Sam Zemurray (united fruit company) in the fish that ate the whale: if you know your business from a to z there is no problem you can’t solve (6m)
sam zell and jay pritzker: simplicity as strategy, and on weakest link
know every aspect of your business (8m)
The more you know about why we do things and what we are trying to accomplish, the better off you will be.
relate with know what you want memos
robert (bob) kierlin (fastenal—#360) on having the common goal (9m)
there will be drift and overcomplication (relate with similar memos elsewhere)
read Creative Selection or listen to #281 working with steve jobs
it makes you easy to interface with
hollywood would be unprofitable because it has no flexibility due to too long lead times to adapt to trends (12m)
paypal prioritized speed over everything else except recruiting and hiring (14m)
only be with A players—get rid of C players immediately
is it like marriage?
Another way to look at this is it’s a segment that “only MrBeast can do this.” (p. 7) (15m)
relate with be the only notes
edwin land: don’t do anything that someone else can dorevisit
if you can do something really hard, there won’t be any competition (17m)revisit
no competition >>> weak competition
david ogilvy: the good ones know more (17m)revisit
“our videos are getting harder” (p. 10)
relate with it gets easier memos and notes
e.g.,
tarantino and spielberg (18m)
bill gates in hard drive (19m)
edwin land with light (20m)
rockefeller with accounting and the commission business
steve jobs with silicon valley
his work was related to graham bell’s work on the telephonerevisit
jeff bezos: people don’t have ideas—ideas have people
read the book the goal (p. 11) (21m)
discusses bottlenecks
relate with the weakest link memos and notes
when necessary, look them in the eye and tell them that they are the bottleneck, and explain why (22m)
larry ellison (again) (23m)
you have to follow up, that’s part of your job—the job is getting done
relate with trust memos and notes (as contrast)
cheat codes:
SAY THE NEGATIVES (p. 12)
relate with tell me the bad news memos
only the good news can wait
don’t take anything at face value, always dig (p. 16) (25m)
higher form of communication (p. 17) (26m)
irl, call, text—each has its own place, use them wise
“Ideally grab them in real life if you can. The more complex what needs to be said is, the higher the form of the communication you should use. Call first then text if they don’t answer.”
relate with words can’t exhaust notes
relate with communication is not limited to linguistics and include non-verbal components notes
“written communication also does not constitute communication unless they confirm they read it”
relate with make it easy to read notes
own your mistakes
read the unpublished by david ogilvy
bezos: “if you are not making any mistakes, you’re not taking enough risk”revisit
also bezos: “the bigger the company gets, the more expensive the mistake should be because we are getting bigger as a company”revisit
USE CONSULTANTS (p. 18) (29m)
by which he means people who can get the job done (not McKinsey type consultants)
“In every single freakin task assigned to you, always always always ask yourself first if you can find a consultant to help you.”
relate with outsource notes—and save keystrokes notes
relate with be the best by being the only notes
NO DOES NOT MEAN NO (19m) (30m)
exhaust all avenues
push through no
viz., work with high agency people
james cameron photocopying all the graduate thesis at the top film school in the country (for $100)
random things you should know (p. 23)
be honest >>> be nice to each other (32m)
jony ive on steve jobs calling him vain (watch this)
focus means saying no to an idea which you know is great, because you’re focused on this other thing
relate with work with the best on the best possible thing memos and notesrevisit
relate with opportunity cost memos and notes
jobs called him vain because he was showing to-be-liked tendency