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Month: November 2022

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Leadership Real Estate

Does Your LinkedIn Profile Inspire People to Do Business with You?

“All things being equal,

people will do business with,

and refer business to,

those people they know, like and trust.”

Bob Burg, author, Endless Referrals

 

You’ve heard this quotation many times, right? But do you take it seriously?

If a stranger reads your LinkedIn profile, will they begin to know, like, and trust you based on what is there? If not, why aren’t you taking advantage of this marvelous personal marketing tool for yourself? If your response is “because I’m not in sales,” think again. Even someone with no external customer interaction has customers within the company. Probably you, like most people, are seeking some sort of opportunity (e.g., an opportunity for advancement inside your company, opportunities for positions outside the company, a board appointment).

This month’s article shares ways you can sow the seeds of know, like, and trust in your LinkedIn profile so that people will be more likely to do business with, and refer business to YOU.

Your About Section

The 2,600-character (~5 paragraphs) About section showcases YOU. It is the perfect place for you to provide information that can build KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST. Approach this section with authenticity and a willingness to be transparent in telling your story. Give people a chance to know the real you – because everyone is more interesting (and likable) when they’re not hiding behind their job or their company’s services.

For this section to work well for you, plan what you want to say. For example, select three things you want to be known for and build your narrative around those. Or tell us about your purpose, passion, business principles, and how you lead.

Are there some questions that always come up from people after they’ve looked at your profile or resume? For example, if you have several years unaccounted for in your work history, rather than have people come to their own conclusions about the time period (e.g., you had a nervous breakdown, or you had an addiction problem, or whatever they can confabulate to account for that period), take control of your own narrative. Briefly explain the reason for the gap in your own way.

Before you write, work out your outline and what you intend each paragraph to accomplish for you. Use your outline to write your first draft. Read your narrative aloud and correct the verbiage where you stumble. Delete words and sentences that are expendable. Read aloud again; edit again. Getting this section to shine is important; it is worth the time it takes to accomplish that.

Profile sections that advance KNOW

In addition to the About section, you can help people feel that they KNOW you by making sure your profile is complete. By complete, I mean:

  • List your present and previous positions in your Experience section and describe your accomplishments in each position.
  • List your post-secondary education and degrees earned. (It is not necessary to include years of attendance or date of degree.) It is a nice touch to share some activities you participated in.
  • Add any optional sections that can help give people a rounded picture of who you are, including: Volunteer positions, Patents, Publications, Certifications, Awards and Honors, etc.

Profile sections that advance LIKE

Your About section will do the heavy lifting here, but visuals can also contribute to LIKE. Examples include:

  • A photo or graphic image behind your headshot – this is called the LinkedIn banner image.
  • A headshot that is a professional-quality image in which your eyes and mouth are smiling.
  • The optional Featured section that appears before your Activity section is a place where you can share photos, posts, and videos that tell your story visually.
  • You can also add photos and videos to your various positions.
  • Your Activity section that appears before your About section is populated by LinkedIn with your recent posts. This shows everyone how active you are on the LinkedIn platform and the kinds of things you add to the homepage feed. This section can either be an asset or a negative, depending on your level of engagement.

Profile sections that advance TRUST

Again, if you’ve written your About section well, it will go a long way toward establishing TRUST, but here are other sections that also provide “social proof:”

  • Recommendations have a huge positive impact – and a lack of recommendations can have the opposite impact.
  • Endorsements in your Skills section.
  • Education, Certifications, Patents, Publications, Honors and Awards.

A well-branded LinkedIn profile can frame your business conversations with KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST, helping your business transactions go more smoothly.

 

About Carol Kaemmerer: Named one of six top branding experts in 2022 by The American Reporter, I’ve helped countless C-level clients over the past ten years to use LinkedIn to frame conversations, impress customers, and introduce themselves before their first conversation takes place.

