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David Senra

#11 in Business this week

Learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs. Every week I read a biography of an entrepreneur and find ideas you can use in your work.

This quote explains why: "There are thousands of years of history in which lots and lots of very smart people worked very hard and ran all types of experiments on how to create new businesses, invent new technology, new ways to manage etc. They ran these experiments throughout their entire lives. At some point, somebody put these lessons down in a book. For very little money and a few hours of time, you can learn from someone’s accumulated experience. There is so much more to learn from the past than we often realize. You could productively spend your time reading experiences of great people who have come before and you learn every time." —Marc Andreessen

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  • 459 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 9 min
  • English
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • Sep 16, 2024 · 55 min

    #365 Nick Sleep's Letters: The Full Collection of the Nomad Investment Partnership Letters to Partners

    The best investors are not investors at all. They are entrepreneurs who have never sold. — Nick Sleep Nick Sleep’s letters are a masterclass on the importance of understanding the underlying reality of a business — what he calls the engine of its success. I read all 110,000 words of Nick’s letters (twice!) to make this episode and what I found most important is Nick’s ability to develop a deep understanding of “honestly run compounding machines” (like Costco and Amazon) years before everyone

  • Sep 6, 2024 · 1 hr 24 min

    #363 Li Lu and Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett

    I sent a friend this text: I'm working on another Li Lu episode but this one is about his remarkable investing career. Can be summarized by: 1. Studied Buffett and Munger. 2. Did that. Last episode was about how Li Lu survived one of the most horrific childhoods imaginable. This episode covers how he thinks about investing and entrepreneurship, in his own words.

  • Aug 26, 2024 · 37 min

    #362 Li Lu

    Charlie Munger said that Li Lu was the only outsider he ever trusted with his money. Decades before Li Lu made Munger half a billion dollars, Li survived one of the most horrific childhoods imaginable: Born into poverty, abandoned, hungry, beaten, surrounded by death. Persistent. Smart. Disciplined. Intensely curious. Obsessed with reading and learning. Determined to escape. This is a story you absolutely cannot miss. What I learned from reading Moving the mountain: My life in China from th

  • Aug 18, 2024 · 58 min

    #361 Estée Lauder

    Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger said it was a crime that more business schools didn't study Henry Singleton. I think it's a crime that more entrepreneurs don't study Estée Lauder. She is one of the best founders to ever do it. This is the story of how she went from a childhood obsession, to a single counter in a beauty salon, to a multibillion dollar empire. This is my third time reading this book. It gets better every time I read it. This episode is what I learned from rereading Estée: A Su

  • Aug 12, 2024 · 56 min

    #360 Robert Kierlin: Founder of Fastenal

    Since its founding in 1967 Fastenal has grown from a small fastener store in Winona, Minnesota, into a multibillion-dollar global organization. How did a small town “nuts and bolts” shop become one of the world's most dynamic growth companies? Whenever asked, company founder Bob Kierlin attributes Fastenal's success to the company's high-quality employees and their commitment to a common goal: Growth Through Customer Service. This episode is what I learned from reading The Power of Fastenal Peo

  • Aug 7, 2024 · 1 hr 6 min

    #359 The Russian Rockefellers: The Nobel Family Dynasty

    The name of Nobel usually calls to mind Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, and the internationally prestigious prizes that bear his name. But Alfred was only one member of a creative and innovative family who built an industrial empire in prerevolutionary Russia. The saga begins with an emigre from Sweden, Immanuel Nobel, who was an architect, a pioneer producer of steam engines, and a maker of weapons. Immanuel's sons included Alfred; Robert, who directed the family's activities in the Caspia

  • Jul 21, 2024 · 59 min

    #357 Haruki Murakami

    What I learned from reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami.

  • May 27, 2024 · 47 min

    #350 How To Sell Like Steve Jobs

    What I learned from reading The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo

Showing 81–100 of 459 episodes