Review of Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means

I recently read the book Sex at Dawn by Cacilda Jethá and Christopher Ryan.

Mind. blown. 

It was such an incredible and well-researched book. It also paired well with the other book that I read recently, Mating in Captivity.

There is not enough discussion about sexuality in our culture, leading to confusion and heartbreak. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to read this book.

In addition, when sexuality is brought up, there that certain “Je ne sais quoi” where men and women don’t try to fully understand the subject. They just say that it’s “mysterious,” “magic” or “unknowable.”

If you know anything about my personality, then you’ll know I hate that kind of stuff. I want to know exactly why certain things happen in the world, and why they don’t.

For those out there that also want a clearer sense of why we desire certain things, and how concepts like monogamy came to be, then this book is a game changer.

I recommend picking up a copy!

My Notes

And how many of the couples who manage to stay together for the long haul have done so by resigning themselves to sacrificing their eroticism on the alter of three of life’s irreplaceable joys: family stability, companionship, and emotional, if not sexual, intimacy.

The conflict between what we’re told we feel and what we really feel may be the richest source of confusion, dissatisfaction, and unnecessary suffering of our time.

Because private property, for the first time in the history of our species, paternity became a crucial concern.

Men and women have supposedly conflicting reproductive agendas.

The central premise of sexual selection is that in most mammals, the female has a much higher investment in offspring than does the male.

Evolutionary psychology is founded on the belief that male and female approaches to mating have intrinsically conflicting agendas.

Sexually, men are like firemen. To men, sex is an emergency, and no matter what we’re doing we can be ready in two minutes. Women, on the other hand, are like fire. They’re very exciting, but the conditions have to be exactly right for it to occur. – Seinfeld.

Conventional theory: marry rich, predictable, sincere guy to provide, ad cheat on sexy, dangerous wild dude when she’s ovulating.

Men’s jealousy evolved to control her sexual behavior while her jealousy evolved to control his emotional behavior.

Monogamy is not found in any social, group-living primate except – if the standard narrative is to be believed – us.

With women (common with bonobos) their ovulation is hidden from immediate detection and they have sex throughout their cycle.

Chimps resolve sexual issues with power. Bonobo resolve power issues with sex.

Females of both species engage in multiple mating sessions in quick successions with different males (6-8 per day if ovulating).

Bonobos stare deeply into each others eyes. Walk arm in arm. Kiss each other’s hands and feet. Embrace with french kiss.

Plenty of animals can see further, smell better, dive deeper, fight better, and hear tonal subtleties. So what do we bring to the party?

Sex for pleasure is more human than animal. Strictly reproductive, one-in-a-blue-moon se is more animal than human.

Rock and roll means to have sex.

The number of monogamous primate species that live in large social groups is precisely zero.

Sexual receptivity of bonobos reduces male conflict.

Overlapping sexual relationships and general parental figures is natural?

Cacilda Jetha conducted a World Health Organization study of sexual behavior among villagers in rural Mozambique in 1990. She found that the 140 men in her study group were involved with 87 women as wives, 252 other women as long-term sexual partners, and 226 ongoing sexual relationships per man, not counting the unreported casual encounters many of these men likely experiences as well.

Erotic exchange played an important role in linking families from distant villages in a durable web of certain aid in times of crisis.

Mosuo tribe
Warao tribe

“Marriage,” “mating,” and “love” are socially constructed phenomena that have little or no transferable meaning outside any given culture.

Men are moreso worried about paternity (hence sexual fidelity). Women are universally concerned with access to a man’s resources (so more threatened by emotional intimacy).

Jealousy is an expression of fear.

Female vocalization incite males in group to provoke sperm competition. Linked to reproductive period and status of the male inspiring the vocalizations. Calls that were longer and more distinct sonic units were during mating with higher ranked males.

Vocalization is highly linked with promiscuous mating.

Vocalization also encourages climax.

Women dress more fetchingly when they are fertile.

Women mate fifty times per day as apes

Human female sexual behavior is more malleable then male.

Women have a disconnect between their brain’s conscious experience and what they actually feel in their body.

61 percent of women said their primary motivation for sex was emotional (under 35). 38 percent claimed their emotional motivations were stronger physical hunger (over 35).

New love makes you feel alive and stronger.

When couple have been together for years, they are like family. Brother and sister. Friends. Men then get turned off. Monogamy itself seems to drain away a man’s testosterone. Without testosterone, you have no desire. Hormonal response to novelty.

How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis

The business arena is saturated with advice, a majority of which is bullshit. Therefore, I think it’s important to have a list of mentors who you can seek for accurate information and guidance. Unfortunately, starting out, most entrepreneurs don’t have these types of real-life mentors and we have to make due with people we read about online or in books.

I think that research and obtaining new knowledge is crucial to success- it can tell you when you’re veering off course, but at the same time what is equally important is knowing when to ignore advice. For me, Felix Dennis is one of those mentors that cuts the bullshit and helps keep me on the right path.

His book, How to get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets, is a no-nonesense approach to making it big in the business world. He dissuades the majority of readers from making the attempt because of the sacrifice and hardship that is required, but at the same time gives helpful insights for people that are determined to be as successful as he is.

I’d recommend this book for any one that wants to be richer than their neighbor.

Quotes + Notes

“The follow-through, the execution, is a thousand times more important than a “great idea.” In fact, if the execution is perfect, it sometimes barely matters what the idea is. If you want to get rich, don’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike. Just get busy getting rich.”

“(Young person’s advantage:) neither education nor upbringing, nor even money, can buy—you have almost nothing. And therefore you have almost nothing to lose. Nor is a propensity for risk-taking your only advantage. You have stamina far, far beyond those who are twenty or thirty years older.”

“Ambition, fearlessness, self-belief, stamina, a degree of callousness, a willingness to learn.”

“Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

“No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken.”

“What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve it? How great is the sacrifice in reality, as opposed to your nightmarish fears at 3 o’clock in the morning?”

“Thus the nightmare of prospective failure provides you with the very opportunity you are seeking. Not only does it restrain smarter people than yourself from becoming rich—and there can only be so many rich people in the world—it.”

“Thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures, not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success. Few things in life are certain except death and being taxed. But sniggering and mockery prior to any attempt to better yourself financially, followed by envy later, or gloating during your initial failures—these are three certainties in life. It hurts. It’s mindless. And it doesn’t mean anything. But it will happen. Be prepared to shrug it off.”

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy; the chance to draw back; always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elemental truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one commits oneself, Providence moves all. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would come his or her way. —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE”

“This last factor is crucial, because the ability to live with and embrace risk is what sets apart the financial winners and losers in the world.”

“An understanding and passionate affinity with any subject, in combination with effective management, sales and marketing techniques, could well provide a tailor-made solution to the Search.”

“So how do you judge your own aptitudes? Trial and error is the only way I ever heard of.”

“Inclinations are easy to list. Aptitude is far less so. Trial and error, combined with fierce determination and a willingness to discard cherished perceptions about ourselves, is the best that I can suggest.”

“More important, it really does not matter who gives birth to any particular idea. This is borne out by the laws relating to patents and inventions. You cannot patent an idea. You can only patent your own method for implementing an idea. It is for this reason that so many people have become rich despite never having had a single great idea in their lives. As it happens, I count myself among them.”

“It is how ideas are implemented that counts in the long run.”

“If you want to be rich, then watch your rivals closely and never be ashamed to emulate a winning strategy. They may josh you a little for doing it, but that’s a price well worth paying.”

“If you want to be rich, then watch your rivals closely and never be ashamed to emulate a winning strategy. They may josh you a little for doing it, but that’s a price well worth paying.”