 

Contact me through my website https://carolkaemmerer.com for:

            • Executive one-on-one assistance with your online brand
            • Professional speaking engagements on personal brand and LinkedIn
            • An autographed copy of my book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-2ndEdition
            • My self-paced, online course
            • To receive my articles in your email mailbox monthly

 

My award-winning book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-2nd Edition received BookAuthority’s “Best LinkedIn Books of All Time” award, was named one of the “Top 100+ Best Business Books” by The C-Suite Network, and is an International Book Awards winner. For your author-inscribed and signed book or for quantity discounts, order at: https://carolkaemmerer.com/books

Categories
Mergers & Acquisition Personal Development

How Doritos Were Invented From a Disneyland Trash Can

Would you be surprised to know that the invention of Doritos was influenced by a trashcan at Disneyland?
In the early days of Disneyland, a restaurant named Casa de Fritos invented Doritos by repurposing stale tortillas they bought from a local vendor. The chips proved to be so popular they were eventually rolled out nationally by Frito-Lay in 1966.
Today the brands sells $1.48 billion of the chips every year.
Here’s how it all started…

How Doritos We’re Invented in a Trash Can

Casa de Fritos” was, unsurprisingly, all about the Fritos (corn chips). Customers got free chips, and they were incorporated into all of the dishes at the Disneyland restaurant.
All ingredients served at Casa de Fritos, such as the tortillas, chips, meat, beans, and fresh produce, were supplied by a company called Alex Foods, located just a few blocks from Disneyland.
One day, one of the salesmen from Alex Foods, making a delivery to Casa de Fritos, noticed stale tortillas in the garbage and gave the cook a little tip:
“fry them and sell them as chips instead of just throwing them away.”
So the cooks gave it a try and while they were at it, through in some seasoning. The result was an enormous success. Their customers couldn’t get enough of them.
Here’s how the company found an innovative way to sell them…

Who the Hell Was the Frito Kid?

Being a theme park restaurant, Casa de Frito, had a theme of their own. The company started selling chips from a “Frito Kid” vending machine. During the 1950s and 1960s, Disneyland guests could insert a nickel into the coin box and the Fritos official mascot, The Frito Kid, would come to life, lick his lips, and call for Klondike the Miner to send a bag of Fritos down the chute.
The stereophonic audio track changed with each purchase, so each customer would hear a different interaction between the Kid and Klondike.


Photo: Spacemountainmike, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Casa de Fritos was located next to the Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland attraction (which was replaced in 1979 by the runaway mine train rollercoaster Big Thunder Mountain Railroad).
They were a massively successful…
A year later, the new VP of Frito-Lay, Archibald Clark West, dropped by the restaurant without warning and saw hundreds of customers stuffing their faces with the seasoned chips.
So he had an idea to turn the chips into a brand.
West quickly made a deal with Alex Foods to produce them as a separately branded snack. He later branded them as Doritos” (the name is Spanish for “little pieces of gold”).
When Doritos started to get big, production of the chips was moved to a bigger factory in Tulsa. West test-marketed the chips in southern California. They sold out faster than Alex Foods could produce them.
The whole world fell in love with Doritos. West even loved Doritos to his grave (literally). At his funeral, his daughter threw Doritos into the grave after him (as per his request).
Today Doritos is the top ranked tortilla/tostada chip brand in the world.100 million bags of various types of Doritos are consumed daily.

WATCH:

PS>>>Here’s a throwback to the bizarre time when Doritos launch a foot long chip…

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Branding Capital Entrepreneurship Growth Marketing Personal Development Strategy

Investigating the Highly Profitable Business of Public Speaking

According to Ziprecruiter, as of Aug 5, 2022, the average annual pay for a “Motivational Speaker” in the United States is $68,271 a year. That works out to be approximately $32.82 an hour. Or the equivalent of $1,313/week or $5,689/month.

Want to be a public speaker? Here’s what to expect…

 

How Much Money Can You Really Make Speaking?

While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $148,000 and as low as $21,500, the majority of Motivational Speaker salaries currently range between $33,500 (25th percentile) to $118,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $145,500 annually across the United States.

The average pay range for a Motivational Speaker varies greatly (by as much as $84,500), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.

