LifePass – Payal Kadakia

LifePass by Payal Kadakia
Date read: 7/15/23. Recommendation: 7/10.

Payal Kadakia’s story makes this book worth picking up. Lots of wisdom around how to navigate your own creative entrepreneurial journey. But as she demonstrates, it starts with revealing more of yourself. Only by putting yourself out there can you open yourself to the right opportunities and self-select out of the wrong ones. The generic self-help exercises at the end of each chapter are forgettable. But it’s easy to look past those.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Post-college (Bain):
Took a job at Bain & Company (management consulting) because it looked good on her resume and made her parents proud. For 2.5 years worked 70 hours/week as an associate consultant, then six months before contract renewal was sitting in her manager’s office receiving negative feedback for the first time. She questioned Payal’s reliability and commitment to clients. “If you really want to further your career as a consultant, your clients are going to have to come first. I don’t know if that’s the case for you.”

Her manager was referring to the fact that Payal was studying dance and performing with a troupe, Bollywood Axion, outside of consulting on nights and weekends. Six months before they had a big performance on the same day as an important client meeting and she chose to be at the show. Her manager didn’t make a big deal about it then, but 6 months later it was rearing its head and impacted the way her boss saw her.

Her initial instinct was to dive back into work and prove to her boss that she was worthy of staying on as a consultant. But as she worked harder she realized she would have to give up dance, what she truly loved doing, which wasn’t a compromise she was willing to make. 

“I realized my boss was completely right. I wasn’t fully committed to being a consultant. I wasn’t making Bain my everything, because it simply wasn’t enough for me.”

Warner Music Group:
When her contract was up at Bain, Payal found a job in 2008 working on licensing agreements for digital music at Warner Music Group. It paid less and wasn’t as prestigious, most of the people in her life looked at her like she was crazy. But this was the most comfortable compromise at that time, she wasn’t quitting to dance full time and was giving herself more predictable hours. She had a steady income, work ended at 5 p.m. every day and she could attend dance classes and rehearsals all evening. 

This was a period of transition. Also left Bollywood Axion and started choreographing her own dance pieces (something she found to be a powerful expression of herself). Led her to start her own dance company that showcased Indian dance as an art and culture beyond merely a form of entertainment and fun. Started Sa Dance Company. 

Sa Dance Company:
Applied to participate in an annual Indian dance festival in downtown Manhattan. NYT dance critic, Alastair Macaulay, decided to do a piece on the festival in the next day’s arts section and Sa would be on the Saturday morning cover. Huge half-page image of Sa in motion, dancers looked radiant—a sign she was on the right track. She felt like the universe was telling her to believe in herself and what she was doing.

Spent the next several months planning Sa’s weekend-long Premier NYC Showcase. Dove into making her own production, writing her own story, creating new choreography, and rehearsing for hours with the dancers with the goal of sharing the beauty of Indian dance. To reserve the theater, Payal fronted $20k, her entire savings account. It was on her to sell tickets to break even. Had to sell 1000 tickets to cover her costs. All three shows sold out. 

Sitting in her office at Warner, she realized there was still a disconnect between the person she was at work and the life she wanted for herself. 

San Francisco:
During the Warner and Sa years, she spent all her time working and dancing. But in the summer of 2010, one of her close friends (Parul) invited her to San Francisco for her birthday. This helped create some distance and the change of pace helped her gain new perspective. 

At the birthday gathering, she chatted with Parul’s friends, who all seemed to be developing apps, starting companies, or embarking on some type of entrepreneurial journey. People were pursuing exciting, creative projects as actual career paths. Unlike anyone she knew in New York.

On Sunday night red-eye flight back to New York, her mind was racing. Idea of creating something of her own as her career fascinated her. How could she create something that provide the same type of freedom and inspiration? She gave herself two weeks to come up with an idea for something she would be passionate about creating. 

Back in NYC, as she settled into the week, she opened her laptop and looked for a ballet class to attend. She searched websites for different studios across the city, comparing schedules, researching their instructors, mapping out their locations. Two hours later looked up and had thirty browser tabs opened and realized she wasted her afternoon without finding anything. Entrepreneurial epiphany: why wasn’t there one place you could go to find and book classes?

This was the earliest inkling for ClassPass, an app to give people the opportunity to keep moving and try new things, and as a business, it became a new path for my life that aligned my calling with my career. 

