Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles this week

What I learned:

• We might be able to launch this software’s MVP without having every table I envision built into the database if the system instructions are strong. We’ll test to confirm.
• How good a book is isn’t just a function of what was written. It’s also a function of what the reader is looking for (i.e., what problem they’re trying to solve). A poorly written book that explains a superior solution to a reader’s pressing problem is a stellar book for that reader, while others might say it’s mediocre.
• Quantifying the results of an entrepreneur’s efforts in bullet points—companies founded, sold, acquired, and invested in—makes people want to learn more about the entrepreneur. Adding dollar amounts helps too (e.g., sold XYZ company for $X million).
• Less is more when communicating information about a lot of people in a directory format. Reducing the description of a book to as few words as possible isn’t easy.
• Sharing my deadlines with people close to me but not involved in my work enhances accountability and makes me more focused.
• There’s an art to arranging text and images in a way that resonates quickly with people. I wasn’t blessed with that gift.
• Figuring out how to display the information I want to know about books, entrepreneurs, and the link between the two has helped me crystallize what data needs to be stored in our database and confirm what type of information needs to be extracted.

Those are my struggles and learnings from the week!

There’s an old saying: sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. I agree. As a founder, I was jumping from one detail to the next to keep the business operating. It was hard to see the bigger picture.

A few years in, I joined EO and had monthly accountability meetings with other entrepreneurs. To prepare for these meetings, I had to think through the business at a high level and make notes. I then shared my thoughts and the previous month’s metrics with my EO forum members. I engaged in this ritual every month for years, and it was transformative for my business.

The meetings forced me think about my business more broadly. I had to consider what strategic things I wanted to accomplish and what was hindering me. I got perspective from people who didn’t know the details of my business but were familiar enough with it at a high level to ask tough questions, share relevant experiences, and point out insights I was staring at but couldn’t see.

I learned from my years in EO that, as a founder, it was easy for me to live among the trees. But I couldn’t stay there all the time. To take my business to the next level, I had to get a bird’s-eye view of it. These regularly scheduled sessions with credible people I respected—whose only view of my business was from high up—were invaluable.

You’ll always have a ton of problems to solve down among the trees. But being intentional about looking at the business from a higher level on a regular cadence can be transformative. I did it with EO, but you can accomplish this in many other ways. Whatever your method, make time for it. The forest looks different from up there.

I’m making my way through Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry, Michael Dell’s autobiography. He’s the founder of Dell and, according to Forbes, worth about $115 billion as of this writing. A big part of Dell’s successful direct-sales model was understanding customer needs deeply and offering appropriate solutions.

Michael said he spent roughly 40% of his time with customers at the time this book was published, even though he was the CEO. How he did that caught my attention. “By spending time with your customers where they do business,” Michael wrote, “you can learn more than by bringing them to where you do business. You can experience the issues and challenges they encounter in their daily lives, and better understand how your product ultimately affects the ways in which they serve their customers.”

This passage gave me pause because it wasn’t the first time I’d heard this. Sam Zell was a prolific entrepreneur and real estate investor. In his book Am I Being Too Subtle? Sam shared a story about learning the value of observing people in their own environments. Because of this lesson, Sam didn’t have people meet him at his office. Instead, he spent over a thousand hours a year on his plane, traveling the world to meet people. He wanted to see them in their environments so he could learn more about them.

Sam, like Michael, was wealthy. He was worth billions when he passed in 2023. People would gladly come to see either of these guys in their office. But both insisted on leaving the office to go see people because observing someone in their home or workplace is an immense learning opportunity. The better you understand someone, the easier it is for you to add value and have a positive relationship with them.

When two credible and unrelated people say the same thing, I take note. The lesson is clear. Get out of your office and go see people—especially your customers—in their offices.

This week, I started reading Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry. It’s the autobiography of Michael Dell, founder of Dell. The company is famous for being the first to allow customers to order custom-made computers directly from a manufacturer.

I’m early in the book, but already one line has caught my attention: “The $1,000 required to capitalize a company in Texas was the extent of my initial start-up capital.” Michael incorporated the company in January 1984 while he was in college. He dropped out after he finished his freshman year, to his parents' chagrin.

So, Michael is super young and starts this company with $1,000. By the end of 1986, three years later, the company was doing $60 million in annual revenue. And Michael set a goal to do $1 billion in annual revenue by 1992 (which he exceeded).

In the first three years of Dell’s existence, it did $160 million in total revenue and raised zero outside capital. This is probably one of the craziest growth stories for a bootstrapped company I’ve ever read. Growing fast is expensive. You have to put people, systems, and processes in place ahead of that kind of growth. It’s very rare to grow that fast and not raise outside capital.

This is where the genius of Michael’s model shines. A lot of this can be attributed to how Dell sold computers then. It didn’t make computers ahead of time and ship from inventory. Customers paid up front, and then Dell built and shipped the computers. Getting paid up front was a stroke of genius. It allowed Dell to obtain growth capital from customer revenue instead of having to raise money from outside investors. Now, Dell did have to buy parts and other stuff to assemble the computers, but it did so as close to just in time as possible, minimizing the amount of money tied up in raw materials inventory.