Newbie speakers will talk for free or for travel cost reimbursements. Meanwhile, celebrities and well known industry experts charge up to an profitable six figures per engagement.

But some speakers are making far from the average. Here’s why…

 

The Net Worth of These Motivational Speakers is Insane!

Here’s a look at how much the top motivational speakers are worth…

1. Brian Tracy – $15 million

 

2. Suze Orman – $75 million

 

3. Robert Kiyosaki – $100 million

4. Dave Ramsey – $200 million

 

5. Daymond John – $350 million

 

6. Tony Robbins – $600 million

 

7. Magic Johnson – $620 million

 

Some of the dollar amounts they charge per speech will surprise you. For example

Simon Sinek now charges $100k per speech. Gary Vee does too…

Sam Par breaks down the world of public speaking and the surprisingly lucrative amount of loot that can be made via the business model in HubSpot’s episode of The Hustle. Check it out.

 

WATCH:

 

 

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Economics Entrepreneurship Growth Investing Negotiating Skills Wealth

The Top 10 Times Mark Cuban Called Out the Sleaziest Frauds on Shark Tank

Hearing the phrase “you’re such a con-artist!” coming from the lips of a potential investor during a live pitch is defiantly not a good look (especially when it happens on live TV broadcasting to millions of viewers).

It happened 10 times when Mark Cuban publicly called out scams when he smelled fish oil on ABC’s Shark Tank.

 

 

Sharktank is the place where people’s dreams can become a reality or a total nightmare…

The television program features some of the world’s most successful investors which include: Mark Cuban, Keavin O’leary, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, and Lori Greiner.

Since the show debuted in 2009, there have been some pretty memorable pitches. Here’s a video that shows some of the most savage shark tank moments on that were called out at total scams.

Mark Cuban goes head to head with these entrepreneurs, even questioning their ethics. Here’s the 10 times Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban calls out the sleaziest frauds on Shark Tank.

 

So awkward…

 

WATCH:

 

 

 

 

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Mergers & Acquisition Personal Development

How a Boy Who “Never Made a Sub” Invented Subway.

Subway currently holds the status of being the biggest fast-food chain on the planet. They surpassed McDonald’s and KFC’s store count decades ago with over 44,000 stores in 110 countries. Last year they generated $1.3 billion in revenue (triple since 2019).

Their recent spike in gross sales though has exposed a tragic dilemma facing the franchise. More on that in a second but first, here’s how it all started.

Subway was launched by a 17-year-old from the Bronx who had never made a sub in his life until opening day. Despite his lack of subs, the sandwiches he sold eventually earned him a net worth of approximately $3 billion and became the most successful franchise business on the planet.

 

The Founder of Subway Never Wanted to be in Business…

Subway launched in 1965 when 17-year-old Fred DeLuca asked his family friend, Dr. Peter Buck, a nuclear physicist, for advice on how to pay his college tuition. With an idea to open a submarine sandwich shop and an initial $1,000 investment from Dr. Buck, the two formed a business partnership.

In fact, Fred had zero intentions of ever becoming a businessman. This was his plan to put himself through school in order to become a doctor.

The partners opened their first restaurant in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in August of 1965, where they served freshly-made, customizable and affordable sandwiches to local guests. Subway was originally called ‘Pete’s Super Submarines’.

And people ate up the concept of a giant foot-long sandwich “made right before your eyes, the way you want ’em.” As it turns out, customizing your sandwich was a novelty in the fast food industry.  This is probably also where Burger King adopted their slogan; “have it your way”.

 

 

Subway’s Insanely Effective Franchise Model…

What put Subway on the entrepreneurial map was their decision to begin franchising with a goal of operating a chain of 35 stores. The franchise model launched the Subway brand into a period of incredible growth and popularity.

Not only were Subway franchises successful, they were, and still are, one of the cheapest chains to open in the franchise world. It costs between $116,000 and $263,000 to open a Subway franchise. Compare that to opening a McDonald’s, which costs up to $2.2 million.

