Big Brain Business
@BigBrainBizness • 18,296 subscribers
Learn to not suck at business
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Sequoia Capital Partner Doug Leone on why his firm deliberately hires edgy people with something to prove: Doug Leone explains that his firm's relentless work ethic starts with hiring a very particular kind of person. "We hired people that had a shock in their system when they were growing up. Maybe they were shunned. Maybe they were too smart for their own good. Maybe they were left by a parent. Maybe they were in a vicious competition with a twin brother. We have all those." He includes himself in that description: "In my case, I came from Europe. I got abused in high school. I was pissed off." These early struggles produce a distinctive type of person — one Doug's firm actively seeks out: "We find these folks are a little edgy and for the rest of their lives they have something to prove in some ways not very different than founders." But hiring edgy, driven individuals is only half the equation. The real magic happens in how the firm shapes them once they arrive. Because they were set aside growing up, Doug explains, these hires tend to be "I people," and he admits he was one himself. So the firm deliberately places them in what he calls a circle of trust: "We put those people in an environment of trust. We teach them because those people and starting with myself, we were not pros at using the we pronoun... we put them in a circle of trust and we teach them that we is better than I." Compensation reinforces the shift from "I" to "we": "We get compensation right. We don't have a situation that Johnny makes 10% more than Susie. It's pretty flat, which means we share things among us." The result is a rare combination: people with a deep, innate need to prove themselves, working inside a flat, trusting culture that redirects that drive toward the team. doug leone sums it up: "We have this need, this incessant need to do something, to win that never goes away. And so when you say we work hard, it's all we've ever known."
Big Brain Business127,812 views • 4 days ago
Tim Cook reveals a surprising truth about hiring at the world's biggest tech company: You don't need to know how to code to work at Apple. "We hire people from all walks of life and people that have college degrees, people that don't. People that code, people that don't." Tim is a vocal advocate for learning to code, but not because it's a prerequisite for getting hired. He sees it as something far broader: "I do recommend coding for everyone to learn because I think it's a form of expressing yourself and it's a global language and it's the only global language that we all share is coding." So if coding isn't the golden ticket, what is? Tim explains that the traits he values most have nothing to do with technical credentials. There are three that matter above all else. The first is collaboration. Not just the willingness to work with others, but a deep, genuine belief that teams produce better outcomes than individuals ever could: "Can they really collaborate? Do they deeply believe that one plus one equals three?" The second is curiosity. Tim Cook gravitates toward people who are relentless in their need to understand, people who never stop probing how the world works and why people think the way they do: "I think curiosity is a trait that I love about people, about people that ask questions that are so curious about how things work, how people think. All of the why and how questions." The third is creativity. This is where everything comes together. Apple's entire model depends on anticipating needs that consumers haven't even recognised yet: "We're looking for people that can see around the corner because ultimately we want to create products that people can't live without, but they didn't know they needed." Collaboration. Curiosity. Creativity. None of them show up on a résumé, and none of them require a degree. But according to Tim Cook, they're exactly what makes a great team player at Apple.
Big Brain Business433,279 views • 13 days ago
Jeff Bezos' reaction to David Blaine chewing glass is how we always imagined billionaires laugh:
Big Brain Business1,809,800 views • 2 months ago
Jerry Seinfeld on why chasing your "passion" is embarrassing, and what to do instead: Seinfeld pushes back against the popular advice to find your one great passion in life. In his view, it's not just unnecessary, it's a little ridiculous. "Let go of this idea that you have to find this one great thing that is my passion. My great passion with your shirt torn open and your heaving pec muscles. It's embarrassing." Instead of chasing something dramatic, he offers a quieter alternative: "Find fascination. Fascination is way better than passion. It's not so sweaty." He explains why the heavy-breathing version of passion is actually counterproductive: "Just be willing to do your work as hard as you can with the ability you have. We don't need the heavy breathing and the outstretched arm from your passion. It makes co-workers uncomfortable in the cubicle next to you." Then Seinfeld offers what he calls his three real keys to life, no jokes: "Number one, bust your ass. Number two, pay attention. Number three, fall in love." Jerry Seinfeld elaborates on the first one: "You obviously already know whatever you're doing, I don't care if it's your job, your hobby, a relationship, getting a reservation at M Sushi, make an effort. Just pure stupid… effort." And here's the part worth sitting with: "Effort always yields a positive value even if the outcome of the effort is absolute failure of the desired result. This is a rule of life. Just swing the bat and pray is not a bad approach to a lot of things."
