The book I'm going to talk to you about today is nearly impossible to find. It was first published in 1946.
There's only a thousand copies ever made. It's called Rolex Jubilee and then the subtitle is actually in Latin.
But when you translate it from Latin into English, it literally means go with me.
And so it's a tiny four volume like history of Rolex. And volume one was written by Hans Willsdorf,
who is the founder of Rolex. And so he tells the founding story of Rolex in his own words.
There's a lot of things that I'll surprise you in this story. The first one being that he was a sole
shareholder of Rolex. But the second one was that he was an orphan. So he goes right into his
early life. And in one sentence, he sets the entire stage for us. He says it was born on March 22nd,
1881. My mother's early death was soon followed by that of my fathers. And at age 12, I was an orphan.
And there's a decision made by his uncles. I just going to change the trajectory of Hans's entire life.
They decide to sell the family business to pay for boarding school for the kids that are left
behind. So my mother's brothers decided that be wiser to liquidate the prosperous business,
which had belonged first my grandfather and then later to my father, believing that in this
way, we children could be better prepared for life without having to call upon anyone for help.
His life would have been very different without his uncles and that decision to actually liquidate
the business and then take that money and actually send him to boarding school, which I get to
why that's so important for the founding Rolex in one second. But he talks a little bit about the
fact that one of the best things his uncles ever did for him and his siblings was that they taught
himself for lines. But keep in mind, the words I'm reading you, Hans is writing them. He is in his
mid 60s. He's looking back at his life. And so he says, their uncles were not indifferent to our
fate. They made me become self-reliant very early in life, looking back, I believe that it is to this
that much of my success is due. Now, this part is really important. There's going to be a few times
where I'm going to talk to you today about things that happen early in Hans life. He doesn't understand.
So you and I talk about this over and over again. The idea that the world is a classroom like the
the books that you're reading, the knowledge and skills that you're acquiring, the relationship
you're building, you have no idea that the opportunities that they unlock in the future, you just
can't possibly predict it. And so they're going to put them in a boarding school. So I'm going to
read this to you and I'm going to say why this is so important to the founding of Rolex. Highly likely
that if he didn't learn all these languages at this boarding school that there wouldn't have been a
Rolex or his career definitely would have been vastly different. I'll explain why in one second.
Just as we're placed in a boarding school of excellent repute, where we received that sound
education so necessary to the man who has to make his own way in the world. I showed a particular
liking for mathematics and languages. The language is so important. And this inclination drove me to
travel and work in foreign countries. So this education in multiple languages, I would argue is maybe
the basis for his entire career. It will lead directly to his discovery of the opportunity on which
his life and career will then be devoted to. And it happens relatively early in his life because
at the age of 19, Hans is going to start working in the watch industry at 19 and he will do so for
the next 60 years until death. Now, when I say it's the watch industry, this is the thing that blew
my mind because everybody knows the brand Rolex without a doubt one of most valuable brand names
in existence, right? But there was no such thing as a wristwatch industry for men at the time that
Hans is when he's 19 years old. This is one of the most shocking things about me doing
doing all this reading and research. It's one I've been repeating all week to friends that I've
been telling about Hans. And I believe it's to be one of the most inspiring parts of this entire
story. And I'll go into that. But so at 19 years old, right, he goes to this little city in Switzerland
to he has a job he's going to work as an English correspondence and a clerk with a Swiss company
called Kuna Cortan. Now watch how this all ties together. So Kuna Cortan, it's a Swiss company.
All they do is they export swish pocket watches. The watch industry like 99 maybe more than 99
percent of the watch industry at this time in history is pocket watches. And so this company,
they act as import agents. This is really important because he spoke because at this point,
Hans speaks English, German, French. I think there's a few other languages that he actually
speaks. He gets a job where he handles the business correspondence of this relatively large
import agent for swish watch manufacturers. This business is operating in a ton of different
countries and a ton of different languages. So this helps him get a really good understanding
of international strategic marketing. And I'm not sure there's a better form of education for a
young person learning business. Like when I was reading this section, it reminded me exactly
of what like a young Rockefeller. So Hans is 19 where we are in the story. Rockefeller gets a job
when he's like 16 or 17 for this produce commission firm in Cleveland. That's called Hewlett and
Tuttle. And as a result of that job, Rockefeller learns so many valuable skills. He understands book
keeping. He understands contracts. He's looking at shipping. He's learning about margins. He's learning
skills that he's going to use for his entire career once he starts building his own company. And when
you're in a position like Rockefeller was in Ohio or like Hans is in Switzerland, like you
can learn so fast. So in the case of Hans, like he's going to start working here in 19 by 25.
He starts his own company. That's the company that's going to turn into Rolex. And so Hans
describes his time of his life. He says it was a big concern exporting about 1 million Frank's
worth of watches annually. All grades of watches were dealt with, although only a small proportion
was manufactured by the firm itself. So I need to translate that for you in the late 1800s,
early 1900s, when you hear the word concern, we would call that a company today. They would
call what we would call a product. They would call an article. So this import agents business for
Swiss watch manufacturers was a pretty big business is what he's saying. And the next sentence is
why I said that decision made by his uncles to educate them to send them to the best school that
school teaches in multiple languages. Why the opportunity to found and develop a Rolex
was unlocked many years in the future. And he says my work there provided an excellent
opportunity to study the watchmaking industry closely and to examine every type of watch produced
both in Switzerland and abroad. So a few years later, he's going to switch to another firm and move
to London. And this is what he said about this time. And he's only going to last two years before
he starts his own company. Two things struck me most forcibly. That's interesting writing, most
forcibly about my new employers on one hand, their commercial competence. And on the other hand,
their lack of specialization. And now looking back after having done all this other additional
reading and research, that sense is really important to me because you talk about that they are
very commercially competent. Right. In other words, they have their shit together. They're running
a great business. Hans will do the same. But then he says they're lack of specialization. So this
is something I've been talking about nonstop this week that is frankly very inspiring to me.
And you see it over and over again in the stories. I think that's why reading business
biographies is far superior than reading just business books. Because in every single life of
an entrepreneur, you like grow up your way to what you're doing. There's all these like false starts,
dead ends. You can just see as you go through not only Hans's life, but everybody's life is just
like they're trying to they figure it out a little bit along the way. And they also ape and copy.
Right. People have became before them, experiences they had before them. So when he starts out,
this is the the most inspiring things because like Rolex is so unbelievably focused today. They know
what they're great at and they focus relentlessly on them. But in the very beginning, Hans had no idea.