But here’s the catch…

Because Subways are easy to open, the number of stores skyrocketed. Between 1990 and 1998, store locations rose steeply from 5,000 to 13,200. And in that same period of time, gross sales rose by about $2.1 billion. Subway’s success continued into the early 2000s. At a time when obesity was rising rapidly in America, Subway continued to market itself as a healthy alternative to fast food.

Things were going great, until this happened…

 

Is This the Beginning of the End for Subway?

Starting in 2014, Subway’s sales began steadily dropping. Behind the scenes, many of the reasons for Subway’s success had turned on them. Quiznos was once Subway’s main competition, but tons of sub chains, like Jimmy John’s, Firehouse, Potbelly, and Jersey Mike’s, and fast-casual chains like Panera, were offering similar fresh and healthier options for sandwiches and wraps. Stealing away Subway’s dominant market share.

Other fast-food chains weren’t the only competition for Subway franchises. With Subway’s franchising model making it so easy to open locations, stores inevitably started opening up around the corner from each other in lucrative markets. And these locations in close proximity began cannibalizing each other’s sales.

It’s a real problem…

 

Subway’s Franchise Model Has Been Under Attack Since the 90s

In recent years, Subway has closed thousands of locations. Here’s why…

The Subway franchise agreement states the company can open locations anywhere they want. There’s no protected territories for the owners. So franchisees really have no say-so in where the other franchisees are going to open.

In 2016, Subway’s US location count dropped by 359. It lost another 909 locations in 2017. It dropped another 1,108 locations in 2018. In part due to market saturation and a drop in sales, but also Subway has been attempting to clean up the cannibalization problem that plagues their franchisees.

Another contributing factor to Subway’s dip in growth for their store locations are the size of the companies royalties at nearly 10% of sales!

The company’s 8% royalties (which are still in effect today)  are the highest in the industry (compared to 3-5% at other fast food stores like McDonald’s)

 

But all criticism aside, the brand still maintains 60% of the quick-service sandwich market in the U.S. A pretty impressive accomplishment for a kid from the Bronx with zero experience.

 

 

WATCH:

 

 

 

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Branding Case Studies Entrepreneurship Growth Investing Marketing News and Politics Wealth

How a Broke YouTuber Invented $4 Billion Business After Being Rejected 40 Times…

In 2012, Jack Conte and his wife, Nataly Dawn, were known as the indie band called Pomplamoose. They were bringing in roughly $400,000 per year in revenue from tour dates, merch, and on ads viewed by their 1.5M followers on their YouTube channel.

 

But then a mental breakdown a few years ago changed all of that…

After spending three months producing an elaborate music video for their song “Pedals, (it’s pretty impressive for a self-production). But the production came at the heavy cost of maxing out all of Jack and Nataly’s credit cards.

The Conte’s sunk their life savings into making the video popular on YouTube. So far the video has 2.3M views, but the confused couple received almost nothing for their efforts from YouTube…

They spent $10,000 and three months to make just the 1 video go viral on YouTube. He soon realized that, even though he receives an average of one million viewers on his YouTube videos, he’d only make $160 in ad revenue. Kind of a shitty reward for the time and effort they were putting in.

Jack knew there had to be a better way…

So he came up with an idea for creators to get compensated directly from their fans and cut out the middle man.

That’s how he came up with the idea of launching Patreon. He sent a sketch of his idea to his former college roommate, an engineer, who started coding for it that night. They launched soon after, with Jack being Patreon’s first official creator. Within two weeks, he was making six figures…

 

Wait, What is Patreon?

Basically it’s a membership platform that helps creators to get paid. Creators perform an artistic service and return, their fans and supporters (aka patrons) use Patreon to support them by means of payments. This way, creators can spend more time creating content instead of looking for funding.

There’s a few business models that content creators can use on this crowdfunding/membership platform.

 

Patreon’s Business Model Enables Creators to Charge For:

  • Community (monthly memberships)
  • Educational subscriptions
  • Gated premium content
  • Pay-what-you-can donations

 

Jack founded Patreon in 2013, today they have 3 million monthly active patrons generating $100M+ per month on the platform.

At one point for example, author and psychologist Jordan Peterson, was said to be making over $70k per month on the platform just in donations alone.