Big Brain Business1,157,941 views • 2 months ago
Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel, on why a $2.50 Coke at McDonald's tells you everything about the U.S. economy: For Griffin, the price of a single fast-food drink captures the story of the past six years. "$2.50 for a Coke. And before the Biden administration, it was $0.99." That jump is a window into something much bigger: "The United States has endured prolonged and persistent inflation now for 6 years." Griffin explains that these everyday price shocks carry a psychological weight far heavier than the numbers themselves: "The rise of gasoline prices at the gas station, it's like a triggering event. It just brings back to all of us the fact that the purchasing power of the dollar has declined so precipitously for 6 years now." The Coke is just one example. Eggs are another. Griffin points to New York City prices in the range of "7, 8, 9 dollars for a dozen eggs", and notes that even though they've come down somewhat, they remain painfully elevated. Each of these small, daily encounters with higher prices adds up to something larger. A creeping anxiety about the future: "I think everybody in our country, when we see a price shock in any of our day-to-day commodities, gasoline for example, it's just deeply triggering. And I think that there's just a general apprehension of how much more purchasing power are we going to lose because of the economic policies that we're pursuing in Washington." His message to policymakers is direct: "It's very important that this administration and that the legislature continues to stay focused on how do we strengthen the purchasing power of the dollar? How do we make sure that Americans' paychecks go further?" The takeaway: a $2.50 Coke isn't really about a Coke. It's about what the dollar in your pocket can no longer buy at the drive-thru, the gas pump, and the grocery aisle. Until purchasing power is restored, that frustration will keep growing into something much harder to ignore.
Big Brain Business853,381 views • 2 months ago
![Actor William Fichtner explains how the lowest point of his career, long before his success, became the turning point that kept him going: He shares a moment from his early days in New York when everything he'd worked for felt like it was slipping away. "I think I was 30 years old and I was in New York and I hit the end of the road. I ran out of money. I had no commercial residual. I had nothing." After a few years of scraping by, a little money in theater and a few residuals from commercials, he had to go back to waiting tables. And it crushed him to compare himself to everyone he'd come up with: "I felt like I was falling backwards and I was 30 now. Everybody that I knew I graduated college with [had] a company car and I was just... it was depressing." He describes the morning he went to ask for a brunch shift at the White Horse Tavern in the West Village, a place he knew people went to: "I woke up. I was brushing my teeth. I started crying. I really was. I was walking that street going, 'Just, it's all right, man. It's all right. You're not falling backwards. You're not going off the end of the earth.'" On the walk, it got worse before it got better. He passed someone from his past: "I passed a guy that I hadn't seen in a couple of years that was like kind of like an old friend. And I said hi to him and he walked by and he just kind of looked at me like he didn't recognize me. It was horrible. It was just horrible." Then he walked into the restaurant, and the manager met him with hostility, telling him he was on the schedule the day before, hadn't even started, and was already fired. But instead of breaking him, it freed him: "I said, 'Thank you.' I walked out of there. I said, 'I have absolutely nothing right now and I'm feeling so good and I'm not working at your f****** restaurant today, buddy.'" He went home to find a place to re-energize. Looking back, that brutal day became a great one: "Just great, great day." The lowest point can feel like proof you're failing, but sometimes it's just part of the process. Years before his success, that morning could have ended his career. Instead it became the turning point that kept him going.](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2065056579964264608/amplify_video_thumb/2065056499353956352/img/2kl6vYnzNMlry2Et.jpg)
