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towards the end of the night the light of dawn spreads through the streets and brushes the houses of Salo I love walking in this light when Nature and man are still asleep in these hours before the door of Life opens up to the
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pressing matters of an industrialist business to the unpredictable series of meetings with people who want to either give or take something in these small hours I enjoy thinking quietly wandering through this Hamlet of the Spirit of my
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spirit where every stone every tree every scented Rose brings back a memory to my mind a memory in which I recognize myself the whole Salo Valley is a place of memories and ideas I value ideas because I consider them more important
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than the things that they produce my walk ends in this magical place where memory concentration and an eternally young sense of wonder impact my soul like an energizing Drive I am over 60 years old and I know that nothing will
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give me back the same unbridled energy that as a boy made me run for mornings on end without ever getting tired at my age I can look back at the past with sufficient Detachment this very same age also allows me to look ahead at the years before me surely less than the ones behind me with an attitude that prevents my dreams from turning into Ash when I look at the past I see the facts of my life under a new light from the
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inside rather than from the outside so I Glimpse new meanings in events that are long gone like when I was 13 and I led the oxen while my dad plowed the fields I tried to keep the animals on a straight course and I excelled at that
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task which now becomes the symbol of a whole life LED righteously I also think of the Italian Cafe that had played such an important role in my youth I see everything in a different light now the card games the cups of coffee at
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2 in the morning the endless discussions about women politics philosophy and spirituality that lasted until dawn I look back at things from that time and I recognize them for what they were a personal University in life and human knowledge that environment helped me develop a passion for books I would always read when I was alone especially philosophy I'm reminded of mavelli during his Exile he too spent his afternoons playing board games and
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drinking wine while at night in the aere Silence of his Studio he engaged in solitary literary conversations with the ancient Scholars that is a great description of what reading is solitary literary conversations with the ancient
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Scholars through these experiences I have gained a knowledge that makes up for those long gone pleasures and a desire that nourishes new ones these include the love for Salo only recently have I managed to fully comprehend the nature and the need for
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this love which is one of the pillars of my life alongside my family and my business I felt that Salo was bound to be my homeland a place that would become the homeland of my soul the place where my soul had lived even before I was born
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these experiences led me to devise the project of writing about my life and my dreams of a humanistic capitalism born and bred in Salo writing a memoir is quite common therefore I pondered over this project for a long time in the end
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I chose to go for it because I think it has some special elements that hold some value it is the life of a peasant who imagined and eventually fulfilled an entrepreneurial and humanistic dream that is well received if not loved in many parts of the world during this effort I have received a lot of help because of the help and the pleasure they give me books come first and foremost I cannot do without books because they teach us how to listen to
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the voice of man both others and our own this is why they are irreplaceable for our soul knowing oneself is just as important and perhaps more difficult than knowing those that we live with that might explain why since I was a
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child I have taken a jotting down the most meaningful things in my daily thoughts in a notebook and rereading them over time one should not expect any coherence in these writings in fact the true meaning of my life seems to be a
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spontaneous drive and energy amidst all of this is a man proceeding cautious and daring at the same time paying attention to everything yet always sure of his beliefs that man is me and I feel I am driven by an immense desire that my life when it reaches its end will not have been useless that is an excert from the book I'm going to talk to about today which is the autobiography of Brunello Cinelli the dream of Salo my life in the idea of
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humanistic capitalism this is going to be a very special podcast because the English translation of this book is almost impossible to find I've had a hard time finding a copy that's costs less than $500 so I was very fortunate
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about 2 weeks ago the founder of mad happy payman Raph actually sent me this article written by om Malik he had om Alik had a two like I think a two-hour conversation with Brunello and he condensed it down to an article that you
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could probably read in about I say like 20 minutes and so payman had asked me have you ever read anything on Bernell Cinelli if not you would love him and I was like it's amazing that you sent me this I've been searching for an English
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copy of this very hard to find book and what happened next blew my mind he said I have it want me to send you my copy so thanks to payman for making this podcast happen I'm going to quote heavily from the book and also from that article by
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om Malik which I will leave below I actually read the article after I read the book and it's the same man the same person that is in the book shows up in that article so with that let's jump into the book as you could tell from the
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introduction this is a Brunello is a real Soulful dude it's almost like he was trying to write like a poetic autobiography and something that he referenced in the introduction which is throughout he repeats throughout the
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book is he had this deep he still does he has this desire for Solitude and he spends a lot of time by himself s just thinking and so I'm actually going to quote from an excerpt that my friend Jeremy when he found out that I had the
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book he actually sent me and brunella is talking about a turning point in his life that happened when he was a very young man he was tempted to become a priest he loved like their monastic lifestyle the fact that they they spent
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a lot of time in solitude a lot of time in like quiet prayer and in this conversation the guy's talking to his beluchi beluchi tells him that is not your path your path is not to follow my path your path is to be an entrepreneur
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and this is what beluchi told him God assigns to all of us in proportion to the means of each one a mission to fulfill this is my favorite sentence in the entire paragraph our task is first to discover the nature of our summons
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then to follow it my task is prayer and the study of the Holy scriptures your task is to remain in this Century to live among the people and seek the good of your neighbor by using your qualities as an entrepreneur and as a man and this you must do without hesitation and with joy in your heart and I wanted to start there because after you finish reading the book I've also watched a bunch of videos on them it is very clear that
