“If you could summarize nine years, 400 biographies into one word of what I’ve learned is: focus.”
— David Senra

David Senra (@FoundersPodcast) is the host of the Founders podcast. For the past nine years, David has intensely studied the life and work of hundreds of history’s greatest entrepreneurs. Every week he reads another biography and shares lessons on his podcast. David has been invited to lecture at Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and Notre Dame. Founders is one of the top business podcasts in the world, with hundreds of thousands of founders, investors, and executives listening every week. 

His new podcast, David Senra, showcases conversations with the best-of-the-best living founders and extreme winners. Its goal is to share timeless lessons with current and future generations of entrepreneurs and leaders.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by:

• Cresset family office services for CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs
• Our Place’s Titanium Always Pan® Pro using nonstick technology that’s coating-free and made without PFAS, otherwise known as “Forever Chemicals”
• AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement

Additional podcast platforms

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with David Senra:

Website | Founders Podcast | Founders Newsletter | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Podcasts

Books & Articles

• Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell
• Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
• The Border Trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy
• Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein
• Deep Future: Creating Technology That Matters by Pablos Holman
• The Dream of Solomeo: My Life and the Idea of Humanistic Capitalism by Brunello Cucinelli
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
• Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson
• How to Make a Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs
• Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft by Paul Allen
• Insisting On the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land by Victor K. McElheny
• Interview: Steven Jobs | Playboy
• Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure by James Dyson
• Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller by Alec Nevala-Lee
• John D.: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke
• Land’s Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg
• Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman-Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual by Yvon Chouinard
• Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson
• The Marginalian by Maria Popova
• Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby
• Musashi (New Edition): A Novel by Eiji Yoshikawa
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
• Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace by James Wallace
• Play Nice But Win: A CEO’s Journey from Founder to Leader by Michael Dell and James Kaplan
• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro
• The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel
• Psychopathy Prevalence Facts & Figures | Psychopathy Is
• The Red Bull Story: The Unbelievable Success of Dietrich Mateschitz and His Energy Drink Empire by Wolfgang Fürweger
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
• The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, and Craig Walsh
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
• Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates
• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Tao of Seneca: Letters from a Stoic Master by Seneca the Younger
• The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip by Stephen Witt
• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
• Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
• Who Is Michael Ovitz? by Michael Ovitz

