#74 The Autobiography of 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. 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 steel master, 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.
Okay, so that's from the introduction of the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie.
And for today, I'm going to try not to duplicate and cover things I covered in last week's podcast, because last week we got an introduction to both Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick.
So the focus of today is going to be things that are actually unique to this book. I'm just going to jump right into his early childhood. Oh, by the way, if I sound a little funny, I'm a little under the weather. But as with all things in life, I'm going to adopt a positive mental attitude and persevere and make sure I don't miss any weeks. So apologies if you find my voice distracting. Hopefully that's not the case. Okay, so I want to start with one of the traits that I definitely learned from Andrew Carnegie and other founders that we've put on the podcast so far is this default level of optimism. That's basically like your default way of approaching life. So we're going to get into that.
And then he also is reflecting on what he feels. This is the grand rule of life, and I think this idea is fantastic. And to that end, Andrew's writing, he says, I think my optimistic nature and my ability to shed trouble and to laugh through life, making all my duck swans, as my friends say I do, must have been inherited from my grandfather.
And then he goes on the next paragraph where this, if you look up famous quotes from Andrew Carnegie, this is one of the most famous quotes that's attributed to him, and I think probably the most important quote in the book.
And he says, A sunny disposition is worth more than a fortune. Young people should know that it can be cultivated, that the mind, like the body, can be moved from the shade into sunshine.
Let us move it, then. Laugh away trouble, if possible. So I think this is important, because you might have experienced this before, where you might have a problem. Well, let me think back to the podcast I did on Henry Kaiser, where I think it was him that said that, problems are just opportunities in work clothes. So I'm sure you've interacted with people that are more pessimistic and cynical, and there's a problem in front of them, and they just think it's the biggest thing in the world. There's nothing I could do. My life's over. Oh, well, it was me kind of thing. And then the other side of the spectrum, you have people like Henry Kaiser, just like, okay, this is a problem. Well, that's just an opportunity dressed up in work clothes. So let me look, let me approach it that way. I think as I get older, I realize that there's very few things that are actually like black and white in life. And the perspective in which you approach things influences like your enjoyment of life heavily. And I think that's what Andrew's telling us here. He's like, listen, a sunny disposition is worth more than a fortune. And you should know that it can be cultivating, meaning this is a skill. It's a life skill that you develop over time and with experience. And that the mind, just like the body, can be moved from the shade into the sunshine. I think this is extremely important. And he goes right after, he gives that great quote. He talks about this grand rule for life, which I think again is related to his choice to choose optimism in most things in life as opposed to pessimism. And he's going to hit on that several times throughout the autobiography.