#330 Les Schwab (Charlie Munger recommended this book)

**David Senra** (0:00)
Back in 2019, one of the co-founders of my favorite app, the best app I pay for, I literally could not make the podcast without it, is called ReadWise. I've been talking about it for years, I've been tweeting about it for years, every single other interview on other people's podcasts I go on, I talk about this, and I did this way before I knew I was gonna partner with them on my own product. So I built this product with ReadWise. It's called Founders Notes. You can see it at foundersnotes.com, and it's founders with an S, just like the podcast. So foundersnotes.com.
I got a DM from Tristan in 2019, and he was the one that made me aware of ReadWise. It was perfect. And the reason it was perfect is because I have way more highlights and notes on my books than most people do. So I have over 20,000. Over the years, I've added over 20,000 highlights and notes for all the books that I read for the podcast to the ReadWise app. And the reason I do that is because I'm able to search everything that I've ever done. I use this every day. I search it every day. It really is the world's most valuable notebook for founders.
So I contacted the founders ReadWise and said, hey, can we do this? Can we actually do this project together? I want to make my own version. I want people to have access to everything that I see. Literally, if you sign up at foundersnotes.com, you are able to search and see every single one of my highlights and notes. It's exactly what I see. And so as an illustration of just one of the ways that I use this is at the end of this episode, I'm going to include this 20-minute episode I made where somebody asked me like how did history's greatest entrepreneurs think about hiring? And anytime I'm asked a question like that, anytime I'm making a podcast, what I do is I'm constantly searching my Readwise app, which is now available at foundersnotes.com.
And just it gives me a complete list of all the different ways that history's greatest founders have thought about whatever subject I happen to be thinking about or working on or investigating. So at the very end of this episode, you're gonna hear me speak for 20 minutes.
And it's answering the question, how did history's greatest entrepreneurs think about hiring? And all that information came from me searching my notes and highlights, which is exactly what you can do with Founders Notes. Keep in mind, this is made for founders already running successful companies. Those already running successful companies will get the most value out of this because it's a way for you to reference the thoughts and ideas of history's greatest founders, and then you know how to apply them to whatever's going on in your company at this very moment. The other thing I want to tell you, it is currently priced at 50% what it will be. So it's actually going to double in price. And the reason I did this is because I'm adding a bunch of features that I think are incredible, and I have to build out the landing page and everything else. You sign up now, obviously, as I add features, you don't have to pay any additional. I truly do believe it is the world's most valuable notebook for founders, and the value you get out of it will be incredible. You can get immediate access to over 20,000 of my highlights and notes right now by going to foundersnotes.com.
I wrote this in November and December of 1985 I did write this 100% with my old 40-year-old typewriter. I didn't have a ghostwriter. I wanted it in my own words.
I hope to pass on some of my theories of business to our people. And I hope these theories are used in our business for as long as the Les Schwab company continues.
Should we fail to follow these policies towards customers and employees, I would prefer that my name be taken off of the business. There could be some interest in this book with people who are interested in business. If so, you're invited to read it. I hope in some way, this book might help you in the business world.
If you are not interested in business, this book will bore you. And if I were you, I wouldn't waste my time reading it.
That was an excerpt from the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today, which is Les Schwab, Pride In Performance, Keep It Going. It is the autobiography of Les Schwab. I wanna tell you why I decided to reread this book. The first time I read this book was four years ago. I was going through all of Charlie Munger's book recommendations back then, and he said something that was fascinating, and he said it at the Berkshire Annual Meeting. And he said, if you wanna read one book that will demonstrate really shrewd compensation systems and a whole chain of small businesses, read the autobiography of Les Schwab, who has a bunch of these tire shops all over the Northwest. And he made a huge fortune in one of the world's really difficult businesses by having shrewd systems. And he can tell you a lot better than we can. And so last week, as I was going through the new Stripe Press edition of the updated and abridged version of Poor Charlie's Almanac, in one of the talks, Charlie Munger actually analyzes what caused the success of Les Schwab based on his reading of the autobiography. So at the very end, I'm going to give you Charlie's interpretation of the book that you and I are going to go over right now. So let's go ahead and jump into the book. As you can probably tell from that excerpt, that came from the forward of the book. Unless his personality jumps off the page, the whole book is like that. He just speaks very clearly and directly. So he says, father was not there. He was drunk again. I was born on October 3rd, 1917