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Brunell feels that he's a man on a mission that he has a purpose higher than just himself and even his individual company and a lot of that can be tied directly to how he grew up so let's jump into his early life right now
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we lived in a house made of bricks and stone it was not beautiful but it's the house I still remember with the greatest affection he was a a poor farmer he called himself at the introduction a peasant uh so he says the windows were
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small and in the winter you had to shelter from the cold and in the summer you had to Shelter From the heat on the ground floor there were the barns with the cows 13 people lived here my family my grandparents and my uncles
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sharecroppers we were a small community and this will tell you why he described himself as a peasant we did not have electricity television telephone or water at home the only concession to modernity was a small battery powered
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radio at that time and in those places I began to understand the value of silence and the ritual Simplicity of things to learn the art of listening and to observe rather than judge he is going to repeat the value of silence over and over and over again in my family there was always a quiet silence my room was small and there I sh shareed a bed with my two brothers and so he talks about laying in bed at night trying to fall
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asleep with his two brothers there's not much to do so he stares at the wood like the wood beams on the the ceiling in his room and he says I Knew by heart every detail of the old oak beams on the ceiling I stared at them while lying
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down imagining fantastic figures in the textures of the knots and the grains as I look back on everything that I learned from reading this book I think one of the most profound ideas I hopefully apply to my own life is this idea it's
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like give your brain time to think if you listen to episode 286 which I titled Warren buffin and Charlie Monger speaking directly to you Charlie says this over and over again that him and Warren set a lot of time just to think
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he he actually makes fun of people that that have like these super busy calendars he like most people schedule themselves like a dentist and he's like that's not what Warren and I do we schedule a lot of time to think in the
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article that uh when om Malik is interviewing Brunello he brings this up he says that he could spend 6 hours in front of his fire place just looking at the flames and thinking and he's got an amazing way to describe this he says in
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the evening I'm drunk with beautiful thoughts and so just like when we saw at the very beginning of the book Brunello is taking this early morning walk before everybody's awake he's by himself he's just thinking he is adate about the
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importance of having aone time just to think and so he talks about even though they didn't have a lot of money there were peasants later on when they moved to the city or they're looked down upon by the city people he's like it was a
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very like he had a great childhood he was extremely close he didn't know they were poor he didn't feel he needed anything and he says I never saw my parents arguing and then as he's describing his childhood to the reader I
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just came across this fantastic line that he read somewhere else he couldn't remember where he learned it but he he never forgot it and he says a statement that I had read many years ago stayed with me try to be your son's teacher
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until he's 10 years old his father until he's 20 and his friend for the rest of his life and I think that's a great description of what the relationship that he has with his father and I think the relationship that Brunell was trying
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to have with his own kids and grandkids which I'll get to in a minute but I saw a few interviews where his father was still alive in his 90s so you see pictures of Brunell with his father at 90 and 95 and so we go back to his
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childhood and then when I got to this section the no I left myself on this page was like this is the kind of father and grandfather that I want to be when I dreamed something scary I would go to my parents bed my mother used to to say
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sleep now you're with us do not worry once I became a father myself and then recently a grandfather I tried to do the same thing first with my daughters and now with my beloved granddaughters sometimes my granddaughters sleep over
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at our home and my wife ask me to watch them sleep I often whisper to them in their sleep warning them to lead a just life to care about Humanity to safeguard the things they have received as a gift from creation the little girl cannot
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hear me but I like to believe that I'm speaking to their souls and so it's interesting there the lesson that he's teaching his grandkids even though they're asleep he says hey I'm warning them to lead a just life when his father found out that Brunello was a billionaire the response that his father had was fantastic he's like I don't care about any of that all I care is if you're a good man and so then he Compares in contrast you know the fact
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that he's very wealthy when at the time he's writing this book but that he was very poor when he was younger and this is what he said living with little is not not only healthy but it also rids us of the Frantic needs of life and
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protects us from the unpredictable events that fate might throw at us also in case we luckily become rich it helps us be fully aware of this fortunate condition which paradoxically is not as easy to manage as is commonly thought so
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that is the words of a poor person that became extremely wealthy right and he's like it's a very fortunate condition and it is not easy to manage at is commonly thought I'm going to go back to if you listen to episode 286 over a decade
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after decade there's all these examples in that podcast of Warren and Charlie talking about it's like you you can build a successful business and most likely what's going to screw it up is not a competitor it's you and so I go
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into more detail on that episode if you haven't listened to it I highly recommend you do but I think Monger sum summarizes it perfectly as he's always always able to do right just breaks down these very profound thoughts in into
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like an easy maximum for us to remember the problem is not getting rich it's staying sane that is the same idea that we're finding in brunell's autobiography it helps us to be fully aware of this fortunate condition which paradoxically
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is not as easy to manage as is commonly thought so then he goes back to his desire for Solitude so he talks about the attraction for the spiritual life of religious people their silence meditation and prayer this is perhaps
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also the reason why whenever I can I spend part of my days alone as I long for Solitude as if it was a distant but beloved and precious friend we are like 25 pages into this book how many times is he already told us about his desire
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for Solitude his love of Silence his love of Silent thinking and then he talks about his very poor but beloved Uncle who unfortunately passes away early in life and how really this is something that pops up in the books over and over again that words of encouragement matter if we are in a position to encourage a younger person trying to do something with their lives we should do so I think back to the the best example of this in the history of
