#336 How To Lose A Few Billion Dollars: Samuel Insull

What I learned from reading Insull: The Rise and Fall of A Billionaire Utility Tycoon by Forrest McDonald.  ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes ---- Come and build in-person relationships at the Founders Only conference ---- (0:01) Insull had been in the electric business as long as there had been an electric business. (4:00) He awoke early, abruptly, completely, bursting with energy; yet he gained momentum as the day wore on, and long into the night. Sam had near-demonic energy. (5:00) Sam's most obvious attribute was a capacity for racing through large quantities of reading material, effortlessly perceiving its important assumptions and generalizations, and thoroughly assimilating its salient details. (7:00) He eagerly embraced platitudes: • Idle hands are the devil's workshop • Time is money • Things are simply "done" or "not done" • One reveres one's family • Only that which is useful is good • Survival of the fittest (8:00) Opportunity handled well leads to more opportunity. (12:00) He developed an ability to concentrate on a single subject and to completely shut out everything else, no matter how pressing. (13:00) A theme from the robber baron era: How do we turn a luxury product into a necessity? (18:00) If you do everything you will win.  — Working by Robert Caro. (Founders #305) and The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302) (19:00) Insull reread every one of Edison's European contracts, and he took it upon himself to write weekly letters to Johnson, summarizing the fluctuations in the telephone situation and outlining Edison's shifting interests in connection with it. These letters proved to be the best selling points Johnson could have in recommending Insull to Edison. (20:00) One of his most deep-rooted traits was that he was absolutely unable to imagine the possibility of his own failure; he entirely lac