Actor William Fichtner explains how the lowest point of his career, long before his success, became the turning point that kept him going: He shares a moment from his early days in New York when everything he'd worked for felt like it was slipping away. "I think I was 30 years old and I was in New York and I hit the end of the road. I ran out of money. I had no commercial residual. I had nothing." After a few years of scraping by, a little money in theater and a few residuals from commercials, he had to go back to waiting tables. And it crushed him to compare himself to everyone he'd come up with: "I felt like I was falling backwards and I was 30 now. Everybody that I knew I graduated college with [had] a company car and I was just... it was depressing." He describes the morning he went to ask for a brunch shift at the White Horse Tavern in the West Village, a place he knew people went to: "I woke up. I was brushing my teeth. I started crying. I really was. I was walking that street going, 'Just, it's all right, man. It's all right. You're not falling backwards. You're not going off the end of the earth.'" On the walk, it got worse before it got better. He passed someone from his past: "I passed a guy that I hadn't seen in a couple of years that was like kind of like an old friend. And I said hi to him and he walked by and he just kind of looked at me like he didn't recognize me. It was horrible. It was just horrible." Then he walked into the restaurant, and the manager met him with hostility, telling him he was on the schedule the day before, hadn't even started, and was already fired. But instead of breaking him, it freed him: "I said, 'Thank you.' I walked out of there. I said, 'I have absolutely nothing right now and I'm feeling so good and I'm not working at your f****** restaurant today, buddy.'" He went home to find a place to re-energize. Looking back, that brutal day became a great one: "Just great, great day." The lowest point can feel like proof you're failing, but sometimes it's just part of the process. Years before his success, that morning could have ended his career. Instead it became the turning point that kept him going.
Big Brain Business348,115 views • 1 month ago
Charlie Munger on the BYD founder who ignored his advice and built an empire anyway: Li Lu brought BYD to Munger's attention as an early-stage venture investment. The company was tiny, barely a public company by any meaningful measure. But two things stood out about its founder, Wang Chuanfu. "He worked 70 hours a week and he was a genius." That combination of relentless work ethic and rare mechanical aptitude was enough for Munger to let Li Lu allocate a small position. Then Wang Chuanfu changed the plan. He wanted to acquire a bankrupt auto plant in China and use it as a launchpad into the automobile business. Munger's reaction was immediate: "My god, this is horrible news." He continues: "It's a really dumb idea. Who in the hell's ever succeeded in creating a new auto competition with older companies that are as admirable as Toyota and Mercedes — people who really know a lot about autos and have a big lead." So Munger and Li Lu sat down and tried to talk Wang Chuanfu out of it. Wang Chuanfu paid no attention to them. He charged ahead, acquired the plant, and built BYD into one of the most formidable automotive companies in the world. "This year he'll fully sell two billion automobiles at huge profits. Just mouthwatering, delicious profits." Munger closes with a rare admission: "Li Lu and I share the distinction of urging him not to do it." The lesson isn't that advisors are wrong. It's that founders who know their vision intimately will always see further than those observing it from the outside.
Big Brain Business131,230 views • 18 days ago
Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel, has a $10 plaque behind his desk that reads: "If we're all going to eat, someone has to sell." Of all the things this man could surround himself with, he chose a cheap plaque with a blunt truth about business. "You're always selling. You're selling to candidates. You're selling to vendors, you're selling to counterparties, you're selling to customers." And if you're always selling, you know what you're going to hear a lot of? "No." Griffin doesn't sugarcoat it. He tells two stories that illustrate just how brutal rejection can be. 1994 was a rough year, with Citadel losing ~4% of its capital. Griffin flew to Switzerland for a crucial lunch meeting, sat down, and his guest arrived only to say: "Oh, I thought you were John Griffin from Fen Church. I got to go." His lunch date got up and left the table. Later that afternoon, a Swiss banker spent 45 minutes with him in a beautiful office, smoking a cigar, before closing with: "Such a pity that such a bright young man picked the wrong career." Two rejections in one day for the founder of one of the most successful hedge funds in history — and his takeaway was simply this: "You just have to tolerate. You're going to hear no a lot, but you need to become accustomed to having to market your ideas and market what you represent and what you stand for." Absorbing rejection and continuing anyway is the actual skill, whether you're hiring, raising capital, or winning customers. Most people avoid selling because they're afraid of no. The ones who build great things have learned to expect it.