“If you never have a single great idea in your life, but become skilled in executing the great ideas of others, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Seek them out and make them work. They do not have to be your ideas. Execution is all in this regard.”

“Ideas don’t make you rich. The correct execution of ideas does. ”

“For a self-made man or woman there is no avoiding it. Beware of anyone who tells you that there are short cuts to obtaining even a small amount of capital. Outside of family and friends, there are none that I ever heard of.”

“In a sense, this exhausting and miserable search is what separates the wannabes from the gonnabes. The only way through it is to keep trudging. “When going through, hell,” Winston Churchill once remarked, “keep going.””

“If you cannot bear the thought of prostrating yourself to obtain the seed corn, then you will almost certainly never own the farm.”

“That was the secret ingredient. I would not be a wage slave. I would not take “no” for an answer. I would not give in. I was going to be rich. Some how. Some way. Someday soon. And I would not retreat to the safety of a decent job until I was starved out of house and home.”

“What fueled me was the desperation of knowing that unless I found a way around my lack of capital, unless I could pour my energy into a venture of my own, I would be condemned to a life of wage slavery. There is absolutely nothing more likely to dampen the prospects of becoming rich than a nice, fat, regular salary check.”

Letters to My Brother by the artist Vincent van Gogh,

When the going gets tough, when all seems lost, when partners and luck desert you, when bankruptcy and failure are staring you in the face, all that can sustain you is a fierce compulsion to succeed at any price.

And it is control and ownership of a business entity which brings with it the promise of future wealth.

• Keep your chin up. It could be worse. You could be working for them.

“Success is never permanent; failure is never fatal. The only thing that really counts is to never, never, never give up.”

After all, who built the pyramids? The pharaohs or the engineers? Think about it.

Without self-belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible. It is as brutal and as black and white as that. If you take no other memory from this book, then take that single thought. It was worth a damn sight more than the price you paid for it.

One of my favorite philosophers, the first-century Roman Seneca, coined the following: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Because I owned it. I owned it all. And my dear friends David and Robin never owned anything during their time there except for a pile of EMAP share options, a good salary and a lovely pension. Please think about this if you want to be rich. Ownership is not the most important thing. It is the only thing that counts.

Nothing counts but what you own in the race to get rich. If you haven’t much skill, or much wit, or much talent, or much luck, and yet you insist on owning more than your fair share of any start-up or acquisition, then you can become rich. If you take what you’re given, you will probably not get rich.

Unfortunately, as John Lennon pointed out, our lives are “what happen while we’re busy making other plans.”

By focusing hard on obtaining that human capital you will vastly increase your chances of becoming rich.

But why would clever, cunning and adept people work for a mug like you? Simple. There are many clever, cunning and adept people who are risk-averse. You are not risk-averse because you are dedicated to becoming rich. Believe it or not, much, much cleverer people than you will come and work for you if you ask them.

Your employees, your colleagues, your suppliers and your customers are all human capital. Choosing among them is an art form. Yet creating the right environment in which money can be made is essential.

And yet you wish to waste your youth in the getting of money? Really? Think hard, my young cub, think hard and think long before you embark on such a quest. The time spent attempting to acquire wealth will mount up and cannot be reclaimed, whether you succeed or whether you fail.

You will be too busy keeping the sea from washing away the sand you have spent so long collecting at such terrible cost to your health and your sanity and your relationships with others.

THE WORLD IS FULL OF MONEY. SOME OF IT HAS MY NAME ON IT. ALL I HAVE TO DO IS COLLECT IT. Done that?

Armies and governments fear men or women who know they are going to die soon; and they have good reason to. Such people have nothing to lose. They will commit any atrocity and take as many others with them as they can, if they are driven to it. You must now become that doomed man or woman. You are going to die. Nothing can alter the fact. It is immutable. Incomprehensible. Unfair. All those things.

Never stop looking for talent and promoting talent. This single suggestion will keep anyone rich.

The Eight Secrets to Getting Rich 1. Analyze your need. Desire is insufficient. Compulsion is mandatory. 2. Cut loose from negative influences. Never give in. Stay the course. 3. Ignore “great ideas.” Concentrate on great execution. 4. Focus. Keep your eye on the ball marked “The Money is Here.” 5. Hire talent smarter than you. Delegate. Share the annual pie. 6. Ownership is the real “secret.” Hold on to every percentage point you can. 7. Sell before you need to, or when bored. Empty your mind when negotiating. 8. Fear nothing and no one. Get rich. Remember to give it all away.

After all, if everyone was prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, who would be left to work for my own companies?

Here is my suggestion. Think of this fear not as the King Kong of bogeymen, but as a mare. A nightmare. A mare, after all, is a horse. A horse can be tamed, bridled, saddled, harnessed and (eventually) ridden. Harnessing the power of such a creature adds mightily to your own. Thus the nightmare of prospective failure provides you with the very opportunity you are seeking. Not only does it restrain smarter people than yourself from becoming rich—and there can only be so many rich people in the world—it affords you the chance of increasing your confidence, both when you confront it and when you master it.

For a start, the salary begins to have an attraction and addictive-ness all of its own. A regular paycheck and crack cocaine have that in common. In addition, and more to the point, working too long for other people can blunt your desire to take risks. This last factor is crucial, because the ability to live with and embrace risk is what sets apart the financial winners and losers in the world.

The three reasons for this are availability of risk capital, ignorance and the power of a rising tide. Investors are drawn to emerging industries in the hope of making a fast buck. To get rich, you will need capital, and to acquire capital you need to be where loose capital is searching for a home. In addition, the combination of ignorance and misconception that surrounds any new market or technology works in your favor. If you are quick at grasping concepts and jargon, you become an “instant expert.” The owners of capital love “experts.”

Capitalism demands that whoever takes the most financial risk calls the piper’s tune. The biggest rewards go not to those individuals who came up with the idea, nor to those individuals who built the empire. They go to those entities or individuals who funded the enterprise and own the most stock. Always bear this in mind during the Search.

Plus the ability to sell, which is usually nothing more than a talent for hype and keeping a straight face as you demand a fifty times markup from potential buyers who wouldn’t know a Damien Hirst from a pickled sardine.

The problem is that we create an image of ourselves in our childhood and youth (often at the urging of parents, siblings or friends), and subsequently attempt to graft reality onto this image. More often than not, the graft doesn’t take and the result is bewilderment and disappointment. Far better to ruthlessly analyze what your particular aptitudes are and act upon them rather than attempt to graft an oak tree onto a dandelion.

How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets (Felix Dennis)
– Highlight on Page 85 | Loc. 1726-27 | Added on Saturday, July 07, 2012, 05:46 PM

She reminded me that at twenty-five years old, I was still a young man. That I could always give up the job and then start my own company later.

“Everybody has talent at twenty-five. The difficult thing is to have it at fifty.”

Write down your doubts and fears. Examine them. Hold them up to the light. Suck the wisdom out of them and discard their husks in the trash.

Listening is the most powerful weapon after self-belief and persistence you can bring into play as an entrepreneur.

the world is full of aspiring lieutenants. Most people seek job security, job satisfaction and power over others far more than they seek wealth.

must try to own it all. You must strive with every fiber of your being, while recognizing the idiocy of your behavior, to own and retain control of as near to 100 percent of any company as you can.

I’ve made more than that in deals I can barely remember now. I once made a million dollars by selling a magazine I had not even published yet to a rival. A million dollars for a day’s work. And why? Why? Why? Because I owned it. I owned it all. And my dear friends David and Robin never owned anything during their time there except for a pile of EMAP share options, a good salary and a lovely pension. Please think about this if you want to be rich. Ownership is not the most important thing. It is the only thing that counts.

“Why doth treason never prosper? For shouldst thou fail, thou must hang. And if it doth succeed, why, ’twas never treason!”