Leaving Warner:
Created business plan and built up courage to leave her job. The day she quit got a message from the vice chairman of Warner asking her to come to his office. He wanted to hear about what she was doing next. He told her he wanted to invest, gave her a check for $10k and introduced her to David Tisch, who was heading up Techstars (one of hottest tech incubators in NYC). 

ClassPass:
Built beautiful product, homepage colors were just right, launched to fanfare and publicity, but then zero bookings came through. Social media, brand partnerships, press hits were not leading indicators of success. The false signals of success shielded them from seeing the real problems right in front of them. Hadn’t fully understood the challenges our customers were facing in getting to class. Reservations were the most important metric. 

1.5 years after visiting SF, went back to try to raise capital, met with big-name VC firms. None of them wanted to give her money. And no one was signing up for classes on their website. Sent email blast to 10k subscribers asking people to sign up for a free class, and not a single person converted. 

Decided to launch something new with a value prop that was more enticing. There wasn’t anything motivating customers to book classes through their site. Passport idea allowing them to bundle together trial classes at different studios to explore new classes over the course of a month. But this was only available to new customers for first month. Sales improved but then people dropped out or used new emails to sign up for another month, upsetting the studios when people returned at discounted prices after their initial trial. 

Eventually pivoted into a subscription service for fitness classes that allowed customers to return to classes they liked and continue exploring month after month.

Years later ClassPass was acquired by Mindbody, thanks to a connection and partnership she cultivated with Rick Stollmeyer (their founder) in the early days.

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Date read: 5/20/23. Recommendation: 9/10.

Another favorite by one of the best biographers—David McCullough. The Wright Brothers tells the fascinating story of an unlikely duo—Wilbur and Orville Wright—who defied the odds with limited resources and connections to become the first to master human-controlled flight. It’s an incredible tale of humble beginnings, resourcefulness, calculated risks, and seeking meaning over influence. While the Wright brothers faced competitors who poured upwards of $100,000 into failed experiments in aviation, all said and done, the Wright brothers spent a little less than $1,000 in their efforts, all self-funded through their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Great lessons on the advantage held by outsiders—when you don’t have to play by the same rules or face the same level of obligations or pressure that industry insiders might, you operate with a level of freedom and flexibility that drives innovation. Brilliant biography and well worth your time.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Beginnings:
“What the two had in common above all was unity of purpose and unyielding determination. They had set themselves on a ‘mission.’” DM

“The Wright family book collection, however, was neither modest nor commonplace. Bishop Wright, a lifelong lover of books, heavily championed the limitless value of reading.” DM

“But it isn’t true to say we had no special advantages…the greatest thing in our favor was growing up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity.” Orville Wright

Wright Cycle Company:
In the spring of 1893 Wilbur and Orville opened their first small bicycle shop selling and repairing bicycles. By 1895 they were selling about 150 bicycles per year. They soon began making their own bicycles which sold for $65 and the model was called the Van Cleve.

Bicycles were the sensation of the time but were proclaimed morally hazardous. “Because of bicycles, it was said, young people were not spending the time they should with books, and more seriously that suburban and country tours on bicycles were not ‘infrequently accompanied by seductions.’” DM

Even after they became interested in flight, they kept the bicycle shop going so they had a steady source of income to pay for their own experiments. Octave Chaunte tried to talk them out of it and offered to provide financial assistance to the brothers but they were unwilling to accept. 

Sharpened ice skates (15 cents each) during the winter to create additional income at the shop. 

Early inquiries into human flight:
1899 Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington requesting documents or books on the subject. The Smithsonian sent a generous supply of pamphlets on aviation. Wilbur and Orville started studying. 