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Entrepreneurship is the fact that a young Henry Ford I think he was like 30 years old winds up meeting his Idol his Idol at that time his hero is Thomas Edis they want to becoming like essentially best friends for the rest of
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their lives after this but when Henry Ford meets Thomas Edison he doesn't even have a company yet but he's telling Thomas Edison about the fact that he has invented this internal combustion engine and he wants to try to use it to make an
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automobile that has its own power source because at the time most of the cars were either uh electric or steam powered and what happened at this meeting changed Henry Ford's life he talked about later on life going through all
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these like these ups and downs these trials and tribulations as he's trying to build his company and in the low points he would remember what Edison said to him and it encouraged him this has been talked about in multiple books
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I did on on Henry Ford but once Edison heard what Henry Ford had said he had slammed his his fist on the table he was very enthusiastic about Henry Ford's idea and he said young man that's the thing you have it keep at it and we see
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in brunell's life that his uncle's playing that same role he's telling him you're special you're meant to do great things the story of my migrant uncle has affected me in a rather special way he had a tough experience as a migrant he
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was smiling polite reserved and unable to feel anger he was seen as the quote unquote educated member of the family and he died too early he used to look at me with kind attention he would often repeat you will be a great engineer a famous person a few years ago now this is crazy so I think it's already you you probably already picked up on this but Brunello has an intense intense love for reading for literature if when you hear
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him speak it's liter out this book he's constantly quoting books that he's read he's constantly talking about how the books that he's read has influenced his approach to building a company and so he says something very fascinating uh here that made me think of one of my favorite quotes on books ever from Carl Sean which I'll read to you in one minute so it says a few years ago his daughter came to see me with a copy of Plato's
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Symposium from her father's Library it was bad battered and thickly underlined with a red pencil I still struggle to understand how he possibly developed his interest in philosophy I recently picked the book up again and was touched to
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reread those immortal passages that moved him then and today move me he is rereading his uncle's books and his uncle's highlights long after his uncle had died and so as soon as I read that I thought of this Carl Sean quote about
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what a book is that's just absolutely fantastic what an astonishing thing a book is it's a flat object made from a tree with flexible Parts on it which are imprinted lots of funny Dark squiggles but one glance at it in you're inside
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the mind of another person maybe somebody dead for thousands of years across the Millennia an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head directly to you writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions
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Binding Together people who never knew each other citizens of distant epochs books break the shackles of time a book is proof that humans are capable of working magic go back to the introduction where he's talking about
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hey I feel like I'm mavelli because when he was young he'd hang out he'd be drinking during the day but at night in the austere Silence of his Studio he's engaged in solitary literary conversations with ancient Scholars that's exactly what's happening where we
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are in the book and it was happening when his uncle was alive talking to Plato and now we see Brunello talking not only to to Plato but also seeing what which of Plato's words affected his long dead uncle and so then Brunello goes into more detail about the important relationship that he had with his father it is insane I I know I repeat myself over and again but it's just in every single book like I I couldn't even wake this up if I tried it
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goes back to a line that appeared in episode 242 in this biography of Francis for Copa that it's always stuck with me and you see it in the story over and over again you're going to about to see it with Brunello and his dad it says you
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can always understand the son by the story of his father the story of the father is embedded in the son and so he talks about the fact that his father through repetition you and I have talked about this over and over again over and
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over again this is very important repetition is persuasive you study these like unbelievably great entrepreneurs you think oh they must have like 50 ideas no they have five six 10 handful of ideas that they repeat over and over and over again up and down everybody in the company decade after decade and so his dad is doing this to him when he's a young boy and he says he my father spoke little and often repeated the same few
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warnings here's one example of that you must be a good man you'll be sorry if you do not keep your word I would tease him for constantly repeating the very same things but his wise words still guide me so he is writing this book
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let's say he's like 63 something like that he's talking about conversations that he had with his dad more than 50 years ago and he says his wise words still guide me here's another example do you want to be the richest man in the
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cemetery and then the next one is something that I've heard Brunello repeat over and over again in talks remember that debt works on Sundays too and so he takes a lesson that he's learning as he's helping his father work
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on the farm and he's going to wind up dedicating this this idea the fact that beauty should be closely linked to your work is something that Brunell is going to use in his career like as he's as he's building his fashion house right
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she saysi remember when we worked the land with the animals my task was to lead The Oxen dad was behind me operating the plow when the plowing was done or excuse me when the plowing was over dad carefully stared at the
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well-marked furrows and then told me well done look how straight they are if I asked him why it was so important his answer was straightforward and true because this way looks better I like the fact that beauty was so closely linked
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to work this love for tidiness and cleanliness has accompanied me throughout my life the ancient Greek so he's obsessed with ancient Greek culture he'll talk about the influence they had on his life how he built his business
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he's constantly reading and rereading a lot of ancient Greek texts and so he says the ancient Greeks had wonderful expression in this regard if your doorstep is clean then your city will be clean order is the first law of heaven
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and then he talks about the fact that they're very close family they're all living in the same house they see each other all the time uh he's 10 when his grandfather dies so he says Grandpa fion pointed out to me that each season has