In October 1987, Dell completed a private placement on Black Monday and raised $20 million, even though the stock market was crashing. The following summer, Dell went public. The company merged with EMC Corporation in 2016, so it has changed a bit. But that combined company has a market capitalization (valuation) of over $78 billion as of this writing and over 120,000 employees. And Michael Dell is still CEO, more than 40 years later.

I was impressed when I read the details of Dell’s early growth and how Michael did it. His story is a reminder that customer revenue is always the best source of growth capital, especially if you can get customers to pay up front.

Last month I shared my stats about my reading in 2024 (see here). I wanted to share the list of books, too, but it’s a pain (see here). I said I would share my book list manually in a blog post, but when I started working on that, I didn’t like the result. I looked at different ways to do it in a single blog post, but I didn’t like any of the options. I was hopeful that Airtable or Notion would work, but I didn’t like the idea of managing another external tool solely to house my reading list.

I think there’s another path that will enable me to share not only my 2024 reading list but all the books I read going forward. It’s more involved to set up, but I think it’ll be a better long-term solution and more helpful to anyone looking for biographies to read.

I needed to aggregate all the data from my reading list to do this correctly using this new path. So, last week and this weekend, I cleaned up the reading list I manage in Google Sheets. I did the following:

• Amazon affiliate links weren’t formatted consistently, which meant some links weren’t sending people the correct books (i.e., the edition I read). I formatted this correctly for each book and updated my spreadsheet. I also reviewed each blog post containing an Amazon link to a book and updated each one.
• I noted the edition, format (paperback, hardcover, or Kindle), and publication date of each book in my spreadsheet.
• I added to my spreadsheet a link to the blog post series I wrote about each book. Now I can quickly find my writing about a specific book instead of having to search the site.
• I updated the links to the posts on my blog. For each book, all posts related to that book are now linked.

This was a decent amount of tedious work. I went through every blog post I wrote in 2024, updated links, and added information from posts to my spreadsheet. The exercise wasn’t fun, but now I think it was worth it. The next step is to take the book-list information for past and future books and present it in a way that’s valuable to others.

I finished rereading Junk to Gold: From Salvage to the World’s Largest Online Auto Auction, an autobiography about Willis Johnson’s journey to build Copart. Its Amazon and Goodreads reviews were extremely positive: 4.8 and 4.4 stars, respectively. (I haven’t read many books rated that highly.) I’ve read many biographies since I first read this one, and this time, I wanted to understand why the book resonated so well with readers—I wanted to deconstruct his storytelling.

I figured out why readers enjoy this book so much. It’s simple, but genius. The story is told chronologically, which is ideal and not new. (Phil Knight mastered chronological storytelling by naming each chapter in Shoe Dog after a year in his journey.) But Johnson presented his story differently.

In most chronological biographies, each chapter represents a period in the subject’s journey. The reader is left to identify the important parts of each long segment and figure out why they’re important. The reader has to think a lot.

In Johnson’s book, in each chapter, he presents several lessons he learned during that segment of his journey. He titles the lesson (e.g., “Admit Your Mistakes”) and then includes a short story to explain how he learned it and the result.

The genius of this approach is that the reader doesn’t have to think. The big takeaway (i.e., the lesson learned) is stated clearly, and reading the story reinforces the lesson. This helps readers learn more of the valuable things Johnson learned.

This method eliminated any fluff; the book is short, only 172 pages. I think Johnson’s book is so highly rated because it delivers maximum value in a few pages (relatively speaking) and doesn’t require readers to figure out what’s important or why.

I like Johnson’s approach, and I’m thinking about how to use it in my project. Snippets of lessons learned supported by short stories is a great way to communicate with entrepreneurs. It might even be a framework I can use to concisely communicate the most important info from biographies.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 49
• Total book digests created: 15
• Total blog posts published: 308
• Total audio recordings published: 103

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Book digests created: 0
• Blog posts published: 7
• Audio recordings published: 0

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Reread Junk to Gold: From Salvage to the World’s Largest Online Auto Auction, an autobiography about Willis Johnson’s journey to build Copart.
• Started turning data from books into database embeddings. My developer friend led this effort
• Defined what needs to be built before I attend a conference where I plan to demo the software
• Finished linking blog posts, books, and entrepreneurs in a spreadsheet
• Finished linking all related blog posts and the same book on my blog
• Defined the attributes on a “book” table in a database
• Created a mockup of the website page to communicate book information

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Continue updating descriptions for blog posts about the same book

Asks:

• None

Week two hundred fifty-four was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles this week

What I learned:

