#111 David Geffen

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets. They're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th.
Complex, contentious, and blessed with the perfect pitch ability to find the next big talent, David Geffen has shaped American popular culture and transformed the way Hollywood does business. His dazzling career has included the roles of power agent, record industry mogul, Broadway producer, and billionaire Hollywood studio founder. But from the beginning, his accomplishments have been shadowed by the ruthlessness with which he has pursued fame, money, and power. With The Operator, Tom King, who interviewed Geffen for the book and had an unimpeded access to his circle of iniments, presented a mesmerizing chronicle of Geffen's meteoric rise from the mailroom at William Morris, as well as a captivating tour of 30 sizzling years of Hollywood history. Drawing on the recollections of celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Yoko Ono, Warren Beatty, Courtney Love, Paul Simon, and even Cher, whom Geffen nearly married, The Operator transports readers to a world that is as ruthless as it is dazzling, revealing a great American story about success and the bargains made for it.
Okay, so that is on the back cover of the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is The Operator. David Geffen builds, buys, and sells the new Hollywood, and it was written by Tom King. And I chose that excerpt to start the podcast with because I think it's a great one-paragraph overview of the life and career of David Geffen, where you have this singularly focused, intensely driven, really talented entrepreneur, manager, business person, and yet in that short paragraph, the author uses the word ruthless twice.
And that's in the other side to Geffen, where you have one of the most ruthless people that I think I've ever, this is going to be an interesting podcast because he definitely is, David Geffen is definitely one of the most ruthless people that I've ever covered on the podcast. And then I just want to finally point out that last sentence where he said, it transports readers to a world that is ruthless as it is dazzling, revealing a great American story about success and the bargains made for it. So just keep that in the back of your mind as we go through the book today about the bargains that David is making for the success that he achieved.
So just two quick things before I jump into the rest of the book. One, I found out about this book through a listener. So if you do have interesting founders that you want me to cover or books you want me to analyze on the podcast, please continue to send them my way. And second, I just want to take a minute or two and talk about this idea that I feel you and I have been talking about frequently for a fairly long time. And that's this idea of soul in the game.
And there's a bunch of different founders that I've covered.
This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but you definitely see that you can always tell somebody has soul in the game by the way they approach their work, right? And so I think of people like Walt Disney, who I covered on Founders No. 2 and Founders No. 39 Steve Jobs, definitely had soul in the game. Founders No. 5, 19, 76, and 77 I also have two bonus Steve Jobs episodes coming on the Misfit feed here in the next few weeks as well. James Dyson, Founders No. 25 Let me pull up this quote. And this is how you kind of...