“In the Summer of 1899, in a room above the bicycle shop on West Third Street, the brothers began building their first aircraft, a flying kite made of split bamboo and paper with a wingspan of five feet. It was a biplane with double wings, one over the other…” DM

“On May 13, 1900, Wilbur wrote a letter to Octave Chanute—his first letter to the eminent engineer—asking for advice on a location where he might conduct flying experiments, somewhere without rain or inclement weather and, Wilbur said, where sufficient winds could be counted on, winds, say, of 15 miles per hour. The only such sites he knew of, Chaunte replied, were in California and Florida, but both were ‘deficient in sand hills’ for soft landings.” DM

“In an answer to an inquiry Wilbur sent the United States Weather Bureau in Washington about prevailing winds around the country, they were provided extensive records of monthly wind velocities at more than a hundred Weather Bureau stations, enough for them to take particular interest in a remote spot on the Outer Banks of North Carolina called Kitty Hawk, some seven hundred miles from Dayton….To be certain Kitty Hawk was the right choice, Wilbur wrote to the head of the Weather Bureau station there, who answered reassuringly about steady winds and sand beaches. As could be plainly seen by looking at a map, Kitty Hawk also offered all the isolation one might wish for to carry on experimental work in privacy.” DM

The first full-sized glider they would ship to Kitty Hawk and reassemble cost $15 and had a wingspan of 18 feet. 

They were relentless in their work ethic, never sat still. During times that they were in Dayton working at their bicycle shop during the day, they would work every single night on their scientific investigations into human flight. Built a wind tunnel in the back of the bicycle shop. 

Calculated risks: 
“The man who wishes to keep at the problem long enough to really learn anything positively must not take dangerous risks. Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks.” Wilbur Wright

Never flew together for this reason. They knew how dangerous it was to fly. If one was killed, the other would have to be on the ground to carry on the work. 

Competition:
Samuel Langley, eminent astronomer and head of the Smithsonian. One of the most well-respected scientists in the nation. “His efforts in recent years, backed by substantial Smithsonian funding, had resulted in a strange-looking, steam-powered, pilotless ‘aerodrome,’ as he called it, with V-shaped wings in front and back that gave it the look of a monstrous dragonfly. Launched by catapult from the roof of a houseboat on the Potomac River in 1896, the year of Lilienthal’s death, it flew more than half a mile before plunging into the water.” DM

Langley maintained extreme secrecy about his efforts. Cost $70,000 to build an airship called “The Great Aerodome.” $50,000 was public money—Smithsonian resources and grants from the US War Department. Langley, Graham Bell, and other friends contributed $20,000 of their own money. Could only fly in perfectly calm weather. When it came time to launch a public demonstration it was launched 1,000 feet then came crashing into the Potomac River. On his next attempt, its wings crumbled, it flipped backward, and plunged into the river 20 feet from where it was launched on a houseboat. The experiment had covered more than 8 years, was a complete failure, and didn’t advance human flight in the slightest. 

“Neither brother was ever to make critical or belittling comments about Langley. Rather, they expressed respect and gratitude for the part he had played in their efforts. Just knowing that the head of the Smithsonian, the most prominent scientific institution in America, believed in the possibility of human flight was one of the influences that led them to proceed with their work.” DM

Dozens of other engineers, scientists, and thinkers had tried to tackle the problem of controlled flight: Sir George Cayley, Sir Hiram Maxim (machine gun), Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison. None had succeeded. “Hiram Maxim had reportedly spent $100,000 of his own money on a giant, steam-powered, pilotless flying machine only to see it crash in attempting to take off.” DM

As outsiders, the Wright brothers faced less pressure, had less to lose than some of the aforementioned figures. 

What the Wright brothers learned in their early experiments was that so many of the long-established, supposedly reliable calculations and tables prepared by early authorities in aviation were blatantly wrong and couldn’t be trusted. 

Later expeditions to Kitty Hawk:
Fall of 1902, had a third iteration of their glider. In two months, made nearly a thousand glides and resolved the last major control problem. “All the time and effort given to the wind tunnel tests, the work designing and building their third machine, and the latest modifications made at Kill Devil Hills had proven entirely successful. They knew exactly the importance of what they had accomplished. They knew they had solved the problem of flight and more. They had acquired the knowledge and the skill to fly. They could soar, they could float, they could dive and rise, circle and glide and land, all with assurance. Now they had only to build a motor.” DM

In December of 1903, Wilbur made the first successful powered flight and flew a quarter mile through the air in 59 seconds.