Big Brain Business1,048,963 views • 4 months ago
Byron Allen, Founder of Allen Media Group, explains how treating business like a contact sport unlocks unlimited capital: Byron once borrowed $310 million on a Friday to acquire the Weather Channel. He paid it back in five months. When the lender hit him with a $28 million prepayment penalty for closing too quickly, he paid that too. His philosophy on why capital is never the real obstacle: "Business is a contact sport. You're nothing more than economic athletes. They will see your passion. They will see your stats. And they will always want you on their team because you make them money." The framing shift here is everything. Byron sees founders as athletes whose performance is being evaluated by people who need them to win. "You have unlimited amounts of capital available to you if your hustle is at the highest level." Byron Allen drives the point home: "Keep your hustle at the highest level because capital is always looking for you to get the money back and a return. There's trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of capital looking for you. Go get it." The takeaway: Capital is hunting for operators who can put up the stats. Hustle at the highest level, and the money will find you.
Big Brain Business496,263 views • 2 months ago
Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, on why showing up early and staying late beats being the smartest person in the room: "I'm not smarter than anybody else, but I can outwork you." Bloomberg shares his key to success: "Make sure you're the first one in there every day and the last one to leave. Don't ever take a lunch break or go to the bathroom. You keep working. You never know when that opportunity is going to come along." He explains how this approach shaped his early career at Salomon Brothers. The managing partner of the company, Bill Salomon, was the second person to arrive each morning. Mike Bloomberg was the only other one in the big trading room. "If he had needed to borrow a match… if he wanted to ask something about a newspaper or a stock, he came over and so we became buddies." The same thing happened at the end of the day. The number two guy, John Gutfreund, was the last one to leave except for Bloomberg. They'd share a cab or take the subway uptown together. "You can't control that you're the smartest guy. There'll always be somebody smarter. But if you're there, then you absorb things. You put things together in ways that if you didn't have all that experience…" He compares it to skiing: "Reading a book on skiing doesn't teach you how to ski. You got to go and you got to ski and get lots of miles under your skis. And incidentally, if you don't fall, you're not skiing hard enough and you're not learning anything." Bloomberg also touches on resilience when things don't go your way: "You got to be smart enough to say, 'Hey, I tried it. Don't let your ego get in the way. I can't keep doing this. I've got to earn a living, but a year from now, I'm going to come up with a better idea and then I'll go back and do it again.'" He closes with a mindset that defined his career: "There's never been a day that I haven't looked forward to going into work. Even the days I knew I was going to get beaten up. Even the day I knew I was going to get fired. I'd never been fired before. I wonder what it's like. Okay, let's go find out."
Big Brain Business479,298 views • 2 months ago
Jeff Bezos on why too many ideas can destroy a company, and the discipline that built Amazon's inventive edge: "Jeff, you have enough ideas to destroy Amazon." That's what senior executive Jeff Wilke told Bezos after just one year of working together. Bezos was confused. He pushed back: "What do you mean?" Wilke was a manufacturing expert. He explained it simply: Every new idea Bezos released created a backlog. Work piling up, adding no value, creating distraction instead. The fix wasn't to stop having ideas. It was to control when they came out: "You have to release the work at the right rate that the organisation can accept it." So Jeff Bezos changed how he operated. He started keeping lists, holding ideas back, and waiting until the organisation had the bandwidth to absorb them. But then he flipped the problem entirely. He asked: "How do I build an organisation that's ready for more ideas?" His answer was structural: get the right senior team, give leaders real executive bandwidth, and build a company capable of running multiple bets at once. And there's a benefit he didn't expect. Slowing down made the ideas themselves better: "If you are releasing the ideas through time, it forces you to prioritise them better. You end up sharpening the ideas better." The constraint becomes a filter. The ideas that survive the wait are the ones worth acting on. The result? Faster execution, less distraction, and better ideas.
Big Brain Business798,691 views • 4 months ago
Scale AI CEO Lucy Guo built a $1.3B company on one rule — don't sit still:
Big Brain Business104,822 views • 21 days ago
