Dear John I have bad news to tell you Mr Benson passed away last night Mr Benson is an old rival and one of my few admired opponents I am deeply impressed by his outstanding talent and his tenacious will to this day I still remember the joke that he made with me after our alliance he said Mr Rockefeller you are a brilliant Predator who is not soft losing to those bad guys would have made me very sad because it was like a robber
but playing against people like you whether I win or lose makes me happy I told him Mr Benson if you can replace the word Predator with the word conqueror I think I will gladly accept your compliment he smiled I admire the Warriors who are still fighting bravely against their enemy Mr Benson is such a person before Benson became my enemy I had just defeated the nation's largest Railroad Company the p pania Railroad
and successfully subdued the nation's fourth and last Railroad Company Baltimore and Ohio Railroad just like that together with my most loyal allies the Erie Railroad and the New York Central Railroad the four major Railway companies in the United States have all become tools for me to tame I am 27 pages into the book at this point and when I got to that sentence the four major Railway companies in the United
States have all been become tools for me to tame I wrote a note to myself if Napoleon or Alexander the Great had been in business they would be like this back to this letter at the same time standard oils pipelines extended bit by bit into the oil field giving me absolute control over all major pipelines connecting oil whales and railroad track lines Frankly Speaking at that time my influence had been extended to all the corners of the
oil industry if I say that I have the power of life and death over oil producers and oil refiners that is not a lie I can make them wealthy or I can make them worthless but some people did ignore my authority such as Mr Benson Mr Benson was an ambitious businessman who wanted to lay an oil pipeline to save the independent oil producers who were afraid of being crushed by me the idea of making a fortune dominated him to
bravely break into my territory his oil pipeline was laid forward at an alarming rate from the beginning this brought me to attention John any competition is not an easy game but a game full of Vitality requires close attention and constant decision-making otherwise you will lose if you're not careful Mr Benson is creating trouble and I have to stop him now keep in mind Rockefeller is writing this letter to his adult son he did not
think that this letter was ever going to be published and so he's going to describe over the next few pages his attack on Mr Benson and when Rockefeller attacks you it is always always a multi-pronged attack so he says at first I brought a long and narrow land along the Pennsylvania state border from north to south at a high price in attempt to prevent Bon for moving forward but Benson took a detour approach and
avoided my heavy punch then I use the power of my allies and asked the railway companies to never let any oil pipelines cross their Railways Benson did the same and successfully broke through again finally I wanted to use the power of the government to stop Benson but this was without success by this time I know that I have encountered a tough enemy to conquer but he cannot shake my determination to compete because the 110
M pipeline is my biggest threat if I let the crew crude oil flow there unimpeded they will also acquire the supply line to New York then Benson will replace me as the owner of the New York oil refining industry this is something I cannot allow I can't let Benson come here and destroy the market that I built with my efforts this is my life's effort I propose to buy his stock unfortunately he refused I never thought I would lose as
far as my nature is concerned I do not meet competition I destroy competitors I launched another series of offensives that made it difficult for him to Parry I sent someone to place a large amount of orders to the storage tank producers this is what they're actually moving the oil in okay so I sent someone to place a large amount of orders to the storage tank producers asking them to ensure production and
delivery on time so that they have no capacity to take other customers including Benson at the same time I drastically reduced the price of pipeline transportation and I attracted a large amount of oil refiners who relied on Benson to transport crude oil and converted them from his customers to our customers I then quickly acquired several refineries in New York to prevent them from becoming a customer of Benson's an excellent Commander will try
his best to destroy the bunker that is strong enough to destroy the city every round of my attack hit places where Mr Benson had no fuel and I became the winner in less than a year Mr Benson surrendered he was well aware that if he continued to fight against me he will only lose even more John every crucial competition is a battle that determines fate Retreat means surrender Retreat will turn you into a slave the war is
inevitable let it come in this world competition will not stop stop for a moment and we have no time to rest all we can do is bring a steel-like determination to face all kinds of challenges and competitions to win the competition it is more important that you stay alert at this point in time you need to know that kindness and tenderness may hurt you you need to have strength crutches cannot replace strong and powerful feet we must stand on our
own feet and rely on ourselves you should work hard to hone strengthen and develop your feet and let them exert their power I think Mr Benson who is now in heaven will agree with me love your father okay so that excert was from letter number five the book I'm going to talk to you about today is the 38 letters from John D Rockefeller to his son before I jump right into this book because we have a lot to talk about I'm
going to highly encourage you to buy the book I've already bought four copies of the book I'll probably buy 15 more it is so important this is the first book ever where I read it it's not even that long it's like less than 200 pages I spent entire week reading it and then decided to take another week rereading it and the reason I think this book is so important is because I even when you read rockefeller's autobiography right
he knew that book was going to be published he is in this book he is writing 38 letters to his son over 30 years he did not he's not writing this for publication and so as you see his unfiltered words that he's writing to his adult son it it becomes immediately apparent oh my God he knew what he was a conqueror through and through one that will not rest until he's completely unopposed and so I want to go to letter
one this is the interesting thing about the book The the letters are not actually in order uh of the by the year they're written and so in some cases Rockefeller is maybe 58 years old and his son is 23 in one case Rockefeller writes a letter when he's 96 years old and so keep in mind in this letter he is 58 years old he's writing to his 23-year-old son and he starts the letter Dear John you hope that I can sail with
you forever and this sounds great but I am not your Eternal Captain God created feet for us to let us walk on our own the founding belief of the United States of America is that all human beings are created equal but this equality is only present in the context of rights and laws it has nothing to do with economic and cultural advantages think of our world as a high mountain when your parents live on the peak of the mountain
you are destined to not live at the foot of the mountain likewise when your parents live at the foot of the mountain you are destined to not live on the peak of the mountain in most cases the status of parents will determine the starting point of their child's life so I want to take there's two things to think about in that sentence right in most cases the status of parents will determine the starting point of their child's life I
think that's why you and I are working unbelievably hard while we're constantly learning while we're constantly trying to build businesses and add value to other people's lives to make our own children's lives better right that is a huge motivator for me it's probably a huge motivator for you but this is another kind of crazy thing that he's saying because he's talking about how the world is right and yet that last
line was not true for his own life his huge driver which he'll talk about a lot in these letters is the fact that he was a poor boy the fact that his father was a bigamist he won't ever say that word uh the fact that there was a lot of insecurity around like his dad would drop them off is he ever going to come back is he going to give us money and so you have like an eight and nine-year-old Rockefeller running around right this
guy's got unbelievable self-confidence and I need to tell you that right up front if you want to say hey what does he repeat the most over these uh you know 38 letters it is for his son to have Relentless self-belief to believe that he can achieve great things that is the thing that Rockefeller repeats the most and you see that in his own life belief comes before ability this he's a poor 8 nyear old boy I don't know if I
I'll get to it but there's a story that he actually gets to go to school and he's in like tattered clothes and they're having a a picture taking and at the time like that's a very expensive Endeavor and it the story sounds almost fake when you hear about it right maybe he's making it up to like provide motivation for himself but he talks about the fact that he was asked because he was in tattered clothes and so and most of the other kids were
dressed well he was asked by the photographer to get out of the picture as to not ruin it to other people and saying hey that motivated me but this idea is running around 8 nine years old saying I'm going to be the richest man in the world one day and that part he's definitely not making up because there's a bunch of people that are interviewed in other biographies that grew up with Rockefeller that report him saying that
to them over and over again so let's go back to this in most cases the status of parents will determine the starting point of their child's life I I think for most people I think they understand that is true is why we're again pushing we're trying to create a better life for our kids uh the only truth is that as long as you work hard enough you will succeed I F this is a great line he's got a lot of great lines in the book I
firmly believe that our destiny is determined by our actions and not by our Origins so it's almost like he's contradicting himself too the right there the the paragraph above he says Hey in most cases the status of parents will determine the starting point of their child's life the end of the next paragraph is well our destiny is actually determined by our actions not by our Origins and so throughout this
entire book he's going to pet this is what makes it so fascinating because he's already on the other side of you know he's the richest rich person in the world uh's he's on the other side of achievement yet his letters are constantly peppered with stories of his young life whether he's a little boy laer the first job he gets his first business the first time he starts working in the oil industry this is it really is a remarkable remarkable book
so he says as you know when I was young my family was very poor I remember that the books I read when I was in high school were brought to us by Our Kind Neighbors in the beginning of my career as a bookkeeper I was only earning a weekly salary of $5 but it was through unremitting efforts unremitting efforts that have enabled me to establish an enviable oil Kingdom okay conqueror Kingdom everybody's under my uh my
control again he knows what he is he is a Napoleonic figure he is an Alexander the Great figure that he just happened to be he he wasn't in war he was he was in Commerce but it's undoubtedly the same personality type and he's going to mention these people over and over again this is my reward for my perseverance and hard work from the gods of Destiny another thing to point out too he uses present tense so you might have noticed
that in the Mr Benson letter the guy's dead the the events the war that happened a long time ago happened a long time ago and he's talking about in present tense I don't know if it's just because he's not good at grammar or I don't know if there's something going on there but I will make a point to you though that I was it was fascinating I remember reading back on episode 232 I read this this biography of Alexander
the Great and something that uh Rockefeller had in common with Alexander the Great is they would when they would come across a formidable enemy right even after they defeated the enemy if they thought that enemy was formidable and had talents they would utilize them inside their organization and so there is there's a story that happens in Alexander the Great's biography that's that's that's fantastic and there's this
guy named porus and he was an Indian an ancient Indian king he was alive around like 320 BC something like that right and so after he loses Alexander goes into a battle Alexander's already world famous at this point and they go into war but poror survives and so Alexander is actually talking to pors and I remember thinking when I was I'm about to read you this this this interaction with them from Alexander the Great's
