Copy This Billionaire Business Advice, It'll Blow Up Your Business

Imagine sitting down with the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, the founder of Dell, Michael Dell, and other billionaires to learn their secrets to success and the struggles they've overcome along the way. There's an author that did exactly that. In fact, the book that that author wrote now costs $500 today. But I bought it, I've read it, and today I'm going to break down the key lessons for you for free. And being able to read these interviews from the '90s, these are interviews that you wouldn't get anywhere else. So I encourage you to stay till the end Let's get into it. So first, let's talk about the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs.

All right, Apple today became the first publicly traded company in the world to be worth more than $3 trillion.

I now take a longer-term view on people. Apple today, $3.34 trillion company. I'm not sure everyone knows this, but he created Apple. It was a runaway success, and then he was unceremoniously fired by the board by the CEO that he hired. He actually— he was going to outplay Steve Jobs from a political standpoint. And what happened was Steve Jobs was actually trying to outmaneuver him, but I believe his name was John Sculley. John Sculley was— he just said, look, I know how to play that game better than you do. And he convinced the board to fire Steve Jobs. Apple started to lose its way because the visionary founder was gone. The executives started to focus more on profit. They started to focus on the lavish lifestyles that they wanted to live. So they got private jets, they got private cars, things like that. But they lost their way because they lost their visionary founder. In the meantime, Jobs actually went to start another computer company called NeXT, and he took some of the old Apple people that helped build one of the first computers there, and they built that computer, and they built the, the NeXT device, and he was focused on that. Now also, he was investing in this little animation company called Pixar, and at the time Pixar was, was losing money, and there's even one moment where Apple had to— or not Apple, but Jobs had to write a $60 million check. It was his own money to put back into Pixar when they were running out of money, and that helped save Pixar. And Pixar is where it's at today. That's what led to Toy Story. That's what led to all these other amazing films that they made ultimately. And so Jobs did that deal, and then Pixar became a runaway success. And then in the meantime, NeXT wasn't exactly successful. They were, they were doing okay, but there was a moment where one of Apple's directors went to Jobs and said, hey, we might consider acquiring NeXT. And Jobs thought it was a joke. He didn't think it was a realistic scenario. He didn't think that Apple would actually want him back. What ended up happening was a year or two later, they actually made an offer for Jobs to acquire NeXT, and they wanted Jobs to come back as the CEO. And at first it was like an interim title, but eventually they took the interim title off. And then what happened was he revitalized Apple, and Apple was on its last legs. I remember in the '90s or so, Apple was close to dying, and Apple was kind of the butt of all jokes. I remember when I used to make my computers, I used to build custom PCs, personal computers, and everyone used to use Windows back in the day. Now everyone at work, uh, at my company, we all use Apple. Most people I know are using Apple devices. You think about what he had to do. He had to— he, he started a company, got kicked out, came back. And a couple of lessons from that book was that he continued to stress that A-players are 100 times more valuable than others in terms of creating a successful company. And if there's one thing that's worth micromanaging, it is the talent bar, because the talent bar is going to continue to rise higher and higher over time. And that's one thing that he can control. But when you hire a B and a C player, when you have like a 100x engineer— and this is back, we're talking about the '80s, the '90s or so— you can have one engineer who's an A player that's 100 times better than someone who's just a B and a C player. And now with the power of AI, that's going to continue to— that gap's going to continue to widen. And I'll say one more thing. A lot of the people in this book, these are people that founded multi-billion-dollar companies and multi-trillion-dollar companies. In the '90s, everyone looked at Apple. All the people, all the founders in that book that were talking about Apple, they were just saying that Apple was kind of like a has-been. It was a past tense situation. But it just goes to show you that if you have sheer focus and determination, one person's vision can really turn a company around. And that's why I know some people don't like it when there are billionaires. I know some people think CEOs are overpaid, but when you have to run a company, when you have to drive the vision forward, you have to focus on the culture, the vision, the mission. All of these things matter. And Jobs was the one that made it happen, right? And so Jobs helped make Pixar happen and Jobs made Apple happen. And obviously he did this with an amazing team and he continued to stress that throughout the rest of his life. And that's what I would say is special about Apple, because again, in this book written in the '90s, all these interviews, everyone thought they were dead. If you want to run personalized LinkedIn ads at scale and get these ads up in minutes instead of weeks, you've got to check out Karrot. So Karrot, K-A-R-R-O-T.ai, will allow you to create personalized ads on LinkedIn, personalized landing pages. We are also adding in different automations to spin up these ads quickly. We have different creative options as well that will integrate even cool things like Google Nano Banana. A lot of cool things coming down the pipeline if you are serious about B2B marketing, you're serious about LinkedIn, you've got to check out Carrot, and we'll see you on the other side. So the next question is, how do you go about running a company when the founder isn't there anymore? We're going to talk about Bill Gates of Microsoft, because at this moment in this book when he was interviewed, Microsoft was already extremely successful, and I think Bill Gates was already the richest man in the world, if not top 3. So Microsoft today is worth $3.76 trillion. If you think about Microsoft early days, his work ethic was insane. In fact, he didn't know how to take a vacation. He didn't know what a vacation was, and all he thought about was work.

