Episode · Invest Like the Best · 2023-09-12
Patrick O'Shaughnessy & David Senra: books mentioned on Invest Like the Best #343
David Senra - In Service of Founders - [Invest Like the Best, EP.343]
My guest today is David Senra, the creator and host of Founders Podcast. With an incredible appetite for biographies, David has delved into the lives of over three hundred entrepreneurs, extracting invaluable wisdom that he shares with his audience each week.
David Senra recommended Return to the Little Kingdom by Michael Moritz, Churchill by Paul Johnson, Jesus by Paul Johnson, John D. by David Freeman Hawke, and The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen, and discussed Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and others, Arnold by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, The Mind of Napoleon by Napoleon I (Emperor of the French), The Lessons of History by Will Durant and others, and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Creativity, Inc.
Discussed“I was thinking about this because I just reread Ed Campbell's book, Creativity. The difference is the order in which you learn things has an effect.”
Where to get it
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Return to the Little Kingdom
Recommended“Mike Morris has that great book, Return to the Little Kingdom, the updated version. And he's like, there is no other story like this. He's like, when did a founder get kicked out of the company that he created, comes back and then goes on the greatest run ever.”
Where to get it
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Arnold
Discussed“Then I'm watching a new documentary on Netflix about him. And then I see there's this book called Arnold and Me written by his live-in girlfriend when he was from like 20 to 26.”
Where to get it
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Shoe Dog
Discussed“I just did an episode on Paul Graham's essay, which I think is one of the best essays I've ever read. It's called How to Do Great Work. He picked up because he's read a ton of biographies. He's seen a bunch of thousands of entrepreneurs up close.”
Where to get it
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The Mind of Napoleon
Discussed“So I read this book called The Mind of Napoleon and it was published in like 1950s. It is just a collection of 300 pages of direct quotes from Napoleon talking directly to you. There's two reasons I study Napoleon and Churchill is I always want to know who influenced them.”
Where to get it
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Churchill
Recommended“So it's funny you said that because one of my favorite authors is again, Paul Johnson. What I think people, more authors should do is he writes these 200 page biographies. That's so good. The Churchill one is so good.”
Where to get it
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Jesus
Recommended“The Churchill episode I did on Paul Johnson's book is one of my favorite episodes I've done and one of my favorite books. And it's hilarious that you said that because I just downloaded and started reading his biography on Jesus.”
Where to get it
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John D.
Recommended“In my opinion, it is the best biography of Rockefeller because also there's nothing wrong with Titan, but this one is 250 pages and it really focuses on early days of his career. It's episode 254 of Founders. I think it's called John Dee, The Founding Father, Rockefeller is the book.”
Where to get it
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The Fish That Ate the Whale
Recommended“But by far the highest agency founder that I've ever come across is Samuel Zamuri. It's one of my favorite books I've ever read because his life story is incredible. There's only one biography that I know of him, but also the writing.”
Where to get it
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The Lessons of History
Discussed“You're a big fan of Will and Ariel Durant, just like I am. And like, what's the lessons of history is one of the book that we share that we both love. And they studied maybe more human behavior than-”
Where to get it
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A Game of Thrones
Discussed“So instead of watching a new show, I'll just rewatch Game of Thrones. So I told Patrick yesterday, I rewatched Game of Thrones and I take notes about lines I want to remember because I think there's a lot of insight into human nature and fiction.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Shoe Dog
“So what I try to do is I don't want to just read all the books that everybody read. Yeah, Steve Jobs, I'll read the book, I'll read Titan, Rockefeller, I'll read, I'll read Shoe Dog, there's nothing wrong with that.”
Passing Titan
“So what I try to do is I don't want to just read all the books that everybody read. Yeah, Steve Jobs, I'll read the book, I'll read Titan, Rockefeller, I'll read, I'll read Shoe Dog, there's nothing wrong with that.”