biography and I remember thinking like this is remarkable like look how Alexander treats and respects genuine Excellence even a defeated enemy and this is something that Rockefeller has uh in common so Alexander asks porus is like what Folly forced you knowing as you did the fame of my achievements meaning that I'm conquering everybody around you why dare how dare you go against me what why would you even attempt to do so and this is what poris
said and this goes back to I think the Relentless self-belief that a lot of entrepreneurs or really anybody does something great uh has and he says since you asked I shall answer you with the frankness I did not think there was anyone stronger than I though I knew My Own Strength I had not yet tested yours and now the outcome of this war has shown you to be the stronger and so then Alexander continuing this conversation
he asks him like what should I do with you now that like I am the Victor you are the defeated person what would you do if you were in my shoes and his respon is fascinating he says what this day tells you to do the day on which you have discovered how transitory Good Fortune is meaning before this battle I stood in a very similar position that you were in and yet in a day that is all gone my good fortune is gone and what
Alexander noticed it says his greatness of spirit was not cowed or broken even in adversity and he felt obliged to treat him not only with Mercy but with respect and so Alexander not only did not kill him but he actually put him to work he reinstated him and granted him dominion over the lands that they just fought over it's just subordinate to Alexander that's exactly what that Rockefeller does that over and over
again if you really think about Standard Oil like he built a company of Founders he would defeat you and then if he thought you were talented he'd make you a partner okay so back to letter number one you see like we're in big trouble today like I'm going to lose my voice before I want to stop talking about this book I'm in big big trouble so has nothing to do with the letter that we're in right now but it's just fascinating I
just love how all this stuff connects together okay so he says John opportunities will always be unequal but the result prove otherwise in history whether it's in politics or business and especially in business there have been many examples of successful people who started from scratch he's talking about himself in fact most of the other Titans that he talks about in this book because Cornelius Vanderbilt is in this book JP
Morgan is in this book Henry Kay Frick is in this book Cyrus McCormack is in this book Andrew Carnegie is in this book they all know each other they all interact with each other but what was fascinating is in most of the examples of the people that you know come to dominate the other robber barons that are coming to dominate the most important uh parts of the American economy at this time are people that have a background
similar to Rockefeller I think the only one exclusion to I can think of that is uh actually JP Morgan so let's go back to this there's a lot of examples of successful people who started from scratch they have had only a few opportunities because of poverty but they eventually achieved Fame because of their past struggles this is so important he didn't say in spite of their past TR troubles he said because
the rare set of skills and struggles that he had to go through right and that he was able to survive left him on the other side of that with a very rare set of skills that people did not H have to go through all the the stuff he had to do lack and so therefore when he winds up meeting maybe somebody's equal in intelligence or equal resources at the time he has a a unique set of struggle or unique set of skills because of their
past struggles however history has also been filled with examples of Rich children who were privileged and have failed in life that is what he's trying to help his son avoid his son is a rich child he knows his son is a rich child at this point John junr is 23 years old and so what he's trying to avoid this is really another remarkable thing is because you know people say all kinds of things but I really do pay attention one
to their actions but also to what they say and the advice that they give their children you know if you have children you love the the I was trying to explain this to somebody that doesn't have children yet um and they want like a big family in fact somebody talked to you yesterday they want like five kids or seven kids something like that and I was like one that's going to I think when I get to the end of my life that's going
to be the biggest regret of my life that I didn't have more children but what I try to explain is like I know you because he has a deep love for his he just really thinks his parents did an excellent job like his mom and dad he just loves them a lot I'm like man I know you think you love your mom and your dad and you think you love your wife you don't even know what that word is what that word means until you have
children it is intense so think about I assume that Rockefeller felt about his kids same way I feel about mine same way a lot of humans feel so like the the idea that th this is what he thinks is the most important knowledge to pass down so much that he sits down and writes this out longhand uh it's just really incredible so now check this out this is a powerful powerful sentence ready the glory and success of the
family cannot guarantee the future of its children and grandchildren I'm going to say that again the glory and success of the family cannot guarantee the future of its children and grandchildren he is describing the exact situation they're in at the time he's writing this letter really what he's talking about let me let me back up though because there's another note I I skipped over about why this is a powerful sentence
what he's about to say here right that you know my success does not guarantee your future success it helps you certainly but it cannot you can you can screw this up right he wouldn't use that word but that's basically what he's what's going on in this part of the letter now what he's about to what he's about to describe is there's an aspect of human nature because it repeats over and over again that produces it says
shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations this is idea you have a PSD a poor smart determined person they build wealth then within three generations the family's back poor that happens over and over and over again so he's going to talk about that now I feel that once Rich children begin taking advantage of their family success they will have little opportunity to learn and develop the skills needed for survival those are the skills he's
telling his son that the ones that he possesses Rockefeller Senor possessed those skills right people of poor backgrounds will actively develop their creativity abilities while also cherishing and seizing various opportunities because they urgently need to rescue themselves Jesus can you believe the language that he's using here let's go back to the previous page this all makes sense if you if they
stack one sentence on another so he goes back hey I firmly believe that our destiny is determined by our actions not by our Origins then he talks about hey even when I was a poor kid and I got my first job it is through unremitting efforts that helped enable me to establish an oil Kingdom then he continues because they've had few opportunities because of poverty they eventually achieve fame and wealth because of their past struggles he
continues that a few paragraphs later with this people of poor backgrounds develop these skills because they urgently need to rescue themselves he's telling John Jr you don't need to rescue yourselves so you at a disadvantage and
he's known about this for a long time he talks about this even when you were younger John Jr therefore when you and your sisters were very young I deliberately concealed the fact that I was well off I instilled many values
such as frugality and personal struggle in you and so now he has to give advice to his son on what you have to do and really it comes down to I think you and I know this over and over again you shouldn't be proud of what you consume you didn't do anything for that people you should be proud of what you build and so his whole thing and this is why you see these you know these unbelievably successful businessmen you
see it over and over again in the books I hear it in conversations it's like they have this drive for achievement they build a company and they sell it and they're like I can't I don't know what's going on here like I sold my company and I'm depressed and it's because it wasn't the money that brought them contentment it was building something that they could be proud of and so he says a truly happy person is
one who is able to enjoy his creation those of whom meaning those people who are like sponges that only take without giving lose happiness and so then he starts building his son up and he talks about this over and over again John every move of yours will be a concern to me however as compared to being concerned I am more confident in you and I believe in your excellent character but you need to strengthen the belief that even though
the starting point will affect the outcome it does not determine it factors such as ability attitude character ambition method experience and Luck play an extremely important role in life and in the business World your life has just begun your life is in front of you I can deeply feel that you want to be the winner of this war but you must know that everyone has the will to pursue Victory and only those who are
determined and ready will win my son the privileged but powerless people are a waste while the educated but unaffected people are a pile of worthless garbage find your own way and God will help you love your father okay so let's go to letter two this is where once I got to letter two and this is you're talking you know each letter is probably you know five page or something like that I immediately started ordering multiple copies of the
book I knew from the GetGo I was going to give out this book I knew I was going to like it this is just incredible okay starts off it's a couple years after the other letter and he says some people are destined to be kings are great men because of their extraordinary talents for example Mr McCormack so he's talking about Cyrus McCormick who is the inventor of the harvesting machines they're called Reapers they they har
wheat but he's talking about his admiration for Mr McCormick and he says who has a head of luck and knows how to turn a harvester into a sickle for harvesting Bank notes so he made something that made somebody else's life
better built a company around it and then he has printed money he's talking about this he used harvesting machines to liberate American Farmer so he made their life better and he also Rose to the ranks to become one of the richest
people in the United States this business genius who was once just an ordinary farmand once had an esoteric saying which went luck is the remnant of design luck is the remnant of design that is Cyrus McCormick on luck is going to sound a lot like Napoleon if you have listened to episode 32 the mind of Napoleon Napoleon shares his view on luck a lot so he says in other words we create our own luck and no action can
eliminate it so that is rockefeller's interpretation of McCormick's quote luck is the remnant of design Rockefeller says in other words we create our own luck and no action can eliminate it this is very important for what he's about to explain to his son he is about to describe to his son what is known in history is the Cleveland Massacre where I think at 25 years old how Rockefeller became the largest oil refiner in the
United States at 25 and he's going to lay out his this plan and this is where right away the note I left myself on the next page which we're not there yet it says this paragraph is incredible he knew what he was a conqueror it is one thing to read in between the lines of a biography written by somebody else it is completely different for him to explain exactly who he is to his son in writing this is what makes this book so powerful
okay so in this world of ours it is difficult to find people who are good at planning luck like Mr McCormack and it is difficult to find people who do not believe in yet understand luck in the eyes of Ordinary People luck is always innate as long as they find someone who they find that someone has attained success they will casually say with contempt that man's luck is so good it is luck that helped him this is where
Rockefeller channels Napoleon such a person that says this stuff right Rockefeller clearly disagrees with it such a person can never have a peak into the truth that makes one successful everyone is a designer and architect of his own destiny that's what I believe in myself everyone is a designer and architect of his own destiny of course there's luck meaning chaos there's Randomness in life of course but what I
what I really think about when he says that right he says luck is the remnant of design we create our own luck no action can eliminate it everyone is is a designer and architect of his own destiny I want to go back to Napoleon from the mind of Napoleon episode 302 I know that book is very hard to get uh some I I just found somebody found it on a on a website in I think it was a Canadian version of Amazon they got it