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its own character and Grace enhanced by the contrast with the previous one here's his lesson though similar ilar to how good men men stand out even more when they come after evil ones so his father his grandfather dies when he's 67
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uh Brunell is only 10 he says I saw my dad cry for the first time and I was puzzled he's crying at his father's death right I saw my dad cry for the first time and I was puzzled because this reaction clashed with my dad's Stern character that was my first experience of death and that me memory never left me I understood how dignified one must react when faced with sorrow and one of his grandfather's lasting lessons was the fact that humans are
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capable of adapting to even the worst circumstances uh Grandpa loved to tell me stories about what he had experienced in the war he told me anecdotes that in the end emphasize man's ability to adapt even to the worst
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circumstances and then I love this line and how he described this is they're still on the farm they're about to move to the city and everything changes but it's important that that changes because we're going to see why you can see the
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story of the father of Bun's father embedded in the son because he says the humiliation and the tears that his father had to endure is what drove him to be a success uh so I just love this line the way he describes his family uh
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my family was organized like a small peaceful Army each one of us had a task assigned strictly set by tradition and one lesson he used building his company that he learned by being a farmer was that there's a value in patience great
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things just like a great harvest takes time you cannot plant a seed today and expect it to be full grown tomorrow this is one of my favorite lines in the book postponing the reward increases its appreciation a fact that has been
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forgotten in the current culture of impatience trees are a perfect example of this some time ago we planted a small Oak Tree in the valley and the gardener commented regretfully that we would never get to enjoy its vast shade on the
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contrary for me that tree was an investment in something that would embellish the life of those who will come after us and its Great Value lay precisely there and then this is the first mention of the fact that his
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parents humiliation is going to wind up driving him later on they were from the country they didn't have a lot of money they're sending their kids to school in the city mom and dad never went to the parents night with the other teachers
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because they felt embarrassed and uncomfortable about not being educated and even about the way they dressed perhaps this is the reason my mother was very keen on how we children dressed and so even though his parents didn't have a
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lot of money they taught him very valuable lessons and so this is some Everlasting values that he winds up cherishing his whole life from my father I learned the courage to dream and to choose he is a simple man but I owe him
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something that has contributed to my entrepreneurial success the awareness that any project involves an effort and its ultimate purpose must be Mankind and its dignity the willingness to make sacrifices for others to be able to wait
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for a reward the Devotion to work for me these are Everlasting values there was no wealth he's still talking about his CH childhood okay there was no wealth but we were happy and it makes me think having enough is itself a form of wealth
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and so think about the title of the book the dream of Salo Salo is like this little village that you know he essentially in like a state of despair a lot of the people a lot of young people growing up there would eventually try to
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move to where the Economic Opportunity in the city was uh brunell's the reason he gets like so many people appreciate what he did is because he did essentially the opposite of what I El does he's like no we're going to stay
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here I'm going to reinvest I'm going to first of all set my company up here and then reinvest the profits to actually build up the village and to prove that we can actually have Economic Opportunity not just soling in the city
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and part of this is because he definitely refers the countryside to the city and if you go on YouTube and just type in Solo or or Brunello Cinelli solo you'll see the it's absolutely gorgeous I live in a city right now I would much
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rather live in Salo it is beautiful in fact a few times I was reading the book I'm like is it possible I can learn Italian like I'm just very appeal I could see why so many people there you know uh again my friend Jeremy was
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telling me about this a few weeks ago that I didn't even know a bunch of like uh the tech CEOs I think the guys from Google uh bennyhoff from Salesforce they actually went I think they all went together if I if I understood the story
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correctly and actually went and visited Salo and so he gets to the point where why is his family going to leave this beautiful countryside where they live a simple but very happy life to go to the city and it says leaving the countryside and moving to the city was a widespread as aspiration supported by desire for wealth that only showed its positive side back then so then he starts quoting again he says Roso thought that living
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in the city was one of the worst evils for the people of his time the fact is that loneliness spirit and economic poverty often go hand inand with the progress of modern cities putting an even heavier burden on the malays of the
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soul that that term malays of the Soul he's going to describe like what working in a factory does uh essentially like one of the piece of advice he gives a reader is like you have to avoid work that produces Mala of your soul and so
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they moved to the city now they have electricity they have television and he does not like it he likes electricity but he doesn't like the the fact that he feels they were closer when they didn't have all this techn te ology we brought
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with us the very same family organization but the television brought about a big change because during family meals we would interact less with each other our human relationships weakened and so these experiences you'll see
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informs him as like the entrepreneurs he's building his company he's like listen we're going to use technology we're going to use the latest technology but we're not going to be used by it his belief is that technology is a tool yet
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a lot of people are becoming slaves to it and so in that article with om he said something was interesting he like there's no group emailing inside the company and he says no emails can be sent to more than two addresses just one
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or two no group mailing Why must a single email be read by 10 different people also when you go to meetings you're not allowed to bring your phone here no meetings with mobile phones no one is allowed to bring them into the
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meeting room you must look me in the eye you must know things by heart and he has a line about this in the article that was that was interesting he says we have swapped the quote as it appears in the article says we have now swapped