“It had taken four years. They had endured violent storms, accidents, one disappointment after another, public indifference or ridicule, and clouds of demon mosquitoes. To get to and from their remote sand dune testing ground, they had made five round-trips from Dayton (counting Orville’s return home to see about stronger propeller shafts), a total of seven thousand miles by train, all to fly a little more than half a mile. No matter. They had done it.” DM

Resourcefulness + Scrappiness:
“The Langley project had cost nearly $70,000, the greater part of it public money, whereas the brothers’ total expenses for everything from 1900 to 1903, including materials and travel to and from Kitty Hawk, came to a little less than $1,000, a sum paid entirely from the modest profits of their bicycle business.” DM

“It wasn’t luck that made them fly; it was hard work and common sense; they put their whole heart and soul and all their energy into an idea and they had the faith.” John T. Daniels 

“No bird soars in a calm.” Wilbur Wright

“All the money anyone needs is just enough to prevent one from being a burden to others.” Bishop Wright

Reception:
At first, no one believed they had actually flown in their machine or they were completely disinterested—the public, the US press, and the US government. “Few took any interest in the matter or in the two brothers who were to become Dayton’s greatest heroes ever. Even those riding the interurban line (past Huffman Prairie) seem to have paid little or no attention to what could occasionally be seen in passing, or to the brothers themselves as they traveled back and forth from town on the same trolley looking little different from other commuters.” DM

Dayton papers didn’t break the story or report on successful flights, but a local beekeeper, Amos Root, who ran a trade journal, Gleanings in Bee Culture, was the first to report the story and recognize the genius of what they had done. Root sent a copy to the editor of the Scientific American saying it could be reprinted at no cost—they ignored it. 

Transition to Huffman Prairie:
Practice field near Dayton, decided since they had the concept down for their flying machine, they would reduce costs of travel and shipment by staying closer to home to continue to master the art of launching themselves safely into the air, banking, turning a motor-propelled machine, and landing safely. 

The brothers finally generated interest as people began to witness demonstrations of the machine firsthand. Only after this did the Dayton press finally catch on. 

“By the time the experiments ended, the brothers had made 105 ‘starts’ at Huffman Prairie and thought it time now to put their creation, Flyer III on the market.” DM

By the end of their time at Huffman Prairie, they were making controlled flights of 25 miles or more. 

Seek meaning over influence:
When Wilbur was in France, preparing to demonstrate the flying machine, and getting pressure from the reporters to fly before he was ready: “I did not ask you to come here. I shall go out when I’m ready. No, I shall not try to mislead you newspaper men, but if you are not here I shall not wait for you.” DM

After his first successful flight (2 miles, 2 minutes in the air): “Then, very calmly, his face beaming with a smile, he put his hands in his pockets and walked off whistling. That night, while the normally sleepy town of Le Mans celebrated, the hero retired early to his shed.” DM

“That summer Saturday in Le Mans, France, not quite eight years into the new twentieth century, one American. Pioneer had at last presented to the world the miracle he and his brother had created on their own and in less than two minutes demonstrated for all who were present and to an extent no one yet had on anywhere on earth, that a new age had begun.” DM

On Wilbur’s strength of character: “In spite of the sarcastic remarks and the mockery, in spite of the traps set up from everywhere all these years, he has not faltered. He is sure of himself, of his genius, and he kept his secret. He had the desire to participate today to prove to the world he had not lied.” Léon Delagrange

“He went his way always in his own way, never showing off, never ever playing to the crowd. ‘The impatience of a hundred thousand persons would not accelerate the rhythm of his stride.’” DM

Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America – Wil Haygood

Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America by Wil Haygood
Date read: 5/4/23. Recommendation: 9/10.

The incredible story of one of the great Civil Rights leaders who worked within the law to fight for equal rights by battling discrimination and legal segregation in America’s courtrooms. Haygood is a brilliant writer and biographer, breathing life into the reality of atrocities that Thurgood Marshall faced—both in his nomination to the Supreme Court and subsequent hearings, as well as his decades traveling across courtrooms in the American South. Marshall is an incredible example of how to work within a system that’s built against you to drive lasting change. He was dignified when others tried to humiliate him and always kept himself steady, rising above attacks on his character and fighting for the right and moral side of history. Cannot recommend this book enough, one of my favorite biographies that I’ve ever read.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund:
“In 1940, Thurgood Marshall—who had joined the NAACP as a lawyer four years earlier after working at a barely-making-it law practice in his native Baltimore—came up with an idea to form a permanent legal arm of the NAACP. It was known as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and its mission was clear: to assault discrimination and legal segregation in America’s courtrooms.” Wil Haygood

Landmark court victories:

• Smith v. Allwright: 1944 case that outlawed the all-white Democratic primary in Texas.