I used to stay at work, uh, till 11 or 12 and then go home and read.

Bill confessed that he's a workaholic. He puts in hours even on weekends. That really set the foundation for the company's success because he'd work 12, 14 hours a day and he'd work 7 days a week, and he expected that out of his, his people as well. And even though he stepped down as CEO in 2000, he still continued to maintain his visionary role. He wanted Microsoft to thrive under Steve Ballmer. So here's the thing. The thing to understand about Microsoft in the early days was that MS-DOS was their operating system and they licensed it to a lot of different people. Even though I believe IBM was one of their primary users, they wanted to make sure that they still had the rights to distribute it, even though IBM could have pushed back on it. And that was really important for them to To continue to gain distribution. So they're very big on partnerships, and through these partnerships, that's how they were able to succeed. Because I remember back in the '90s, everyone— when you would buy a computer, it would have 2 stickers on it. You'd have a Windows sticker on it, and you have an Intel sticker on it. And this is why everyone back in the day used to use Windows, right? They were really good at partnerships. The mission for Bill Gates was to have— he wanted a PC on everyone's desk. And back in the '70s, '80s or so, People never thought it made sense for people to have a personal computer. And that actually ended up happening. Like everyone today, we all have a computer with our phones and we all have computers, our laptops as well. This was pushed through relentless focus, tons of partnerships, and being very— even when he didn't have the leverage with IBM, he was still able to maintain control. Even though they did a deal with IBM, he was still able to have the right to distribute the OS to everyone else. Right. It was not exclusive. I would say that Microsoft over time, you know, even though they were under attack by the Department of Justice, they considered it a monopoly. They continued to stay locked in on a few core things and they continued to evolve over time. Gates' willingness to hand over the reins to Steve Ballmer was necessary because the DOJ was attacking the company and he decided to step away. The way this company ran afterwards They didn't necessarily have the vision, but Ballmer was actually very good at making sure that the company stayed profitable and the company ran well financially, even though they were really hamstrung. So they were restricted from perhaps building products that they wanted to build. So Gates still stayed involved, and actually, because he was still pushing Ballmer and he basically had to report to Ballmer, that didn't sit well with him. And so even though he maintained his visionary role, Him and Ballmer, who were— they were actually really good friends before. They actually didn't talk for a year or two. They actually didn't get along until their wives pushed them back together and said, yo, what are you guys doing? Like, you guys need to be working together. And, you know, recently Steve Ballmer, Satya Nadella, and Gates actually did a podcast interview together. So they're all cool now. Again, I do want to emphasize with you that with Ballmer, he became CEO and then he was actually very upset Um, at the time that he was considering unloading all his Microsoft shares when he was stepping down from the company, but he decided to hold on to them, and that's why he actually has more money than Gates now. So that's what I would say. And you look at Gates today, um, yes, he was a hardcore businessman before, very focused. He would go into meetings very detail-oriented. He would push people. Um, I remember watching a video where he'd say, you just don't know what you're talking about, in the middle of everyone, just in front of everyone. He would say that, right? So I'm sure it was very intimidating working with him.

That's ridiculous. I'm not, I'm not losing this thing. No, no, no, no, no. Somebody's confused. You guys never understand. You never understood the first thing about this.

