#66 Henry Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West

**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.
In the 1940s, Henry J. Kaiser was a household name, as familiar then as Warren Buffett and Donald Trump are now. Kaiser rose from lower middle class origins to become an enormously wealthy entrepreneur, building roads, bridges, dams and housing. He established giant businesses in cement, aluminum, chemicals, steel, healthcare and tourism. During World War II, his companies built cargo planes and liberty ships.
After the war, he manufactured the Kaiser-Fraser automobile. Along the way, he became a major force in the development of the Western United States, including Hawaii.
Henry J. Kaiser, Builder in the Modern American West, is the first biography of this remarkable man. Drawing on a wealth of archival material never before utilized, Mark Foster paints an even-handed portrait of a man of driving ambition and integrity, perhaps the ultimate can-do capitalist.
Okay, so that's from the back cover of the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Henry J. Kaiser, Builder in the Modern American West, by Mark S. Foster. So this book was actually printed in 1989 So I found the references to Warren Buffett and Donald Trump interesting, since those are both very well-known people today for vastly different reasons. But before I jump into the book, I want to tell you, I want to read the footnote from another book that led me to discover Henry Kaiser.
Even though he was one of the most famous people in the 1930s and 1940s, I had personally never heard of him before. So I was reading the Howard Hughes book, the one I did a podcast on a few weeks ago. It's Howard Hughes, The Private Diaries, Memo and Letters. And they have this giant footnote on page 136
And it's describing who Henry Kaiser is because he goes to meet Howard Hughes because they wanted to do a project together. Let me just read this to you so you understand. I mean, it was just hard for me to fathom how somebody can create over 100 companies like Kaiser did. So it says, Henry Kaiser organized construction companies to build the Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee, and Bonneville Dams, as well as the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge. Okay, that's insane. Just think about the infrastructure that is widely known that his companies were responsible for. He says, During World War II, he ran seven shipyards that used assembly line production to build 1,490 ships for the US. By his death in 1967, he had founded over 100 companies. And what I love about the way he names his companies, so he probably created one of the most complex organization structures I've ever seen for any of the entrepreneurs that I've covered on the podcast so far. But his naming of companies was extremely simple. It's his last name followed by what it does. So it's Kaiser Aluminum, Kaiser Gypsum, Kaiser Fraser Automobiles, Kaiser Permanente Hospitals in this one, and the Hawaiian Village Resort, which he sold in 1961 to the Hilton Corporation for $21 million. So he also had, and we'll talk a little bit about some of these companies. Obviously, I'm not going to cover all 100, but he had like Kaiser Broadcasting, Kaiser Construction, Kaiser Paving Company.
So let me go ahead and jump into the book, because I think it's one of, it is the most informationally dense book that I've covered so far. And it has to be because he had his hands in so many different varying aspects of commerce. It's almost, I would say it's almost unbelievable to me that one person was able to operate companies like this. So we're going to learn about how, you know, how was he able to start so many of these over 100 companies. So I just want to read from the introduction of the book. It says, Just who was Henry J. Kaiser, this egonomatic public figure who achieved prominence so suddenly and dramatically that reporters dubbed him the miracle man? To admirers, Kaiser's achievements seemed unprecedented. His business practices audacious and bold. His relations with others direct and magnamious. Magnimous. You know the word I'm trying to pronounce. To critics, Kaiser's triumphs were costly boondoggles. His ethics suspect and his interpersonal dealings furtive and self-serving.