for like 26 bucks that's a steal I think in America the last time I looked it was like 800 bucks I've seen it for sale for $1,000 if you can get a copy of it because it's 300 pages of Napoleon speaking directly to you and so this is what my interpretation of Napoleon is if you do everything you will win and so this is what he says all great events hang a single thread the clever man takes advantage of everything neglects
nothing that may give him some added opportunity the less clever man by neglecting one thing sometimes misses everything that is the end of Napoleon back to Rockefeller if you want to make a difference you cannot wait for luck to patronize My Credo is I do not live by god-given luck but I do so by planning luck I believe that a good plan will successfully affect luck my plan to turn competition into cooperation in the oil
industry Justified this this is entire you can think about what he was just telling you us me and you and his son it was a preface to the Cleveland Massacre so he's like well that's fine but this is how I affected my own luck before my plan began the oil refiners fought for their own interests which led to devastating competition between them this led to Falling oil prices which are a disaster for oil refiners at that time
the vast majority of refiners were operating a loss and were successfully sliding into bankruptcy and so this is when he starts to describe what I would consider like a Napoleon level ambition from day one I well aware that if we are to be profitable again and make money forever we must tame this industry and have everyone act rationally I regard it as a responsibility but it is very difficult to do it requires a plan a
plan that places all the oil refining businesses under my control John to be a good hunter in a profitable hunting ground you need to think hard be careful and be able to see all possible dangers and opportunities as well as study all kinds of strategies that could endanger your dominance like a chess player I thoroughly researched the situation and evaluated my strength I decided to use the base camp of Cleveland as my first
Battlefield to launch a war in order to rule the oil industry after conquering he uses the word conquering on I don't even know how many times 50 times in the book something like that after conquering more than 20 competitors there I move quickly to open up a second Battlefield until I conquered all of their opponents and established an oil industry and a new order just like a commander on the battlefield you must
first know what kind of firearm to choose in order to be the most effective before choosing your Target in order for me to successfully realize my plan to place the oil industry under my command how many times do he assess something like that we're like six paragraphs into this letter it's like I must control everything it must be under my command all of them not just your business but the entire industry uh so he says uh a
thorough solution is needed and that is money I needed a lot of money to buy those refineries that insisted on over producing but the amount of money on my hands was not enough to realize my plan remember he's in his early 20s when this is happening okay so I decided to form a joint stock company to attract investors from outside the industry soon we registered a Standard Oil Company in Ohio with millions of dollars in assets
and the capital expanded significantly within three and a half years Visionary businessmen are always good at finding opportunities in every disaster and that is how I did it as an excellent line that I double underline Visionary businessmen are always good at finding opportunities in every disaster and that is how I did it before we started our journey of Conquest there's that word again before we started our journey of
Conquest the oil industry was in chaos and there was no hope at all 90% of the oil refiners in Cleveland had been crushed by the increasingly Fierce competition if they did not sell the factory they can only watch themselves go extinct this was the best time to acquire an opponent acquire them when they're at their weakness he's about to tell his son stop being soft it really has nothing to do with conscious an
Enterprise is like a battlefield and the purpose of strategic goals is to create the most beneficial state for yourself for strategic considerations the first Target I chose to conquer there's that word again was not a small company this is also something that's fascinating about Rockefeller strategy he uses over and over again if he has let's say he's got whatever the number is let's say it's five competitors he doesn't go
after the smallest easiest one first he goes out he's like who's the best who's the most formidable I'm going after him cuz if when the other people that are weaker and smaller the other four competitors for example when they see that that guy is now under my control they they fall like dominoes does this over and over again so he says uh the first one I chose to conquer was not a small company that was vulnerable but I
chose the strongest opponent this is this company called Clark Payne this company was well known in Cleveland and they were ambitious and they wanted to acquire my oil refinery that is obviously unacceptable to Rockefeller I will have to strike first see this what I mean he talks in present tense it's very makes a very interesting read I will have to strike first to gain the upper hand I took the initiative to meet
the largest shareholder of Clark Payne I told him that this chaotic and sluggish error of the oil industry should end in order to protect the industry that countless families depend on for survival I wanted to build a huge high- performance oil company and welcomed him to join my plan impressed him and he agreed to sell the company his company for $400,000 now this is very important about this I knew and it actually says I
know so again present tense I know that Clark Payne is not worth that amount at all but I did not reject the offer acquiring them meant that I would gain the title of the world's largest oil refinery and would also serve as a strong Pioneer in the industry to efficiently bring together the refiners in Cleveland he is describing the Cleveland Massacre this trick really worked in less than two months there were 22 other competitors under the
leadership of Standard Oil this gave me Unstoppable momentum in the following three years I conquered I don't have to point out that he's using the same word over and over again I don't have to keep pointing it out to you right I just think it's fascinating I conquered oil refiners in Philadelphia Pittsburgh and Baltimore and became the master of the oil refining IND hisory in the United States and so how did he start this letter to
his son about the difference some people say oh this guy's lucky that's where he he got it other people believe right one of my favorite quotes came from I forgot who said it but it was in Peter Teal's book 0 to1 weak men believe in luck strong men believe in cause and effect it's clear what Rockefeller believed in so let's go back to this he says he's the only Master of the oil refining industry in the United States if I were
only to lament on my bad luck at the time and follow the crowd I might have been conquered but I planned my luck anything can happen in this world those who blindly follow the crowd and rules I view them with disdain they think that it is worth being complacent John for our good luck to continue we must carefully plan our luck and planning luck requires a good plan there's two basic prerequisites the
first condition is to know your goals such as what you want to do or even the kind of person that you want to become the second condition is knowing what resources you have such as status money interpersonal relationships and even abilities the order of these two basic prerequisites is interchangeable you may have an idea or a goal before you start looking for goals that can be achieved from the resources that you have or you
can also mix them together to form the third and fourth methods such as having a certain goal and a certain resource after adjusting the goal accordingly you have a foundation you can conceive the designed structure and the rest is up to you to fill it in with your means in time while waiting for luck to come so this is something that's is fascinating he uses the word get all your resources to get understanding what you want to do
and you wait for and you're waiting for luck to come the way you and I have described this in the past is the importance of making sure that your business survives in other words you have to stay in the game long enough to get lucky you need to remember my son that designing luck is designing life so while you wait for luck you need to know how to guide your luck give it a try love your father so I want to move on to his views
or his advice on what you choose to do for a living and the massive Advantage you have if you actually enjoy what you do I never treated work as hard labor without fun instead I found infinite happiness from work work is a privilege work is the foundation of all businesses the source of prosperity and the shaper of genius that's a great line when I first entered the business world I often heard that a person who wants to climb
to the peak needs to make a lot of sacrifices however as the years passed I began to understand that many people who were climbing to the peak were not paying the price they work hard because they really like work this entire paragraph reminds me of Sam zel and the way he described it I remember when I got to talk to him he was 81 years old a few months a handful of months before he passed away unfortunately and this idea
he's like you know people keep saying that I'm when am I going to retire he's like retire from what he was always working and never working and so I think that's what uh Rockefeller is describing here they were work hard because they really like work people who climb up in Indie industry are fully committed to what they are doing they sincerely love the work that they do if you sincerely love the work that you do John you will
naturally succeed and so another thing about Rockefeller that's fascinating he like I don't even think he celebrated his birthday but what he would celebrate for the rest of his life instead was they call like job day or work day I can't remember the term that he gives it but essentially he would celebrate every year for the rest of his life the day that he got his first job so that's how much he liked work he talks about this I
will never forget my first job although I had to go to work every day when the morning had just begun then never let me lose interest in the job instead it fascinated and delighted me even all the red tape in the office did not make me lose my passion for the job as a result the employer my employer kept raising my salary I am an ambitionist since I was a child I have wanted to be a wealthy man this company that I worked at was a good
place for me to exercise my ability and give myself a try in business it taught me to respect numbers and facts he was the bookkeeper remember it has also allowed me to see the power of the transportation industry all of these have played a great role in my future business and so one thing he talks about over and over again is the importance and the impact of your self-belief and just having an optimistic positive
mindset we don't see things as they are we see things as we are and he talks about he tells stories and parables throughout these letters and one of them is this group of stonemasons there's three of them who are doing the exact same job sculpting stone statues but if you would ask them individually one at a time like what are you doing and the first one says I'm just chiseling Stone uh the second one says I'm making a
statue and then the third person is really the way Rockefeller felt about his work the third person says I am making a work of art this kind of person always takes pride in and enjoys his work and often cites this job is very meaningful heaven and hell are created by ourselves if you give meaning to your work you will feel happy regardless of its size and you will feel fulfilled John if you view work as a pleasure life
is heaven if you view work as a duty life is Hell reflect on your work attitude it will make everyone happy and so at the beginning of every letter there's like a headline there's some quotes in the letter it gives you an idea of what that letter is about so this one is about the importance of doing it now and that something that Feller says that opportunity comes from opportunity and so he says to conquer you need to do and to do again ever to
do again and so he says I've always believed that opportunity comes from another opportunity if you look at the ordinary people you will find that they all living passively they always say much more than they do and even do nothing almost all of them are good at finding excuses they will find various excuses to procrastinate positive action is another positive attribute of mine I never like to talk in vain because I
know that there is no result without action and there is nothing in the world that is obtained just from thinking we cannot fall into the Trap of continuous deliberation and planning no matter how detailed the plan is we still cannot accurately predict the final outcome this does not mean that I deny that planning is very important it is the first step to achieving favorable results but action solves everything