And what I mean by that is he had, you know, I don't know, 15 different brand names. He wasn't
making watches at all. He was just reselling them. He was really a gifted marketer, which I'll
get to in a minute. When you think about lack of specialization, it's like their focus on luxury,
Rolex, say his future focus on luxury watches. He was selling cheap watches, you know, mid grade watches,
really expensive watches. He is constantly experimenting using that action as a form of education,
right, gives him information back. And then you see him adjust slowly over time. And it is through
that process that he uncovers or discovers this phenomenal opportunity. And this is when he describes
founding the company that's going to turn into Rolex. I soon gained confidence in myself. And in 1905,
at the age of 24, I decided to set up in business, feeling that my training and education had prepared
me to stand on my own. And so he starts this company called Will's Dorf and Davis. And he says they
had we had modest capital at our disposal. So Will, this is fascinating too. About again, this
is constant iteration that you see throughout the life of Hans Will's Dorf. So Will's Dorf and Davis
was they were not watching manufacturers. They purchase watches from swish manufacturers. Think
about his experience. Yeah, he worked for two firms that did exactly this. I was like, oh, I can do
this too. Right. Let me draw another analogy to Rockefeller. Did Rockefeller jump from Hewlett and
Tuttle, this produce commission house, into standard oil. No, what did he do? He quit and started his
own produce commission house. And then that opportunity led him to this accidental discovery of
realizing heck and actually become one of the first overfinders. So again, this is fascinating.
So Will's Dorf and Davis, they're not watch manufacturers. They purchase watches watches from
the swish watch makers, right? From swish. I keep saying swish. I don't know why I'm adding an
an H on there from swish manufacturers. And then would sell them to retailers. But I love this idea
where he starts out. He's just got an office. He got no money. So what do you do? Like you can't
make him yourself. You just got to sell when they're talking about their importing watches. They're
talking about pocket watches. If you only remember one thing from this episode, the only one thing is
this is like the power of belief. The reason the Rolex is what it is today. The reason that we're
talking about Hans, you know, what 80 years after he died, something like that. It's because his
belief, this belief in the wristwatch for men, which did not exist when he started believing in it.
Hans is a huge collector of pocket watches, which I think is also important. He's working in
the industry. He collects pocket watches. When you collect something, when you see something,
you see its flaws and you see what should be improved. You see that with the way Hans was thinking
about developing a new market for wristwatches because he saw the deficiency of the pocket watch
industry because he was so intimately involved in it. And so he's describing what the state of
this industry was when he was 24 years old when he started his first company says at this period,
the wristlet watch. So this is hilarious. They do not call them wristwatches, right? They called
them either wristlet watches. They would also call them bracelet watches. And the reason they
call them bracelet watches because at this time, only women would wear wristwatches. And so he
talks about this. The fact was for men, the wristwatch or the bracelet watch was an object of
derision. The idea of wearing a watch on one's wrist was at this time, thought contrary to the
conception of masculinity. One guy remarked that he wouldn't be caught doing such an unrefined
thing, meaning wearing a watch on his wrist. He said he'd be likely to catch him in a dress as
you would to be wearing a wristlet. And this sentence says everything. Prior to World War One,
wristwatches for men did not exist. That blew my mind. Prior to World War One, wristwatches for
men didn't exist. And the reason that people of that men in World War One in, uh,
were wristwatches, they were known as trench watches. And they did that so they could coordinate
movement on the battlefield. That is a very beginning of the wristwatch industry for men.
And so Hans talks about the fact that, hey, you know, of course, if the public is skeptical,
then of course, the existing players in the industry are going to be skeptical. I think this is
why it's so important that he was somebody young, usually people younger coming into industry.
See, they see all the things that all the flaws that they could fix. This is watchmakers,
all of the world remains skeptical as to its possibilities, meaning the wristwatch for men,
and believe that this newfangled object was bound to prove a failure. Their argument against the
wristwatch were the following and their legitimate arguments. These are essentially the way
I would think about what he's describing here is something you and I've talked about over
and over again. The problems are just opportunities and we're close. Business is problem.
So the best companies are just effective problem solving machines. And so they're like, no, you
you have all these unsolved problems. First, the mechanism required by this type of watch must
of necessity be small and delicate and could therefore never withstand the violent gestures of
the hand and arm. Second, dust and water would rapidly spoil the mechanism. He's going to solve
that problem too. Third, accuracy and regularity of working could never be attained with such small,
so small of a movement. That's a third problem that he is going to solve. Back to Hans, in spite of
all of this, I kept my faith in the wristwatch and was determined to see what could be done. Now,
this is the crazy thing. So he's writing that as a 65 year old man. I found a quote when he is 33
in 1914. This guy really believed in this. He says, my personal opinion is that the pocket watches
were almost completely disappear and that wristwatches will replace them definitively. I am not mistaken
in this opinion and you will see that I am right. That is insane. He's 33 years old when he's saying
that. So he says the task I undertook meant the overcoming of enormous difficulties. He just laid
out all the problems that were preventing other people from doing this. And yet today, after 40 years
of striving, it seems to me that I have surmounted them. And I believe that in doing so, I have contributed
to the development of the watchmaking industry in general. And then it gets even more fascinating
because then you could tell he's thinking like an entrepreneur, you know, he wanted to build wealth.
As you can imagine, an orphan wanting to do so, right? And so he, such a, he identifies like,
well, there's pocket watch. The pocket watch industry is never going to grow because how are we
using it? At the time pocket watches were passed down from father to son, then from son to grandson.
And they're also hidden in your pocket. And Hans is looking at this. This is like, this is a big
problem. And so what he realizes is like, if you could take it out of the pocket and pit it on
your wrist, right? There's going to be more wear and tear, but you're also going to see it. So he
says the wristwatch was bound to bring about a certain revolution in the industry. It would have to
cause an increase in sales, not only an account of its novelty, but also because by his very nature,
it called for more frequent renewal, more exposure to damage than the pocket watch.