• Shelley v. Kraemer: 1948 case that ruled it was illegal to bar minorities from purchasing property even if the homeowner had written it into the clause of the deed.

• Sweatt v. Painter: 1950 case that ordered the University of Texas to admit a black man it had previously barred from its law school.

• Brown v. Board of Education: 1954 case that outlawed the separate-but-equal doctrine that had been the law of the land and ordered the desegregation of public schools.

“There was not another lawyer in America whose constitutional victories could match Thurgood Marshall’s in the arena of equal rights.” Wil Haygood

As an advocate, Marshall won in the Supreme Court on 29 out of 34 occasions. 

Supreme Court nomination:
President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Marshall as the first black man to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court on June 13, 1967. Marshall had been a federal appeals court judge and was the current solicitor general. LBJ “aimed to emancipate the nation’s legal system by aiming for the very top of it.” Wil Haygood

“Thurgood Marshall had been considered Public Enemy No. 1 in the South because of his court victories upending many of the laws of segregation. With Johnson’s looming nomination of Marshall, it was as if the president were hammering the final nail into the coffin of white supremacy.” Wil Haygood

Nomination hearings:
Nomination hearings in front of of the Senate Judiciary Committee began on July 13th, 1967 in room 2228 of the New Senate Office Building. 

Senators from the South went on the attack…John McClellan, Arkansas Senator, was hellbent on destroying Marshall, since Marshall was responsible for Brown v. Board of Education which embarrassed McClellan’s state. During hearings, McClellan referred to black Americans as an ‘enemy of our security.’ McClellan had privately told his constituents that he would do all he could to stop Marshall from reaching the high court. 

Southern Senators aimed to put Thurgood Marshall “in crosshairs of the civil unrest taking place on American streets and at city halls and on all those college campuses.”

James Eastland, Mississippi Senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was also committed to doing everything in his power to keep Marshall from taking his seat on the US Supreme Court. He waited until the last minute to tell the White House when the hearings would begin, hoping to limit their preparation time. Eastland had another senator look for links between Marshall and the Communist Party. Eastland had once stood on the floor of the US Senator and thundered that “the Negro race is an inferior race.” He also once said that Mississippians would “protect and maintain white supremacy throughout eternity.” He also said that “If it came to fighting, I’d fight for Mississippi against the United States, even if it meant going out into the street and shooting Negroes.” Eastland was committed to stopping the pursuit of equality. And earlier in his career, he assailed black soldiers serving in WWII as failures in combat. 

By the time the third day of confirmation hearings began, Marshall had been subjected to more hours of questioning than any other nominee in history. Eastland did not provide a timeline of when they might end, attempting to rattle Marshall. 

On the fourth day, Strom Thurmond, the Senator from South Carolina, went on the attack. Thurmond had launched his Senate campaign in response to the Brown decision. Later he helped launched a weeks-long filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And at one point in time, he was the presidential candidate for the whites-only Dixiecrat party. “And now in 1967, Strom Thurmond had to endure the 1960s having streamrolled his life and his beloved South.” Thurmond lit into Marshall about the thirteenth amendment, as well as interracial relationships. Later, it was revealed, that when Thurmond was 62 he had carried on an affair with a black woman, Carrie Butler, who worked for his family and was only 16 years old.

Eastland later called up a witness opposed to Marshall. Michael D. Jaffe, counsel to a company known as Liberty Lobby which was formed in the shadow of McCarthyism and was accused of anti-Semitism and a fascination with the teachings of Hitler. Its two biggest supporters were Senator Strom Thurmond and Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Tom Brady. Jaffe claimed Marshall had associations with organizations of subversive nature. 

After day five, Eastland announced he would call no more hearings. He ended them before giving a chance for Marshall’s allies on the committee to speak on his behalf. “In the nation’s history, a Supreme Court nominee had never appeared in person before a committee as long as Thurgood Marshall.” Wil Haygood

August 11—Eastland announced the committee had completed its hearing process and was ready to issue its report on Marshall’s nomination. Now it was up to the full Senate. The majority report (senators favoring Marshall) issued 3.5 pages emphasizing how he had been at the forefront of assisting black citizens in asserting their right to vote and share in constitutional rights, and how he had shown that progress can be achieved within the framework of American democracy and law. The minority report was 6x longer and scathing, ripping Marshall for judicial activism, the subjugation of federal powers, and compromising the sacredness of the Constitution.

