Episode Details

What I learned from reading Decoded by Jay Z. 

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(1:39) I would practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep

(2:10) Even back then I though I was the best.

(2:57) Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography  (Founders #219)

(4:32) Belief becomes before ability.

(5:06) Michael Jordan: The Life (Founders #212)

(5:46) The public praises people for what they practice in private.

(7:28)  Lock yourself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers.

(7:50) Sam Walton: Made In America  (Founders #234)

(9:50) He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own — from Steven Spielberg: A Biography (Founders #209)

(12:47) The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50)

(13:35) I'm not gonna say that I thought I could get rich from rap, but I could clearly see that it was gonna get bigger before it went away. Way bigger.

(21:10) Over 20 years into his career and dude ain’t changed. He’s got his own vibe. You gotta love him for that. (Rick Rubin)

(21:41) Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #200)

(25:27) I believe you can speak things into existence.

(27:20) Picking the right market is essential.

(29:29) All companies that go out of business do so for the same reason – they run out of money. —Don Valentine 

(29:42) There are two things in business that matter, and you can learn this in two minutes- you don’t have to go to business school for two years: high gross margins and cash flow. The other financial metrics you can forget. —Don Valentine 

(31:54) I went on the road with Big Daddy Kane for a while. I got an invaluable education watching him perform.

(33:12) Everything I do I learned from the guys who came before me. —Kobe

(34:15) I truly hate having discussions about who would win one on one or fans saying you’d beat Michael. I feel like Yo (puts his hands up like stop. Chill.) What you get from me is from him. I don’t get 5 championships without him because he guided me so much and gave me so much great advice.

(34:50) Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography (Founders #214)

(37:20) This is a classic piece of OG advice. It's amazing how few people actually stick to it.

(38:04) Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success(Founders #56)

(39:04) The key to staying on top of things is to treat everything like it's your first project.

(41:10) The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley (Founders #233)

(44:46) We (Jay Z, Bono, Quincy Jones) ended up trading stories about the pressure we felt even at this point in our lives.

(45:22) Competition pushes you to become your best self. Jordan said the same thing about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

[46:43] If you got the heart and the brains you can move up quickly. There's no way to quantify all of this on a spreadsheet, but it's the dream of being the exception.

(52:26) He (Russell Simmons) changed the business style of a whole generation. The whole vibe of startup companies in Silicon Valley with 25 year old CEOs wearing shell toes is Russell's Def Jam style filtered through different industries.

(54:17) Jay Z’s approach is I'm going to find the smartest people that that know more than I do, and I'm gonna learn everything I can from them.