Book Highlights - The Tao Of Charlie Munger, The Donut King, The Alter Ego Effect, Made in America, The Lean Startup

31 Jul, 2024

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

​The Alter Ego by Todd Herman

The Tao Of Charlie Munger By David Clark

Made In America By Sam Walton

​The Donut King​ by Ted Ngoy

I have a real treat this week for my OG's here. I'm reading The Donut King and came across a story in here about absolute OBSESSION. It's kind of crazy actually. It almost seems unreal, but it is... and the kind of obsession thats talked about parallels the kind of obsession needed to do GREAT things in business. Which is ultimately what Ted 'Donut King' Ngoy did.

I'll share the obsession in this weeks highlights... oh ya, and it's in video form 🎥

1. You can't pay staff with what you've learned.
2. The true measure of runway is how many pivots a startup has left: the number of opportunities it has to make a fundamental change to its business strategy. Measuring runway through the lens of pivots rather than that of time suggests another way to extend that runway: get to each pivot faster.

1. Now, whether you have some old trauma that's somehow interfering with your desires, or you've told yourself a story about what you can or can't do, or there's some undefined resistance holding you back from pursuing something, I want to tell you there's a Heroic Self waiting to get unlocked, and that an Alter Ego or Secret Identity is the key to Activating it.
2. The Core Self is where possibility exists. It's this deep inner core where a creative force resides waiting to be activated by the power of intention.
3. The Core Self is where your deep desires, aspirations, and dreams reside. If you've ever avoided admitting to yourself what you truly want, that's probably your Core Self talking to you. It's those internal nudges you get to take action and move toward something that excites you or "lights you up."

1. Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices. ... Consequently, Berkshire has been built to Charlie's blueprint.
2. Charlie spent much of his youth reading— the television and video games of his day—and that is where he discovered a larger world than the idyllic, but very parochial, neighborhood of Dundee, where Warren Buffett's family also lived.
3. Charlie was introduced to the world of business at the Buffett grocery store. He learned about taking inventory, stocking shelves, pleasing customers, the importance of showing up on time for work, how to get along with others while accomplishing a joint task, and, of course, running the cash register, where money, the lifeblood of the business, flowed.

1. I realize we have been through something amazing here at Wal-Mart, something special that we ought to share more of with all the folks who've been so loyal to our stores and to our company. That's one thing we never did much of while we were building Wal-Mart, talk about ourselves or do a whole lot of bragging outside the Wal-Mart family— except when we had to convince some banker or some Wall Street financier that we intended to amount to something someday, that we were worth taking a chance on.
2. If I had to single out one element in my life that has made a difference for me, it would be a passion to compete. That passion has pretty much kept me on the go, looking ahead to the next store visit, or the next store opening, or the next merchandising item I personally wanted to promote out in those stores-
3. As I do look back though, I realize that ours is a story about the kinds of traditional principles that made America great in the first place. It is a story about entrepreneurship, and risk, and hard work, and knowing where you want to go and being willing to do what it takes to get there. It's a story about believing in your idea even when maybe some other folks don't, and about sticking to your guns. But I think more than anything it proves there's absolutely no limit to what plain, ordinary working people can accomplish if they're given the opportunity and the encouragement and the incentive to do their best. Because that's how Wal-Mart became Wal-Mart: ordinary people joined together to accomplish extraordinary things.

1. My motivation for making money has always been to provide for loved ones and community. It's not selflessness-I suspect I get more out of the bargain than anyone else.
2. One of my coaches pointed out that many of my scoring opportunities came after I stole a ball on defense.
3. There is something about creating opportunities while on the retreat that has always appealed to me, and it is a theme that would recur again and again in my wild life.

👉 Exclusive video breakdown of what COMPLETE obsession looks like 👈

NOTE: It's a youtube link, so while you get first access to it here, you can share it with the world... actually, please do ;)

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Until next time...

Readers are leaders, ​