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information for knowledge I think he meant the the reverse so so I'm going to read it as my interpretation of it it says we have swapped knowledge for information which is not the same thing I do not want to know I'm not online I
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don't even have a computer and so then goes into where he feels he got his true education which was at the cafe he mentioned this in the introduction that he spent a lot of time in Italian cafes he says every evening after dinner I
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went to the cafe late at night words prevailed over games and discussions began we debated over topics of great political relevance and eventually we spoke freely and unbridled about economics theology religion spirituality and women some of the guys had studied philosophy they talked to me about a subject matter that I was familiar with because it was not part of the curriculum of surveyors that's what he's training to be at the time in his life
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and he says today I think that both universities and cafes were places for discussion perhaps cafes had a slightly richer human diversity than universities only in cafes could you come across both the pennil and the genius The Unlucky
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and the affluent the shrewd and the honest the bossy and the shy these discussions produced a wealth of teachings that were not so easy to find and so after he discovered philosophy he like oh this is what I was missing my
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whole life philosophy to become a strong and permanent presence in my life the safest guide besides the memories of my family I'm seduced by the purity of thought of so many exceptional men which is to be found in their expressions and
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their aphorisms and so at the same time that he's discovering philosophy he's also seeing the humiliation that his father has to endure by working in a factory in the city and so this is where he starts developing his own philosophy
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on entrepreneurship that he's going to wind up building his company around he says my dad was 45 he never complained about the hard work or the low wage but rather about being belittled by his employers what have I done so wrong to
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be offended like this I felt helpless since I could not defend my father and he's got a great line in one of his talks about this turning point in his life he says I could see the humiliation In My Father's Eyes his teary eyes were
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the source of inspiration for my life and so he's reflecting on that in the book he says I knew that I would live and work in order to Foster the moral and economic Dignity of man so this is this idea of humanistic capitalism and
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so it takes a few years for him to figure out what am I going to do with my life and so he's describing what he's been doing up until this point I think he's 25 when he starts his company and so he says at around age 24 the urge to
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find a job grew stronger and stronger one day I worked in the theater another day I was a sales agent another one an engineer at that age when the strength of Youth flew through my veins like a torrent in Spring my imagination ruled over my dreams I thought of the young Heroes of history of Alexander the Great who would stand on the beach watching the sea and dreaming of reaching the end of the world and so he's reading a lot
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he's trying to figure out what am I going to do with my life and I love what he says like how he talks about um the life was a confirmation of the immense value of books I grew to love them and then he talks about this this odd
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feeling that happens when you finish a great book like you're both happy and sad at the exact same time when I got to the last page it was a bit like leaving a dear friend and I felt a little bereaved and one of the books he picks
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up changes his life forever this is a main thesis right the main idea behind Founders is that one book one idea can change everything so he reads this book by this guy named Theodore levit and it's called the marketing imagination
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the underlying idea of the book was that developed countries would have to specialize in high quality products if they did not want to be oued by emerging countries which were learning to manufacture average products at much
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lower cost I was struck by the straightforward logic of this concept which would become the Cornerstone of my entrepreneurial mindset and so that idea is in his mind he also starts dating his which going to become his wife her
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name's I don't know how to pronounce the name ficha maybe but this was really important because she was born and lived in Salo and so he says having fallen madly in love everything about her seemed beautiful and attractive starting
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from her Village and so at 24 years old he's actually hired as a model of a sportsware company he starts reading F like fashion magazines getting more interest in fashion and he said step by step I was moving towards my future so
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there's all that background to get to this point where he finally starts starts laying out like his very unique philosophy and he had these ideas he's saying he had these ideas even at the very beginning of his company and so he
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says I imagine products he he still doesn't know that he's known as maybe you don't know this maybe I haven't said this yet he's known as like the king of Kashmir his foundational first product was women's Kashmir sweaters my
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understanding that that was the first successful product that the entire like the foundation of the business would uh rest upon kind of like the Apple 2 computer at the very beginning days of Apple so he says I imagine products that
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could gratify both consumers and manufacturers a pleasant workplace with long and relaxing breaks so I think they get there 8 A.M sharp I think the entire company shuts down at 100 p.m. for a 90minut lunch and then they go back to work uh till 5:30 so it says uh Pleasant workplace with long and relaxing breaks where craftsmanship would Prevail I wanted Human Relationships to be Humane and authentic I wanted adequate wages
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allowing for a dignified and peaceful life I thought of a peaceful work environment allowing creativity to thrive I did want to make a profit but in an ethical dignified and moral way at the age of 25 I made my final decision I would manufacture colored cashmere sweaters for women so I don't know anything about Kashmir but it sounds like people were very reluctant to actually make colored Kashmir to actually diet which was surprising to me
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and we'll get to there in one minute my goal was to produce highquality items manufactured with Italian craftsmanship and manual skills products that were expensive but not overpriced targeted at a market segment that was called
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absolute luxury I have always and this is one of my favorite this is actually my favorite part of uh this entire section and it's something I'm doing in my own life with Founders podcast I have always been firmly convinced that in
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order to successfully stand out you need to focus on one single project representing the dream of your life and so then he's going to describe what he calls the most important moment of his life but this is the first time he
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mentions something that he repeats a few times after this and he fact the fact that you have to embrace Instinct and recklessness he has no money when he's starting his company and so looking back he's like this is very Reckless but I