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. —BERTRAND RUSSELL, “IN PRAISE OF IDLENESS”

Especially in the early days of your company, delegation and promotion are among your most powerful weapons in getting rich. Men and women with spirit will be prepared to leave safe, comfortable jobs and work for you, providing the atmosphere of the new operation is loaded with optimism, adventure, the sweet scent of delegation and the promise of promotion. Not everyone works to get rich. In fact, most people do not. But almost everyone wishes to be respected. With promotion comes respect. And with delegation comes promotion. If your company is young and a bit rickety, meritocracy, delegation and promotion are the bricks and mortar that will make it stronger.

For whatever reason, a surprising number of first-class employees (managers or otherwise) are not overly motivated by money. They want security, or respect, or the chance to learn or the opportunity to shine. Often they require little more than a decent salary in a company where they feel motivated and valued.

How you react to it, how you face up to it, defines whether you can stay rich, and probably whether you can get rich at all.

My advice on competition is always to ensure that you want to fight, and ought to fight on a larger competitor’s ground.

20. Enjoy the business of making money. The loot is only a marker. Time cannot be recaptured. There is no amount of pie in the world worth being miserable for, day after day. If you find you dislike what you are doing, then sell up and change your life. Self-imposed misery is a kind of madness. The cure is to get out.

I became a multimillionaire in 1982. By then I was thirty-five years old. Barmy! By thirty-five I was already half dead.

With my talents I could have been a multimillionaire by the time I was twenty-five or twenty-eight. All that was stopping me was my conviction that I was a born magazine publisher. How stupid. I wasted eight or nine years when I could have been drinking Petrus, swilling down Retsina and lager instead.

This is so important, gentle reader. It pains me to think about it. If you wish to become rich, look carefully about you at the prevailing industries where wealth appears to be gravitating. Then go to where the money is! That is where you should focus your efforts. On the ball marked “The Money is Here.”

No. But, then, I didn’t know anything about magazines in 1967 either.

Stupid people are easy to hire. The world is full of stupid people. Many of them are extremely pleasant and will give you a lovely smile every morning. But such people will not add to your wealth. In the early days, you should avoid them like the bubonic plague. What you need are clever, cunning and adept people.

If on my deathbed I had only a very short time to pass on what wisdom I have accumalted about getting rich to a son or daughter, then it would be this: Ownership Shall Be Half of the Law; Doing an Outstanding Job Shall Be the Other Half. There is no point in owning 100 percent of a rubbish company. Whatever it is you intend to do to get rich, get good at it. Hire people who are better than you at it. Listen and learn and get better still at it.

I had broken two of my own cardinal rules and paid the price. I had not looked to see if the leopard could change its spots, and I had not instructed my managers at Dennis Publishing to quietly sound out the chances of selling Stuff.

The first question to answer is where is the goddamn money? Let’s imagine it is in a mine in a mountain. Fine. Which mountain? The mountain that is already making a lot of other people rich would be a good bet.

To be rich, if that is still your desire, you must somehow learn to harness fear to your own advantage.

Never stop looking for talent and promoting talent. This single suggestion will keep anyone rich. Talent is all most companies consist of. Talented people are crucial to keeping your company humming right along and growing. As the owner, you have the right to seek out talent, both inside and outside of your company. You have the right to insist it is promoted or hired. Make use of that last right. If you get known for making use of it, the talent will start coming to you.

– “I believe that almost anyone of reasonable intelligence can become rich, given sufficient motivation and application.”

– No college education or capital.
– “Knowledge learned the hard way combined with the avoidance of error, whenever and wherever possible, is the soundest basis for success in any endeavor.”

– If he can do it, I can do it. “By making errors, lots of errors, and learning from them.”

Key: “confidence and an unshakable belief it can be done and that you are the one to do it.” “Tunnel vision helps. Being a bit of a shit helps. A thick skin helps. Stamina is crucial, as is a capacity to work so hard that your best friends mock you, your lovers despair and the rest of your acquaintances watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and half in contempt.”

– Not want or need, but determined.

-“The follow-through, the execution, is a thousand times more important than a “great idea.” In fact, if the execution is perfect, it sometimes barely matters what the idea is. If you want to get rich, don’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike. Just get busy getting rich.”
Liquid assets
100,000-400,000 comfortable poor
400,000-1,000,000 comfortably off
1,000,000-2 million comfortably wealthy
2 mil – 10 mil lesser rich
10 mil – 30 mil comfortably rich
30 mil – 70 mil the rich
70 mil – 100 mil the seriously rich
100 mil – 200 mil the truly rich
over 200 mil the super rich

Total assets
2 mil – 4 mil comfortable poor
4 mil – 10 mil comfortably off
10 mil – 30 comfortably wealthy
30 – 80 lesser rich
80 – 150 comfortably rich
150 – 200 rich
200 – 400 seriously rich
400 – 800 truly rich
800 – bil filthy rich
bill and over super rich

“The way will most likely be hard your failures many. It will be fun and it will get a little hairy, even scary at times. But the earlier you start and the more risks you are prepared to run tempered by listening hard and choosing the right mountain (we’ll come to that later), the more certain it is that, sooner or later, you will find yourself with a small success on your hands.”

“If you wish to be rich, you must grow a carapace. A mental armor. Not so thick as to blind you to well-constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family.”

“Capitalism…as its name implies, it requires capital for those who wish to play the game and succeed.”

Control + Ownership = future wealth
Failure
1. Lack of compulsion
2. Cash flow optimism (non-viable, can’t support expenditures). It is an entrepreneur’s job to manage and forecast cashflow.
3. Reinforcing failure (let it go. Success often has to do with timing).

1979- His first real success

4. Failing to act small, think big. “Thinking big, that’s the secret.” “It’s never game over, time to party.”
I want to establish myself as a serious player.
5. Skimping on talent. Talent = sustained growth = wealth.
Inviting talent to take responsibility and control leads to great things.
Talent wants to prove itself, excel, and run the show daily.
-Need talent to be rich (yours or others).
– Talent does the work.
– Self belief has a mesmeric quality.
– Examine your doubt and fears.
– Canibilization is good because otherwise others will take that revenue.
– Predator, not deliberate.
Self belief. Persistence. Listening.

-Young, so have nothing to lose.
-Stamina – 12 hours per day of work
– Knowledge of technology
– Working for someone else blunts your desire to take risks
– Small success can provide clue as to aptitude
– Ability to take chance and exploit initial success
– Serendipity
– Nike sport shoes –> runner. Idea –> entrepreneur.
– Emulation of business practices. Never be afraid to emulate a winning strategy.
– Names don’t count.
– Encourage and search for great ideas but control them so they don’t control you.
– “There are only six ways of obtaining capital. You can be given or inherit it; you can steal it; you can win it; you can marry it; you can earn it; you can borrow it.”

The Start-Up of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

I discovered this book a few months back and was initially excited because it was written by Reid Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn. Then I realized that it was a career advice book and tossed it aside as rubbish. The term “career” makes me think of professionals in suits with rolex watches. They throw about business slang, take pride in their salary or compensation package, and consider the ultimate goal to make it to the top of the corporate ladder. This is the opposite of everything I want in life.

Then, months later, my mother gave me this book as a present and as a result, I felt compelled to read it, despite its likely bland and stupid nature. Ironically enough, this book turned out to be one of the best books I’ve read all summer. Kudos Mr. Hoffman.

The premise of the book is the new career landscape. Job security is a thing of the past. Company training programs are rare. Young professionals will no longer dedicate 20 or 30 years to one company, with the expectancy of steady promotion and good benefits. Hoffman argues that people must treat their careers like a startup company and employ some of the techniques of successful technology startups do in order to change with the times and experience the same kind of success.