that's going to be another maximum that I think I won't forget action solves olves everything without action nothing will happen I love these three-word maxims that I run across in these books a few weeks ago I found one uh in the early life of Winston Churchill that I love and that I want to make sure I repeat over and over again it's from episode 319 which is about like the first 26 years of Winston Churchill's
life and he would tell himself constantly always more audacity always more audacity and then we have Rockefeller telling his young son action solves everything he continues people who laugh action have a bad habit and he explains some of the reasons for this you know so a lot of people are just a fear they have a fear of the unknown or a fear of change and so his whole point is like you have to get used to that
fear that fear is normal and you have to act anyways everyone is worried and scared when deciding on a huge event but the action group of people will use the determination to ignite the sparks in their soul come up with various ways to fulfill their wishes and gain the courage to overcome all kinds of difficulties many people who lack action naively think that others will care about their Affairs in actual fact other
than yourself others will not be very interested in your Affairs people are only interested in their own things so at this time we'd better push it that's another great line we'd better push it only by relying on oneself can a person then not let herself down smart people make things happen smart people make things happen smart people know that not all actions will produce good results they're not scared of failure smart
people will learn from the work that has a positive effect and then concentrate on the work related that gives them the greatest results so I get to this section I'm thinking about what he's saying and it made me think of one of my favorite things that Charlie Monger said how many times can I say one of my favorite things that Charlie Monger said and it'd be like a hundred different things maybe it's like one out of a
thousand things that the SM things that Charlie merer said so anyways one of the things I liked right that Charlie Munger said that the fundamental algorithm of Life repeat what works that's exactly Rockefeller is using different language but he's saying you know smart people are going to learn from work that has a positive effect and then they're going to concentrate back on that work that gave them the greatest results that's
the way Rockefeller says it the way Charlie merer says it is the fundamental algorithm of life is repeat what works and now that I'm rereading the section I'm really glad I took another week just rereading it cuz I was just at this private invite only very small conference from super impressive uh group of Founders and I was talking to one of them I won't name him in case he doesn't want me in case he doesn't want the credit for the
story but he had uh spoken to Charlie a few times and he runs this phenomenal business and he owns a bunch of businesses and he's constantly looking for like CEOs to run the companies that he's that he owns and so he asked Charlie you know Charlie's been in this position like how do you guys find your CEOs and it's this beautiful Simplicity that Munger has right fundamental algorithm of Life repeat what works and
so he's asking M he's like well how do you find cosos if you need to replace a CO for one of your portfolio companies he goes find somebody who's done it before so in other words like find somebody who succeeded at being a COO
before and he goes what about like identifying like young unproven talent and Charlie's like I don't do that he's like and that's it it was just like I I'm just not going to do that I'm going to find you know everybody has to
figure out what they want to do but I just love monger simplic City where he's just like how did you find it I just looked for somebody that had done the job before well what about you know giving these new unproven people Talent somebody else can do that I didn't do that just fundamental algorithm of Life repe what works I don't know why I find this so funny all right many people make themselves into a passive person they
want to wait until all the conditions are perfect before taking action life this is such a great line too life is an opportunity at a time almost nothing is perfect passive people people have a mediocre life they must wait for everything to be 100% perfectly safe before doing something this is a Fool's approach we must believe that what is in hand what is what we have in hand is the opportunity we need now so that we can
keep ourselves out of the Quagmire of waiting forever before falling into action there is no absolute perfection in life if you wait until all conditions are perfect the opportunity will be given to others stop daydreaming think of the present and start doing it now sentences another great oh my goodness another great line ready sentences such as tomorrow next week and future have the same meaning as can never be done
and then he's describing to his son this is normal right it's normal to have periods of Doubt uh periods where you have lower confidence and really he's speaking to me the power of baphy because you get to see the struggle you see you know some of the smartest and most productive people that ever live you see them struggle and then you see their reaction action to it everyone has a time when they lose confidence and
doubts their abilities especially in adversity but people who really understand the art of action can overcome this with a with strong perseverance they will tell themselves that everyone has failures and when they fail miserably they will tell themselves no matter how much preparation they have made and how long they think before they have to do it they will inevitably make mistakes passive people do not regard
failure as an opportunity for Learning and growth they are always admonishing themselves I really can't do it I have lost my eagerness to participate in future activities the initial idea is just the beginning of a series of moves so he's he just described what a passive person is does right and he's now describing what really the way you should do it just real like yeah you're going to be scared might be a little doubtful that
you can pull it off but again you have a plan initial idea just a very first set of moves and you're going to have to adapt from there but those who stand on the sidelines and do nothing will never be leaders the real bases people use to judge your abilities not how much you have in your head but your actions that is again why this entire theme of this letter is the importance of doing it now opportunity comes from opportunity
you're going to plan you're going to think but then you need to have a bias for actions this is ex excellent this is very very fascinating habits are like ropes remember he says people that lack action have a bad habit so now he ties us back together habits are like ropes we spin a rope every day and finally it is too thick to break the ropes of habit either lead us to the peak or lead us to
the trough bad habits are easy to develop but difficult to sever good habits are difficult to develop but they are easy to maintain have the habit of doing it now get rid of the habit of being distracted we need this advice more than ever in the world that you and I live in get rid of the habit of being distracted be determined to be a person person of initiative cultivating the habit of action does not require special wisdom
or special skills you only need to work hard to let good habits bloom in your life son son life is a great battle to win you need to act act again and act forever Merry Christmas I think there's no better Christmas present than this letter to you at this time love your father okay so moving ahead so if you buy this book you don't have to read it straight through like I said earlier there's like no narrative structure here
I mean now we're going into just different themes which is fascinating so now he's going to have entire letter about the importance of borrowing money early in his career and he starts by pointing out something that he notices in his young son that you know you want to win but you're too afraid to lose and so your fear of losing is stronger than your will to win and it can't be that way um so he's going to talk about this
he makes the point that it's very common but this kind of unbearable feeling seemed to have been ruling me since the beginning of my entrepreneurship and even after becoming more accomplished so every time before borrowing money I would Ponder between prudence and adventure and I would struggle I would even fail to fall asleep while lying on my bed and thinking about ways to repay my debts right so he sees in his son
something that he lacked uh like they're having the same feeling they're they're afraid but the the action that Rockefeller senior uh pursued is very different um from the action that his son is pursuing at this point in his life and so that is what he's talking about after my fear of failure I still manage to always get up and decide to borrow money again I have no other way to go but to borrow money from the bank
and so he's talking about the very beginning of his career this is when he's buying up all his competitors he's trying to consolidate his whole goals like I have to control the whole industry and if I control the whole industry I could set the prices and at least we know that we're not going to be be like slid into bankruptcy by like 90% whatever he said in the other letter I think he said like 90% of the firms in
Cleveland had already been either slid into bankruptcy on the Press office of bankruptcy so he's talking about a similar time in his life and he just goes into detail like this is how he viewed debt he in his early life he
viewed debt as a tool to seize an opportunity and then he's got a crazy I don't think he would encourage us to do this like continually because he does know it's a risk but was fascinating he has another line I don't know if it's in
this letter or another one but he's like eventually I became my own bank so he says son what is presented to us is often a great opportunity to solve tricky problems ingeniously borrowing money is not a bad thing as long as you don't treat it as a life buoy to only be used in time of Crisis but instead treat it as a powerful tool that you can use to create opportunities do not fall into the Quagmire of fear and failure fear will
restrain you from attaining great achievements whether it is to win wealth or to win in life what good people think about in competition is not what they will lose but what they should do to become a winner do not let the fear of failure stop you and focus on the fact that you're desire to win should greatly outweigh your fear of failing this essentially what he's telling his son again he's just going to repeat this
several times if I can borrow enough cash to mortgage a piece of land and allow myself to monopolize a large area then I will seize this opportunity without hesitation when I was in Cleveland I won the top position in the Cleveland oil refining industry for expansion I owed many huge debts and even mortgaged my business in the end I succeeded and created shocking achievements so that part of the letter is how how we view debt as a tool to
seize an opportunity now this is actually fascinating he combines this with another idea that you need to use honesty and honesty is a tool and a strategy so he says I always insist on telling the truth the rewards of being honest are enormous the bankers knew my character so he would talk about he would just lay all the cards on the table for all the people he owes money to and in many cases he would encourage
them to buy in equity um and so they actually they're their interests were aligned but then he's fast forwarding he's talking about when the reason being honest that that people know you're telling telling the truth one they'll back you when you're in a bad position so he found himself in a bad position and he's glad that he was honest with all the people because these are people are going to wind up saving his ass at
this time I remember one day one of my oil refineries suddenly caught fire and I suffered heavy losses the insurance company was unable to pay and I needed a sum of money some of the bank directors that he went to were hesitant at this moment one kind soul a Mr Stillman waved off the other directors listen to me gentlemen Mr Rockefeller and his partners are very well accomplished people I urge you to lend them without
hesitation I am assured he's talking about being by Rockefeller I am assured take however much money you need and so he this is rockefeller's interpretation of what just happened I subdued the bankers with my honesty honesty is a method and a strategy today I no longer need to turn to any bank I am my own bank okay so I'm going to skip ahead to a next letter really the know myself this is um how to think about this letter is problems are just
opportunities and work clows and then of course it has to be extreme if rocker Pell is writing it make yourself strong or you're going to be prey so it says Dear John your mood has been very down lately which makes me sad I can really feel that you are still ashamed and humiliated from the investment that cost you millions of dollars this caused you to feel depressed and worried however this is not necessary be happy my son