But, you know, that's what it takes to really get a company off the ground when you're under attack everywhere, when you're super successful, when you're perceived as the richest man in the world, the most successful company in the world, you're going to have a lot of enemies. And he was able to get through that. And, you know, I look at Gates, he was always just about solving problems along with Paul Allen, his co-founder. And even today, love or hate Gates, he's pushed a lot in terms of trying to help with philanthropy. And that's what I would say about Gates overall. So you look at Jobs, even though he's gone now, $3.34 trillion company today. You look at Microsoft, $3.76 trillion company. Ultimately, these companies became platforms. You look at what Microsoft has, they have their Office suite, they have their operating systems there, they have the cloud, they have gaming as well. You know, a platform is where, you know, there's a lot more people that are getting use from it than what the platform is actually making. And so I would say both of these companies have done a great job with that, made big impact on the world. Just starting off with this book over here, just looking at these 2 people, the fact that they got these 2 people initially is amazing. So now that we know that leadership matters, and you look at Jobs, you look at Gates, the question I want to pose to you is, what role does company culture play in long-term success? So we're going to explore the people-first mentality at companies such as HP, Intel, and even Intuit. So first off, HP's founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, they were actually one of the first to, if not the first, to introduce employee benefits and stock options. So now that is commonplace in Silicon Valley. So they've completely changed the game. They drove the vision initially, and they knew that employee benefits and stock options would keep people happier, and they would actually retain people that way. But what they also did was they noticed that the company was floundering in the '90s. So even though they were really retired, And let's just say they were— they're older by this point, right? Again, they started the company in the late '30s. They knew that they had to step back in and change the culture again because things were— there was too much red tape, things were moving too slowly. They didn't know— get a decision approved, you had to go through 5 different levels. So this just goes to show you again that, you know, we talked about Jobs earlier. When he stepped away, the division started to tank. Even when Gates stepped away for a little bit, the bomber years, even though the company was kind of just trading sideways, Bomber still maintained, but it was clear that the vision was gone, right? And so even when you look at HP, the founders are gone, boom, the vision tanks, right? There's something special when you have a company and it's founder-led. Maybe in another video I'll share about how that impacted my company too when I stepped away and when I stepped back in when I stepped away. The only story I'll share with you right now is with my company Single Grain, my— we have someone on the finance team that has been with us for, call it, 11+ years or so. She knows, she can see every single time I tried to step away from the company completely, she would see it in the numbers and she could see when I came back and she would just tell me that on the side. And it just, it just reinforced in this book that there's something magical about the founders and you never ever want to take that away. So I'll give you another one here. Scott Cook, Intuit. So a multibillion-dollar company today. They have QuickBooks, they have Mailchimp, they have TurboTax. Some of these companies you've probably heard of. They focused on a people-first culture that empowered employees and that ultimately led to long-term success. I would say the special thing about Intuit, especially Scott Cook, is that he came from a company called Procter Gamble, and he's a marketer. He wasn't like a tech entrepreneur. And his thinking here was that, okay, you know, we need— we probably need to acquire some other companies. They bought TurboTax, right? They bought— they ended up buying Mailchimp for a couple billion dollars. They bought Mint, right, which is like a personal finance app, which I think since then been sunsetted. So they had a different approach. It was a mergers and acquisitions approach, right? And so they had a certain culture of doing things. Maybe theirs was a little more M&A. Bill and Dave were more about, hey, let's take care of our people first and make sure that we're driving the energy. Everyone here has different visions, right, in terms of how they want the company to be ran. But they were unapologetically themselves. And I found that maybe in 2020, when a lot of founders start to read maybe too much on Twitter, myself included, or they stop being themselves, right? You need to think about what's authentic to you. And that's what's going to help you build the best company in your eyes, right? Not in anybody else's eyes. It's ultimately what matters is, are you having fun doing what you're doing? And are you doing it the way that you want to do it? And, you know, I think all these people in this book, they did it their way, right? You have to understand what your strong points are. And then you can define what vision it is that you want to pursue. And that vision might change over time. But That vision is something that you want to continue to communicate to your team over time. The vision for our company is to be that marketing partner for B2B winners that will never outgrow. And so those are powerful words in there. We're being very specific. We want to be the marketing partner, right? Not just a vendor for B2B winners. We don't want to work with people who don't want to win, right? And there are a lot of companies out there that are kind of just, you know, hanging around. They're not trying to win, right? And when we say will never outgrow, that means that we're constantly pushing the pace and we're constantly skating to where the puck is going a little ahead of our customers. And that's why you want to work with us because you'll never outgrow us because we're always going to be ahead of you. And that's something that's very motivating, right? So you got— we want to think about what is that vision that you are— what's the world that you want to live in in the next 5 to 10 years or so? And then that helps define the mission. And then that mission is going to attract and also repel people. that don't want to work with you. Okay. And that's good that people don't want to work with you because your vision is not going to be for everyone. And visionary thinking is just about seeing the future before it happens and taking bold action to make it a reality. So my overall review of this book, I really enjoyed this book. Was it worth the $500? Absolutely. It just reinforced a lot of my thinking. And it's always good to read these stories, right? And I hope you got $500 in value from reading this because in my mind, If I end up creating a nice outcome in the future, definitely it's credited to this book. I think I got a multiple of ROI on this book. And so my honest review of this book, 9 out of 10. And that's it for this video. If you enjoyed any of these lessons, drop it in the comments. And if you want the book, you can get it on Amazon, and I'll see you in the next video.