That is actually really shrewd observation. It's just like, well, you're going to buy one pocket
watch and you're just going to last for a hundred years. No one sees it. It's protected. Of course,
this industry is going to be so much smaller than the wristwatch industry could be if we can just
convince men to wear these damn wristwatches. And then he also had like this shrewd insight to
human nature and human psychology because you know, it's hidden in your, you don't see the
product being used. But now if I take that product that that was hidden in your coat and I put it
on your watch, what happens? It becomes a fashion accessory. And so people see it. It helps the
product spread. And so he says the wristwatch is the type of product of which each individual likes
to have not only one, but several. And then this may be the most important sentence I read from
Hans or about Hans because this is incredible sentence because Hans had the highest order bit
that other people in the watch industry didn't. And that was belief. And this is what he said. I had
very early realized the manifold possibilities of the wristwatch and feeling sure that they would
materialize in time. I resolutely went on my way. Rolex was thus able to get several years ahead
of other watch manufacturers who persisted in clinging to the pocket watch as their chief product.
This is something that cannot be skipped over. So Steve Jobs had this idea and I heard him say it
right before he died. This is like two years before he died. He was giving this interview.
I think he was on stage with Bill Gates if I remember correctly. But he talked about the highest order bit.
And so I actually had to look that up. What did that mean when I heard Steve said it? And see he's
he's using a computer reference. He says in computing, the highest order bit also called the most
significant bit is the bit position in a binary number having the greatest value. And so in Steve's
case, what he's talking about a stage is the fact that you got to love what you're doing. You got to
have passion because if you're doing anything in this worthwhile, it's so difficult that if you
don't love it, you don't passion. You're going to quit because the people that quit doing things
that they don't love, they're saying people and that this love and passion for what you're doing
can make you in some ways irrational and that irrationality is rewarded because you just don't give
up. You have this like dog determination. So I understand who am I going to argue with Steve.
But I don't know, obviously believe that. I'm like completely obsessed with what I'm doing.
But I think actually the highest order bit is belief. It's belief in yourself and it's belief
in your idea. And in Hans's story, that's certainly the case. It wasn't passion and love. It was
belief that he saw an opportunity and he was willing to pursue it and to actually change
the entire industry. And you know what I thought of when I read this section, the first thing,
this, I mean, this happened instantaneously too, which is fascinating because this is one of
the most important things. I thought of this paragraph in Ted Turner's autobiography. This is
episode three, 27. And it's just remarkable because Ted is looking at the landscape, right? He's
he's like, I'm going to make the world's first 24 hour news network. That idea led him to become
a billionaire, but he's analyzing this. He's like, wait, I don't understand this. Why am I seeing
the opportunity that no one else is? And so this is from this is the paragraph that I thought of when
I was reading this Hans describing the opportunity that he saw. And this is Ted Turner writing in his
autobiography, clearly the companies for whom the economics of a 24 hour news network would have
made the most sense were the big three broadcasters, right? So ABC CBS NBC why because they already had
most of what was needed. They had studios, they had bureaus, they had reporters, they had anchors,
they had almost everything, but a belief in cable. Ted Turner had the highest order bit. He didn't
have a studio. He didn't have the bureaus. He didn't have the reporters. He didn't have the
anchors. He'd have to go and collect and build that, but he had something they didn't. He had a
belief in cable in the crazy thing is like, there's a great description of this. I got to read this
story because it's hilarious. Ted Turner's 38 years old when this story happens. And this guy
interviewed in his autobiographies saying that they just happened to wind up being on a plane
together. They wind up sitting next to each other. And he says as soon as we get airborne,
Ted pulls out a copy of the Delta lines Delta Airlines magazine. He turns to the map United States
and starts explaining how he's going to become a billionaire. And he quotes Ted here goes,
make sure you buy my stock. I'm going to be a billionaire and why? And he just lays out this entire
thing. And then the story ends perfectly. He says his enthusiasm was so genuine and so infectious
that I'll never forget it. So go back to that. This is what what a sentence. I had very early realized
the manifold possibilities for the wristwatch and feeling sure that they would materialize in time.
I resolutely went on my way. Rolex was thus able to get several years ahead of other watch
manufacturers who persisted in clinging to the pocket watch as their chief product. If I remember
correctly, Ted Turner had like 11 year head start on everybody else. It's absurd. Okay, so how
does he start acting on this belief? I think one thing that's bored to understand the story of
Hans Will's door is the fact that he understood the opportunity better than anybody else. And he would
invest heavily in developing the technology that he needed to bring it to fruition. And so again,
it goes back to this idea that the whole world is a classroom that you never know how your previous
experience, the things that you're learning will be used in the future. This knowledge, skills,
relationships, all these things compound. So, you know, years before he found his own company,
he's working at that firm in Switzerland. And he hears about this guy named Herman Eglor.
And Herman's innovation that he made in 1902 was these movements that you need inside of a watch.
He made movements that would work in smaller watches. And so Hans is going to learn this many years
before he's able to, he has actually the company to actually use it. But he says my interest had been
roused by this innovation as the mechanism created by Eglor, right? Had proved very successful
from a technical point of view as well as being accessible in price. So then after founding my firm
in 1905, I go and place an order with Eglor. This was the first step forward in our climb to success.
So I need to bring, there's a bunch of other things I read to prepare for this podcast. I'll leave
all of them linked down below. I pulled out a bunch of different books. But this podcast, my friend
Patrick did. It's one of the best business podcasts I've ever heard my life. I don't even know how
many times I've listened to it now. It is an episode of business breakdowns. I will link it down
below. But if you just go in your podcast, try to look for business breakdowns and then search,
just search Rolex. It has a great name to Rolex. Timeless excellence. My friend Patrick
interviewed Ben Climber, Ben's the founder of Haudenke. He got access back in like 2015. He's one of
the first people Rolex epic is super, super secretive. But he was one of the first people to actually
go and tour all of their four manufacturing facilities. So he wrote this fantastic article that I
also reread. And then he talks a lot about the history of Rolex and then how they operate today.
But the reason I needed to bring this up is because Eglor is a very important name in the history
of Rolex. From the very start of Rolex, Eglor is actually the one manufacturing watches that were
sold as Rolex watches. Buying these movements from Eglor is what Hans describes. This is his very
first step forward in our climb to success. And the crazy thing, the reason I bring this up is because
I also love like an old school keep your word mentality. So Hans and the founder of Eglor had a
handshake deal for 70 years. And the deal was that Eglor would make movements solely for Rolex. And
when they say there's a great line in the the bike. I suppose it when he's like when I say an
actual handshake deal, I mean a handshake deal. There was nothing on paper. There was nothing in
writing all the way up until 2004 when Rolex finally buys Eglor undoubtedly, undoubtedly at that
point to this point, Rolex is already making selling billions of dollars worth of watches. That's not.