you need to know that no one in the world leads a smooth life that's excellent advice to remember no one in the world leads a smooth life on the contrary they live side by side with failure and so then Rockefeller tells his son how he responds to failure unlike some people I take failure as a glass of spirits it is bitter when you drink it yet it gives you plenty of Vitality when I first stepped into the
business world and prayed to God to bless our new company a catastrophic storm hit us we this is the before the oil company this when he had that produce like he was wholesaling uh produce and Grains and food uh we signed a contract to buy a large amount of beans and were prepared to make a lot of money but we did not expect that a sudden Frost would come and Crush our sweet dreams half of our crop was destroyed I know that I cannot be
depressed and so after that business failed I borrowed money from my father again he did not want to do so because his dad would also tax him at crazy rates too I told my partner that we must promote ourselves and let our potential customers know through newspaper advertisements that we can provide large prepayments and can supply large amounts of agricultural products in advance instead of being affected by the bean
incident we made a considerable net profit so using that money advertising the fact that they're offering things that other competitors are not advertising it is a risk that he's doing so just to make it clear and yet because his offer is so differentiated it resulted in a huge increase in the amount of customers everyone hates failure however once avoiding failure becomes your motivation for doing things you embark on a path of laziness and
powerlessness remember he's saying you take a problem that you have and you find the opportunity hidden in the problem solve that problem and you've just created a new opportunity out of it son opportunity is a scarce thing you need to know that we live in a jungle where the weak are prey to the strong I am a clever loser I know how to learn from failures draw success factors from my experience through failure and use
Innovative methods that I have never thought of before to start a new career so I want to say that failure is a good thing as long as it not does not become a habit my motto is people always have to maintain their energy remain strong and persistent no matter what failures and setbacks they encounter optimistic people will see opportunity and suffering and pessimistic people will see suffering in Opportunity failure is
a learning experience you can either turn it into a tombstone or a stepping stone I have great faith in you love your father and so in the next letter he's still talking about the fact that only giving up will result in Failure he's still counseling his young son and he uses the example of studying the life of Abraham Lincoln Rockefeller thought Lincoln is the greatest hero of the last century uh love speaking about him love
using his uh like his perseverance as something to Aspire to or an example to learn from and he talks about the fact that he was not frighten by difficulties he was born impoverished and was driven out of his home he failed in his first time in business and the second time he failed even worse his road to politics was bumpy he lost his first campaign then lost his job his second campaign was successful but what followed was the
loss of a loved one and a failure to be elected to the state senator in subsequent elections he failed six times so he's just giving an overview right he says after every failed campaign Lincoln would motivate himself by saying quote this is just a slip up not as if I'm dead and unable to get up Lincoln's life wrote a great truth unless you give up you will not be defeated almost all great figures in history have suffered a
series of merciless blows each of them almost surrendered but they finally achieved brilliant results because of their persistence too many people overestimate what they lack but underestimate what they have that's another great line too many people overestimate what they lack and underestimate what they have Lincoln's life is a great testimony of turning setbacks into Victory Frankly Speaking I
have no intention to compare myself with President Lincoln but I do have some of his spirit I hate it when my business fails and I lose money but what really concerns me is that I'm afraid that in future business I will be too cautious and become a coward Lincoln had steel likee perseverance he had a saying which was well said he said you cannot sharpen your razor on velvet so the next letter I want to talk to you about is all about
the importance of self-belief the level of confidence determines the level of achievement why are there so many losers I think it's because there are not many people who truly believe that they can do something and as a result not many people really do the power of faith can help us move a mountain some people really believe that they will succeed one day they carry out various tasks with the mentality of I'm going to the
top I was one of these people when I was a poor boy I was confident that I would become the richest person in the world strong self-confidence inspired me to come up with various plans methods means and techniques and one step at a time to climb to the top of the oil Kingdom I never believed that failure is the mother of success I believe that faith is the father of success Victory is a habit what I want is sustained Victory
believing that there will be great results is the driving force behind all great careers believing that there will be great results is the driving force behind all great careers I believe that TR that sentence to be true I have talked to many people who have failed in their business when these losers were speaking they would often unwittingly say to be honest I didn't think it would work or I felt uneasy before I started
or they'd say something like in fact it's not too surprising that this has failed disbelief is a negative Force the level of confidence determines the level of achievement mediocre people live their life day by day believing that they can't do anything if they cannot raise their self-confidence they will shrink in their self-judgments and become increasingly insignificant what they think of themselves will also make
others think of them in the same manner so then these kinds of people will become insignificant in the eyes of everyone else remember he's saying where the origination of that their self-judgment right what they the fact that they doubt themselves so much starts internally and then eventually the external world starts to agree with what's inside he's saying take the other thing think believe that you can achieve things believe that you're a great
person and then out and believe that truthfully don't lie to yourself right and then do the steps necessary to make that true and then the outside world will share your belief I always say it's like Churchill this is Churchill's just on my mind but other people like Churchill had this Fierce self-belief and then all he did he went around getting others to believe to share that belief too and so then Rockefeller goes
back and giving his viice on to his son about how to do this I replace the thought of failure with the belief of success I replace the thought of failure with the belief of success when I face a difficult situation I think I will win instead of I might lose when I compete with people I think I am as as good as them not I can't compete with them when opportunities arise I think I can do it instead of I can't do it I remind myself
regularly you are better than you think never never sell yourself cheaply so he's talking about not only what he doing did for himself but he's telling his son never never sell yourself cheaply those who can reach the Pinnacle in business Mission writing acting and other Pursuits of achievement are all because they can steadily and persistently pursue a plan of self-development and growth this training program will bring them a
serious of rewards and so if I had to summarize that letter of what he's trying to teach his son to remind yourself regularly you are better than you think and then never never sell yourself cheaply this is very fascinating there is um I don't know how to describe it is there a cynicism to his view of human nature he doesn't he definitely doesn't hold back but he's also a deeply religious man that that
cared for Humanity as a whole so it's kind of like it's hard to reconcile the two but I'm just going to read you his words and then you know you can kind of make your own judgment but he's talking about the fact that interest right personal interest is a shadow that illuminates all of human nature so he says this is what my experience has taught me my life makes me firmly believe that interests seem to be
Invincible it is more accurate to say that we are slaves of interests rather than masters of our own souls and you start to see more of like his extreme Viewpoint he says I can assert that in this world there is no one who does not pursue profit from the moment you step into the interpersonal relationships a protracted Life game for profit begins in this game everyone is your enemy including yourself therefore when I say
what I say through all of this I always adhere to a principle I can deceive the enemy but I can never deceive myself fighting back at an enemy who is shooting at me will never disturb my conscience son please don't get me wrong I don't intend to paint our world with an oppressive and suffocating gray in fact I long for friendship sincerity kindness and all the beautiful emotions that can nourish my soul and I believe
in them however in the market I often encounter betrayal and deception to this day I can still clearly remember the experiences of being deceived several times which is Unforgettable and so then he talks about his experience going back to his early days in Cleveland again and so he says the most painful deceit I experienced occurred in Cleveland he goes back to the fact that the oil refining industry was unprofitable because we have all
this over production and then a bunch of the oil refineries had uh already fallen into bankruptcy and as you and I already know his goal was to buy them all up or control all of them and so he says I told those Refinery owners who were on the verge of bankruptcy that we are at a disadvantage we must do what we have to do to protect ourselves together I think my plan is very good please think about it if you're interested I will very
happy to discuss this with you I bought as a result I bought many worthless factories but some of these people were so evil selfish and ungrateful after they got my money they became enemies they unscrupulously tore up their agreement with me made a comeback bought equipment with money earned with my help returned to their old business and publicly blackmailed me asking me to buy their Factory yet again at that moment
my mood was terrible and I even blame myself for being honest and kind in profit making games today's friends will become tomorrow's enemies this situation often happens and so he talks about the fact that he was even deceived by people in his church there was two church members that had deceived me at this time I was shocked when I knew that I had been deceived by them I do not understand why people who pray with me
and swear religiously will want to abandon their pride Indulgence and greed oh how they can be so despicable he he uses an exclamation point which is very rare for him by the way so he's kind of fired up with what he's saying here after all kinds of deception and lies I told myself you can only believe in yourself I know this kind of slightly hostile mentality is not good but there are too many deceptions in this world
and guarding ourselves is an indispensable survival skill remember all this is coming from advice that he's giving his son right guarding ourselves is an indispensable survival skill dealing with bastards will make you smart if anybody wants to deceive me now it will be more difficult than crossing the Grand Canyon I can let my opponent teach me but I will never teach my opponent I am careful of those who ask
me to treat them sincerely because they want to reap benefits for me so this is what I mean a much more like cynical you know darker view on at least Human Nature markets which he says again is is uh informed by his experience in this game everyone is the enemy because everyone takes care of their own interests you need to know how to protect yourself and prepare for war anytime anywhere and then he ends the letter this way son what Destiny gives
us is not the wine of disappointment but the cup of opportunity and so want to skip ahead to another letter where he really just talks about his I think he has a ruthless competitive drive that would be scary to a normal person and he's going to talk about the fact that this guy named Mr pots dare opposed him and he had to be destroyed and then since he was formidable he had to be brought into his organization so he's writing this
letter when he's almost 8 years old and this is hilarious the way he starts it dear John today on my way to play golf I encountered a challenge that I have not had in a long time a young man arrogantly overtook my car in his car he provoked this old man's competitive nature and in the end he could only look at the back of my car this made me very happy just like when I defeated my opponent in business John my nature
