#116 Sam Bronfman (Seagram's and the Bronfman family dynasty)

**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. Sam is a Canadian tale of rags to riches. The son of a laboring Jewish pioneer from Tsarist Russia, he built a gigantic worldwide company, renowned for the quality of its products and its business acumen. The story of Sam's rise to fame and fortune from a hard life on the Canadian frontier is inherently dramatic, and yet touches a familiar nerve in a broad spectrum of the population. There is something in Sam's response to his disappointments that most people recognize in themselves.
Seagram's whiskey empire rose spectacularly by taking advantage of the huge American markets after the repeal of US prohibition in 1933 From that point, Sam's business and his profits grew by leaps and bounds. He was so successful that his American competitors denounced the Canadian interloper as imposing unfair alien competition and lobbied Washington for protection.
Entering the newly open United States market in the 1930s with millions of gallons of aging whiskey stored in Canada, Sam undoubtedly had an advantage over his American counterparts at the time of repeal. But he also had raw talent that he knew how to use.
Beating the biggest and the most powerful in the United States at their own game, Sam revealed a marketing genius that took the breath away from his Madison Avenue advertising agents.
In a business environment where critics suggested that corners were always being cut, Sam was a fanatic for quality, and he took the most extraordinary care to see that his products were always the best.
The buying public agreed and sought them out.
Sam appears to us larger than life and also full of paradox.
Sam was a dyed in the wool Victorian in his personal habits, his family relations, and his social attitudes. And yet he was obsessed with the future. He was endlessly curious, and he was constantly probing on how things were done to see if there was a better way.
He was known for explosive bursts of rage, extravagant profanity, crushing denunciations, and withering disapproval. To some who knew him, Sam will forever be a forthright, curious, warm, and even playful visionary. But to others, he was a volcanic authoritarian, coarse, and iron-willed, who brooked not the slightest deviation from the directions that he defined.
Okay, so that was an excerpt from the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today, which is Samuel Bronfman, The Life and Times of Seagram's Mr. Sam, and is written by Michael R. Marrus. So on Founders, all the way back on Founders number 93, the podcast I did about Mike Ovitz, I told you everything that I learned from reading Mike Ovitz's book, Who is Mike Ovitz? While reading that book, I learned about the Bronfman family because Mike brokered a deal that led to Seagram's buying MCA Universal for $5.7 billion. For that deal, Mike was working with Edgar Bronfman. So when I started researching him, I realized that Edgar was actually the son of the founder of the company. And that led me to discovering Sam. And it also leads me to my next point, which is why is Sam Bronfman worthy of study? And my answer to that is because Sam is what I would call a generational inflection point. And I define that as a single individual that changes the trajectory of his entire family for generations to come. And so you saw an example of that where the author starts off telling us that Sam is a rags to riches story, that he was born on the Canadian frontier, excuse me, he was born in Russia, but then emigrated with his family to the Canadian frontier. They endured a childhood of poverty, and yet in one generation, after he dies, his son is still running the company. He's able to buy another company for $5.7 billion. How does that happen? And so I think that's very interesting to pay attention to and to study. So to that end, this is a two part series. So part one is gonna be based on the book that I have in my hand, which is a 500 page biography of Mr. Sam, as he is called. Part two is gonna be based on a booklet that Sam wrote as a supplement to his company's annual report in 1970, and that book's called From Little Acorns, the Stories of Distillers Corporation, Seagram's Limited, which is the full name of the company. And what's interesting about that is Sam, it's a very short autobiography of his life, and mainly of how the company came to be. And he wrote that when he was 80 years old. Okay, so I wanna jump right into this book. I wanna start out by pulling some quotes that are spread throughout the entire book that will give you an insight into his personality. So I'm just gonna read a bunch of random quotes that are spread over a couple hundred pages. So first, Sam was known for his intensity, his explosive temper and remarkable profanity.