#188 Joe Coulombe (Founder of Trader Joes)

**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 wrote this book to help entrepreneurs and would be entrepreneurs. That's why there's a lack of miracles and a surplus of marketing details, including buying, advertising, distributing and running stores. And lots of discussion on how we built successful business on high wages.
In a 1958 partnership with Rexall Drug Company, we started Pronto Markets.
After growing it to six stores, I bought out Rexall shares in 1962
And then in 1967, when I had reached 18 Pronto locations, I began the transition of Pronto into Trader Joes.
I resigned at the end of 1988 During those 26 years, our sales grew at a compound rate of 19%. During the same 26 years, our net worth grew at a compound rate of 26%.
Furthermore, during the last 13 years of that period, we had no fixed interest bearing debt, only current liabilities. We went from leverage to the gills in the early days to zero leverage by 1975
Furthermore, we never lost money in a year, and each year was more profitable than the preceding year despite wild swings in income tax rates.
Still, judgment can be rendered that I failed, that I fell short of what I should have achieved. We will examine this late in the book, but I hope you'll consider the following. My favorite quote from my favorite book on management.
The book is called The Winning Performance, and here's the quote.
The general theme in winning corporations is a view of profit and wealth creation as inevitable byproducts of doing other things well. Money is a useful yardstick for measuring quantitative performance and profit and an obligation to investors, but making money as an end in and itself ranks low.
Along the way in this book, you'll find the angst of a struggling entrepreneur and the slings and arrows of outrageous good and bad fortune.
So here we go to an autumn afternoon in 1965 in a bar where Trader Joes was not so much born as extruded. Alright, so that's from the preface of the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Becoming Trader Joe, How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys, and it was written by the founder of Trader Joe, Joe Coulombe. I want to read some excerpts from the back cover of the book, actually. And I didn't read the back cover till I already finished reading the book. And I found a lot of what's on the back cover to be accurate based on my reading of the book. So here's some blurbs that I think gives an idea of why this book is worth spending time reading. I really enjoyed it. I had a hard time. It was similar. I had a similar experience a few weeks ago when I read the Ritz and Escoffier book. I had a really hard time putting it down and devoured it in just a few days. So here's some blurbs on the back. We should all be inspired to think like Joe. He shares how to get from where you are to where you want to be by thinking outside the box. What a fascinating life. I guess I should pause here. This is something... Normally, I read a lot of old books for the podcast. This book just came out. I actually got the book on the day it came out.
And Joe passed away last year at 89 years old.