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was just following my instinct so it says I have to confest that my initial motivation arose out of recklessness and instin and Instinct today I'm friendly convinced that we must act even when we have feeble hopes there was uncertainty
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at the beginning as is often the case the beginning of a company but I persevered and one day something changed for the better and so if he had no money to start a company how do you start a company selling expensive cashmere he
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finds a supplier he calls him a very good and serious man who unfortunately dies early and he says so he's like you know I'm buying essentially a bunch of cashmir yarn and Brunello thought maybe I can make like 60 sweaters out of this right and so he says he very generously told me that he would certainly sell the yarn to me and then added and it still makes me emotional to think about you will pay me when you get your first
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money I know that you're a good guy so now he's got the yarn he goes to meet with this guy named alesio this is the guy that is he's going to convince to actually die the yarn my first meeting meeting with alesio who was at the time
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perhaps one of the most expert Kashmir Dyers in the world was wonderful I brought him six sweaters and asked him to dye them in six different colors his first blunt reply was it is crazy to die cashmere in these colors I spent nearly
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the whole morning trying to convince him to meet my request he finally told me let me try but I'm not sure how it will turn out it was undoubtedly the most important moment of my life and it's this moment you if you if you are
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watching a movie on brunell's life you would pause right here that is the moment when his life changed Direction when he starts to transition from a poor uneducated peasant to many decades later being a billionaire entrepreneur that is
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insane and then he quotes one of he talks he talks about this is looking back to this this is one of my favorite movies I would watch it multiple times every Christmas I've probably seen the movie 20 times I've tried to get my
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daughter to be as enthusiastic about this movie as much as I am it's really hard for somebody you know it's 10 that wants to watch a black and white movie movie and so he he says what had happened to me uncertainty at first and
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then meeting these two wonderful people people that he would not have been able to start his business without right reminds me of the movie It's a Wonderful Life I think that movie came out like the 1930s it was directed by Frank cpra
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I see myself as the main character Saved By An Angel who is disguised as a man and I think of those two people as two true Angels who trusted me a young man with no money and tons of enthusiasm and time and time again at
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the very early days of his very shaky company he is saved by these very generous people that believe in him he still has no money he's about to he says his first company was this guy or his first customer rather was this guy named
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Albert France and it's because Albert France paid upfront and on time that he has a business undoubtedly this memory of the first order of 53 sweaters will always have a special place in my heart I had no money and the only way to
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finance my business was through tinely customer payments and we see this happens again he's got another comp customer this guy named venzo and it says he placed a very large order I immediately pointed out to him that I
35:04
had no guarantees to offer since I had no money or property he cracked a benevolent smile and replied I have five brothers and my father and my mother we are all convinced of your entrepreneurial ability we believe in you this is enough for us just keep
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working and do your best that is all that was a big incentive to me as it encouraged me to outdo myself and so I did and by pay up front and he also said this this is the venzo he considers this guy his like first sponsor he says this
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is the money I want you to put in your business it was a big sum and I was speechless because it was a tough time for me and I was not used to managing large amounts of money and so he remembers what it felt like to survive
35:44
and succeed after one year being in business he said my business knowledge was still limited and I knew nothing of my competitors but this did not jeopardize my enthusiasm there's that word again how many times he talked
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about the benefit of him being enthusiastic right which was uh which was constantly on the rise meaning his enthusiasm was on the rise I had the feeling I had been waiting for that moment forever the moment when my life changed Direction
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and then he talks about an idea that you and I have discussed over and over again we talked about with Jeff Bezos with AIA Marita the founder of Sony that it's helpful to have a goal larger than just your individual company and so this is when he has the idea of restoring Salo so he's going to call Salo a hamlet I had to look up that word it it means a small settlement generally one smaller than a village and so he says looking
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back at the time you know his success was very limited but at the time to him it was extraordinary limited to who he became and the size of the company you know they do hundreds of millions of dollars a year he's got you know
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hundreds of employees maybe even like a thousand employees now but back then he's like this was extraordinary cannot believe this and so he's like I need a new Factory where where can I do this he says I thought of a new location for a
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tiny Factory I thought of Salo I regretted the state of neglect of that ancient small Hamlet so one day I I light-heartedly decided to try and buy the tower in the medieval castle I was fascinated by the architecture that bore
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the signs of such a long history the building seemed Eternal and perfect to headquarter my small company right in the middle of this charming medieval village it took me a great and sincere effort but eventually the owner when he
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learned that my goal was to preserve the castle and over time turn it into an asset for everybody to enjoy agreed to sell it to me and this is where he mentions he had an advantage by just doing the opposite of whatever what
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everybody else was doing back then life in a village was not very sought after as people preferred to move to the city hoping to find better economic and social conditions I did the opposite and the company continued to grow this moment marked the very
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beginning of my master plan for my business and for Salo and so he's growing the company he's restoring Salo and this is where he starts defining what his philosophy on entrepreneurship and Company building will be and so he
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says we discussed something we decided to call humanistic capitalism is a form of contemporary capitalism rooted in strong ancient values where making a profit should never harm or offend people or things and where part of the
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earning should be ear marked to concretely improving the condition of human life I think he donates 20% of the earnings every year into improving Humanity I think a lot of that money goes into improving Salo for the residents and I think a lot of those residents work for the company he also pays I think wages that are about like 20% higher uh so it says where part of the earning should be earmarked to concretely improving the condition of
