Get Fire Tested Team Building Wisdom in your inbox
I just had to get my hands on this book.
I mean, look at the title! The author and publisher totally played into my greed.
Who wouldn’t want to make a few billion dollars? Heck yeah!
I also caught the author’s interview on the ‘Invest like the best’ podcast. Plus, I listened to the book review episode on the Founders Podcast. So buying the book was a no-brainer.
I quickly snagged it on Kindle and finished it in a couple of days. It’s 141 pages long, excluding the annexures, which bring it up to 206 pages. Short and sweet.
My reason for diving into this book was simple: Brad Jacobs, the guy behind it, has a net worth of $3.8 billion. Check out the link to Forbes magazine here. He’s been raking in money for 45 years, and if he can pack all that knowledge into 140 pages and serve it up to me, you bet I’m going to dive right in.
Just think about it: 140 pages packed with the wisdom of a $3.8 billion net worth. So I ordered the book, read it, and started connecting the dots.
From now on, I’m drawing inspiration from various sources:
Because despite being in different fields, both men share similar insights and operating styles. It’s fascinating to hear from them both. They’ve each launched multiple successful companies in completely different industries and came out on top.
First insight from the book is this:
A lot of extremely successful people… they all have one thing in common. They think differently than most people. All of them have rearranged their brains to prevail at achieving big goals in turbulent environments where conventional thinking often fails.
Now, this insight may seem obvious, but it’s also highly subjective. Personally, I’m not big on motivational stuff, so I’ve been diving deeper into the idea of uncommon thinking. While I’m still exploring the topic, I’ve stumbled upon some valuable nuggets that I’d like to share:
Uncommon thinking involves being rational and setting emotions aside. Entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed, tend to be more emotional and driven, their energy infectious. On the other hand, investors are more rational and detached. However, both groups share traits of opportunism, ambition, and a focus on mastering their craft.
They seek out ideas with high potential upside and minimal downside. What’s known as asymmetric results. They assess risks and work to minimize them, leveraging their skills, mindset, team, and other factors to gain uncommon advantages.
Successful individuals are perpetual learners. Their motivation stems from results rather than ego, and they’re quick to adapt based on new information. It’s all about iterative learning.
There’s a strong bias for action among the successful. Nassim Taleb, in ‘Fooled by Randomness,’ argues that knowledge is often overrated; it’s only valuable when it prompts behavioral change. Successful people are eager to act. In fact, I’m currently delving into ‘The Toyota Way,’ which emphasizes the principle of ‘Do Something’ as a starting point for progress.
Embrace the problem
Another common sense insight discussed here. Any business is a problem solving mechanism. So while the common man gets discouraged by the problem, entrepreneurs get excited by it.
Lesson about focus
If I had tried to do everything I wanted to, I never would have accomplished anything big. Narrow your focus to your most important dreams and tune out everything else.
This important lesson keeps popping up everywhere: to make big money, you need to use automation and delegation.
In life, you need four things to succeed:
Mindset
Skillset
Toolset
Luck
Out of these, you can always hire someone for skill and tools. You cannot control Luck. But your mindset is non-negotiable. This is where the wisdom of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger really shines.
You are paid to make small number of high value decisions.
Being busy does not help. You must be able to think.
Business Lesson
“You can mess up a lot of things in business and still do well as long as you get the big trend right… One of the first things I look for in an industry is scalability…
The idea is simple: study the industry and find the gaps where you can create value for customers.
But how do you study the industry?
Brad’s book lays out a three-part playbook:
Dive into industry resources like journals, newspapers, and seminars.
Make a list of important questions.
Connect with experts like CEOs, investment bankers, and venture firms, and listen to their insights.
This playbook is echoed by Kevin Ryan on MFM and Donald Trump in “The Art of the Deal.”
So, how do you create value?
The author offers a two-part answer:
Take advantage of the difference between our cost of capital and the multiple at which we can buy companies.
Improve the business’s profitability.
To simplify: Buy low, then make the business better.
About Responsibility:
My strong preference is to assign tasks to individuals, not working groups. If we have one person owning each task and being accountable for achieving it on time, we’re more likely to succeed than if the task is owned by a group.
Through my exploration, I’ve discovered three essential factors for success:
Learning
Recruitment
Management
You can’t build a valuable business all by yourself. Your team is crucial.
