#351 The Founder of Rolex: Hans Wilsdorf

**David Senra** (0:00)
The book I'm going to talk to you about today is nearly impossible to find. It was first published in 1946 There's only 1,000 copies ever made. It's called Rolex Jubilee, and then the subtitle is actually in Latin, but when you translate it from Latin into English, it literally means go with me. And so it's a tiny, four-volume, like, history of Rolex. And volume one was written by Hans Wilsdorf, who is the founder of Rolex. And so he tells the founding story of Rolex in his own words. There's a lot of things that will surprise you in this story. The first one being that he was a sole shareholder of Rolex. But the second one was that he was an orphan. So he goes right into his early life. And in one sentence, he sets the entire stage for us. He says, I was born on March 22nd, 1881 My mother's early death was soon followed by that of my father's. And at age 12, I was an orphan. And there's a decision made by his uncles that is gonna change the trajectory of Hans's entire life. They decide to sell the family business to pay for boarding school for the kids that are left behind. So he says, my mother's brothers decided that it'd be wiser to liquidate the prosperous business, which had belonged first to my grandfather, and then later to my father, believing that in this way, we children could be better prepared for life without having to call upon anyone for help. His life would have been very different without his uncles and that decision to actually liquidate the business and then take that money and actually send them to boarding school, which I'll get into why that's so important for the founding of Rolex in one second. But he talks a little bit about the fact that one of the best things his uncles ever did for him and his siblings was that they taught him self-reliance. But keep in mind, the words I'm reading you, Hans is writing them. He is in his mid 60s. He's looking back at his life. And so he says, our uncles were not indifferent to our fate. They made me become self-reliant very early in life. Looking back, I believe that it is to this that much of my success is due.
Now this part is really important. There's gonna be a few times where I'm gonna talk to you today about things that happened early in Hans' life. He doesn't understand. So you and I talk about this over and over again, the idea that the world is a classroom, like the books that you're reading, the knowledge and skills that you're acquiring, the relationships you're building. You have no idea that the opportunities that they unlock in the future, you just can't possibly predict it. And so they're gonna put him in a boarding school. So I'm gonna read this to you, and I'm gonna say why this is so important to the founding of Rolex. Highly likely that if he didn't learn all these languages at this boarding school, that there wouldn't have been a Rolex. Or his career definitely would have been vastly different, I'll have to explain why in one second. Just as we're placed in a boarding school of excellent repute, where we received that sound education so necessary to the man who has to make his own way in the world. I showed a particular liking for mathematics and languages. The languages is so important. And this inclination drove me to travel and work in foreign countries. So this education of multiple languages, I would argue is maybe the basis for his entire career. It will lead directly to his discovery of the opportunity on which his life and career will then be devoted to. And it happens relatively early in his life because at the age of 19, Hans is gonna start working in the watch industry at 19, and he will do so for the next 60 years until his death. Now, when I say it's the watch industry, this is the thing that blew my mind because everybody knows the brand Rolex, without a doubt one of the most valuable brand names in existence, right? But there was no such thing as a wristwatch industry for men at the time that Hans is, when he's 19 years old.
This is one of the most shocking things about me doing all this reading and research. It's one I've been repeating all week to friends that I've been telling about, Hans. And I believe it's to be one of the most inspiring parts of this entire story, and I'll go into that. So at 19 years old, right, he goes to this little city in Switzerland.