No. 219 March 1, 2024
Hi All!
Below is your weekly dose of a list of things I’m reading, watching, listening to, or thinking about. If this message was forwarded to you, sign up for this newsletter using this link.
Quote I’m Re-Reading
A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week. – General George Patton
New Video I Posted
Our family recently visited one of our favorite places the Bahamas. While we visited, we stayed at one of our favorite hotels, the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. If you want to visit the Bahamas and need a hotel, check out a video I made on How to book the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar with points.
Book I Read
Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos is a compilation of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon annual shareholder letters covering the principles and philosophy he lived by to create, build, and lead Amazon. Similar to Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder letters, which I love, Bezos’ originality comes through in his letters. The book also includes speeches and interviews he’s done where he shares his personal side – spending summers in Texas with his grandparents, why he left D.E. Shaw in New York in 1994 to start Amazon in Seattle, and how his thinking has changed over time as he receives more information. His shareholder letters are the ultimate inside view of one of the best entrepreneurs of all time. Bezos’s core focus is customers. There’s no denying that. However, the book shows Bezos also cares deeply about public policy, climate change, and space travel (his company Blue Origin is tackling this). I love how down-to-earth Bezos comes across in this book considering how wealthy he is. Think of Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos as a master class on creating company values that matter, how to get your team to develop strategies for success, and how to execute your strategies. There are many lessons to learn from this book but the ones that most stuck out to me are the importance of a “Day 1” mentality, why you should focus on the long-term, two-way versus one-way doors in decision-making, what it means to be customer-focused, how to create and grow a company, why to spend time creating an incredible culture, why failure should be praised, and how you can adapt from Black Swan events like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Podcast I Listened To
I’ve been running through podcasts lately so I’ll mention several in this week’s newsletter that had an impact on my thinking. Here are the podcasts in no particular order:
Documentary I Watched
Similar to podcasts, we clobbered documentaries this past weekend. It’s still not clear why. Here are the documentaries we watched in no particular order:
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet is Attenborough’s witness statement through which he shares his concern for the state of our planet. He tells this story through humanity’s impact on the environment. The narrative also covers where the planet is heading as a result of humanity’s impact. I love all things Attenborough. The cinematography is excellent but the documentary message is even more profound.
The Social Dilemma talks about the negative effects of social media by diving into the psychology of its usage and how social media companies addict their users. It’s truly insane how these companies watch, track, and measure your presence online. In addition, I was blown away at how social media companies use artificial intelligence to predict the actions of their users. The documentary states three goals of social media companies: increase usage, ensure users keep coming back and invite their friends, and provide advertisers with an opportunity to monetize their users.
Sour Grapes is a wild story about wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan who infiltrated the fine and rare wine auction market by buying and selling wine. Kurniawan ended up going to prison and being deported from the US. But what was most interesting to me was how expensive the fine and rare wine market is. Bottles go for thousands of dollars in high-end auctions. And there’s a market for this just like art. I simply don’t get it.
