#291 David Packard (Founder of HP)

What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by signing up for Founders Notes ---- Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best ! ---- Do our products offer something unique? Customer satisfaction second to none is the only acceptable goal. What I learned from rereading Jeff Bezos' Shareholder Letters for the 3rd time (Founders #282) In Silicon Valley, the ultimate career standard was set by David Packard: start a company in a garage, grow it into the leading innovator in its field, then take it public, then take it into the Fortune 500 (or better yet, the Fortune 50), then become the spokesman for the industry, then go to Washington, and then become an historic global figure. Only Packard had accomplished all of this; he had set the bar, and the Valley had honored his achievement by making him the unofficial "mayor" of Silicon Valley. —The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company by Michael Malone  Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #214) Gates read the encyclopedia from beginning to end when he was only seven or eight years old. — Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson. (Founders #290) My father wouldn't let me quit. Given equally good players and good teamwork, the team with the strongest will to win will prevail. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel. (Founders #278) That was a very important lesson for me —that personal communication was often necessary to back up written instructions. Insisting On The Impossible: The Life Of Edwin Land by Victor McElheny  More businesses die from indigestion than starvation. I found, after much trial and error, that applying steady, gentle pressure from the worked best. Bill and I knew we didn't want to be a “me to