Patreon currently takes between 5% and 12% of creator earnings (plus a payment processing fee). The pandemic helped increase revenue with over 30,000 creators flocking to the site within the first few weeks of the pandemic. Videos and podcasts are the biggest categories on the site.

Along with all their success, the company is facing an intense amount of competition coming from Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Only Fans, Substack, and Clubhouse (is that thing still alive?).  It seems every platform these days is doing their best to lure creators by allowing everyone to make money versus just the big creatives.

But for now, Patreon has proven their business model helping participants in the creator economy to get paid more. The result of the couple’s efforts so far has resulted in an estimated $8 million in cash.

The companies’ market valuation is currently hovering at $4billion. Which is a pretty awesome accomplishment that a broken husband fed up YouTube created a rival platform that turned him into a millionaire.

#boss…

 

 

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Branding Capital Case Studies Entrepreneurship Growth Investing Taxes Uncategorized Wealth

This is How Shaq Made $400 Million from Carwashes…

Did you know 60% of professional athletes end up broke within 5 years of retiring? Not Shaq though. Far from it, his personal business investments are growing to Warren Buffet status.

You won’t believe how many businesses he currently owns…

Shaquille O’Neal is one of the savviest businessmen in the North American sporting world who has managed to amassed an incredible $400 million net worth following the end of a successful 19-year NBA career.

Including over 150 car washes across the US…

 

Here’s a Breakdown of Shaq’s Investment Portfolio:

  • Shaq owns 10% of all Five Guys (that’s 155 locations)
  • 40 – 24Hour Fitness centers
  • 9 Papa John’s
  • Krispy Kreme
  • Shaq Shoes (sold over 120 million pairs)

Side note, Shaq is also the owner of one of the most pointless website on the internet…

Pettiness aside, here’s a video where Shaq breaks down his investment strategy:

 

WATCH:

 

 

How Much Does Shaq Make on Endorsements?

In addition his business portfolio, Shaq makes a killing monetizing his personal brand too.

Shaq has endorsements with VitaminWater, Pepsi, IcyHot, and Taco Bell. All combined nets him a cool $20 million a year.

But that isn’t where he makes his fortune…His real money he prints while he sleeps in the fleet of carwashes he owns. All 150 of them, where he makes a majority of his earnings.

Watch for the full story…

 

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For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Advice Branding Entrepreneurship Growth Marketing

“7 Effective Marketing Strategies for 2022” – Adam Erhart

Did you know that only 9% of b2b companies rate their digital promotional efforts as highly effective? So chances are that’s you (and me, and everyone else too for that matter)…

So than what do we do when our marketing isn’t working? When no one is clicking our stuff, liking our posts? Just crickets…

According to marketing expert Adam Erhart, 90% of businesses ARE NOT posting near enough content (what he calls the minimum effective dose to trigger the algorithms) for anyone to notice.

Don’t you skip this part, it’s way more important than you think.

Erhart explains that most businesses dabble in too many things and totally fail to find their sweet spot online.

Here’s why….

 

In a recent video, Adam Erhart breaks down where most businesses fail online and covers 7 effective strategies to finally take your online presence by storm in 2022 (or skim the full summary below for the highlights).

 

WATCH:

 

 

Adam Erhart’s 7 Effective Marketing Strategies for 2022

 

#1 Most Businesses Don’t Post the Minimum Effective Dose:

When competing online, you’re not simply competing against your competitors, or even simply inside your industry for that matter. Instead, you’re competing with Youtubers, Twitter, CNN, Fox, Disney, Pandora, and millions of other sources of content distractions all fighting for the same attention.

So like Adam mentioned, as simple as it sounds, 90% of b2b businesses simply aren’t creating enough content on one single platform to stand out from anything else. A couple posts a week isn’t going to cut it.

Not even close…

Most companies “try social” or will spend $100 on ads and won’t see any sales and thus conclude…”the platform doesn’t work.” Spoiler alert, it doesn’t work that way.