never wears off what I like is the good feeling of Victory so there this entire time I'm reading this letter the way he sounds to me is if you listen to my episode on Tiger Woods it was episode 301 there's a line that Tiger Woods says that I think would also come out of rockefeller's mouth and Tiger Wood said there is no feeling I found that matches the feeling that I've beaten everybody and so we have yet another story where a
guy tries to lay oil pipelines and he's going to incur the wrath of Rockefeller and his name is Mr pots so he says whenever I encounter a strong opponent the competitiveness in my heart will burn and when it is extinguished What I Gain is Victory and happiness that sounds just like Tiger Wood saying that the best feeling in the world is the feeling that when he has beaten everybody and he says Mr Potts once
brought me this kind of pleasure and he was great that is a insane statement this is what I mean this there is he's unapologetically extreme he's talking about the fact that the greatest feeling was given because this formidable competitor brought out a wrath and competitiveness in Rockefeller that Rockefeller loves and he just loved to stand over his defeated opponent I'm going to skip to what he was doing he's
just essentially a he's he he owns a subsidiary of it's It's called the Empire transportation company it is a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company this is what you need to know about that right so he's trying to build a network an oil pipeline Network so he owns the company but it's a subsidiary of another company which means he is not in control he is this guy does not have Rockefeller like control that's going to
come into play when Rockefeller describes how he destroys Mr pots however the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was ambitious this is the owner right of Mr pot's company they tried to replace me and put the oil fing industry under their control they merged the two largest oil pipelines in the oil area into their own Railway Network to try to get my neck stuck the person responsible for accomplishing this mission was Mr
Potts who is the president of the Empire transportation company and so he's a very simple motto during this time anyone who opposes me is an enemy so he says sitting and watching an opponent gather strength so they can then subvert one's position is stupid I am not stupid my belief is to reach the goal before others I quickly set up the US transportation company so he's setting up another company and launched a
selfdefense Counterattack and so he does the same thing he always does he tries to take he sets up the company doing the same thing that that that Mr Po company's doing and yet gets customers from them within a year we controlled 40% of the oil transportation business in the oil region but this was just the beginning of my contest with Mr pots the people who can get ahead in the world are those who know how to find their
ideal environment if they cannot do it they will create it themselves and that's exactly what Rockefeller is about to do here I admired Mr pot's courage and I was more than willing to accept the challenge he sought to shake my dominance in the oil refining industry and I must drive him out of the oil refining industry I first met up with the owner of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company Mr Scott remember Mr pot's company is a subsidiary of the
Pennsylvania railro company I told him bluntly that Mr Potts was a poacher and he was breaking into territory we must stop him but Mr Scott was very stubborn and determined to allow pot's thieving to continue I had no choice but to challenge this powerful enemy and as always Rockefeller has this multi-pronged attack the first thing I did was terminate all business dealings with Pennsylvania Railroad Company they
were one of the largest uh customers of him I instructed our subordinates to transfer the transportation business to the two major Railway companies that have supported us asked them to reduce Freight rates so they could compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company weaken its power and at the same time I ordered all refineries in Pittsburgh that depend on the Empire company for transportation to close not to negotiate lower prices
not to do anything literally I will close down my businesses and starve you to death at the time the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest transportation company in the United States they were proud that they had never been conquered there's that word again but under my three-dimensional oppressive style of play they could only surrender but before they surrendered they resorted to an unpopular move they
started cutting wages so they're they're being squeezed their revenues weigh down so they try to cut wages and what happens at this time in history you already know like when you start messing with with uh how much you're paying
labor like they they'll strike and not only will they'll strike they can get very violent uh there's you know multiple examples in in US history of uh labor and ownership there're being literally Wars like they hire armies in
kill each other it's crazy uh the angry workers burned hundreds of tankers and locomotives in a fire forcing them uh the Pennsylvania Rao company to ask Wall Street for an emergency loan when I read this I have no proof I have to be very clear about this but I'm reading this and I'm like this just sounds like he set this up like he set up the conditions so they actually and again like this is pure speculation but when
you spend the mind or so much time in the mind of Rockefeller maybe you know he could he could get them into doing this himself but I just I have a feeling that he stoked uh the anger like there was obviously some kind of simmering anger between labor and I think he just poured gasoline on it so the fact that angry workers burned hundreds of uh tankers and locomotives in a fire so think about from Pennsylvania rots uh perspective at
this point right they're in a war Mr Potts is supposed to be leading that war against them Rockefeller tries to like let's you know let's figure out a solution to this Mr Scott The Head of Pennsylvania ra company is like no you know we're going to keep fight fting and then Rockefeller just lighting them up shutting down refineries squeezing them every possible way they start making a lot less money they make some bad
choices then now you have that Compound on the fact that how much money is lost in equipment and time and everything else because the literally your your assets are being lit on fire then you have to go and you have to get an emergency loan from Wall Street and then when it leaks that you're seeking an emergency loan because all this stuff is going down what happens you're stock price plummets and Rockefeller says the
following this is what I mean this guy's ruthless as a result of their duel with me their pockets were getting cleaned and so what he admired about Mr Potts he says Mr pots is a soldier so even after my victory was assured he still wanted to continue fighting with me but he's not in charge Mr Scott decisively lowered his arrogance and S someone to tell me that he hoped to make peace Potts was not in control Potts wanted to
prove himself to be great but he failed he failed completely a few years later Potts became an active and diligent director in one of my companies arrogance usually leads to a downfall Scott and Potts and his ilk thought they were of noble origin and were always arrogant therefore my heart was fluttering when I successfully tamed these arrogant donkeys so then he has an entire letter where I really feel the note of myself
is Rockefeller describes the loser in its natural habitat so it says Dear John Captain showfield lost again he lost and got a little Furious and threw his golf club into the sky in a rage as a result he had to buy a new one Frankly Speaking I prefer the character of the captain the goal of life is to win the captain also has a commendable Advantage after losing he never makes excuses in my opinion excuses is a mental illness and
people with this serious illness are all losers without exception the more successful a person is the less excuses he will find the loser will explain why he could not achieve it why he did not do it why he could not do it why he's not the right person the first action that the loser takes is to find various reasons for his failure I despise those who are good at making excuses only only a loser finds a good excuse this type of
person will never want to admit that they're a person who loves making excuses and so he gives some examples of typical excuses uh that people make and what he feels is incorrect about uh those excuses the first one is the excuse of I am not smart enough is very common I have found that most people have two basic wrong attitudes towards intelligence number one they underestimate their own brain power and
number two they overestimate the brain power of others and so he's telling his son to be a good businessman you don't need to be lightning fast you don't need to have amazing memory you don't have to be the best in school the key is to have a strong interest and enthusiasm for doing business so he talks about the importance of enthusiasm in many of the letters he talks about that being like a force multiplier enthusiasm is force
multiplier to whatever you're doing uh it's very interesting the things he chooses to repeat and that the importance of interest and enthusiasm is something that he talks to his son about quite a bit uh so it goes back to you need to have a strong interest in enthusiasm for doing business interest and enthusiasm are important factors that determine success or failure the outcome of things is often proportional
to our enthusiasm that's a great line the outcome of things is often proportional to our enthusiasm damn that's a you know that's too good I need to repeat it three times sorry the outcome of things is often proportionable to our enthusiasm enthusiasm can make a 100 times or a thou enthusiasm can make things excuse me aund times or a thousand times better I believe that an average talented person who has an optimistic positive
and Cooperative attitude towards the world will earn more money and win more respect as compared to a talented but pessimistic passive and uncooperative person and so he talks about the importance of being a person that does not use Talent as an excuse that will never underestimate your own talent and also not to overestimate the talents of others and he's describing the his mentality that he has a strong desire to
establish an I will win attitude he knows to use his intellect to actively create and find ways to succeed not to prove that he will fail he needs to use his mind to create and develop new ideas so he's using the word he but he's describing just to be clear he's describing his own mindset okay so he has a strong desire to establish I will win and and I will win attitude he knows to use his intellect to actively create
and find ways to succeed and not to prove while he will fail uh he needs to use his mind to create and develop new ideas find better new ways of doing things and remind himself at any time am I am I using my mind to create history that is an extreme mindset asking yourself am I using my mind to create history and he goes back to what he believes luck is I think carefully prepared plans and actions are called
luck I never succumb to luck I believe in cause and effect and then he ties it all together and ends on where he started do not make excuses in the process for pursuing Career Success the most important step is to prevent yourself from making excuses and so then I just want to tell you about this advice that he gave to a young man who's starting out and doesn't have a lot of money and so he says Dear John just yesterday I received a letter
from a young man who aspires to become a rich man he has no capital and he wanted to know how he could start a business and become rich and so this is the advice uh what Rockefeller wrote back to him from poverty the road to Prosperity is always unobstructed the important thing is that you firmly believe that you are your greatest Capital you have to exercise your faith and keep exploring the reasons for your hesitation until Faith replaces doubt
you have to know that you can't achieve what you don't believe in faith is the force that must drive you forward and then he tells his son the same thing the important thing is to sincerely believe in yourself again I told you he repeats the importance of self-belief over and over again I think that a person who does not believe in himself is like a thief anyone who does not believe in himself and does not fully exert his
abilities can be said to be a person who steals from himself and so in this letter Rockefeller is in his 90s and he's telling his son about Henry Ford coming to visit him and he's really just think about like the intensity he's in his 90s and listen to how he's still talking okay so he says Dear John a person without ambition will not accomplish great things this is what my friend the automobile King Mr Henry Ford confided
in me when he came to see me yesterday I admire this rich man from Michigan very much he is a persistent and determined guy he has almost the same experience as mine Mr Ford is the creator of a new era no American can completely change the American way of life like he did he has turned a car from a luxury into a necessity that almost everyone can afford and so one of the lessons that he's trying to teach his son um in this
