#283 Andrew Carnegie

**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. The presenting sponsor of this episode is Tiny. Tiny is the easiest way for you to sell your business. They provide straightforward cash exits for founders. Stick around to the end of this episode. The last four minutes is a master class on product differentiation from Warren Buffett. I compare the ideas Warren writes in his shareholder letters to tiny.com. If you have a business that you want to sell now or in the future, you get in touch with tiny. They respond within 48 hours. They'll give you an offer in seven days, and then they close in one month. Selling your business is usually a headache. Tiny makes it easy. So if you have a business that you want to sell today or one in the future, make sure you go to tiny.com. And one more thing before we jump into today's episode, I want to recommend to you one of my favorite podcasts. It's a podcast that I've been listening to for years. It is Invest Like The Best. Do me a favor, whatever podcast player that you're listening to this on, quickly search for Invest Like The Best and follow that show. Patrick is an excellent interviewer. He's relentlessly curious and he's got an excellent list of guests. If you want to listen to the episode I did with him, it's episode 292 And I also just listened to and highly recommend episode 305 with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. I think a lot of Founders listeners will like that episode because it's about building a business over the long term. Brian and Ron have been partners for 40 years. And now let's get into The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie.
Nothing stranger ever came out of the story of this poor Scotch boy who came to America and step by step through many trials and triumphs became the great steelmaster, built up a colossal industry, amassed an enormous fortune, and then deliberately and systematically gave away the whole of it for the enlightenment and betterment of mankind.
Not only that, he established a gospel of wealth that can be neither ignored nor forgotten, and set a pace in distribution that succeeding millionaires have followed as a precedent.
That is an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is written over a hundred years ago, which is The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. This is my second time reading The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. A few years ago, I did a three-part series on Andrew Carnegie and his partner Henry Clay Frick. If you're interested in diving deeper into that, it's episode 73, 74, and 75 To prepare for this podcast, not only did I reread Andrew Carnegie's autobiography, but I reread all my notes and highlights from the fantastic book, which I did on episode 73, which is called Meets You in Hell, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America. And so it occurred to me last night as I was rereading my highlights from Meets You in Hell, there's a handful of highlights that I think I should tell you first before we jump into Carnegie's autobiography that I think will give you context in how he approached building his businesses and what he had in common with some of other history's greatest entrepreneurs, Henry Clay Frick, obviously being one of them, which is his partner, but also Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller. And it's this idea that they started out learning bookkeeping because they thought that was the language of business. And what these guys all had in common is they were hell bent on knowing their business down to the last cent. They were obsessed with having the lowest cost structure out of anybody in their industry. And so here's a few highlights from Meets You in Hell. The first one is this mantra that Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick would repeat. They said, cut the prices, scoop the market, watch the costs, and the profits will take care of themselves.