If you’re not standing out, it’s almost always the case that you haven’t created enough content or a minimum effective dose to stand out on a particular app (let alone all of them). This is where 90% simply fail.

 

#2 The Marketing Rule of 7

Okay, so then how much content and how many touch points does it take to stay in front of someone long enough to get them to buy?

Fair question…That’s where Adam’s “rule of 7” comes into place.

The rule of seven works roughly like this; if your product is inexpensive, say $1-$20. You will likely have to get someone to see your message 7 times before they will open their wallet to grab their credit card. Higher ticket item? Plan on 14 or 21 touch points.

The higher the ticket price the more times you will likely need to be in front of your prospect. Just like a sales person doesn’t close someone usually on the first call, it’s even harder for a marketing message to close a sale to cold traffic post.

The average digital touchpoint to close a sale online is typically between 17-29 touch points!

That’s why volume is so important and again why 90% of companies are not producing enough.

But it’s admittedly a bit more complicated than just social posts, you will most likely need to create a subscription to create what Adam calls the “Mere Exposure Effect”.

 

Here’s what that means…

 

#3 The Mere Exposure Effect Explained…

The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon where people develop a preference for things that are more familiar to them than others. Repeated exposure increases familiarity.

In short, it’s the familiarity effect. The more often people are exposed to your brand the more they will trust you and willing to buy from you (or recommend you to others).

  1. Post enough to reach a minimum effective dose.
  2. Keep increasing the volume until you see results.
  3. Implement the rule of seven until you discover how many touch points it takes to generate a lead.

The most effective way to get to the rule of seven is by getting your customer to join your communication list (email, newsletter, podcast, youtube).

Then finally continue to nurture them to create the Mere Exposure Effect.

 

#4 Go Deep on a Subject, Not Broad

Rule #4 is short and sweet. There’s billions of people on the planet, you can’t and don’t want to serve them all.

In fact, the broader your content, the easier it is to fail.

Instead, focus on making better connections with fewer people. The easiest way to do that is to find people that see the world the same way as you and who have the same goals.

Find them by sharing your beliefs and values in your content. Share your story of how you overcame the gist hurtle your customer is experiencing (as it relates to your product or service).

Sharing is caring…

 

#5 Develop Your ICA (Ideal Customer Avatar) 

Get clear on the demographics, geographics, and psychographics beliefs, values lifestyles that make them who they are. What are their fears and frustrations, goals and aspirations?

The easiest way to develop your core message is to write down the top 5 things your customer wants to achieve and the 3 things that are stopping them from achieving their goals. Choose the top obstacle to focus your story around.

That’s where you will identify your brand story. Adam refers to this as knowing your customer’s miracles and miseries…

 

#6 Know Your Customer’s Miracles and Miseries

Dean Graziosi always says; “customers don’t buy from you when they understand what you sell, they buy when they feel understood.”

The miracles are all the things the customer wants and desires. Their miseries are all the things stopping them from getting what they want (as it relates to your product or service).

Knowing what’s stopping your avatar from getting what they want will allow you to position your service as the bridge that can help them overcome the misery gap to achieve what they want and see you as the hero.

This is where conversions take place.

 

#7 Sell the Benefits – Not the Features

When it comes to marketing, it’s not about the features, it’s about how those features will get the customer what they want. The real value is in the benefit.

People don’t buy based on logic, but rather emotions. That’s why promoting features doesn’t work, it doesn’t engage people at an emotional level. But connecting the feature to the outcome will overcome that.

Follow these 7 steps to take your marketing to the next level in 2022.

 

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For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Growth Leadership

Self-Made Billionaire Books You MUST Read

Nearly every self-made billionaires are obsessed with learning. This video reveals the top to recommended books that had the biggest impact on these billionaires…

 

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Summary of the 10 Top Recommended Books by Self-Made Billionaires…

 

#1 The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The # book that Warren Buffet claims to be the best book on investing (bar far), was The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. And, that chapters 8 and 20 were the bedrock of his investing strategy for many years.

First published in 1949, is a widely acclaimed book on value investing. The book provides strategies on how to successfully use value investing in the stock market.