letter is that that wealth is directly proportional to the goal Mr Ford's ambition was to create a world where everyone can enjoy cars this may seem unimaginable but he succeeded the achievement that created prove one of my life's credos wealth is proportional to the goal being the richest person in the world was the basis for my efforts and the strength to Spur myself the one sentence that I most often motivated
myself with is for me second place is no different from last place remember he's in his 90s if you understand this it will not be surprising to you that I Ruled the oil industry as its Undisputed King a great great life is the process of conquering Excellence it's always amazing to me how certain events that happen to you even when you're a young person can actually stay with you for for the rest of your life and so one thing I think of is
where James Dyson was 9 years old and his father died really young uh from cancer his father was in his 40s when he died and in James's second autobiography I think this is I covered it I think on Episode 205 he's writing that book when he's 69 years old in other words he's writing that 60 years after this event happened and he talks about still crying and and like beings like still just unbelievably sad and crying over the
fact that his father was deprived of the ability to see his three kids grow up and how even 60 years after he still Longs for and misses his father and so this is Rockefeller at 96 he wrote this letter when he was 96 this is the last year of his life and he is describing to his son who is an adult like a 60-year-old man the moment that Rockefeller felt decided his entire life and that is happening 70 he's describing it you know
70 years later and so this is what he says for everyone sailing in the business sea is the greatest Adventure that life can provide the trajectory of my life is a rich Adventure if I were to find out which Adventure was most decisive to my future it would be entering the oil industry and so at the time he's another business that's outside the oil industry Mr Andrews I'm pretty sure this like the brother if I remember correctly it might
be the brother of one of his Partners I think he's got two partners Andrews and Clark so this guy comes in he's an expert in lighting and he says he told me John when kerosene burns the light is brighter than any lighting oil it will definitely replace other lighting oils so again very beginning of the oil industry when when Rockefeller gets into it they're refining kerosene and their main reason there's no cars at this
point right he got Rockefeller is one of the few people that actually became richer in retirement than he was during his during his uh working years because the invention of the car and the the mass production of the Model T specifically happened after uh he retired but at the beginning it was just all lighting so it says uh when kosine burns the light is brighter than any lighting oil it will definitely replace
other lighting oils think about how big a market will be you know how many people want lights inside their house everybody right uh so he says we invested $4,000 which is a lot of money for us and we started an oil refining business that's the very first step I plunged into the oil refining industry and worked hard in less than a year oil refining earned us more profits than our agricultural uh products business and
became the company's largest business and so now he's reflecting the inner monologue he had 70 years ago I told myself I warned myself you must hold on to this tightly it can bring you to the realm of your dreams I then aggressively expanded the business strategy of the oil industry and this irritated my partner Mr Clark Mr Clark is an arrogant conceited weak and lacking courageous person he is afraid of failure he is not a good
businessman Clark had become a stumbling block on my road to success and I must kick him away this is an important moment breaking up with Mr Clark at this time was an undoubtedly risky Adventure so he decides hey I'm going to get rid of this guy but he doesn't tell him says before the announcement of Mr Clark saying that I want to go on my own I want to like essentially put up our company for for auction for bid that's
what he does I first pulled Mr Andrews over in private and he's like listen I'm going to terminate my relationship with The Clark Brothers if I buy their shares would you be in with me Andrews did not let me down a few day l a few days later I got even more support from the bank so bad boys move in silence the first time his enemy is not going to realize how well capitalized it is because at the time he doesn't even know it's his enemy
it's his partner right even if they kind of hate each other uh so finally he pushes the issue he gets his Partners to agree we're going to agree to auction the company to the buyer with the highest price to this day when I think of the auction scene I feel very excited 70 years more than 70 years later it feels like gambling in a casino which is thrilling and made me completely focused it was a good bet what I bet with is
money but what I gambled with is my life so the bidding goes up from $500 to several thousand then $50,000 then $60,000 then $70,000 and Rockefeller says at this time I began to fear but I calmed myself down quickly I warned myself do not be afraid since you have made up your mind you have to go forward finally at $72,000 I offered 7 I did not hesitate and I offered $72,500 at that time Mr Clark stood up and shouted I will not
add anymore John it belongs to you dear John Jr that was the moment that decided my life and I feel its extraordinary significance meaning I feel it's extraordinary significance even to this day of course I paid a high price but what I won was freedom and a glorious future I became my own Master my own employer and I no longer had to worry about those shortsighted mediocre people blocking my way you only need to
remember one sentence plan boldly and Implement carefully and then I just want to pull out the ending paragraph of another letter because he just talks about over and over again uh the importance of the relationship you have with yourself the view of yourself the confidence you have in yourself my son your relationship with yourself is the beginning of all relationships when you believe in yourself and are in harmony with
yourself you are your most faithful partner only in this way will you stay indifferent so he's talking about is indifferent to the to the opinions of the external world I really need to hammer this point home because he's got entire letters multiple entire like multiple letters where the entire letter is about the importance of self-belief this is one of the letters and really I can I can give you the main punchline in
two sentences a person's self-esteem is the core of his personality what kind of person you think you are will make you become that person and then when you read through the letters and you also see this in all the biographies of Rockefeller I would say that rockefeller's internal company gospel is that of cooperation and I think I can we can just he he explains this in really less than two paragraphs
he says this is one of the reasons why Standard Oil is so powerful that it AWS its opponents sincere cooperation is regarded as the most important factor in our lives meaning inside the company do not forget he's telling his son why you might want to copy the strategy do not forget that everyone is selfish everyone is loyal to themselves by nature and that I is the religion in everyone's heart when we replaces me the power
gives off will be incalculable I want to read that now that you know how it ends I want to read that paragraph again do not forget that everyone is selfish everyone is loyal to themselves by nature and I is the religion in everyone's heart when we replaces me me the power it gives off will be incalculable another theme of one letter which is fascinating is the importance of patience and really having a high
tolerance of pain he has this great quote where he says only when you can endure what people cannot can you then do what people cannot do and so he's talking about the importance of this practice of patience and self-control goes back to that partner that he absolutely hated Mr Clark who he's already told us that he thought was terrible and not a good person not very good at business and and so it says Mr Clark always put on a pretentious
posture in front of me which made me very disgusted he regarded me only as a shortsighted little clerk without him he thought I would be worthless this is a blatant provocation but I pretended to turn a deaf ear I know that respecting myself is more important than anything else I have told myself over and over again surpass him your strength will be the biggest humiliation to him just like giving him the this would be so
basically succeeding him passing him in life right would be giving would be like the equivalent of giving him the loudest slap across his face so one thing about Rockefeller uh is he had unbelievable uh self-control very there's only a handful of times in his entire life that he let that mask that he has a simmering intensity and conquering nature that is very apparent obviously in these letters but he wouldn't let other people see it and so
every once in a while like you know handful of times there's people where he'd accidentally let that mask slip and then they said as soon as he realized he would like go back inside of himself now the self-control and discipline obviously is applicable and valuable and other things but what I thought was fascinating is rockefeller's the like an anom an anomaly right because he's ruthless competitive Spirit would do
anything to destroy his competition but inside his company his employees loved him uh he was also like a good father spent a lot of time with his kids seemed to be really good to his wife uh gave away a lot of money and the this this collection in one individual is very because what I'm about to say is like most of these like conquering kind of people they tend to have very rough edges and heavy-handedness there people in this
company never report he never lost his temper he never said an unkind word like the the actual employees loved him which is again very very rare he might be the only person that has this this combination of uh of traits so anyways he's saying listen it's a blatant provocation I'm just going to pretend that I didn't hear it doesn't matter I know if that if I just pass him to to a very prideful and arrogant guy like that
that's like the equivalent of smacking him in the face as you know the Clark Rockefeller company has forever become history the Rockefeller Andrews company replaced it and I got on the express train to become a billionaire only by being able to endure what people cannot bear can you do what people cannot do and so then he has a letter about a visit from Mr Andrew Carnegie like I said earlier you know all the Robert
Barons are in this book there's like you know they may have even be doing some deals together know each other like he says Rockefeller definitely feels he's Superior to all of them though but he is talking about telling his son what he liked that Andrew Carnegie told him and so he says uh Mr Andrew Carnegie is a tireless Iron Man and he's always what he's he's describing like what he what he likes about him so he says listen I
appreciate this guy who often competes with me because he's diligent and ambitious he's like a uh he's a tireless Iron Man he's always regarding moving forward as his first second and third most important thing and so one of the things that Andrew said he really said he really enjoyed he says the end is just the beginning as a quote that Andrew like a mantra that Andrew would repeat the end is just the beginning uh
success is a process of continuous reproduction just like a prolific cow when it gives birth to a calf it immediately becomes pregnant with another back and forth endlessly the end is the last stop of a journey and the beginning of a new dream so his whole point that's what he means by the end is just the beginning a lot of people you and I have talked about this in the past like if you go to sleep on a win you
wake up with a loss A lot of people get a little success or they get to a certain play place and they kind of like let their foot off the gas and Carnegie and Rockefeller were like well success is a process process of continuous reproduction like a prolific cow give birth to something then immediately get pregnant give birth to another thing back and forth endlessly the end is the last stop of a journey and the beginning
of a new dream that's just really great language and he ends this letter where he's talking about Carn and to more more advice to his son look at those who fail and you will find that most people fail not because they make mistakes but because they are not fully committed the same goes for companies in another letter he gives his son advice on the kind of people that you want around them like what are the kind of friends that you want and the
people you want to avoid I like to be friends with those who never give in this kind of person will never allow pessimism to influence anything and will never succumb to all kinds of resistance unfortunately negative people are everywhere people who know they cannot succeed will insist on trying to block your way up many people are ridiculed because of their Ambitions other people are jealous they'll see you working hard