People

Visual Media

Companies

Miscellaneous Mentions

SHOW NOTES

• [00:00:00] Start.
• [00:01:11] Brad Jacobs: Roll-up king and positive-driven billionaire founder.
• [00:02:26] Rare positive archetypes: Ed Thorp, Sol Price, Brunello Cucinelli.
• [00:06:04] Michael Dell as another exception; fear of failure and motivation.
• [00:06:47] Negative self-talk, excellence, and its ripple effects.
• [00:08:26] Jensen Huang story: “Why do you suck so much?”
• [00:08:54] Inspiration from Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History.
• [00:10:00] Derek Sivers: unconventional, philosophical entrepreneur.
• [00:11:04] Learning equals behavior change, not memorization.
• [00:11:48] Jeremy Gafan insight: biographies as substitute mentors.
• [00:12:37] Reading biographies as one-sided conversations.
• [00:13:16] The chain of influence.
• [00:14:09] Podcasting as “relationships at scale.”
• [00:14:28] Coping with trauma and breaking cycles.
• [00:20:18] Note-taking process: books, Post-its, ruler, Readwise.
• [00:29:27] OCD tendencies and love of doing things the hard way.
• [00:31:04] Comparing our reading/re-reading workflows.
• [00:35:04] A family falling out and the randomness of student housing.
• [00:38:58] David’s introduction to my work during his MySpace-era college years.
• [00:40:07] Podcasting influences: Jocko Willink, Kevin Rose’s Elon Musk interview.
• [00:44:14] Five-and-a-half years of obscurity before breakthrough.
• [00:46:50] Graphtreon and experiments with subscription models.
• [00:49:25] Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s endorsement sparks growth.
• [00:51:23] Sam Hinkie and Patrick connections fuel momentum.
• [00:52:19] Transition to ads and joining Patrick’s network.
• [00:55:17] Edwin Land: patron saint of founders and Steve Jobs’ influence.
• [00:57:02] Lessons from Sam Zell, Jay Pritzker, and William Zeckendorf.
• [00:58:48] Need a generous, well-connected person? You can’t go wrong with Rick Gerson.
• [01:03:04] Edwin Land’s philosophies: Differentiation and doing to excess.
• [01:04:30] Entrepreneurial archetypes and conflicting advice.
• [01:06:00] Daniel Ek as an alternative founder archetype and mentor.
• [01:10:59] Further founder archetypes and contrasts.
• [01:13:41] What is an anti-business billionaire?
• [01:19:55] Advice from “shark” Michael Ovitz about the value of truth in one’s inner circle.
• [01:22:30] The hands-on approach of practical founders who live for the love of their business.
• [01:23:28] Doing one thing relentlessly.
• [01:23:51] “This can’t be my life” as a powerful motivator.
• [01:26:57] Low introspection as a common trait among founders — and its implications about human nature.
• [01:30:15] Robert Caro: The only writer David believes should be allowed to write thousand-page biographies.
• [01:32:40] James Dyson’s persistence vs. the risk of blind stubbornness.
• [01:34:22] Todd Graves (Raising Cane’s) as an example of relentless focus on one idea.
• [01:35:41] Separating fact from fiction in biographies/histories.
• [01:41:55] Considering trainable vs. non-trainable attributes in potential role models.
• [01:46:11] Perusing Charlie Munger’s library.
• [01:49:35] Dealmaking lessons on Eddie Lampert’s superyacht.
• [01:55:34] The smartest person David knows.
• [01:56:55] David’s obsessive craftsman approach to podcast creation.
• [01:58:51] Why David decided to begin a second podcast.
• [02:01:21] The economics of trust.
• [02:03:40] The benefits of cultivating a purposeful aloofness about current events.
• [02:07:11] Using the pulpit of publicity for good, not evil.
• [02:09:57] New show frequency/dynamic and how David plans to balance the burden of running two shows.
• [02:13:30] Teamwork with essence of turtle.
• [02:15:40] Adapting the Rockefeller “secret allies” strategy to podcasting.
• [02:17:56] Chris Hutchins: The mad scientist of podcasting?
• [02:18:30] Working with Rob Mohr and Andrew Huberman of SciComm.
• [02:20:54] Why David focuses on 24-hour cycles over long-term planning.
• [02:24:54] Does David worry the extra workload will disrupt his lifestyle?
• [02:30:18] What makes one potential guest more interesting to David than another?
• [02:34:34] Making an impact vs. happiness.
• [02:36:32] Playing the status game when your heart’s not in it is for suckers.
• [02:44:23] Travel observations and the rarity of truly unique experiences.
• [02:46:26] Books as philosophical operating systems.
• [02:48:39] Parting thoughts.

MORE DAVID SENRA QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I’m not building a media company. I’m building relationships at scale.”
— David Senra

“You should be copying the what, not the how. You don’t copy what they did, you copy how they did it, and then you just take the little ideas that make sense to you.”
— David Senra

“The maxim I’ve made for myself on this is learning is not memorizing information. Learning is changing your behavior.”
— David Senra

“If you could summarize nine years, 400 biographies into one word of what I’ve learned is: focus.”
— David Senra

“My whole thing is just very simple. I want to do one thing relentlessly.”
— David Senra

“I just love when people take what they do very seriously and I like the craft of it. And I want to dedicate my life to making a product that makes somebody else’s life better. That is what drives me.”
— David Senra

“I love the climb. I don’t care where the summit is.”
— David Senra

“All a great life is, is a string of great days. And so the furthest I plan out is 24 hours.”
— David Senra

Want to hear another episode with someone who deeply appreciates business history? Listen to my conversation with Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, as he shares stories from Sam Walton’s office (which he still works in), discusses the founder’s legendary Saturday morning meetings, the “Go for it” keychain philosophy, and much more.

This episode is brought to you by Cresset Family Office! Cresset is a prestigious family office for CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs. They handle the complex financial planning, uncertain tax strategies, timely exit planning, bill pay and wires, and all the other parts of wealth management that would otherwise pull me away from doing what I love most: making things, mastering skills, and spending time with the people I care about.  Schedule a call today at cressetcapital.com/Tim to see how Cresset can help streamline your financial plans and grow your wealth.

I’m a client of Cresset. There are no material conflicts other than this paid testimonial. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal.

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