Warren Buffet isn’t the only one who liked it…

Historically, the book has been one of the most popular books on investing and Graham’s legacy still remains with almost 40k Amazon positive recommendations on it’s Amazon book listing.

 

#2 Extraordinary Popular Delusion And The Madness of Crowds – Charles Mackay

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sir John M. Templeton, a Tennessee-born investor and philanthropist who amassed a fortune in global stocks and gave away hundreds of millions of dollars in his life time.

Templeton was regarded as a contrarian investor and mutual fund manager who founded the Templeton Growth Fund in 1954, which eventually netted $13 billion in assets.

Turns out John’s favorite book was Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,

First published in 1841, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is often cited as the best book ever written about market psychology.

The book covers the grand-scale madness, major schemes, and bamboozlement-and the universal human susceptibility to all three. This informative, funny collection encompasses a broad range of manias and deceptions, from witch burnings to the Great Crusades to the prophecies of Nostradamus.

 

 

#3 The Cather in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oddly enough, the book that changed Bill Gates life the most was the Cather and the RYE. He apparently found it fascinating.

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J. D. Salinger, partially published in serial form in 1945–1946 and as a novel in 1951. It was originally intended for adults, but is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst, alienation, and as a critique of superficiality in society.

About one million copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel also deals with complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression.

Who knew?

 

#4 Be Here Now – Ram Dass

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was Steve Jobs most recommended book.

Be Here Now, is a 1971 book on spirituality, yoga, and meditation by the American yogi and spiritual teacher Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert). The core book was first printed in 1970 as From Bindu to Ojas and its current title comes from a statement his guide, Bhagavan Das, made during Ram Dass’s journeys in India.

Basically, Be Here Now is one of the first guides for those not born Hindu to becoming a yogi. For its influence on the hippie movement and subsequent spiritual movements, it has been described as a “countercultural bible” and “seminal” to the era. It encourages readers to let go of themselves.

 

#5 Life is What You Make It – Peter Buffett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Dimon is an American billionaire businessman and banker who has been the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, the largest of America’s 4 biggest banks.

The book he recommends as the most influential in his readings was: Life is What You Make It. The book is a story of love, hope and how determination can overcome destiny and to find your own path to fulfillment.

From composer, musician, and philanthropist Peter Buffett comes a warm, wise, and inspirational book that asks, Which will you choose: the path of least resistance or the path of potentially greatest satisfaction?

 

#6 Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World – Rene Girard

Founder of Pay Pal, billionaire Peter Theil’s top book pick was Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Theil once claimed he was blown away by the author’s philosophy that will completely change your perspective on the world.

An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis.

Girard’s point of departure is what he calls “mimesis,” the conflict that arises when human rivals compete to differentiate themselves from each other, yet succeed only in becoming more and more alike. At certain points in the life of a society, according to Girard, this mimetic conflict erupts into a crisis in which all difference dissolves in indiscriminate violence.

 

#7 My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla – Nikola Tesla

 

 This is the favorite book by Google’s founder Larry Page. The book is a biography of the genius electrical inventor. My Invention’s is an autobiography of the reclusive, brilliant engineer who:

Invented the Niagra power system that made Edison’s obsolete. Sold Westinghouse 40 patents that broke a General Electric monopoly. He discovered the radio methods that Marconi converted into a fortune. Built a radio-guided torpedo before Ford ended the horse-and-buggy era. Tesla attempted, with J.P. Morgan’s backing, to change the earths electric charge!

 

#8 The Idea Factory. Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation – Jon Gertner

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is a lover of books. The one he love the most? Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation which describes the history of Bell Labs, the research and development wing of AT&T, as well as many of its eccentric personalities, such as Claude Shannon and William Shockley. The book explains how Bell Labs was influential in be the incubator for scientific innovation from the 1920’s through the 1980’s.

Their growth concepts still propel many of today’s most exciting technologies.

 

#9 The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done – Peter Drucker

Not surprisingly, the founder of the world’s largest bookstore and billionaire Jeff Bezos is a huge reader of books. His recommended reading; The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done.

