#168 Larry Miller (Driven: An Autobiography)

**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. I can remember the moment my life changed forever. I had an epiphany one morning, and nearly every detail of that moment is burned into the hard drive of my brain.
It was March 1971, and I was at work managing the parts department at a Toyota dealership in Colorado. I had just taken a parts order over the phone from a body shop, and I was checking to see what parts I had in stock, when, like a bucket of cold water, it hit me.
Here I was, 27 years old, married with two children and one on the way. And I was responsible for raising and supporting those children, providing food and shelter and college and housing, and much more, while preparing for old age and retirement. And I realized I had nothing to fall back on. I had no college education, no special training.
All I had was my energy and whatever talent I had been blessed with.
It scared me.
The feeling was so overwhelming that I stopped what I was doing to ponder the matter.
I decided I had to be extremely good at something. And the thing I was best at was being a Toyota parts manager. That night, I worked until 10 p.m. It was the start of my 90-hour-a-week work schedule. From that moment on, I began working from 7.3 in the morning until 9, 10, or 11 at night, six days a week. I did this for 20 years.
I reasoned that other dealers had the same parts and roughly the same prices to offer. I believed service and hustle were the things that would set me apart. I would simply outwork them.
I would become so good that it could not be denied.
I was obsessed with doing everything I could and accomplishing as much as I could. It was difficult for me to go home with work undone. I wanted it to be done for the next day. A lot of people go through the motions with little sense of urgency. I had an extreme sense of urgency. A body shop would call and order 21 parts. If I could only find 19 parts, I was ticked off.
If I was five minutes late, I was upset because I had created a system that wasn't more responsive.
I became a student of everything, ordering systems, delivery systems, hiring practices, training practices, retention practices. I decided I had to be incredible in all facets so that I could control the outcome. I needed to become the best.
I begin my story this way because it is a useful backdrop for any discussion of my life.
It colors so much of what I did and so much of what happened to me.
It was central to everything, whether it was working as a delivery man, or building a private business, or growing into an entrepreneur, or buying the Utah Jazz, or, as I'm sorry to say, neglecting my family to do all of the above.
I worked and worked and worked day after day, night after night, dawn to bedtime.
I was driven to succeed.
That is an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Driven, An Autobiography by Larry Miller. And this is another book that was recommended to me by a listener. I was not expecting to read it right away. I actually downloaded the sample on Kindle. And right away, instead of talking about, hey, I built this multi-billion dollar privately owned business, right up front, Larry serves as a cautionary tale. He's like, don't make the mistake that I did. All I did was work. And as a result of that, I neglected my wife, my kids. Everything came second to my work. So there's a lot of interesting and unique ideas and inspiring ideas in this book. But it is going to serve as a cautionary tale, both on neglecting his family and neglecting his health. And we'll obviously talk to you about that in a little bit. Let me give you first an introduction to Larry. It says, 99% of the people in Salt Lake City had done business with one or more services provided by Larry Miller. Not bad for a man who was a D student in high school and who attended college for only six weeks. He also never took a business class in his life. After dropping out of college, he worked as a stock boy in an auto parts store. And through the sheer force of his personality, his native intelligence, and work ethic, became the most successful entrepreneur in the history of Utah.