I won’t provide a summary, but I will highlight different sections of the book that I found interesting or worth remembering.

I never realized that Detroit was once the entrepreneurial center of America (car industry) before it decayed into crime, drugs, and unemployment.

“The auto industry got too comfortable. As Intel cofounder Andry Grove once famously proclaimed, ‘Only the paranoid survive.’ Success, he meant, is fragile- and perfection, fleeting.”

It’s crucial as a businessperson to understand why larger companies often tend to be overtaken by younger companies. When a company gains an established customer base with money coming in every month (enough for the founder to retire and hire a “professional” executive in his place), that company tends to listen less to its customers, have less of an incentive to change its ways, and begins to take less risk and be guided more by corporate rules.

It’s an interesting phenomenon. If you worked out to the point where you had a six pack or the kind of definition you wanted, you wouldn’t suddenly start eating cake and stop working out and would likely maintain the definition. However, if you took someone who was fat already and gave them that kind of body, they would return to being fat within two years. Why? Because they wouldn’t understand what it takes to GET there, in the same way that these established companies are ruled by individuals who don’t understand what it took to become a successful company.

There are no long lasting trophies or true permanent successes in life. It doesn’t matter what you DID it matters what you’re doing now.

I really like Hoffman’s idea of being in permanent Beta. “Permanent beta is essentially a lifelong commitment to continuous personal growth.”

I also really like the idea of mastering a domain. “In life, there are multiple gold medals. If you try to be the best at everything…you’ll be the best at nothing…” This is exactly what Rockefeller, Carnegie, Buffett, and Jobs did.

“Andreessen likes to say: Markets that don’t exist don’t care how smart you are.” In business it’s all about linking up supply with demand.

“Technology startups focus on learning over profitability in the early years to maximize revenue in the later years.”…”Which plan will grow my soft assets fastest…which plan offers the most learning potential.”

“If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find a predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification.”

Although this book plugs linkedin, it offers a really unique view on how to gather information (from other people in your network). I like the idea of creating lifelong teammates and utilizing weak connections to learn more about industry trends.

“Pursing breakout opportunities” is an interesting section of the book. It’s something that I do already, but wasn’t really conscious of doing. “Opportunities do not float like clouds. They are firmly attached to individuals…You will get ahead if you can tap the circles that dish the best opportunities. It’s how people have gotten ahead for centuries.”

Lastly, I love the idea of serendipity (going out of your way to go to events or meet people you wouldn’t normally meet) and that it only occurs when you are DOING something. I also completely agree that when assessing risky opportunities, one should ask what the worst possible outcome is and whether or not they could handle it.

Reading this book is an example of serendipity and I’m glad I read it!

Review of Titan by Ron Chernow Review (Part 2)

“There was nothing about him to make anybody pay especial attention to him or speculate about his future.”

This post will be about Rockefeller’s psychology and how it helped him become wealthy. It will also give you an idea of what he was like as a person. I’d like to begin with a description of Rockefeller when he was a child. I’ll be quoting a lot.

“Despite Rockefeller’s roseate memories, early photos of him tell a much more somber tale. His face was grime, expressionless, lacking boyish joy and animation…to other people, he often seemed abstracted, and they remembered him with a deadpan face trudging along country roads, lost in thought, as if unraveling deep problems…he was a quiet boy…he seemed always to be thinking.”

Like Richard Branson, Rockefeller had tiny ventures as a boy (buying candy in bulk, saving his money in a blue china bowl, and selling turkey chicks). Also like Branson, he was a patient and persistent, but slow learner. “Like J.P. Morgan and Jay Gould, [he] exhibited a terrific head for math.”

“If Rockefeller didn’t excel in class, it might have been in part because he lacked the bright boy’s exhibitionism, the yearning for gold stars; [he was] always inner directed and indifferent to the approval of others.”

I find it really interesting that there were very few signs from an early age that Rockefeller was going to become one of the greatest businessmen in America’s history. The one “sign” that Chernow offered was that Rockefeller was very careful and focused when he played games like chess. He also set goals and would not deviate until he accomplished them. Oddly, his slow and thoughtful style was combined with swift execution when he made a decision. Rockefeller was also a “clear and precise” communicator.

Rockefeller blended into the crowded during his teen years. One of the bigger things his classmates remembered about him was that he said on multiple occasions, “Some day, sometime, when I am a man, I want to be worth a-hundred-thousand-dollars. And I’m going to be, too–Some day.”

Rockefeller’s father had an interesting impact on his life. He was a bit of a wandering traveler, who loved cash. He peddled fake products and took advantage of ignorant locals. He also fornicated with multiple women on the road, despite being married. He would leave for months at a time, and when he came back, he would have wads of cash and flaunt his “richness” through expensive clothes, rings, watches, and by pulling out a bundle of cash whenever he paid.

The one thing his father did teach Rockefeller, aside from being a model of how NOT to live, was bargaining skills, contract law, ways to deal with employees, and the importance of paying debt on time. His father also lent him money for his first ventures (though demanded interest and at times would require the principle be paid within days).

Another influence in Rockefeller’s life was religion. Rockefeller led a strict religious life up until his death and saw earning money as a way to praise god. He believed that oil was a gift from god, similar to the way that some believe fire was a gift from god. Throughout his life, Rockefeller often felt like he was on a mission from god and that god had blessed him with certain gifts. He believed in an “us-them” world, similar to the way religious individuals view non-religious individuals. In all, he felt compelled to make money in order to serve god and that he was blessed by god to become rich.

Rockefeller’s first job was as a clerk, where he learned accounting and realized he had a love for detail and numbers. The skills he picked up at this job played a key role further down the line when he was starting companies. It allowed him to have the ability to understand the underlying forces of a company and where improvements need to be made. It’s also important to note the extreme persistence he exhibited when searching for a job. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and searched for work all day every day until he was offered a job.

During his first job, he came to have a love for work and fit right into the office environment. If there is one recurring theme in his early life, it is that he wanted to be treated as an adult because he believed he took on the same responsibilities as an adult (caring for family when father was gone). This is what drove him to secure a job and to treat older businessmen no differently than as if he were their colleague.

As I read about Rockefeller’s first venture (basically a grocery store or convenience shop) and then his oil refining business, I came to better understand his inner mentality. For example, he took frugality to the extreme and never made lavish displays of wealth, even when he had money.

“I wore a thin overcoat and thought how comfortable I should be when I could afford a long, thick Ulster. I carried a lunch in my pocket until I was a rich man. I trained myself in the school of self-control and self-denial. It was hard on me, but I would rather be my own tyrant than have someone else tyrannize me.”

He also showed incredible attention to the detail of the product development process and product output and strove to make it as high quality and efficient as possible. I got the impression that he spent every minute of the day (aside from church) thinking about business and how to expand.

As his business grew in the oil industry, his focus intensified.

“Sharing a room with brother William, he often nudged him awake in the dead of night.’I’ve been thinking out a plan to do so and so,’ he would ask. ‘Now, what do you think of this scheme?’

“For years on end I never had a solid night’s sleep, worrying about how it was to come out…I tossed about in bed night after night worrying over the outcome… all the fortune that have made has not served to compensate for the anxiety of that period” During this period, he gave himself nightly sermons where he motivated himself, maintained control over his emotions, and gathered his strength for another day of hard work.

Rockefeller was extremely disciplined about his book keeping and the way his business was run. He did everything possible to create higher profits (lowering transportation cost, encouraging efficient, economies of scale), and would remove partners or employees who either clashed with his vision or did not help him. He had a knack for attracting great people and quickly assessing people.

