#31 Be so good they can't ignore you (Steve Martin)

Alon Michael (0:00)

It was understood from the start that Ferrari would base the operation in his hometown. From that point on, his very pathetic travel and his division of interests between Modena and Bologna would give way to a firm settlement in the steamy, mosquito-riddled little city of his birth. While he had never totally left Modena, save for the few first years following the war when he had thought his fortune in Turin and Milan, Ferrari symbolically viewed the formation of the new Scuderia as a triumphant homecoming to a place that, save for a few racing enthusiasts, had ignored his presence completely. My return to Modena was a kind of a mental revolt, he later wrote. When I went away, I had merely some slight reputation for being a strange, young man keen on cars and racing, but did not seem to have any particular capabilities. My return to Modena after 20 years, in order to transform myself from a racing driver and team organizer into a small industrialist marked not only the closing of what I might call an almost biological cycle, it also represented an attempt to prove to myself and to others that during the 20 years I was in Alfa Romeo, not all my reputation was second hand and gained by the effort and skill of other people. The time had come for me to see how far I could get by my own efforts. Enzo Ferrari set up his temporary headquarters in the Gatti machine works on the Via Emilia, no doubt with an air of grudging satisfaction. While he had won several races in Modena, the vendetta was a theme that ran through his life. The notion that no slight would go unforgotten, that no insult would go unpaid, and that honor in such situations transcended all practical need. To his final days, he carried on a love-hate relationship with his native city, always harboring a childish suspicion that for all the accolades heaped upon him by his fellow citizens and his final elevation to the status of a near deity, he was not totally appreciated, and that the lack of attention during his youth had not been atoned for. This same refusal to forget would cause him to patiently wait 50 years, half a century, before he believed Fiat's debt to him, in court by the refusal to hire him in 1918, was fully repaid. What a brilliant piece of writing. What I just read to you was an excerpt from the book, a wonderful book called Enzo Ferrari, The Man and the Machine, and it's by Brock Yates. And this book was actually the one used to create the movie about Enzo Ferrari, starring Adam Driver and Fernando Pecruz. Now, walking on this episode about Steve Martin's brilliant and important key lesson, be so good, they can't ignore you. I was thinking, who embodies this key lesson in the best way? And of course, James Dyson comes to mind. You know, he's been ignored and looked down upon by many people throughout his 14 years, developed his first vacuum cleaner. But then I remembered Ferrari's story and thought this would be a wonderful story to use, and one that actually we never covered during the podcast before. But before we dive into the episode, you've probably noticed that I've been publishing episodes less frequently lately, and I guess I owe you an apology and an explanation to why that's happening. So as I shared here a few episodes back, I started working on a project turning Spice into a product, and I founded a company, hired a brilliant data engineer to help me out, and we are close to finishing the MVP, which I'm extremely excited actually to share with all of you once it's finally ready. Now, the thing is, I have to admit, when I started this podcast, of course, I didn't have yet the idea to build the startup that is Spice, but here's the thing, I realized something that I want to share with you, and that is also perhaps part of the episode in a weird way. What is the worth of everything that you and I are talking about in this podcast, week after week, if we are not trying to use it in real life? Ideas are only worth the results of their execution. So let me actually repeat this for myself, if not for everyone. Ideas are only worth the results of their execution. And so with each passing episode, I kind of had this growing urge to act, to do, to create, to build myself. I felt that this protected, uncomfortable seat behind the mic, right, is not enough for me. I had to go out there and do something, using everything you and I are talking about. Don't be the best, be the only, right? I wanted to use that, invert, always invert. What worked repeatedly in the past will work for eternity in the future. Or the impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. All of these wonderful key lessons, now part of who I am, only have value to us if we can deploy them in our lives. Now, every one of us, each of you, hopefully, have their own battles where you can test yourself daily. And I say hopefully because I think that's the best thing a human being can have. I truly hope you have these battles, to be honest. For me, the ultimate modern battlefield is either business or sports. Even more so with everything that is going on today in the world, right? Being an athlete or an entrepreneur seems already like a soft and just kind of battlefield. But beyond war, which I wish no one would have to deal with ever, both business and sports are where you can test yourself, test your limits. And this is why I couldn't help myself but to try and build something that will allow me to do just that. And of course, I may fail, but Ingvar Kampard told us, right, that only while sleeping one makes no mistakes, that mistakes is the privilege of the active. And I want to be active. So and by the way, that was episode number 10