What makes an effective executive? That’s what the whole book is about.

The measure of the executive, Drucker reminds us, is the ability to “get the right things done.” This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results.

Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can and must be mastered:

  1. Managing time;
  2. Choosing what to contribute to the organization;
  3. Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect;
  4. Setting the right priorities;
  5. Knitting all of them together with effective decision-making

 

#10 Benjamin Franklin, An American Life – Walter Isaacson

 

Tesla founder, Elon Musk’s favorite book is about one of the most influential men in history: Benjamin Franklin, An American Life.  Musk said that the story of the humble boy who went from apprentice who self-educated himself and became a self-made philosopher and businessman had a big impact on his life.

Sounds familiar…

The book outlines the life of the ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings, he seems made of flesh rather than of marble. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson’s vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin seems to turn to us from history’s stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. By bringing Franklin to life, Isaacson shows how he helped to define both his own time and ours.

 

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“Competition is for Losers” Peter Theil’s Billionaire Monopoly Strategy

“If you’re starting a company, you always want to aim for a monopoly and avoid competition. Hence, competition is for Losers.” – Peter Thiel

 

Who the Hell Are You Calling a Loser?

In a famous Y Combinator master class, Peter Theil founder of Paypal and Palantir, presented his famous business strategy that requires founders to position their growth for a monopoly of the industry.

‘Competition is for losers’ is one of his mantras. ‘Monopoly is the condition of every successful business’ is another. It is the ultimate test of entrepreneurship to build something that is one of a kind, sufficiently different from what already exists to render the idea of competition redundant.

In this article, we’ll cover how Peter approaches new markets and how to create a monopoly. But first, here’s a brief background on Thiel and why you should even care what he has to say in the first place…

 

Who the Hell is Peter Thiel?

You could say he knows a thing or two about the tech space. Peter Andreas Thiel is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist. A co-founder of PayPal, CIA-based Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund.

He was also the first outside investor in some of the biggest unicorns in silicon valley including Facebook, Stripe and Space X.

His companies and investments have earned him a net worth of $5 billion. He also gives a small number of entrepreneurs $100k over two years to skip college and build their own companies.

You can watch his talk at Y Combinator. Or read the summary below…

 

WATCH:

 

So How Do You Enter a Crowded Market? Don’t…

As Peter explains, especially to tech founders, companies need to be very careful about what markets they enter and especially how they differentiate themselves as not better, but something entirely different when approaching markets of high competition.

Similar to the Blue Ocean Strategy, Theil explains that if you’re entering into a  crowded market it’s very difficult (and often expensive) to gain the attention needed to build effective brand awareness. Especially if you offer similar product or service…

Success in saturated markets requires a lot of money to advertise, dramatically lowering your margins and ability to win. This has also been dubbed, the start-up graveyard.

 

Evaluate the Cost Trap of Entering Saturated Markets

The only way to enter saturated markets with established larger brands (with way more money than you) is to make a product or service completely better and different than everyone else on the market.

But doing so is way easier said than done. That’s where the case for chasing emerging market trends pays off. Emerging companies (especially tech), should forget fitting into existing markets and instead pursue entirely new and emerging  potential markets. Even if it’s risky.

Here’s why…

When entering markets with less or no competition, you have a greater chance of success and it’s far easier and more cost effective to acquire the attention you need to scale. Simply because you’re one of a few players in the space.

Even if you launch in an emerging market with an average or similar product at the beginning, you will have more time and opportunity to develop and perfect your average product and service while you’re building your audience and future customer base.

In fact, if you think about it, that’s exactly how most successful tech companies have been able to scale so fast as early stage market players. They rode the wave of the trend and captured all the early attention establishing their future industry dominance.

 

Conclusion:

Facebook wasn’t the first social network site, Google wasn’t the first search engine, Microsoft wasn’t the first OS company or Apple wasn’t the first computer company. But they were early in the market, they caught the trend and they executed better than everyone else. And when market reached its full potential they became big brands or monopolies.

That’s what Peter Thiel meant by “competition is for losers”…

 

 

WATCH:

 

 

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