Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
· David Senra, Patrick O'Shaughnessy
[00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: And so I think you and I have taken that approach to... I certainly have, to finding people. Like, just look at what they did. Jeremy wrote the best profile that I read. Turns out he's a great profile writer. Like, he's written 10 more and will write 100 more. I was then on the hunt after I and we had this idea to go now, "Okay, now let's go find the best people to do this thing." [00:00:00] S1: People vastly underestimate the importance of volume. [00:00:00] S0: Yeah.
· David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Like, whatever you're into, just be into it more than anybody else and, like, you'll be able to tell, like, what is a good idea, what is a bad idea. It's, like, this constant refinement of taste. In fact, I was shocked at the way your profile started with, about Josh Kushner and where it was, like, this visit to Rick Rubin's house, and I'm a huge Rick Rubin fan. Like, I read a biography on him, I think it's episode 245 of Founders, did that. I think some of his interviews and stuff he says in an interview, it can be a three-hour conversation and you just hear, like, there's a 45-second clip that makes everything, like, it just makes perfect sense… I needed to hear that whole three-hour conversation just to get that 45-second clip and that 45-second idea in my head. But if you think of the guy started his record company in, like, 1984 in his dorm room. And he's been in the same business, he's worked with all these different musicians. In fact, he said something that was interesting to me, and I actually screenshotted it, saved it, and I reread it on my phone. And he talked about that the most obsessive artist he ever worked with was Eminem, which is, like, wait a minute, you worked with everybody, you've had a four-decade-long career. Why is that the case? Like, that makes me want to know more about that. Our mutual friend, Brent Beshore, told me this hilarious story one time. You know, Brent's got… he owns a bunch of different companies, and sometimes those companies need a CEO. And he found himself, I think, at a lunch or a dinner with Charlie Munger, and so he's like, "You know, I'm this young guy." I think he was probably 35 at the time. He said, "I own these, like, 12 companies. How do you and Warren find great CEOs?" And Charlie's just like, "We just find somebody that is a great CEO and say, 'Come do that for us.'"
· Patrick O'Shaughnessy, David Senra
[00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: And Brent's follow-up, he goes, "Yeah, but what about hiring for potential?" He goes, "We don't do that." It's just a beautifully simple idea. "He's really good. Can you come do this over here?" [00:00:00] S0: Yeah. People show you. And I think that also, if you invert that, to use another Mungerism, it serves as great advice too, which is if you're trying to get ahead, put stuff out in the world that people can find. Hinkie would call these breadcrumbs. Put breadcrumbs out into the world so that people see it and are amazed by it. Like, if you create a single thing, not – you don't have to do 10 things. Just one thing that people are amazed by. Pour a year of your life into making one amazing thing that people are amazed by, and amazing things will happen, I promise you. Like, the internet is amazing at sharing something that is great. You say there's always room for great. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: One of your maxims. That's true. Great takes time. Great's hard. [00:00:00] S1: Well, you just proved this. The idea of there's always room for great came because so many people are like, "We don't need another podcast." I was like, "Okay, so we don't need any more music?" [00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: "We're going to stop making music? We're going to stop making movies?" Like, no, it's just like we need less bad shit, but that's always going to happen. Like, there's always room for great. You just proved this with the profiles. [00:00:00] S0: Yeah.
· Patrick O'Shaughnessy, David Senra
[00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: Like, that idea was just hiding in plain sight. It was just not being done well. And it's like, well, what if I just take this idea and not make it shitty? Well, how Walt Disney towards the end of his life was very fascinating because everybody associates him with animation and Mickey Mouse and everything else. And yet, when he's towards the end of his life, you just ask, "What is the things that he's most proud of?" And he said he named two things. He said, "Keeping control of my company," because he lost control of his first company, and he's lost control of the first characters he made, and Disneyland. And Disneyland was his obsession. In fact, I read this book called "Disney's Land." I think it's by Richard, this guy named Richard Snow. And it's not about the animation, it's not about everything we know him for. It's about how he thought about making this amusement park. And at the time, amusement parks were think of… like, low quality. [00:00:00] S0: Yeah, sure. [00:00:00] S1: They were kind of scammy because- [00:00:00] S0: Traveling carnies. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, exactly. Like, you would come in there, and there'd be, like, games to play, and you'd get ripped off because the games were set up and everything else. And he's going around trying to raise money for this, very unsuccessfully. And they're like, "Yeah, but, you know, amusement parks are, like, kind of trashy." He's like, "That's the point. Mine won't be." [00:00:00] S0: Yeah.
· Patrick O'Shaughnessy, David Senra
[00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: It's because, like, mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it. And he's just like, "I'm just going to take every single part of this and make it better, and then remove the parts that don't make any sense." And, like, that's a great filter for finding, you know, new things to create in the world. [00:00:00] S0: By the way, I spent my 20s basically just reading. And I read more than you can imagine. I mean, you're probably the one person that can imagine it because you did something similar. But I wasn't just doing... I mean, literally everything I could get my hands on. Thousands of books and profiles and everything. And I started the podcast in part because I started to feel this awful feeling of this is happening in this weird, isolated way. Like, it's just me and my notes. I'm not talking to anyone about these books. And so I wanted to start sharing, which is where that book email came from that you originally... that's where the audience came from. Like, I used to have this saying, "Learn, build, share, repeat," and just do that until I die. And I believe in that. And so it's- [00:00:00] S1: Wait. Learn, build, share, repeat? [00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: Still really good. [00:00:00] S0: Still works. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah.
· David Senra, Patrick O'Shaughnessy
[00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: And maybe that's my governing principle, probably, like you said before. And, yeah, it's an incredibly powerful loop to go on. But that 10 years of reading prepared me to be a good producer of profiles. Because I've seen great, I've seen good, I've seen average, I've seen bad. My reps are very, very, very high. And that's another thing I always tell people, especially young people, like, what is the thing where you naturally have a lot of reps because you just like it? And find that, build off that because there's this learning-by-doing concept. Like, you get better at something just through being prolific in the thing, and most people have a thing for which they are naturally prolific. Even if that's following your sports team or whatever it might be. Like, what's the thing you just can't help but do a crazy high rep count of? Probably that's a good clue to, like, where you could go build one of these compounding curves for yourself. And for me, my first love was reading. That love of reading became the email list. You know, here's my four favorite books from the month. The email list gave me my first set of people to listen to the podcast. The podcast introduced me to all these people who helped me build my business and sell it successfully. You know, and on and on and on. That led to it- [00:00:00] S1: Led back to the profiles.