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human life the human being should be at the center and so he talks about this a few pages later there's no difference in wages between workers and clerks employees are paid more than the average of the market in the morning everyone is
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expected to come to work at 8 a.m. sharp and work ended at 5:30 in the afternoon and so not only does he start building his company about this but he starts putting the word out about how they're building the company and the fact that
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this is so different from how most people are building the companies it gets a ton of attention and so he's going to get a ton of international press if you Google brunella Cinelli or if you watch YouTube you'll see it over and over again almost all of the major media Outlets all over the world have traveled to the Village or given interviews so who knows this idea of like picking a purpose larger than your individual company winds up benefiting
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because how many people learned about the existence of his company and the products they offer from this so it says the first important interview started the international press was intrigued by what was happening in this small and unknown Village and so one interesting thing about the book he never tells you like the year that he's talking about sometimes I'll reference how old is but it seems like they started the company
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in 1978 and then it says they didn't expand from their initial product it sounds like for 22 years at least that's what it sounds like to me so this is essentially about expanding the business when customers asked you and I talked
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about this last week on the Ralph Lauren episode 288 where Ralph Lauren was saying he's like well I sold ties and then customers would asked like what else do you make and so the same thing is happened in brunell's career here
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International Market started asking us to design a total look collection for men and women to complement our cashmere sweaters with clothing bags shoes and accessories therefore at the beginning of the new century so to me that that
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means the year 2000 right so the beginning of the new century I made a choice that marked a sharp turn for our business I entered the market of men's and women's fine clothing and then to figure out he's like well I've never
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made men men's clothing before where do I get ideas we're going to see he's going to do exactly what Ralph Lauren did as well he borrowed ideas from my own personal wardrobe Ralph just made the clothes that he wanted to wear that
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no one else was was making and so both Ralph and Brunello are actually relying on their personal taste and so a few pages later I got to tell you about this great line that he has because it's what's going to happen in a few years
40:37
from now where we are in the story it's surprising like he took his company public and one of his reasons for doing so I thought was very interesting we'll get there in a few pages this is happening a few years before that his
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kids are growing up and they're they're having a desire to work in the business and so he's having this conversation with his daughter he says uh Dad she told me I would like to come work in the company what do you think it's fine by
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me you should be free to follow your instinct in life but remember you can't inherit the ability to run a business just as you inherit the Company ownership so what he's saying there he like I may pass down the equity that I
41:10
own in this company but doesn't mean you're actually be one running the business for some reason uh back I think it was episode 234 I read the Fantastic uh autobiography of Sam Walton for the second time that's a book I'm going to
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reread over and over again throughout my life but he said something in that book that was very interesting I think is good advice because Sam Walton like Entre like other entrepreneurs probably like you probably like I we have this
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excessive amount of drive that may seem normal to you but is is completely abnormal to most people and so in that book Sam said something that was fantastic he says one thing I never did which I'm really proud of was to push
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any of my kids too hard I knew I was a fairly overactive fellow that's the understatement of the century I knew I was a fairly overactive fellow and I didn't expect them to try to be just like me and so later on this conversation he's having with Z is going to pop back up again saying that whoever is the most qualified to run the business should run the business it should not just go to you just because you're my daughter another interesting
42:07
thing is I'm reading this copy after payman Raph gave me so this is payon's book right and so I see the highlights that he just like when he was uh when Bernell was rereading his father's Co or excuse me his uncle's copy of PL he
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could see what what parts jumped out to his uncle I could see what parts uh jumped out to payman and so this part was brought to my attention by a note that payment left and I loved it so this goes back to the fact that he doesn't
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tell us uh like what years he in he's in I'm pretty sure this is his reaction to the financial crisis in 2008 because he says I remember when a major American bank went bankrupt in September and it had a huge impact across the financial
42:45
war world I'm pretty sure he's referencing the 2008 2009 financial crisis but I love his reaction to this so it says uh this is what so Brunello gathers all his employees together and they're talking about this and this is
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what he said I honestly do not know what's going on but it's certainly something bigger than us today our company employs 500 people but I can assure you that we have the money to carry on for another 2 years as far as
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your job goes you have nothing to fear but I want to ask a special favor from you from tomorrow morning you should try and be even more organized creative and Brilliant it's the only thing we can do because everything else is beyond and
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above us and therefore there is no point in worrying about it there is nothing we can do and so then he revisits this idea that media begets more media which begets more media and it kind of just snowballs and this was very beneficial to his
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business my company had developed so much that Not only was I required to travel but also the opposite started happening too namely a lot of customers journalists and tourists came from various countries to visit Salo the
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editor of an International magazine probably the most important in the world he doesn't ever say what that magazine is contacted me so he comes and spends six days uh with Brunello and and touring the factory and and the business and this just completely changed everything that was a turning point for the recognition of our corporate philosophy that coverage marked the beginning of a True Media celebration and so then he starts traveling all over
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the world the book is really fantastic where it talks about you know going to America going to Asia just all the different experiences that he had he's uh being bestowed a bunch of honors like some honorary degrees and he's talking
44:21
about the time so you know he's over 60 when he's writing the book but this is happening when he's 57 and this is what I mentioned earlier where he really feels that you should embrace enthusiasm and a bit of youthful recklessness I
