#120 Billy Durant (Creator of General Motors)

**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. It's fitting that Durant's name as GM's founder is cast in bronze on a historical marker in front of the corporation's headquarters. Because neither GM nor its most famous American brands would likely exist today had he not either created or saved them.
That marker is about the only public reminder at General Motors of the man who created GM, the largest industrial corporation in the history of the world.
William Durant is no longer exactly a household name. He is seldom mentioned in the same breath with Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler, or Alfred P. Sloan. Yet of all the colorful men who propelled the United States into the automobile age, Billy Durant was perhaps the most unusual. And from an organizational standpoint in the pioneering era, the most important.
Durant had a hand in shaping the beginnings of three of the four major American automobile manufacturing corporations that exist today.
Of the major US auto manufacturers that survive, only Ford was not significantly influenced by Durant.
Unlike most of the pioneer automotive giants, Durant was not a back shop tinkerer. While other men put automobiles together, he put organizations together. And he did it with dramatic flair. He was an extremely complex and paradoxical personality. A super salesman who spoke in a soft voice.
A builder of fortunes who cared very little about money, and who ultimately died without any.
He dreamed great dreams and made them come true because he had unparalleled vision and courage. An iron will and a legendary charm that made him an adored leader of thousands.
Even those who did not always agree with his methods called him a genius, though they also sometimes called him a dictator and a gambler.
He was all three.
OK, so that's an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Billy Durant, creator of General Motors, the story of the flamboyant genius who helped lead America into the automobile age. It was written by Lawrence Gustin. Note about the book, as you could probably guess from that opening paragraph. The book is rather old. It was first published in 1973 So at the time, GM was the largest industrial corporation in the history of the world. Obviously, that's not true anymore.
Okay, so I want to start at the very end. I want to talk more about the fact that he had a very paradoxical personality. So let me tell you a little bit about that real quick. He was capable of fantastic successes and equally fantastic failures.
At times, he seemed childlike in his business dealings. At other times, he outsmarted the sharpest leaders of finance. He plunged headlong into catastrophes that an average man might easily have seen coming. But that same overriding optimism permitted him to create great organizations. So that paragraph right there, it's one of the main lessons in the book. The same thing that made Billy Durant strong ultimately destroyed him. And so the reason at the very beginning of our conversation today, I want to start at the end is because, and it breaks my heart to say this, the story of Billy Durant is a cautionary tale. We're going to learn a lot of his good ideas today, but we're also going to learn mostly what not to do. That is probably why, as the author notes, that he's not as well known as Henry Ford, Chrysler, and Sloan. It's because he was extremely successful, but he also died broke. And the reason I say it's hard for me to tell you that is because this is, you know, an ongoing series I'm doing about all the different automotive founders and pioneers from the early 1900s. And out of all the ones that I've read about so far, Billy Durant is by far the most likable person.