“You will remember that the business in its early years was a sort of gold-field rush…great fortunes were made by some of the first adventurers, and evrything was carried on in a sort of helter-skelter way…Rockefeller represented the second, more rational stage of capitalist development, when the colorful daredevils and pioneering spectulators give way…to the men who had grown up in the hard school of life, calculating and daring at the same time, above all temperate and reliable, shrewd and completely devoted to their business, with stricktly bourgeois opinions and principles.”

This gives you an idea of the mental strategies or convictions Rockefeller maintained and how they helped him be successful. It’s true that he was in the right place, in the right industry, and possessed the skill set needed to capture the industry, but to me it seems like he would have succeeded wherever he ended up. He always wanted to be a part of something “big” and that didn’t necessarily have to be the oil industry. I think he would have kept searching until he found it and then applied the focus, discipline, and ruthless drive to the business.

Tony Robbins says that the most important first step when setting a goal is to develop a strong “why.” You need to know why you’re doing it and have enough compelling reasons or else you will give up along the way.  It’s interesting how Rockefeller loved work and was extremely disciplined, but what’s even more interesting are his reasons for wanting to be wealthy.

Overall:“Rockefeller succeeded because he believed in the long-term prospects of the business and never treated it as a mirage that would soon fade.”

Review of Titan by Ron Chernow Review (Part 1)

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about well-known businessmen and entrepreneurs who have made an impact on our culture and gotten rich doing so. The biographies are always interesting, but the early years hold a particular fascination. You see, a few months ago, I was on the chunnel going from London to Paris and was reading Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins. I came across a section that talked about modeling and how many successful people have the ability pick role models, identify the lessons they learned on their climb to the top, and apply those lessons to their lives.

There was this one quote that I’ll reproduce here: “The man many people consider the richest in the world is Adnan Mohammad Khashoggi. How did he get that way? Simple: He modeled the Rockefellers, the Morgans, and others of like financial stature. He read everything he could about them, studied their beliefs, and modeled their strategies.” Now, wether or not it’s true that he modeled Rockefeller, I don’t know, but at that moment I decided to add Rockefeller to my list of to-study biographies.

Ron Chernow wrote a really long biography, so in part 1 of this review, I will be writing about the relevant business information regarding his rise to power. This is mainly so I can look back at a later date and don’t have to re-read the book. Part 2 of this review will detail his psychological beliefs and mentalities during his rise to power.

Note: all conversions in 2010 dollars

Rockefeller’s first recorded earnings came from farm labor where he made $0.375 cents per day ($8.67). He experienced his first non-wage earnings when he loaned a farmer $50 ($1,155.42) at 7% interest and made $3.50 ($80.88) at the end of the year.

The notion that one could make money from money was a big eye-opener for little Rockefeller. “He was thunderstruck by the happy math [computing the interest $$ he would get at the end of the year], which hit him with the force of a revelation…’The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my slave and not make myself a slave to money.'”

Rockefeller got his first job as a clerk at age 16 for a commission merchants/produce shippers firm. He was paid $200 ($4,621.67) a year initially and shortly after received a raise so that he was paid $300 ($6,932.50) a year.

When he was 19 years old, Rockefeller had saved up $800 (equivalent to a year’s salary at this point in his career) ($19,906.14) and both he and his business partner invested a total of $4,000 ($99,530.70) in a startup company that would buy and sell produce. Since both partners were required to invest $2,000 ($49,765.35) and Rockefeller fell short, he made up the difference through a loan from his father.

The profit from this first venture in his first year was $4,400 ($105,475.70) and the profit after the Civil War when he was 23 was $17,000 ($407,519.74). Around this time, Rockefeller got his first loan outside of his family from a local bank for $2,000 ($49,765.35).

The total capital for his first refining venture at age 24 (his firm pledged half) was $8,000 ($139,995.02).  In the next year, he was audacious and borrowed $100,000 to expand the business ($1,749,937.73).

At age 25, he bought out his business partner in the oil refinery business for $72,500 ($998,980.20) and gave up his half interest in the commission business. At this time, the oil refinery was the largest in Cleveland and treated 500 barrels of crude oil daily. It was also one of the largest facilities in the world.

At this point in his career, although Rockefeller is not famous, there is no question that he was rich. In the next four years, he spent most of his time gathering cash from banks and investors and implementing plans to expand his business. He also began his controversial bargaining with the railroad companies. At age 29, he bought a conservative house on “Millionaires’ Row.” After this rise to power period, Rockefeller spent the remainder of his years building a monopoly of the oil industry and amassing more wealth than anyone thought possible. I will cover this later period of his life when he becomes famous and possibly the richest man in the world in other blog posts.

The next post will be about Rockefeller’s psychology and how it helped him rise to the top.

 

 

Thoughts on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Before this book came out, I didn’t know all that much about Jobs or the role he played at Apple. I remember at some point hearing that he was forced out of Apple, and that after quarters of falling sales and mediocre products, Apple brought him back. I mainly recognized his face from watching Apple product presentations on youtube, in eager anticipation of a new macbook computer or ipod version.

Apple hasn’t been on my radar until recently, when it started coming out with the ipod, followed by the sleek aluminum macbook. As a kid, I always hated the Macintosh computers in school. They were slower than windows, less intuitive, and not conducive to gaming. Also, when I started to get into programming in high school, I hated how Apple computers had such closed systems and how it was difficult to fiddle with their hardware. All the way up until college, I was a die hard windows or linux fan. However, when the aluminum macbook came out, I fell in love and haven’t looked back.

I was in London when Jobs died. It was a big shock. I had no idea he was suffering from cancer and it felt really strange because he’s around my dad’s age. Shortly after, the biography came out and I remember most articles I read said it was scathing, unfriendly, and ugly. Well, being a young entrepreneur, full of dreams and passion, you can imagine what was #1 on my Christmas list. I wanted to learn who this man really was and whether he was an Edison or a Rockefeller. A Benjamin Franklin or an Andrew Carnegie.

Before I give my thoughts on this book, I want to say that Walter Isaacson did a brilliant job of capturing this man on the page. Using extensive research, flowing prose, and keen psychological analysis of a deep and complex character, he weaves this compelling and informative narrative that makes the book a guaranteed seller. I’ve read his other books on Benjamin Franklin and Einstein, and hope that he continues to write  biographies for the rest of his life.

There is one belief or driving force that I think has existed all throughout Job’s life and it is a common belief among people who leave behind something we call “legacy.” It’s the kind of belief system that I believe Alexander the Great must have had, and it’s summed up in this quote from Job’s Standford Commencement Address: “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

It’s like the quote from the movie Alexander: “The fear of death drives all men.”

I think that Job’s need to do something great, to forward the human race, to keep achieving and creating despite what he had already created, and to be remembered is what led to his incredible focus, hard work, and success. He had this idea in his mind that he was going to die young and wanted to do all he could before  that happened. When you understand that desperate need, it’s easier to understand why he ignored his family so much, how he summoned the strength to keep going, and the reason he took such huge risks, often betting the company when it wasn’t necessary.

So, just like Alexander the Great, he had this desire, but unlike Alexander, he considered himself an artist, not a military general. Instead of conquering nations, he sought to bring products into the world that did not exist  before and held them to rigorous and perfectionist standards.

When he talks about what drives him, he seems to give off less of an egotistical or control freak nature than what is portrayed in the biography: “I think most creative people want to express appreciation for being able to take advantage of the work that’s been done by others before us…A lot of us want to contribute something back to our species and to add something to the flow…We try to use the talents we do have to express our deep feelings, to show our appreciation of all the contribution that came before us, and to add something to that flow.”

A lot of entrepreneurs say that the greatest ventures one will create are inline with one’s passions. For Jobs, this was combining his need to be an artist with his interest in technology. In short, he sought to combine the  humanities with science.