And I just love that. Two founders of companies coming together and say hey, we're going to work
together. I'm a man in my word. We're going to seal this with a handshake. And that relationship
and agreement was unbroken for seven decades. That's one of the coolest things I've ever heard.
And so Hans is going to describe. So you have the manufacturing and making Rolex watches are what's
going to be sold under Rolex brand, which I haven't got there yet. He's going to happen in Switzerland.
He's still in London. So the design and the sales is separate from the manufacturing. And so he would
travel from London to Switzerland several times a year. And he says I would bring with my collaborators
new and personal ideas, demanding that they be realized in this way hundreds of models were conceived
and launched all across the world. He's selling this again. This goes back to the world's entire
classroom. You have no idea how you're going to use all the experience you have. Remember, he was,
he worked for an importer. They were taking Swiss watches and sending them everywhere. So he's
just doing the same thing now with his own products. And as we'll see, he's a master marketer,
which I'll get into a minute, but he's having immediate success. This is how both a new fashion and
a great commercial success spring from an apparently full hearty idea. He's referencing the fact
that everybody around him thought he what he was doing with silly men are never going to wear these
watches. Soon we were replacing orders for tens of thousands. And to the uninformed must have appeared
extremely audacious young people. When I read that, I thought of one of my favorite things Winston
Church over dead. He had a personal motto that he'd repeat. He would say allowed to himself. Always
more audacity. Hans, when a young man was not, he was at many things, but one of the things he was,
he was definitely audacious. I love the ideas. Like these guys are crazy. They are extremely audacious
young people. And so at this point, I need to be clear about something. This is not Rolex. He's
selling under a ton of different brand names. He's eventually going to realize, hey, I don't want to
just be sitting in the middle. Right. I don't want to be a mill man. I want like all the value
creations going to be if I own my own brand. And he this is what I meant about this constant iteration,
this trial and error. I'm going to read something brand names. He had their freaking terrible. And so at
this point, pre, you know, doubling down on this fantastic idea of Rolex, he hasn't discovered that
yet. So what he's doing is like, there's a bunch of other brand names that he's he's experimenting
with. He had this idea. This is hilarious too, because I was reading about this because you know,
Rolex is now there's, I don't even think there's such thing as a cheap Rolex, right? And so he had
this idea is like, well, I can supply a watch for every pocket. And what that means is like, let's say
you can order, you know, if I'm making these numbers up, but like a $5 watch or $100 watch or
$2,000 watch is like, I want to, I'm going to serve every single aspect of the market, which
obviously they don't do anymore. This is his iteration is like learning from experience. I thought
the note of myself was actually maybe Chaco because I've done a bunch of episodes on these
the early automobile industry founders. And I go, oh, Hans was GM general Motors before focusing
in on Ferrari. I'm like, that's the way I think about it. And so listen to some of these brand names.
I love this because I, you know, you've heard me struggle with naming stuff all the time. And
think about last week Steve Jobs, so that we could force Steve Jobs thinking to call him the iMac,
the Mac man. Like, it's just terrible ideas. So I take solace and inspiration. It's the fact that
like, oh, everybody struggles with this stuff. And so even, you know, Rolex is one of the best names
I've ever heard one of the best brands ever existed. And before that, he had unicorn, roco,
Elvira, roll watch co, Falcon, Gen X, Lonex, Rolex, Rolex, Rolex, Lexus,
Hawfax, and Windex. He even used different variation of the Rolex name itself. He had the Rolex
watch company. He had the RWC limited. And he would even combine Rolex with other brand names.
And this again, this is where he just realized this is a terrible idea. I'm trying to sell every
single price point on a watch. So there was one Marconi named after the inventor of the radio. And
so he had one called the Rolex Marconi. And all that did was allow people to think that they're
buying Rolex, but they're getting it at a cheaper price. And so it's through all this trial and
error, where Hans realized like, oh, this is a terrible idea. I'm cannibalizing sales. Like,
this doesn't make sense. I'm going to focus. And so this is where in 1908, he's like, okay,
I'm going to have like one single brand name and a brand that I can invest in for the long term.
So he says it was time to think of giving our watches a name of their own, a trade name,
what we would call brand name, a brand name, which could be inscribed on the dials.
I was well aware that unless I succeeded in making our watch known under its own name,
that my prospects would be limited. Maybe just be a middleman, right? And so there's actually
a letter that he wrote in 1958 where he's talking about how he came up with Rolex. He had a series
of traits that the name had to have for him to select it. And so he said, I needed a short name,
it had to be five letters or less because it has to be able to fit. It has to look good on the actual
watch. It has to be easy to pronounce in every language. It has to have a good ring to it and
it has to be easy to remember. And so when I was thinking about this, it's like how great he did
and selecting the name Rolex. If you listened to last week's episode about House Teeth Job's
Salt, one of the ideas, main ideas from House Teeth Job's communicated how he sold his ideas to
people was that if you can make them ideas easy to understand, then they're easy to spread.
Ideas that are easy to understand are easy to spread. And I think you see an echo of that idea
with Hans naming and actually picking is like this is the brand that I'm going to build. And the
one I'm going to invest in for the rest of my life. So now that he has a name, he does something
that's really, really smart. Again, it's very uncommon for watchmakers to advertise directly to
the public. Not only does he do so, but he Rolex continues to do so. So he says I decided to
launch the Rolex trademark by means of an intensive advertising campaign. This policy entailed an
annual expenditure of more than 12,000 British pounds, not for one year alone, but for several
in six sessions. So I want to go back to how important this is. I want to go back to that business
breakdowns episode on Rolex called timeless excellence. So it says Rolex was effectively the
first people to have real marketing dollars put behind a watch. Rolex did this in a concentrated
way and they have continued to do it in a way that is simply just unmatched by others in their
industry. Rolex has been the number one brand for watches in the United States historically speaking
from the 1950s to today. Now I want to fast forward way ahead in the story. Many, many years after
Hans died because I think this is this idea is so important. And I'm going to show where I've
seen this idea. Other people use this idea successfully as well in a different industry.
So go back to the transcript from this episode. The financial crisis of 2008 all the other brands,
the competitors, you know, Omega, Tag Hew are all these other brands that are quote competitors to
Rolex. When the financial crisis happens in 2008, they pull back on their marketing. Rolex did not
Rolex put the pedal down and it was really 2008, 2009, 2010, which really elevated Rolex in the
United States to a level that it is today. If you speak to them directly, meaning Rolex, the company
directly, they'll credit that period as a turning point for them in the US. Now what is incredible
is easy sharp, who's the founder of four seasons. This is episode 184 episode 184. If you haven't
listened to it, you should his autobiography is incredible. Easy sharp did the exact same thing.
