

2. Problems are just opportunities in work clothes.

3. There are ideas worth billions in a $30 history book.

4. Relationships run the world.

5. You can always understand the son by the story of his father. The story of the father is embedded in the son.

6. Actions express priority.

7. Bad boys move in silence.

8. Belief comes before ability.

9. By endurance we conquer.

10. If you know your business from A to Z there is no problem you can’t solve.

11. The public praises people for what they practice in private.

12. Self pity has no utility.

13. The good ones know more.

14. Money comes naturally as a result of service.

15. If you love what you do the only exit strategy is death.

The episode contains stories and examples from each one.

Chris is one of the hardest working podcasters I know and one of my favorite people.

Our stories are remarkably similar, grinding away on a podcast for years with little to show for it, refusing to give up, and finally breaking through a half decade later.

Hope you listen to the episode! Listen here:

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/878…

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1cuOZS…

Ed Thorp's life story is remarkable

He founded the first quantitative hedge fund, made the first wearable computer with Claude Shannon, met a 38 year old Warren Buffett, had great relationships with his family, and took care of his health

12 ideas from his autobiography: 1. Only play games where you have an edge:

I read 66 biographies last year

Here are 10 you should read! 1/

Larry went from dropout to the richest person in Utah, sacrificing his health and family relationships along the way

He wrote this autobiography as he was dying —he wanted to warn future entrepreneurs

He said his story is a "cautionary tale"

amazon.com/Driven-Autobio…

22 pieces of advice for entrepreneurs from Steve Jobs: 1. Recruiting is your most important job.

2. Figure out who the really smart people are and hang around them.

3. You must find extraordinary people.

4. A small team of A players will run circles around large teams of B and C players.

Book thread

5 key lessons from Churchill by Paul Johnson: 1. Build your own personal curriculum

Churchill did not do well in school

His father called him an academic failure

But Churchill loved language — he read everything he could get his hands on

He worked hard at being a great writer

Siggi Wilzig survived Auschwitz, arrived in America with $200, and died 50 years later worth hundreds of millions

A thread on what I learned from reading Unstoppable: Siggi Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend: When Siggi was 14 he was forced by Nazis to work in a factory 12 hours a day, 7 days a week

Two years later they tell him to go home and pack a bag

He goes home

Every Jewish person in his neighborhood is pulled out onto the street

I spent 14 hours reading this 419 page biography of Bill Gates. Here’s a thread on what I learned: 1/

Bill Gates always had an obsessive personality and a compulsive need to be the best.

His mother said that Bill has done what he wanted since he was 8 years old.

He was young when he found his life’s obsession: computers

Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote a short autobiography when he was 30.

The book is called The Education of a Bodybuilder.

It is *not* a book about bodybuilding.

It is a book about being 100% *mentally* committed to achieving a goal.

A thread on what I learned from the book: Right from the jump Arnold knew he did not want a normal life. He said:

Normal people can be happy with a regular life. I was different. I felt there was more to life than just plodding through an average existence. I wanted to do something special, to be recognized as the best

Coco Chanel went from orphan to the richest woman in the world.

(She negotiated a deal that paid her $300 million a year and covered all of her living expenses)

I spent 15 hours reading her 352 page biography. A thread about what I learned: The House of Chanel started with hats.

Coco didn’t have a lot money when she started her business.

She decided to start with an existing product.

She would buy hats from a department store and use the seamstress skills she leaned in the orphanage to customize them.

My notes from this book turned into a thread of maxims: There is no better investment than intense focus on your own development.

Right before he died, Steve Jobs reflected on what he hoped his legacy would be.

A thread on the lessons he wanted to pass on: ON PUTTING GREAT PRODUCTS FIRST:

My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary. Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products.

Henry Leland founded Cadillac when he was 60 and Lincoln Motor Company when he was 77!

Here is a thread on the lessons from his biography: Master of Precision. Leland believed you should expect resistance to high standards:

“There always was and there always will be conflict between Good and Good Enough. In opening up a new business one can count on meeting resistance to a high standard of workmanship. . .

Charlie Munger recommends reading A Man for All Markets by Ed Thorp

@nntaleb says: The book reveals a thorough, rigorous, methodical person in search of life, knowledge, financial security, and, not least of all, fun.

Here is a thread of 17 highlights: I began life in the Great Depression. Along with millions of others, my family was struggling to get by from one day to the next. Though we didn’t have helpful connections and I went to public schools, I found a resource that made all the difference: I learned how to think.

Charlie Munger recommended reading Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street.

Here is a thread with 13 highlights from the book. You will notice the similarities with Munger: 1. A man who risks his entire fortune acts like a simpleton, however great may be the possible gain.

Warren Buffett read Jim Clayton's autobiography (First A Dream) and then bought Jim's company for $1.7 billion in cash.

I just finished reading Jim's book.

Here is a thread with my highlights: I learned that certain concepts are ageless, no matter what century we're in.

Self-discipline. Willpower. Perseverance. Realizing that disappointment is not defeat. Knowing that problems often present opportunities. Adversity breeds resilience.

I read Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger

This is a thread of my highlights: I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody is that smart.

I read all of Warren Buffett's shareholder letters. [54 years!]

This is a thread of my highlights. Just run your business as if: 1) you own 100% of it; 2) it is the only asset in the world that you and your family have or will ever have; and 3) you can’t sell or merge it for at least a century.