and strive to outperform them and they will try their best to fool you we cannot I love this this idea of not letting other people lower your level of thinking we cannot prevent others from becoming boring negative people but we cannot be influenced by them and lower our level of thinking you will want them to slip past you naturally just like the water behind a duck then he's giving his son advice on how to be a great leader
he makes this point a few times uh that leaders should listen more than they speak Rockefeller rights the biggest challenge for leaders is how to create an environment in which people feel that being open is more comfortable than hiding the truth proactively invite others to State their thoughts and encourage them to speak out with words such as please say a little more and then simply listen you will get the
benefits you will have a more thorough understanding of the underlying issues in your company you can get more information and this information can change your assumptions you will have more time and since you're sitting there being quiet and listening and not speaking you will have more time to organize your thoughts the then and there's there's another good thing where talks about this a lot like good
listeners are usually viewed by other people very positively so it says you will have more time to organize your thoughts and the presenter the one Speaking will feel that you value their point of view and then when it's your turn to speak the will'll actually listen to what you have to say so when you listen attentively the original presenter will be more willing to listen to your opinions create a habit of listening instead of responding
immediately and then he writes another letter which goes back to this belief that he has and something that he repeats on the power of enthusiasm it says uh the person who can create value the most is the person who devotes himself completely to his favorite activities and he actually uses this idea as an effective leadership style so he says you understand my philosophy which always helps me to succeed in my
career and that is do what you like to do the most and leave other things to the people who like to do those the most this is a very effective leadership style it is not to let the subordinates stick to rigid and standardized work positions but to find ways to use each person's strengths and induce them to pour enthusiasm into their work to achieve excellent productivity this was my way to Victory so he's saying match
the people in your company by their enthusiasm for what they're working on you should remember this sentence the most perfect person is the one who thoroughly devotes himself to the activity that he is best at I changed this sentence into a management philosophy the person who is most able to create value is the one who is completely devoted to his favorite activities this is easy to understand if you don't devote time to the things you
love you will never feel self-satisfied if you don't have self-satisfaction you will lose the passion for life if if you lose the passion for life you lose the motivation for Life counting on a person who has lost the motivation to do a job well is like counting on a clock that has stopped to tell the time accurately it is ridiculous match people by their enthusiasm it's amazing how many of these letters actually talk about
leadership and management um and really what he talks about is that respect so he's going to tell his son how he managed people that respect is just an effective tool right it's just it's an underutilized but very effective tool to motivate employees to work hard and so the way I think about this the best description i' ever heard about this comes from Mary Kay who built this giant Cosmetic Company uh and it was like I
think door to door sales I have her biography on her I haven't read it yet but I do remember her saying this and this is why I bought the biography to begin with she would train her Salesforce that everybody goes through life with an invisible sign on their neck that says make me feel important that was a Cornerstone of her training and it really reminded me of what Rockefeller is going to tell his son here I love my employees I never
scold or insult them nor do I become domineering and indominable in front of them like some rich folks do would I provide my employees is warmth equality and tolerance all these combined into one word is called respect I find that respect is an effective tool to motivate employees to work hard and he goes into why this is the case everyone is s to be considered valuable valued and respected by others there is an invisible sign
hanging on everyone's forehead which says value me so that's Rockefeller version of this is invisible sign on the forehead says value me me Mary Kay says sign around the neck that says make me feel important no employee will remember the bonus that he received 5 years ago but many people will always remember the kind words from their employer I like to leave a note uh a piece of paper and a note on the desk of my subordinates with
a word of thanks the words of gratitude I write by hand for a minute or two will still be felt many years later even after many years they still remember the words of warm encouragement and then I want to end on the story that Rockefeller learned from Carl Young one of the biographies on Winston Churchill's young life ends with the words that he is a dangerous Optimist a main theme of this book is the importance of having a positive Al
attitude and being an optimist and I love the idea of being a dangerous Optimist Churchill was Rockefeller was I certainly hoped to be and Rockefeller writes Mr Carl Young and I met unexpectedly the psychologist told me a story a man was trapped by a flood and he had to climb to the roof to take refuge one of his neighbors floated over and said John the water is really terrible this time isn't it John replied
no it's not that bad the neighbor then said how can you say that your chicken Coupe has been washed away and John said yeah I know but I started raising Ducks 6 months ago and now they're all swimming nearby everything is fine but John this time the water ruins your crops the neighbor said but John replied no just last week someone told me that my land needs more water so that problem is solved now the pessimistic neighbor
once again said to The Smiling John but look John the water is still Rising it's about to rise to the level of your window the optimistic John smiled happily and said I hope so those windows are dirty and really need to be cleaned decide to adopt a positive attitude to deal with the complex ups and downs of this world once this state is reached even in negative situations we can make the Mind automatically respond
positively remember everything can change or be changed and that is where I will leave it highly recommend buying the book if you buy the book book using the link that's in the show your podcast player you'll be supporting the podcast at the same time if you want more Rockefeller there's a bunch more to go like go deep into the back catalog of Founders podcast uh episode 307 that is about the world's great family dynasties I go over
four family dynasties Rockefeller Rothchilds the Morgans and the Toyotas episode 254 John D Rockefeller founding fathers of the Rockefellers that's episode 254 I believe that to be the best biography on Rockefeller episode 24 eight John D Rockefeller based on the biography Titan Titan's uh excellent biography most people read it that would be the second biography I would recommend I would read the the founding
fathers of Rockefellers first two episode 247 is on Henry Flagler which is rockefeller's partner like his main standard oyal partner so's a bunch of insight into Rockefeller in that episode then episode 148 is John D rockefeller's autobiography and if you want to go way back to the first time I ever read about Rockefeller you know this is half a decade ago uh episode 16 the first time I read Titan and the first episode I
made on Titan so that is episode 307 254 248 247 148 and 16 those links will be down below as always and in the show notes and if you can't remember all the stuff just go to Founders podcast.com and you can look at the show notes for every single episode there and I will leave a list down below that is 324 books down 1,000 AO and I'll talk to you again soon okay so real quick in case that you want to get access to my
version of readwise which is called Founders notes.com you go to Founders notes.com to sign up that's founders with an S just like the podcast so Founders notes.com so when you sign up and you get access I'm going to tell you how what what are the features that I use the most and so at the very top is the main feature the one I use by every day and it says search highlights and there's a search bar and very simply I
just search by whatever keyword I'm thinking about so it could be about hiring about marketing about Obsession uh could be about a specific entrepreneur like Rockefeller whatever I happen to be thinking about or whatever
problem I need to solve at the at the time so like the greatest example and I actually made like a 30 minute like short AMA about this it was asked like how do History's Greatest Founders think about hiring and so if you type hiring
in that box you'll see what what did Jeff Bezos say about it what did Thomas Edison say about it what did the people that founded Paypal say about it what did Estee Lauder say about it and on and on and on and so I think that's pretty self-explanatory again this is a product for people already rning successful companies I think I don't have to elaborate you already know what the value of that would be so the highlights
feed is uh the searching excuse me searching the highlights is what I use the most now the thing I use the second most is called the Highlights feed and the highlights feed I'm loading it right now essentially it's just like these little almost like tweet sized highlights from all different books and so it is completely randomized and it's almost like you have History's Greatest entrepreneurs speaking to and then just
read through them and see what thoughts respond so like the first thing that came up was actually uh it's actually a highlight from one of Warren Buffet shareholder letters he's talking about diversification and its relation to risk the next highlight is a quote from Ed CML the founder of Pixar talking about he didn't even realize at the beginning of his company how poor the communication was and that there was
things going on in his company that that his the people his employees were not telling him and his thoughts on how to fix that then there's a quote from a book that I read like six years ago and it's actually the the biography of alib Baba and he's talking about the importance of listening and that poor listeners actually have second rate negotiation skills and so that is the second most used feature for me personally this might be different for
you third feature books you have a list of all the books that are in there I think right now it says I have 307 books in here I still have a bunch I need to put in and then that that's very simple like I just went through the reason I reposted the Mike Bloomberg episode for example is because I've been rereading the highlights and so I went back if I don't have time to reread the book which I will in the future but I just read
through I think I have like 44 uh highlights of Bloomberg's autobiography here and you read through them and you there's just so many ideas and this is happening like 15 minutes it's absolutely incredible so that's self-explanatory you can search my book the last feature that I use the most is the favorites feature you know I have 20,000 highlights it's there's a ton of information in here and so what I'll do
is as I go back through the highlights and I've done this forever and that's why this number will always go up I have 839 favorites now but you know if you're listening to this months from now it's it's going to be higher and whether it's through searching whether it's through rereading the the highlights on a specific book or through the highlights feed which is the random um just showing me like the random highlights that I've
done if there's something like damn that's that's a good one I really want to remember that and so I I highlight it right I favored it and then now that goes into the favorites feed so then I have an even more like specialized feed of ideas and highlights from different books all on one page so again need to re reiterate I think if you are like me and there's a good chance that you're if you're listening to this you're like me
if you're like me you're already running a successful company I think it's a it's a no-brainer I would at least test it out for a year there's a chance that you don't like it I not going to share that opinion with you because like I said before I listen to it or not listen to it I use it every day and I think what I would this is going to be good for and what I hope to do is like man like for a Founder to just have a browser this this
notebook sitting in a browser that they can tap into anytime I think that's going to be very valuable and I can say that because it's been very valuable for me so hopefully that makes sense if you want to test it out it is Founders notes.com again Founders notes.com and I also a link down in the show notes if you want to grab the link from the podcast the show notes on your podcast player founders notes.com