This is what he says in his autobiography, right? Founder for seasons. It's tempting during a
recession to cut back and consume advertising at the start of each each of the last three recessions.
The growth of spending on such advertising has slowed by an average of 27%. But consumer studies
of those recessions have showed that the companies that didn't cut their ads had in recovery captured
the most market share. It's exactly what happened with Rolex in 2008, 2009, 2010. We did not
cut back on our ad budget. This is now a founder for seasons again. We did not cut back on our ad
budget. In fact, we raised it to gain brand recognition, which continued advertising sustains
as much easier to sustain momentum than restart it. Think about how important that intuition was.
This is like, well, I'm starting a new name. All these other watchmakers are not advertising.
Why don't we? Why? When we advertise, it doesn't make sense. Other products are advertised. We
should do that. I'm going to do an intensive, this is the words you use. I'm going to do an
intensive advertising campaign and not just this year, but several years in succession. Then this
is nuts. I know I keep saying that because this whole story is nuts because the industry today
in large part to what Hans and Rolex did is completely different. At this time, you have your
own watch brand, but you don't have your own stores. You're selling to retailers. At the time,
the watch brands don't have the names on the watches. The retailers would buy the watches and put
their name on it. Hans talks about being one of the first people, like, no, no, no, no, no,
I'm going to tell you, I'm going to wholesale my watch and you're going to put my brand name on
it, not yours. I think it was like a decade or a decade and a half of our memory correctly,
where he had to fight. He said something like, you know, when I first started doing this,
one out of six, they would agree like one out of six watches could have my name on it. Then it
was two out of six, then three out of six, and then finally five out of six. And insisting on doing
this is actually really, really important because he also is a perfectionist. And so he realized
it's like, oh, quality. I said in the Steve one of Steve Jobs episodes, I just did that quality
was his survival strategy. I would say for Hans was the same thing. He's determined to produce
the best which wristwatch possible and we'll go into how accurate and the ways he was really
smart like marketing around that too. So he thought that was a key to his success. Like I just have
to be the best possible. And he's not going to be able to do that unless customers demand that
they get a Rolex and not just same watch, which is just renamed by whatever shop they happen to be
buying it from and insisting that the name is seen because before the brand name could be seen
inside the watch, but no one, the customers are not opening up the watches. And so I think this idea
is really, really important. I'm going to read a summary of this entire section to you. He also
realized that he would get better orders and more control over the whole so price of his watches.
If he could build up demand so that customers would go in the shop and ask for an insist on a Rolex
watch by name by his branding and advertising campaigns. Hans effectively turned the tables on
the retailers no longer would he have to approach retailers and asked them to stock his watches.
Customers would demand Rolex branded watches and the retailers would have to come to him.
So as you already know, I'm obsessed by these people that identify a handful of principles.
They know what's important to their business and they just execute on those principles. They repeat
them for decades. And that's exactly what Rolex did. That's exactly what Hans did. He had essentially
three things that it took him when I'm about to describe to you, he was going to take two decades
maybe to actually fulfill to the degree that he wanted to because remember, he starts his company back
in 1905. The first waterproof watch just want to be one of his three tenants isn't going to happen for
20 years after that. And I think another six years after that till he gets to perpetual. So he has
three things that he wants to he goes, I want the watches to be precise, which he handles that product
that problem first. Number two, I want them to be waterproof. And number three, I want them to be
self winding. And so the first thing he does is like, okay, my watch is again, he's a perfectionist.
They have to be the best in the world. So he goes to Aglare and he's like, how can we improve the
timekeeping of the watches? And one thing that Charlie Munger says in Port Charlie's Dominac is that
social proof is a form of leverage. And so what Hans does here is very smart. He insists he goes to
Aglare and he's like, Hey, I want to get certificates of performance from independent testing
establishments. And so these are actually like astronomical observatories. They'll test how good
these pieces are timekeeping essentially. And so there is a letter that Hans writes to Aglare
in 1912. And he's like, Hey, we need to produce a wristwatch that's capable of achieving an
observatory timekeeping certificate. Two years later in 1914, Aglare actually solves that problem
for Hans. And so Rolex achieves the first class A certificate ever to be awarded by an observatory
for a wristwatch. This is what Hans says in his autobiography. Another red letter day the
development of our firm was when a small Rolex wristwatch won a class A certificate at the famous
Q Observatory. This was on July 15, 1914. And it was a day I shall never forget and keep that in
mind. He is writing about this 50 years later. And so the reason I brought up what Charlie Munger said
is because he uses this social proof, right? Saying, it's funny. I read a book. There's so there's
so many fantastic old Rolex ads that that were published when Hans was alive. And if you look at them,
like a lot of their ads say like the first the only so they'll say like the world's first self winding
watch. The world's first waterproof wristwatch. Another ad I found that says the Rolex still remains
the only wristwatch in the world to gain certificates at Q. And so if you think about that,
insistence on this idea to get to become the first to get the certificate. What happens? That
makes sure has more effective. It's one form of leverage stacked on another. People are busy if
they're in the market for a wristwatch, right? They want to have one that's most accurate. And guess
what? There's only one brand in the world that has proven it keeps it keeps time so precise that
went that extra step to get it tested to get an observatory timekeeping certificate. That is
another example of doing as much work as possible for the customers. We talked a lot about the
last two weeks for Steve Jobs. Hans is doing the same thing. He just makes it your decision easier.
Oh, okay. Oh, I want to precise. Obviously you want to precise wristwatch. Oh, these are the most
precise. Okay. Cool. That makes my buying decision so much easier. And so that is in 1914. Now he
wanted the second part. He's got that three parties. Like I want to be precise. I want to be waterproof.
One would be self winding. And so this goes back to what I told you about one of the most important
things to understand about Hans is the fact that he understood the opportunity better than
anybody else. And he would invest heavily in developing this technology to bring his ideas to
fruition. And that means he didn't have to invent and herself. He would buy the inventions
of other watchmakers and then combine their ideas with his efforts and look at how fast he would
move. So there's two inventors. They're in swissle and they find they file a Swiss patent and
they create the world's first waterproof seal for a wristwatch. The patent is granted in publish
on May 1926. Hans buys the patent in July. Two months, 60 days later, he already owns the patent.
