Learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs. Every week I read a biography of an entrepreneur and find ideas you can use in your work.
This quote explains why: "There are thousands of years of history in which lots and lots of very smart people worked very hard and ran all types of experiments on how to create new businesses, invent new technology, new ways to manage etc. They ran these experiments throughout their entire lives. At some point, somebody put these lessons down in a book. For very little money and a few hours of time, you can learn from someone’s accumulated experience. There is so much more to learn from the past than we often realize. You could productively spend your time reading experiences of great people who have come before and you learn every time." —Marc Andreessen
📻 Siste episoder av Founders
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#411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi (01:01:18)
Andre Agassi's autobiography is a brutally honest story about a tennis legend who hated the game that made him famous. Agassi traces his journey from a harsh, obsessive childhood training regimen to s...
#410 Excellent Advice for Living (00:37:40)
On his 68th birthday, Kevin Kelly began to write down for his young adult children some things he had learned about life that he wished he had known earlier. Kelly’s timeless advice covers an astonis...
The Singular Life of Rick Rubin (01:20:44)
There's no one like Rick Rubin. He's a legendary music producer known for his minimalist approach and relentless pursuit of greatness. This episode is what I learned from reading Rick Rubin: In The S...
#409 The Creative Genius of Rick Rubin (00:43:07)
"I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.” —Rick Rubin. This episode is what I learned from reading The Creative A...
#408 How to Make a Few MORE Billion Dollars: Brad Jacobs (00:43:29)
In 2024 Brad Jacobs wrote the book How to Make a Few Billion Dollars.
In the book Brad explains how he built 8 separate billion dollar companies and other lessons from his 40+ year career as an elit...
The Life of Jesus (00:34:39)
The Life of Jesus as told in the book Jesus: A Biography of a Believer by Paul Johnson.
This episode was originally published on Christmas Eve 2023.
#407 Bruce Springsteen Repairs the Hole in Himself (01:12:53)
A viciously unhappy childhood causes Bruce Springsteen to retreat into work in an extreme way as he searches for success (and control). He channels his pain into focus and drive and gets everything he...
#406 Christian von Koenigsegg (00:45:59)
Christian von Koenigsegg is unapologetically in the pursuit of greatness. Koenigsegg builds some of the fastest and most expensive cars on Earth, has a cult-like following, and relentlessly seeks out...
Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac Founder (00:59:48)
I'm reposting one of my favorite founder stories. If you listened to this first time I recommend listening again. If you missed this before, you're about to hear one of the wildest founder stories of ...
#405 How Rockefeller Worked (00:58:00)
This episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of John D. Rockefeller—and nothing else.
I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this obscure biography of Rockefeller tha...
My conversation with Todd Graves (02:00:55)
Todd Graves is one of my favorite living founders. He owns over 90% of Raising Canes — a business that is worth at least $20 billion. Todd's maxim is "Do one thing and do it better than anyone else." ...
#404 How Larry Ellison Thinks (01:02:21)
This episode covers the unique way Larry Ellison thinks.
I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this book on Ellison written by Matthew Symonds.
I then spent several days editing down 40 ...
My Conversation with Brad Jacobs (02:04:24)
I’ve started a new show where I have conversations with the greatest living Founders. The show is called David Senra. It will be on a separate podcast feed from Founders.
So it is very important tha...
#403 How Jensen Works (00:55:15)
This episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of Jensen Huang—and nothing else.
I spent over 40 hours reading (and rereading) this book on Jensen and Nvidia written by Tae Kim...
My Conversation with Michael Dell (01:32:03)
I’ve started a new show where I have conversations with the greatest living Founders. The show is called David Senra. It will be on a separate podcast feed from Founders.
So it is very important tha...
#402 Thomas Peterffy: The $80 Billion Founder Who Automates Everything (00:31:57)
I didn’t know who Thomas Peterffy was. I was shocked to learn that he is 81 years old, worth $80 billion dollars, and has built his $120 billion company, Interactive Brokers, into one of the most effi...
My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify (02:09:59)
I started a new show so I can have long-form conversations with the greatest living founders. You can watch on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, X, or the web.
The new show is on a separate feed so ...
#401 How Bill Gates Works (01:08:10)
This episode is about Bill Gates' obsessive drive and hardcore work ethic. Bill Gates had the rarest entrepreneurial talent—the ability to see the leverage point in a new industry, seize it with relen...
#400 The Stubborn Genius of James Dyson (01:13:03)
This episode covers the extreme perseverance and the stubborn genius of James Dyson.
Dyson has a business philosophy which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. A philos...
#399 How Elon Works (01:33:02)
This episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of Elon Musk—and nothing else.
I spent well over 60 hours reading (and rereading) the biography of Elon Musk written by Walter Is...
#398 Steve Jobs In His Own Words (Make Something Wonderful) (02:01:22)
A curated collection of Steve’s speeches, interviews, and correspondence, Make Something Wonderful offers a window into how one of the world’s most creative entrepreneurs approached his life and work....
#397 Jiro Ono: Simplicity Is The Ultimate Advantage (00:41:02)
Jiro Ono is the greatest living sushi chef. He was kicked out his house when he was 9. He started working in a restaurant so he wouldn't have to sleep under a bridge. He never stopped. Over his 75 ye...
#396 The Obsession of Enzo Ferrari (00:57:21)
I've read hundreds of thousands of words about Enzo Ferrari. For this episode I distilled down his most important ideas into 1 hour. Ferrari was truly one of history's greatest obsessives.
Episode sp...
#395 How Geniuses and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport (01:04:57)
Those on the margins often come to control the center. That maxim ties together the three remarkable people profiled in this episode:
Colin Chapman, known as “the mad scientist of F1”, did more to in...
#394 An Orphan Who Built An Empire: Leonardo Del Vecchio and The Founding of Luxottica (01:07:46)
Your dad dies before you’re born. Your mom can’t afford to take care of you. You grow up without a family and in an institution. You learn a trade and start working full time at the age of 14. You wor...