#123 Albert Champion (Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon)

**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. Champion had been born in Paris in 1878 By age 12, he was an errand and office boy for a Paris bicycle manufacturer. He became interested in bicycle racing, won the middle distance championship in France, and went to the United States in 1899 for a series of races. He won the American and World Championships, returned to France to study automobile manufacturing, and returned to the United States in 1900
He tried auto racing, almost lost a leg in a racing accident, and then organized the Champion Company. His original backers kept the name and moved the company to Toledo, at about the same time Champion joined Billy Durant.
In Flint, Champion became known as one of the most colorful and flamboyant figures, in a town full of them.
He lived to see both his new company, later named AC. Sparkplug Division, and the company he had left, the Champion Sparkplug Company, become giants in their field. He was a multi-millionaire when he died.
Okay, so that's an excerpt not from the book that I'm about to talk to you about today. It's actually an excerpt from the book that I covered a few weeks ago, which was the biography of Billy Durant, but it is how I was introduced to the life of Albert Champion. It's another example of this idea that you and I talk about all the time, that books are the original links. And so, that excerpt from Billy Durant led me to the biography of Albert Champion. And that book is called The Fast Times of Albert Champion. From record-setting racer to dashing tycoon, an untold story of speed, success and betrayal. And it's written by Peter Nye. So, let's go ahead and jump right into it. I think it was a good overview of his life, but I want to start at the very beginning. And like a lot of people that we cover on the podcast, Champion came from extremely humble beginnings. So, it says, his father rose six mornings a week to tramp out the door so early that the gas lights still illuminated the streets. Alexander trudged back late at night, smelling of leather and straw and manure. He was a working-class native of Central Paris.
Albert's mother was a washerwoman, and this paragraph tells us a little bit about what her life was like. Before the advent of electricity, washing clothes was outdoor labor as strenuous as tilling farm soil. Marie Champion's morning began by pulling off the heavy wooden lid that was set at the end of the previous workday over the top of the well to keep out rats.
She lugged water buckets some 50 yards from the well to pour into a big vat. Before putting clothes and bedding into the vat, washerwomen bent over a washboard and scrubbed out dirt and stains, often grunting from the effort.
This one sentence gives you an idea of how poor they were. His family indulged in the fare of the Paris poor, horse meat.
One of the earliest turning points in Albert's life is the early death of his father. And it says his father lived to see the Eiffel Tower completed, but he died of pneumonia three days after Christmas. He was only 47 And this is the effect that his father's premature death had on not only Albert, but his entire family. Albert's the oldest one. He has become the breadwinner of the family at 12 years old. So it says, The father Albert had was no longer going to offer guidance. He struggled with the gloom of the uncompromising reality of death, unaware that he had lost his childhood innocence. His extended family provided whatever emotional support they could, but they were also poor. So it says, but they were hard pressed to do much for Alexander's widow and sons. The experience formed Albert's character. Now, this is probably one of the most important sentences in the book and something that is really important to understand who Albert was to his core. For the rest of his life, he threw himself into work, forever escaping into the task at hand, keeping busy, always planning new projects. In time, he built up a business with factories in three countries and offices of his own. And so he has a quote in the book from Albert describing this time period of his life. He says, I was earning my own living and part of my mothers and brothers when I was 12 years old. He actually, in a few years from this point, he's able to make enough money as a professional racer that he actually retired, permanently retires his mother.