And what does that mean? He owns the patent. So of course, now this new innovation is only
it's exclusive to Rolex watches. You see how he's stacking one advantage over another. He's like,
hey, we have the most accurate wristwatch in the world. Here's proof. Oh, now we have this new
technology. Guess who owns the patent we do. You can only get it here. And so this is the creation
of the oyster watch, which still the oyster classifications waterproof. And so in his autobiography,
he's laying out like this is all the problems I had to solve. And this is why I had to solve
him in sequential order and how once they're solved, gives me just an unfair advantage to no one
else has. So he says, I'm looking back into the past. I find that in developing and extending my
business, I've always had certain aims in mind, this course from which I never deviated.
Keep the main thing the main thing is what he's saying. Perhaps these aims can be summarized as
follows. Number one, I have to create watches I'm suitable for both men and women. Done. Number two,
I have to standardize a range of movements of different sizes. Done. Number three, to obtain a
high degree of quality that our watches, whatever the caliber, caliber should be recognized as
chronometers by the observatories. That's a queue certificate. Done. Next one, to maintain this
high degree of precision by protecting the movements against the penetration of dust and impurities.
The danger to which their wristwatch is particularly exposed. And that was why he needed this this
pattern, this waterproof seal that proved so important. It's going to unlock his abilities to do
the perpetual in a minute. But he talks about he tells us in his own words, why this is so important.
This last point presented a problem, which could only be resolved by protecting the movement
against all outside influences. To my technical assistance, my refrain, my constant refrain was
from the very earliest days. We must succeed in making a watch case so tight that our movements
will be permanently guaranteed against damage caused by dust, water, heat, and cold. Only then will
the perfect accuracy of the Rolex be secured. Why am I reading this all to you? Because he's going
to tell us why this is so important. This seemingly insolvable problem has been solved. The waterproof
case was finally created in 1926. This invention was applied exclusively to the Rolex watch. The
fact is like an oyster, it can remain an unlimited time underwater without detriment to its parts.
The name Rolex oyster has become famous throughout the world. And I love that he said that the name
becomes famous because it sets up for the next part. How did the name become famous? Well, remember,
Hans is a gifted marketer. He takes an event and he's going to do this multiple times. He takes an
event that's already getting a lot of attention and inserts his product and therefore amplifies and
leverages that existing attention. And so there was a secretary named Mercedes who had swam the
English channel before. She was doing it again. He hears about this. So he's like, okay, where a
Rolex oyster around your neck. And so she goes for another attempt. This time she actually fails.
She I think she's she gets like 10 hours and then her there's like muscle cramps or something like
that. But the fact is no one just you already done it. That was like kind of irrelevant to the story
because it's still being covered. The fact that she was in these freezing cold water in November
swinging the English channel and that the Rolex was around her neck. It survived and kept perfect
time for the entire 10 hours and even after the fact of when she was swimming the channel. So what
do he takes that it's being covered and then he runs this gigantic ad. And he has a great line when
he describes it. He says that they found the watch was still running as perfectly as it had as if
it had never left dry land. And so he says the event calls a sensation at the time for the waterproof
watch was still unknown to the general public on November 27th 1927. I reserve the front page of
the daily mail newspaper at a cost of a ton of money for an ad proclaiming the success of the
first waterproof watch. This was the first step in the triumph of rise of the fame of the Rolex
oyster. But look at how fast he moves. So this is invented in May 1926. He buys in July 1926.
The next year he takes advantage of this news event. This you know this event that's going to
get a ton of idea eyes on it anyways amplifies his product. That same year 1927 he goes and creates
these window displays and all of the retailers that are now going to sell his watch. And so this
is how he describes it. We devised special window displays that which gave the buying public great
pleasure. The chief feature was an aquarium with other plants and goldfish and in it was plunged
an oyster watch which was the only watch in the world that was as watertight as an oyster.
The same year he gets one of the top British actresses and the he starts running ads the
the ad is one of the top British actresses her hand is in like a goldfish bowl. So half of her
arm is in a tank and then you can see that she's wearing the watch. And so he uses this idea over
again and one of the things that Rolex does is it's phenomenal. It's like they always associated
themselves with the very very best. So another British guy named Malcolm Campbell. He broke like the
land speed record in a car like nine different times. And the last time that he did it
Hans learns that Malcolm Campbell had been wearing a Rolex when he broke the speed record. And so
then he starts publicizing. He starts running ads broadcasting that during this record breaking
land speed attempt the driver was wearing a Rolex. So Hans is doing this in the 1920s. He does this
until he dies. He does this over and over again. He wanted to place Rolex watches on the wrist of
as many high profile people like extreme achievers. He would go around and identify these
these leaders of these high achievers and he would give them Rolexes and then they'd be photographed
what wearing them Winston Churchill. Joy D eyes and Howard before and during that he got
elected to the president of American presidency and keep in mind he's giving these watches to
Churchill and Joy D eyes and Howard. This is post World War II. He's aiming straight to the top.
The you know the greatest leaders in World War II. There's an actual ad that's run around this
time that was excellent. The tagline is men who guide the destinies of the world where Rolex watches.
Chuck Yeager the pilot who broke the sound barrier for the very first time. He was wearing a Rolex
watch. That was an ad. The expedition that first summited Mount Everest. Some of the people on the
team were wearing Rolexes the same year. They get to the deepest level. Another team went to the
like the the time the deepest level that a human had gone to in the sea. I think it was like 10,000
or 12,000 feet underneath. And so they run an ad from the top of the world to the bottom of the
sea. Rolex proves dependable. But this constant positioning of Rolexes at the very top. We are
only associated with the very best. You go and look at these taglines. They would say over and
over again Rolex the masterpiece of watch craftsmanship sold exclusively by quality jewelers.
So I'll come back to the ads because I really think the adding setting the advertising and marketing
of Hans like he was legit genius genius in this domain. But I want to I'll come back to that. I
want to go back to that third pillar that he was trying to do. So he starts off at number one. I
want to watch as it be precise. He's done that. Number two. I want them to be waterproof. He's
done that. Now he says I want them to be self winding, which he's going to call perpetual. And so not
only is this an example of him him having to solve another lot longstanding problem. But it is
another example of something that pops up in the books that you and I talk about the fact that
opportunity unlocks more opportunities in the future. So he talks about in his autobiographies
like listen, the creation of the perpetual watch whose movement is self winding and guaranteed to
run without interruption. This idea of course had preoccupied many famous herologists of the past.