I spoke in my last post about the different types of entrepreneurs that exist. Some do market research in order to understand where there are gaps in the market place and how they can take advantage of those gaps. Others seek to solve problems that individuals have with new or slightly altered products. Then, there are entrepreneurs who create products that people don’t realize they “need” until they see it. Jobs certainly was not an inventor or engineer, but he did have the ability to understand this last category of people and push his employees to develop innovative products that people didn’t realize they needed.

“Some people say ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.'”

I think it’s clear to anyone who reads this book that Jobs is a master salesman, an expert handler of people, and has an incredibly intuitive sense about the marketplace and aesthetics. Despite these amazing qualities, there is this strange thing about reading this book and learning how he grew up. You get this sense of how ordinary and human he is. I feel like some people are idealized as gods by the media, and it’s wonderfully refreshing to be able to come away from this book and be able to think about how on many levels, he’s no different than me or my friends. It might seem pretentious to say something like that knowing how much he accomplished and how he revolutionized six industries, but it’s completely true. To reinforce that belief, I’m going to provide a short video from when he was younger:

Well, I’m certainly not saying very much about his bad qualities. In a lot of ways he reminds me of Howard Hughes, a very successful and driven man with many personal issues and odd mannerisms. There is no doubt that he put a lot of his personality into Apple products and the company’s organization, but I’m going to stay away from some of the ugly things in his past. They do serve to make him more human. Since I want to be an entrepreneur, I mentally glossed over a lot of the negative things and focused on emulating the positive, but all I can say is after reading this book, my mom hated the man and wanted nothing to do with him or his products.

I remember Will Smith saying in one of his interviews that he believes that all successful people have to have a delusional quality to them because they have to believe that something different will happen that hasn’t happened to anyone else around them. Steve Jobs had a similar “reality distortion” field that he used to get people to give their best, to stay ahead of the competition, and in less admirable cases, ignore his daughter born out of wedlock, ignore that he needed to seek medical attention for cancer, and ignore the horrible effects of his strange diets. In hand with a natural charisma, Job’s reality distortion field reminded me of something that a cult leader would employ to get his or her loyal followers to behave how they wish. It was actually incredibly effective and it’s very interesting reading about how he used this to his advantage.

For example, he would convince employees that they were capable of performing incredible production feats, despite a seemingly inadequate deadline length or lack of technological ability. Then, amazingly, they would perform these feats (and often be up day and night doing so). I guess people truly can do more than they think they are capable of.

His ability to create a reality distortion field was married with his knack for creating a team of A players. He had this firm belief that A players only want to work with other A players and that B players often let C players creep into the organization because they are self-conscious about their own performance and want to appear better. By giving these A players harsh feedback and holding them to a high standard, he was able to cultivate the creation of wonderfully beautiful and technologically advanced products.  His ultimate test was to create products that the engineers themselves would want to use.

“If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away.”

I think this is the reason that Jobs continually sought to re-invent himself and his company.

This book was incredible and is a must read for all entrepreneurs and technologists. I’d like to end this entry with a quote from an Apple advertisement.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Thoughts on “Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson”

My business partner encouraged me to read this book while I was studying abroad in London. The Virgin brand is obviously a very big deal in the UK and Richard Branson is on the level of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, or Steve Jobs. I didn’t know all that much about Richard Branson before reading this book. I had a vague sense that he was some crazy rich guy who combined daredevil adventures with a wild sex life. As you might know, I always like to get different perspectives on business and life and since I was in London, I couldn’t think of a better opportunity to read his autobiography.

This book made me think about the difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman. I think the biggest difference between someone who is an entrepreneur at heart and someone who is a businessman at heart is how they approach business. When I think of an entrepreneur, I think of Steve Jobs, Marc Cenedella, and Richard Branson. When I think of a businessman I think of Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, and Andrew Carnegie. When I think of an inventor, I think of Steve Wozniak .

In my opinion, there are two types of entrepreneurs. One cares about delivering a great product or service that truly adds value to the world or revolutionizes an industry. Not only do they want to deliver innovative products or services, they also want to create enduring business around them. They don’t care as much about money as they do about their work and legacy. The other type of entrepreneur spots opportunities where consumer demand is unmet or there is possibility for product improvement. They then create a business around this opportunity. I think they definitely enjoy the game, but care more about money than the first type of entrepreneur. Obviously, individuals may have a little of both of these mentalities. I think the biggest difference between entrepreneurs and inventors is that inventors don’t work as hard to build businesses around their inventions and either give them away or sell them. An example could be Benjamin Franklin. Inventors have more of an engineer’s mentality than a business mentality.

Businessmen are much more interested in using money as a scorecard for their success. That doesn’t mean they are greedy or only care about money, but they definitely enjoy the game of buying, selling, and sometimes creating, and use money to gauge how successful they are at their endeavors. I think they are far less likely to “create” than to buy or sell or improve a business. Warren Buffett is probably the best example. He is clearly in the business of making money and will often give heavy weight to the numbers behind a business and the ability of the employees to grow and expand the business. He doesn’t create or directly foster the innovation of new products, he allocates capital. In the spectrum of entrepreneurs and investors, I think that businessmen have more of an investor’s mindset than an entrepreneur’s mindset.

All this being said, I see Richard Branson as the first type of entrepreneur. He is a creative visionary who cares less about money than he does about creating great products, services, and organizations.

“I am aware that the idea of business as being fun and creative goes right against the grain of conventions, and it’s certainly not how they teach it at some of those business schools, where business means hard grind and lots of discounted cash flows and net present values.”

There are four main lessons I learned from this book, despite Branson’s urging not to follow magic success formulas and to break the rules and do your own thing.

1. Hit the ground running. (Branson relies mostly on his instincts and intuition. Although he analyzes the situation, he executes before doubt sets in)

2. Build a great team around you. Reward them and praise them.

3. Have fun with it. (You can tell he thoroughly enjoys his work and makes sure to exercise the creative side of his brain)

4. Be on the consumer’s team. Work FOR the consumer. Don’t try to cheat the consumer out of their money or take advantage of them.

“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable, challendges and trying to rise above them.”

““Above all, you want to create something you are proud of. That’s always been my philosophy of business. I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business purely to make money. If that is the sole motive, then I believe you are better off doing nothing.”

“Looking to the future, I had no idea whether Virgin Cola would become a global leader in soft drinks or not, but, as with all of our businesses, I keep an open mind…The decision to launch Virgin Cola was founded on three key things: finding the right people, the positive use of the Virgin brand name, and protection of the downside.”

Review of Art of the Deal by Donald Trump (with Tony Schwartz)

Whenever I mention Donald Trump to my friends, the initial reaction is disgust.

“He’s not a real businessman, he inherited his money.”

“He’s just  another slimy rich bastard out to make money off of glitz and glamour.”

Like most people, I  have been exposed to one aspect of his personality through his television show, The Apprentice, and like most people, I have read about the casinos, beauty pageants, and the lavish Trump Tower in newspapers and magazines. However, I wanted to see for myself whether or not Trump’s success is born from his upbringing and family background or whether it is the result of shrewd business tact. I figured the best way to do that would be to read his well-known known book, The Art of the Deal. I have divided this review into two sections: My Review and What I Learned (and can apply to my own business life).