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understood then how useful and beneficial enthusiasm and a bit of youthful re recklessness can be the same that had prompted me to make my first bold business decision as a young man I was now 57 and not at all old but the thing I had experienced and my reason itself which had replaced my recklessness set me apart from those young people and made my joy fade and so I had to read that part a few few times to actually understand what he was
44:57
saying he's like listen your youthful recklessness as you age is replaced with wisdom but being a bit spontaneous and Reckless and going off Instinct and not wisdom is actually makes life fun and so if he's only going by reason he's saying your joy actually Fades that's not a thought that I come across very often in in the books that I read and so as the company grows and continues to be more successful he picks out these other
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projects that he feel feels what he wants to invest in that'll benefit humanity and it's this idea where he's like I need to start a school to teach Craftsman ship and so it says he had a friend that worked as a doorman in a
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government office so this guy spends his whole day like this entrance like you know the six square feet he just stands there all day and he's like this is really weird because what did this guy do before he got this job he says prior
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to that job he had been one of the last stucko decorators one of the true artists who had decorated with creative Grace the buildings in Rome and so this guy has the skills of like an old craftsman but is those skills when you
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move to City are no longer required and so Brunello wants to do something about this he says this concern for the future contributed to shaping the idea of a school of arts and crafts in Salo this would be a school fueled by Passion
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whose aim would be to teach old crafts and make them contemporary the school would function as a workshop paying students while they were being trained if you listen to Episode 205 it's on the second autobiography of James Dyson that
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book is called invention of Life by James Dyson highly recommend buying the book but listen to that episode James Dyson does something very very similar and created his own school for designers and just like Brunello you can you can
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get a job at Dyson or you can go somewhere else they don't they don't um insist that you only work for them though uh so it says uh this would function as a workshop and we'd pay students while they were being trained
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they would not be physically confined to a single location but it would be spread all over the village in Solo and small these small buildings would each house a different discipline Brunell always talks about the fact that you should sit
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around and listen to older people they have wisdom that you lack and you see this with who he chooses to be the faculty the teachers would be close to retirement age and therefore wise and so it was around this time that he decides
47:00
to take his company public and he talks about why he did that we decided to list our company on the Milan Stock Exchange before doing so there's a lot of analysis and debate but the main reasons behind the Cho Choice were that we
47:12
wanted to become even more International and sound financially sound that is but not least of all it was my belief this goes back to the conversation he was having his daughter you know earlier in the book but not least of all my belief
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that the ability to run a comp cannot be inherited therefore in the future someone outside of the family might step in and manage it and then just a few more ideas of his before the book wraps up simplify your work and your words
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avoid work that produce that produces a malaise of your soul and know when is enough he says beauty is Simplicity this is an essential theme Simplicity does not mean getting rid of something it means applying knowledge and choice to come up with synthesis the greatest Minds can convey deep and complex Thoughts with words that are understandable to everyone and then he goes back to an early memory from childhood when his father was working on
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the farm he'd be physically tired but he did not have the malaise of the soul and the discontent that that uh inner like City factory work produced I could tell that my father was tired but at the end of his long days he did not feel any
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inner tension any of that malaise of the soul that is so common nowadays Fair work may be exhausting but it should just be a matter of healthy physical tiredness whereas the Mind should accept it as a game and then he
48:32
repeats that line that having enough is itself a form of wealth we worked just enough to guarantee a healthy and peaceful life the motto of That civilization was having enough is itself a form of wealth and this may be my
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favorite direct piece of advice in the entire book first I'll tell you what the advice is and and why he said it this is the advice enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality day after day this is why today in the world there are
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still too many women and men who suffer because they struggle to hide from their children the sorrow of humiliation in life every morning they get up and face the world only to come back disappointed if people tell you that your plan is too ambitious do not listen to them they are trying to clip your wings and again I think that bears repeating enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality day after day and then he closes with some parting
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advice on the value of listening I would like to give the new generation a piece of advice learn to listen because it is beautiful Pleasant and fruitful if you listen to the elderly you will eventually be able to see beyond their
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wrinkles and find the children they once were if you talk to your parents if you listen to your peers you will share Joys and sorrows with them and you will be more ready to reap the golden fruits of the the future the past is the essential
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nourishment of the future nothing is old nothing is new and time is what we make of it sometimes one single life is not enough to build up enough experience to be happy if we listen to and preserve the memories and experiences of our
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fellow human beings we will live better and that is where I'll leave it for the full story I'm going to try to Source the book for you I don't know if I'll be successful or not I mentioned my friend Jeremy at the beginning of the
50:25
podcast he got his copy he said he's got his copy on Abe books he also says that they can be available on eBay and sometimes you can actually go into the boutique if you have a boutique close to you and see if they'll sell you one as well if you can't get the book though I will leave the link down below I highly recommend reading that long piece about the conversation that om Malik had with brunella Cinelli I do think that article
50:48
will actually give you a good sense of Brunello and and who he is and and what's important to him I will also leave a link down below if you want to join my email newsletter it is free I email my top 10 highlights from each
51:00
book that I read I try to make these as short as possible so they're almost like little maxims I'm a sucker for aphorisms and I like to go back and actually read them I find it very helpful to remember some of the ideas in the books that link
51:11
will be down below and available at Founders podcast.com and another way to support the podcast is by signing up for Founders premium that is a private podcast feed where I do AMA ask me anything episodes I should be recording a new AMA episode in the next 2 or 3 days if you want to listen to those and support the podcast at the same time that link will be down below as well that is 289 books down 1,000 too and I'll talk to you again soon