I am not a watch guy. I don't own any watches. My wife has a hard enough time getting me to wear
a wedding ring. I'm very minimalist, right? So I didn't know what the hell that word was. So I looked
it up. All that is as a herologist is just a person or a company that makes or repairs
clocks and watches. They're also referred to throughout history as a clockmaker. So what Hans is
telling us is like, listen, this is not I was in the first person to notice this is a problem.
I was the first person to solve it. And I wouldn't have been able to solve it if I didn't solve
the waterproofing first. He said the waterproof watch had in itself marked a great step forward
towards the realization of this new achievement. An automatic watch can function with the utmost
regularity only if the movement is placed in a waterproof case. What he's telling you is oyster
unlock the opportunity for perpetual. It had been my belief that the watch of the future is the
perpetual watch. In other words, the automatic or self winding watch in this field too Rolex has been
a pioneer without the waterproof watch. The perpetual could never have been discovered. And so I
need to repeat that because it's own board without the waterproof watch. The perpetual could never
have been discovered. Now something's also interesting. This is like a centuries old problem.
They're going to run a fantastic ad talking about like about how they solve this this central
problem. And there's a great line that I found in this Rolex blog that talks about this as inventing
the automatic wristwatch that could wind itself was the dream of the ages in the watch world for
centuries. Many famous watchmakers had tried to perfect the automatic or self winding watch,
but none were successful. There's an important principle here that you and I can apply
our own work. And the fact that the more work that you do for the customer, the easier you can make
for the customer, the greater the market can be. So before I read this section about why this is
so important because you know why constantly winding watch the pain in the ass. It's not convenient.
It's not as convenient as a perpetual watch. Steve Jobs put this best when he was talking about the
difference of you know this hobbyist culture in the early like personal computer industry. He says
my vision was to create the first fully packaged computer. We were no longer aiming for the
handful of hobbyists who like to assemble their own computers who knew how to buy transformers and
keyboards. For every one of them, there were a thousand people who would want the machine to be
ready to run. In other words, if we can make this easier, we can expand the market by a thousand.
Turns out he drastically under underestimated that probably expanded the market by 10 million
or 100 million or whatever the crazy number is. And so when Rolex creates this perpetual
automatic watch, it eliminates the need to ever wind a watch again. And so they run this incredible
ad that the headline is master herologist dream is realized 104 years after his death and it tells
the history of this guy in theory had invented the world's first self winding watch, but what he
actually made was imperfect in practice. And now us Rolex, the only watch company in the world has
perfected you know they essentially honor him. They say he was a great watchmaker maybe you know
maybe the greatest ever. And now his dream is finally realized 104 years after his death and it was
realized by Rolex. Oh, by the way, do you want one? And then right before Hans dies, he gives this
interview and I found a transcript that was translated from French. And I think he does a wonderful
job summarizing the impact that his 60 year career had on the industry that he in large part created.
I entered the watch business as a young man at 19 years of age that was 60 years ago when wristwatches
didn't exist. wristwatches for men didn't exist at all. Men wore pocket watches which went from
father to son and son to grandson. And the opportunity for the watch industry to grow was extremely
limited as sales were very slow. As a young man, I understood it would be very difficult to obtain
result in an industry that had little chance to make lots of money. Watches were cheap and the
quality was not very good, especially since there was no factory able to produce small watches,
which was necessary for wearing them on your arm. The wristwatch was the peak of my career as I
foresaw the total development of the wristwatch for the Swiss watch industry. I can say I was one of
the initiators in the whole watch industry. I was not only the first to understand the potential
of the wristwatch, but I also made personal efforts which contributed largely to the development
of the industry. I think it's absolutely incredible to be able to hear the words of somebody had
six decades of experience in this industry. And then the last idea I want to leave you with,
I think speaks to just how unique Hans and his story truly is. In 1944, Hans set up the Hans
Will's Dorf Trust which owns and controls Rolex to this day. He brilliantly set up the bylaws of
his trust so Rolex could never be sold or made public. So we would never have to worry about catering
to anything but making timeless watches. If you think about it, this means Hans's vision is still
very much alive and being executed on a daily basis despite the fact that he passed away more than
half century ago. How many people can you think of that build a world-class business? And 50 years
after they pass away, the company keeps going as if they were still running it.
And that is where I'll leave it. As far as buying the book, I can only find one copy available.
It's like $500. But there is a series of other sources that I use for this podcast that I highly
recommend. I'll link all these Rolex enthusiasts blogs which I thought were fantastic. I also use
subjects or ideas rather from the book The Luxury Strategy which I highly recommend. It reads like a
textbook, but it's actually fascinating. The subtitles break the rules of marketing to build luxury
brands. I'll probably do an episode on it in the future. And then of course what I would do now
is listen to that business breakdowns episode on Rolex called Timeless Excellence. It covers a
history of Rolex but also how they operate the business in present day. It'll blow your mind.
So I will leave that link down below or you can just search business breakdowns Rolex and it'll
come up in your podcast player. That is 351 books down, 1000 go. And I'll talk to you again soon.
I have a few quick updates before you go. If you're an existing subscriber to founders notes,
you got a new feature. A new feature is added for you this week. Actually combined the founders AMA
private podcast feed with founders notes. So make sure that you log into founders notes and grab
your personal private podcast feed. You'll find 50 short episodes waiting for you. I am likely
renaming that private feed to sage advice because the private podcast feed is going to be updated with
new episodes and all the episodes that I'm making for that private feed are going to be really short
and focused on one topic. These are going to be extremely concise, much more scripted than like a
normal founders episode ever is. I want them focused on one thing. So it could be like a subject,
like leadership, how did history greatest founders think about leadership, for example,
are about like a person like the best ideas of James Dyson, for example. So you'll find instructions
on how to easily set up your private feed when you log into founders notes. And so there's an idea.
I want to tell you my thinking about this. How am I thinking about this has been influenced by
some of the books that I've been reading and obviously the podcast that I've been making.