My Review

Should you pay $8 on amazon to read this book? First of all, no, get it used. Second of all, it really depends on what you are looking for. If you’re looking to better understand his rise to fame and fortune, then yes. It’s really remarkable the juggling acts he performed as a real estate developer, often times having to convince multiple parties to agree with him and get on the same page. It’s even more impressive how he mitigated risk, persuaded lawmakers, businessmen, and city officials (despite having no track record), and used the press to his advantage.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, I’d say that this book is not a “must read.” As a real estate developer, Trump is far more of a businessman than an entrepreneur. Of course he spots opportunities and organizes resources to take advantage of new high risk ventures, but I think he really shines more as a businessman. When you think about the word “deal,” you’ll get a better understanding of what this book is about. In simple terms, a deal is an agreement where one party is selling and one party is buying. One party is doing the persuading and the other needs to give the “okay” or buy into the opportunity. Negotiations simply refer to deciding on the terms of the deal, whether that be price, ownership, or future privileges. So, this book is about Trump convincing a lot of people to buy into the opportunities he creates, and he does it brilliantly.

If you want to be a businessman or an entrepreneur who also manages his or her venture, this book will be invaluable. It gives an in-depth look of how negotiations work and how to manage people. It’s also interesting to see how Trump partners with other businesses in order to give his projects more profitability and authenticity.

Is Trump a real businessman? It’s true that he had family money and was able to learn about the real estate business from a young age from his father, but financial resources are not what cause success. If that were true, investors wouldn’t care about business teams. I believe what determines success in business is how well you use all of the resources available to you, be they financial or social. It comes down to your business skills and who you are as a person. Without a doubt, Trump is a brilliant businessman and would not have been able to attain the level of success he now enjoys were it not for his passion, ability to understand people, and knack for spotting opportunities.

Another rich bastard who only cares about money? I think that caring about money is part of what develops your hunger in the early years of business, but there also needs to be a stronger desire to build something that wasn’t there before. From all of the business men and women I’ve read about, I’ve come to the conclusion that you either need a passion for the game or a passion to create. Let’s be honest, if all he cared about was money, he wouldn’t still be in the game making deals. I think he genuinely enjoys the game and is playing it for life.

What I’ve Learned

Business is people. There is no other way to say it. Reading this book has shown me that developing relationships can go a very long way and that learning how to persuade others while still maintaining integrity is invaluable. That also means it’s important to know your customers, which Trump did by constantly asking questions to understand how people viewed the world, his ideas, and his products

You are only as good as your product. Donald Trump would spend so much time and energy making sure he created quality products and delivered on time. It built into his reputation over time and made for smoother sailing in later years.

Mitigating Risk. I was surprised the steps that Trump would go to to mitigate or in some instances almost completely eliminate risk. At the same time, he knew when to take the calculated risks. It’s very smart business tactics and I think that people who play the game in the long run all have this in common.

Psychology. I’m a big believer that talent will only take you so far. Maybe that’s because I don’t think I’m a born businessman or entrepreneur. But one thing I’ve seen over and over again is successful business people saying that in the long run what has made them successful is complete focus on improving their skills and producing quality work. Trump is no different and I think that the psychology he has developed has played a large role in his success. Thinking Big. Dreaming. At the same time, taking action and focusing on the present project at hand. In the realm of psychology, he also taught me to leverage “public anticipation” and “sensationalize” in terms of public relations and marketing.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this book! Especially the early years when he was first getting started. The idea that he started with $200,000 right out of college is kind of astounding, but it’s in no way the hundreds of millions of family money that people make it out to be.

“To me it’s very simple: if you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”

Review of The Intelligent Entrepreneur by Bill Murphy

I picked this book up at a Waterstones in London. The first thing that caught my eye was the word “intelligent” in the title. It reminded me of The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. I’ve always believed that there is a smart way to go about achieving a goal and a not so smart way. Whether it’s been fitness, writing, or now business, I’ve read everything I could get my hands on to increase my chances of success. Everyone is born with both talent and the ability to acquire skill. Talent is a natural inclination to be good at a particular discipline. Skill is achieved from hours and hours of beating on your craft. It’s learned. So, the first reason I picked up this book is that it has the same outlook on entrepreneurship as I have: it can be learned, and it can be taught.

The second reason I picked up this book is that after you’ve read books on business, gone to lectures, and competed in competitions, a lot of the “rules of success” tend to be repeated (which is good, it means they are true). However, I feel like it would be a waste of my time to read a book that simply lists some pieces of advice. I wanted to learn from book centered around entrepreneurial stories because they more compelling, they are inspiring, and you get to see how other entrepreneurs tackle business problems.

Lastly, I’ve had great experiences with Harvard in the past. I took two classes there during high school to learn about creative writing and screenwriting. The teachers were wonderful, but more importantly, the books I was introduced to were seriously life changing. I hoped that this book would follow suite.

What follows are my thoughts on the book. After that, I’ve included a section about what I’ve learned and what I plan to do now that I have read it.

My Review

Okay, let me first say that I really enjoyed this book and found it both compelling and informative. I’m happy for spending my 16 dollars and would gladly spend it again to read this book. However, you must go into this book knowing that about 30 percent is going to seem like a sell for harvard business school. I don’t know if the author intended that, but that’s the way it comes across. That being said, I learned so much from the stories of these three entrepreneurs and the author’s ten rules of success.

I’m genuinely surprised this book hasn’t gotten more press attention or reviews. There are only like 3 reviews on amazon. Being a young and hopeful entrepreneur, I really identified with all of the people and think Murphy did a great job with the style and format of the book. There is this one paragraph in the book that really stuck with me through all the chapters.

“As you read their stories, I hope you’ll keep in mind that they are living, breathing human beings who started out just like most of us- With a hunger to succeed, but also with the usual array of fears and insecurities. Each of them sat alone in a room with a blank sheet of paper and developed an idea. They wrote business plans. They attracted teammates and partners. They raised money. They built prototypes. They launched; they built brands; they scaled up their businesses.”

I didn’t realize it until I started meeting real entrepreneurs, but when you don’t know someone who has actually taken the leap, the possibility of success in an already mysterious discipline seems very intangible and distant. Like he said, these are REAL entrepreneurs who are alive today. So many times the media makes successful people out to be two dimensional, like Andrew Carnegie. I’m glad Murphy presented these individuals as three dimensional personalities and explores their inner motivations, fears, and dreams.

Overall, I would give this book a four out of five stars. The ten successful rules of business complemented by the entrepreneurial stories makes this a fascinating and informative read, but you have to ignore the sales pitch for HBS. Otherwise, you’ll probably end up putting it back on the shelf after a quick glance.

What I’ve Learned

There are so many things I learned from this book. I strongly encourage budding entrepreneurs to read it, not just for the lessons, but to see how other businessmen solve problems. While competing in my first business competition, I was able to contribute meaningful ideas because I’ve read about problems businessmen face and their solutions. If you would like a PDF or word doc of my notes, you can contact me. For now, I’ll just give an abbreviated version. I’m going to concentrate on new lessons I learned, meaning those that I have not been introduced to before.

The #1 thing I learned from reading this book is that there is nothing fancy about coming up with an idea and starting a business, but the truly successful businesses are built around a solution to a problem that is shared by many people. As I read about how each of these entrepreneurs began, I kept thinking to myself: wow, I can do that.

For example, Marc Cenedella, the founder of TheLadders.com, began assessing demand for a high income jobs website by sending out a free newsletter every week to his friends and colleagues that listed upwards of 300 high paying quality jobs he’d found advertised on the internet. As he got feedback from his friends and gained subscribers, he realized there really was demand for this website service he had been dreaming up.

Aside from learning that there isn’t anything fancy about thinking up an idea and testing it, I learned to build my business ideas around problems I observe in my life. Often times, I tend to come up with clever business ideas that sound really interesting, but that might not solve any type of problem existing in the market. The best businesses provide a solution to a problem and the bigger the number of people who share the problem, the better the potential for the business in the beginning years. In addition, the author argues that it’s best to focus on problems you encounter in your life, because you then will understand your potential customers best. Most of these entrepreneurs ended up being their business’s “ideal” customer, which gave them insight into consumer behavior.