• My 8 a.m. focus session on video with my developer friend led to a productive morning. See more here. I’m becoming a bigger fan of these sessions, even when they’re early in the morning.
• Most indexes about entrepreneurs are organized by their wealth. But their wealth doesn’t reflect what other entrepreneurs can learn from their experiences. I need to figure out how to structure my entrepreneurs page. See more here.
• Profile pages about entrepreneurs in an index can’t be loaded with too much fluffy text. They need to deliver the important info quickly. I need to rethink how to do this.
• A website that indexes information is basically a directory. When creating a directory website, many things that affect search engine optimization (SEO)—such as URL structure—must be considered up front.
• Explicitly stating the lesson learned from an entrepreneur’s story makes it easier for people to get value from it. They don’t have to try to figure out the lesson on their own.
• Early versions of some prominent, paid, directory-type desktop apps have been built quickly and cheaply using Bubble.
• Contributor marketing is a good way to build credibility and raise awareness of your solution. See more here.
• I couldn’t find a website of an avid reader or blogger that has a well-laid-out index of the books they’ve read. I was really surprised. Seems like a big opportunity.

Those are my struggles and learnings from the week!

I’m rereading Junk to Gold: From Salvage to the World’s Largest Online Auto Auction. It’s the autobiography of Copart founder Willis Johnson. Johnson is worth roughly $3 billion today, most of which is his stake in Copart. I listened to an interview he gave recently, and it made me want to read his book again. He founded Copart in 1982 as a salvage yard. He purchased wrecked cars and sold the parts and scrap metal for a profit. The company has expanded. It’s now a global online auction market for used and repairable vehicles. As of this writing, it has a market capitalization (i.e., valuation) of over $56 billion.

In his book, Johnson describes himself as rough around the edges. He isn’t polished and doesn’t always use the “right” words. He attended community college for one semester on the GI Bill and then dropped out. So, how did Copart become a massive company?

As I shared last year when I read the book, Johnson didn’t have a big vision for the company. He didn’t even have a plan. But he knew he wanted to grow. The key to Johnson’s success was his ability to master two things.

He was a cloner. He paid close attention to what was happening around him and what others had done. If he liked an idea and thought he could make money with it, he tried it out. He learned about a new model involving people pulling parts off cars themselves called “Pick-A-Part.” He studied it closely and copied it by creating “U-Pull-It.” The idea was a massive success. When he heard a competitor was raising capital to expand rapidly by doing an IPO, he paid attention. Two years later, Johnson’s company was trading on the stock market too.

Johnson also was an astute student and avid reader. He believed he could teach himself anything. For example, to figure out how to do an IPO, he started by trying to get a basic understanding of IPOs. He read the IPO prospectus of his competitor many times to understand what the IPO involved and to understand the Wall Street terminology. He then went to his local library to find books that explained the IPO process and all the terminology in more detail. He had trouble finding a book because nothing came up when he searched for “IPO.” He went to three different library branches. It wasn’t until someone at the third library branch told him that “IPO” stands for “initial public offering” that he found a helpful book from Ernst & Young, which he studied extensively.

Being an avid learner and reader is a great way for entrepreneurs to get ideas and strategies to grow their businesses. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors didn’t invent new ideas or strategies; they copied other people’s great ideas. For example, Warren Buffett got the idea to have an insurance company (and maybe decentralization too) as part of Berkshire Hathaway from Henry Singleton and Teledyne. Henry Singleton got the idea by reading the book My Years at General Motors by former General Motors chairman Alfred Sloan.

The beauty of both of these—copying others’ good ideas and self-learning—is that anyone can do them. They don’t require permission or consent from anyone else. Not sure what to do to solve a problem? Not sure how to grow your business? No problem; start reading biographies of credible entrepreneurs. Learning about their journeys to build their companies is bound to give you some ideas about how to grow yours.

I’m still on my journey to learn about marketing (see here). One way new companies can market is by defining their ideal customers (and the problem they solve for them) clearly and then figuring out where those people hang out. Instead of attempting to attract them to an unknown brand, go find them where they’re spending time and introduce your solution and brand to them.

So, how do you do this in a way that isn’t spammy and that builds trust in your solution and brand? I had a rough idea but wasn’t sure, so I did some research. I came across a video that gave a great tactical explanation of how a new company contributes to Reddit posts to market itself. Here are a few of my takeaways:

• The goal isn’t to siphon traffic from communities; it’s to become a respected member who adds value to the community.
• Being a respected community member is a long-term strategy, not a quick fix.
• Most people lurk in communities. Contributing is a way to stand out and attract people to you.
• On Reddit, in-depth responses to posts do well.
• Social status in online communities like Reddit and Hacker News is based on how much you contribute.
• Building credibility first is important. It can take months or even a year.
• When you’re contributing to a community, you never know which post will add outsize value to the community and increase your standing in it.
• Because specifics and details that aren’t normally shared or known are so hard to find, people love them.
• Each platform has a unique culture. Learn the culture of the platform

This is tactical advice, but I found it useful. I like the concept of contributor marketing because you lead with adding value to others, which feels more authentic and the way to earn not just customers but people who are fanatic about your company.If you want to watch this part of the interview, see here.If you want to see the Reddit post where some of the above learning originated, see here.