And so over the last few weeks and including the role, except so did you just heard this idea that
each product should have a single idea that is expressed clearly that describes why somebody should
care. Always written from the point of view of the person using the product, the single idea
expressed clearly should describe what the product does for them. And that two-part series on Steve
Jobs, I just covered, it's like a masterclass in that because he was one of the best in the world
ever at doing this. And he did it intentionally. There's a lot of quotes in those episodes where he's
like, no, you have to work, start with the customer and then work backwards. And you see how much time
and effort he took into just editing is thinking, just making sure they had a single idea expressed
clearly. We see Hans Wozerv was the same thing where he's just like, well, what was the most
important thing for that he wanted to convey to his customers? He's like, we have the most
precise watches in the world, their waterproof. So you don't have to worry about exposing the
tender elements because they're not in your pocket anymore and they're on your arm and they're
perpetual. They're automatic. You never have to wind it. And then he just constantly drilled down
and perfected on those three ideas, decade after decade after decade. And you fast forward 50, 60
years after he died. And Rolex is one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
And so of course, the entire reason that Founders Podcast exists is so we can use, we can learn from
history's greatest entrepreneurs, realize, hey, these, these, in Hans's case, he worked for six
decades, turns out over six decades, you come up with some good ideas and then take those principles
and hopefully apply to what we're doing. So I think I've really narrowed that down and I'll
keep working on it. But like, why does Founders notes exist? Like, why the hell, this is a private
internal tool that I've been using for years. Why would I externalize that and make it available
to other people? Like, why would you care about that? And the reason is also embedded in the main
reason that Founders Podcast exists because Charlie Munger hits on it, just like Charlie Munger,
just like almost every single person you and I cover, they all spent their very valuable time.
These are some of the wealthiest people in the world. So they're very valuable time studying
and learning from great people that came before them. Why? And Charlie Munger said best, he said
that learning from history is a form of leverage. And Founders notes gives you the superpower to do
this on demand. Founders Podcast is a fantastic tool to learn from history, but is pushed to you.
Founders notes give you the ability to control it. It gives you the ability to tap into that
collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs when you need it. And that's why I think it's
valuable for you to have access to this giant searchable database of all my notes, all my highlights,
all my transcripts. So if the single idea expressed clearly for Founders notes overall is, hey,
learning from history is a form of leverage, Founders notes gives you the superpower to do this
on demand. What is the single idea expressed clearly? Why does sage this new private podcast
feed? Why does sage advice need to exist? In other words, what am I selling? And the more I thought
about it is like, oh, I'm selling time because what I'm going to do with this private podcast feed
that is now included with your subscription of Founders notes is I'm going for a maximum
insight to time ratio. I love this idea that you can have an entrepreneur that spends,
let's say, 40 years building their company. I can then spend 40 hours reading and researching
their life and career and then distill that for you down to, let's say, 10 minutes, 10 minutes of
audio that you can do on demand, download those ideas into your brain while your eyes are busy.
So that is my north star. That is my goal. As with everything else, as my thinking evolves,
I will keep you updated. If you do not yet have a subscription to Founders notes and you
are spending hours and hours listening to the podcast, I highly recommend that you subscribe and
you can do so by going to Founders notes that's Founders notes with an S Founders notes dot com.
And the second thing that I want to tell you about is this Founders event that I'm hosting
July 29th through the 31st in Scotts Valley, California. It is this beautiful venue deep in
the California Redwoods and the single idea expressed clearly around why do these events need to
exist is because I want to help high value people build relationships with each other. I did this
back at the first Founders event in March in Austin and I'm doing it again July 29th through the 31st
in Scotts Valley, California. And I'm doing this event in partnership with my friend Rick and Paul.
They're the Founders of Sater Grow, which is this $500 million permanent holding company. They're
also the hosts of this podcast called Art of Investing. But the reason I'm partnering with these guys
is because they are world class at building relationships. They understand the direct link
between building relationships and value creation. And I know this because I know them personally
as friends I talked to them all the time, but you can also see this if you just you can see this
publicly look at their podcast feed. If you go to Art of Investing's podcast feed, listen to the one
that they just did with Mitch Rails, Mitch Rails is the co-founder of Dan here. He is one of the greatest
living entrepreneurs and investors on the earth today in his 40 year career. Mitch had never given
a single long form interview and he chose to do his very first one, which you can listen to as a
podcast with two of his most trusted collaborators and friends. Somebody he speaks to multiple times a
week that is Rick and Paul. Rick and Paul were at the first Founders event in March. Multiple people
that were at that event met them and have since built relationships with them. They did not know who
Rick and Paul were before they went to the Founders event in March. And I've heard from multiple
people that are now calling, texting, zoom, getting on zoom, going in person and meeting and spending
time with Rick and Paul because they're learning from Rick and Paul how to build a permanent capital
holding company. One of the breakout sessions that we're going to have at this event at July
29th, that at 31st is going to be led by Rick and Paul. They're going to talk about how to build a new
investment firm, a new permanent capital holding company and how established firms can actually sustain
excellence way before they were doing this way before they found their own company. They had studied
and helped hundreds of the world's greatest investors. They literally wrote case studies on some of
these. They wrote an incredible case study on one of the greatest compounders of all time, which
is Julian Robertson of Tiger Management. And by going and looking at their podcast feed, you can
see some of the people they developed these really good relationships like Todd Holmes from Berkshire.
Hope my friend, Ho Namm from Alto's Ventures. Relationships run the world and I think Rick and Paul
are great illustration of that. I think their session, I think the entire event will be hugely
valuable for any investor. There's a ton of Founders coming. There's investors, there's executives
coming, but specifically if you are interested in developing a new investment firm and learning
more lessons from established firms that sustained excellence over multiple decades, highly recommend
coming to the event and making sure you don't miss the breakout session taught by Rick and Paul.
Another thing I want to mention to you about these events that's really important is they're all
inclusive. That means if you get yourself to the event, you don't have to worry about anything else.
I ran out the entire venue every single person. There's nobody else that's on the property that's
not part of the event. So every single person, if you attend, every single person you see there is
there for the same reason as you. That person has the same interests. They're they're fellow business
nerds, we're all business nerds. And so that's why we gathered together. Again, that is July 29th
through the 31st. It's a private venue deep in the California Redwoods. It is beautiful. And the
reason that it exists again, that single idea expressed clearly that you and I have been talking
about for the last few weeks that I don't think I'll ever forget why does this exist? This exists to
help you build relationships with other high value people. And that is important because that opens
up opportunities in the future that you can never possibly predict. So I hope you come to this event
and build relationships with other founders listeners, other high value people. The first thing you
need to do if you want to attend, you go to founderspodcast.com, forward slash events and apply. And that's
it for me. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much for the extra support. And I'll talk
to you again soon.