Another lesson I learned is the difference between pleasure and pain businesses and good business ideas vs. bad business ideas. I don’t think I can explain this better than a quote, so here you go:

“Does the problem you’ve identified relate to the promotion of pleasure, or to the prevention of pain?…Pleasure businesses solve less urgent problems. They can sometimes be great, but the success rate is much lower.”

The last important lesson I learned is to dream big and to strive to build a scalable business. I’ve always been kind of afraid to dream big because when you tell people something like “I want to be the leading company providing educational study tool videos online,” people look at you like you’re crazy. If you’ve actually accomplished that goal and then in interviews look back and say this is what your mission was, then it just makes you look like a baller. But if you say it before you’ve done it, I’ve found it can turn people off because they think your head is too far into the clouds.

This book encouraged me to keep dreaming big because having that mindset completely changes the way you make decisions and build your business. In the book, it could have been the difference between Marla Malcolm Beck being the founder of a multimillion dollar cosmetics company, bluemercury, or the owner of a few cosmetic stores in Washington, DC.

After reading this book, I think I will search out some business case studies so I can feel more comfortable with making and analyzing decisions. In addition, I’ve decided to participate in the george washington university business plan competition with a problem centered idea. Wish me luck!

Review of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

When I typed the words “review of,” I smirked at thinking of all the intellectuals and scholars who would probably claim, “who are you to think you can review a great work of literature.” I feel like timeless pieces of art, film, literature, and theater have a certain façade around them, like they are inherently great and that if you don’t like them, you just don’t have the capacity for appreciating art. I wholeheartedly disagree. If not for humans, whom are these books meant for? It is the ability for people of different genders, nationalities, and backgrounds to identify with a story that makes it truly great. These judgments should not be passed by the scholars, but rather by the people taking the subway to work, or the bus to school. I think that Charles Dickens understood this best of all.

Charles Dickens has never held much real estate in my mind. I read Great Expectations in high school, but didn’t much care for it and just remember that it was a very, very long book. After reading A Christmas Carol, I might go back and read Great Expectations. One of the first things that struck me about this work is how incredibly accessible Dickens’ writing style is. I think the main reason people shy away from older novels is that the writing is just so damn hard to understand. To my surprise, this book was a fast and enjoyable read. Another thing I found to be fascinating is how close the dialogue, story, and descriptions are to my favorite movie rendition of A Christmas Carol, where Patrick Stewart plays Ebenezer Scrooge. I suppose it was an easy transition to film because the book was carefully divided into scenes, apparently because it was released as weekly sections in the newspaper, rather than in its entirety. Well, I certainly give Mr. Dickens mad props for his ability to create characters and character names. All creative types know how difficult it is to create a character and especially to show how the character grows throughout the course of a book. Dickens does it so skillfully that you feel like these characters are real people.

Before I talk about why I read this book, some thoughts I have, and what it means to me, I’d like to spend a bit of time criticizing the storyline and dialogue. It’s quite obvious why certain lines of dialogue were cut from movie renditions of A Christmas Carol. In the book, Scrooge cries after the his first “realization.” Personally, I think this display of emotion is way off character and is not earned. I like how in the movie, he waits until the end to have a major catharsis. Also, to my displeasure, the character of Fran is less emphasized in the book. I feel like she is really the element in his life that captures innocence and beauty, the kind of emotions that might still exist deep within his heart. It was a pity Dickens didn’t develop her more. Lastly, I think the movies do a better job of showing how Scrooge grows throughout the experience. I feel like in the book, Scrooge accepts the conclusions too readily. In the movie, he is more true to character and doesn’t verbally relent (though he may be growing and changing inside), until near the end. Also, in the end of the book, Dickens kinds of breezes through the period where Scrooge is extremely happy and giving. The movie does it better justice.

I read this book because I’ve always enjoyed movie versions of A Christmas Carol and was curious as to what the print version is like. Also, with it being near Christmas and all, I was already in the mood, playing carols and songs. It was free on my Kindle too!

This story has always resonated with me (as it had with most Americans), especially now that I’m out to be a rich businessman. There are a few scenes and lines in the movie that just make you want to cry. Perfect moments, you know? One of them is this scene where Scrooge is watching his younger self-have a conversation with the great love of his life. Before this, he met her at this party and they were dancing until the wee hours of the morning, completely enamored with each other. Now, they are on this bench, alone, in the middle of a snowy park, having a serious conversation about the future.

I’m going to reproduce the movie version of the dialogue (it’s shorter). I actually only have the movie on VHS, which is at my house in another country, so this is from memory (couldn’t find the dialogue).

Scrooge: “There is nothing on which the world is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth.”

Girl: “You fear the world too much. All your nobler hopes and dreams converge into one master ambition. Money.”

Scrooge: “What of it? Even if I’ve grown wiser, I haven’t changed towards you, have I?”

Girl: “In words, no.”

Scrooge: “How then?”

Girl: “In your changed nature. In everything that made me love you. Tell me, if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, would you choose a poor girl like me to marry? You who weigh everything by gain? No, there would be no profit in it.”

Scrooge: “You think not?”

Girl: “I know you wouldn’t my love, and that’s why I release you with a full heart for the love of the man you once were. May you be happy in the life you have chosen.”

She gets up and leaves and the older version of Scrooge, who is watching as an invisible observer, yells at his younger self to get up off the bench and go after her. But he doesn’t. He watches her leave and disappear into the snowy night.

You know those choices that haunt you? The ones where you had the opportunity to get up, to take action, but you decided not to? I feel like that moment captures this feeling completely and reminds me to never ever miss an opportunity to take action, because I may regret it for the rest of my life.

The other scene/character I’d like to talk about is Scrooge’s interactions with Fran. I feel like everybody has angels that are put on the earth just for them. People who you think about when you’re down, when you’re frustrated at the mass of men and women with their vacant faces and cold dispositions. When you feel like even if you laid down and died in the street, no one would really care or take notice. The sad truth is that the world would go on, just as it always has and just as it always will. But, there are those few people who are like a light in the darkness. With their innocence, desire to give and help, and completely dedicated and caring nature, they make this strange planet bearable. That’s what I think Fran (his step sister) is to Scrooge and it makes me feel like crying as you see how he comes to re-realize what she meant to him so many years ago. There are a few people in my life who do that and probably a few who don’t realize they do that. I hope I never forget that.

I think that this work is extremely well known because so many people can identify  with certain aspects of Scrooge’s personality. For most of my life, I have had a selfish disposition, have been much more content to be with myself than other people, and have seen no reason to help others when it wouldn’t directly benefit myself. I took pride in being a “loner” and that I didn’t need anybody’s help to attain what I want in this world. Very much like Scrooge, I found people to be disgusting, a nuisance, and a disease on this earth. I thought all that love and cooperation bullshit was for people who couldn’t get what they wanted by themselves or who didn’t have the balls to assert their independence. I’m slowly striving to change this, and every Christmas I think I soften a little bit more and am in the process of becoming a more emotionally mature and understanding person. It’s certainly not easy. I still prefer being by myself and am training myself to like people, rather than abhor them, but I’m making progress.

To me, that’s why the ending scenes are so uplifting. I hope some day to transform into a warmer, more receptive human being who cares for his fellow man and takes action to improve their existence. I do still want the money, but I plan to give a lot of it away as well. Every Christmas, I re-examine this story, the characters, and the message. Over the years, it’s been an interesting way to track my personal growth and changes. I love Christmas and all of the stories centered around this time of the year. If you have not, I urge you to read this book, if nothing else, to be able to say you did. Remarkably, it’s a fast read! All I can say is, I’m very glad Charles Dickens picked up the pen and decided to write.