On August 30th, 1967, more than a month after the Marshall hearings had ended, the Senate conned to vote on the nomination of Marshall to the Supreme Court. There was just a single black, male senator—Edward Brooke—and a single female senator—Margaret Chase Smith—in the entire Senate. 

The final tally stood at 69-11. Marshall was going to join the U.S. Supreme Court. LBJ had convinced twenty segregationists to refrain from voting so it was closer than it looked. 

“Let me take this opportunity to affirm my deep faith in this Nation and its people, and to pledge that I shall be ever mindful of my obligation to the Constitution and to the goal of equal justice under the law.” Thurgood Marshall

Marshall had been put through an ordeal by committee. Fred P. Graham wrote that “the present procedures serve only as punishment to a future justice by political enemies.” “Marshall was the first nominee to undergo such an extensive grilling face-to-face, and his hearings created a new level of senatorial inquiry. And once those senators smelled blood, it only pushed them deeper and deeper. A year after the Marshall hearing, the Senate blocked Justice Abe Fortas from ascending to the position of chief justice.” Wil Haygood

Confirmation hearings became partisan battles that were televised and played on repeat across news outlets across the world. 

Civil Rights Movement:
In 1964, more than 20,000 citizens had been arrested in the South following protests for racial equality. In 1965, more than 36 churches had been firebombed by segregationists in Mississippi. 

“Charlie Houston, the dean (at Howard University Law School), had studied the plight of the Negro lawyer in America, studied it and gathered statistics, and those statistics were stark and indisputable. He would constantly remind his students of the crisis confronting the Negro lawyer. Houston discovered ‘there are not more than 100 Negro lawyers in the South devoting full-time to practice: 100 Negro layers to care for the rights and interests of 9,000,000 Southern Negroes or approximately one Negro lawyer to every 90,000 Negroes.’” Wil Haygood

“Thurgood Marshall lived in a realistic and gritty world. And he had gone into dangerous southern towns at night. And lived to tell about it. Negroes would tell you Thurgood Marshall was Atticus Finch before Atticus Finch.” Wil Haygood

Brown v. Board of Education:
Fall of 1957, nine black schoolchildren tried to desegregate Little Rock Central High School and were stopped by a mob of angry whites yelling profanities, spitting, and throwing rocks. “Reporters on the scene to cover the story were chased and bloodied by the mobs. This forced President Dwight Eisenhower to go into military mode and dispatch troops to protect the children. The troops had to remain at path school watching over the black children for an entire year. Little Rock was thus seared into the nation’s psyche as mean and bigoted. 

Smith v. Allwright:
Lonnie Smith tried to vote in Houston. He was denied a ballot by the Houston election Judge S.E. Allwright. Marshall met with Smith and filed a complaint on his behalf. The case made its way to the Supreme Court. “Thurgood Marshall had never appeared before the justices of the US Supreme Court of any case approaching this magnitude. And in reality, if he were to reach that hallowed courtroom to take on Texas, he’d be taking on all the states below the Mason-Dixon Line, because they had punishing white primary systems of their own.” Wil Haygood

“Marshall opened by telling the justices what he had been saying all along: that the Texas primary simply undermined Negro voting no matter how state officials argued otherwise.” Wil Haygood

“The Texas attorney general, Gerald Mann, as expected, argued that the earlier ruling supporting Texas did not violate any of the constitutional amendments being debated. The justices, at the conclusion of the arguments, had to ponder a question: Does the constitution embrace ‘private’ discrimination?” Wil Haygood

Landmark 8-1 decision ruled on behalf of Smith and was a profound voting rights victory for the NAACP. The court wrote, “The United States is a constitutional democracy. Its organic law grants to all citizens a right to participate in the choice of elected officials without restriction by any state because of race. This grant to the people of the opportunity for choice is not to be nullified by a state through casting its electoral process in a form which permits a private organization to practice racial discrimination in the election.”

Southern states continued to impose poll taxes, literacy tests, harassment, and physical brutality to deter black Americans from voting. 

30k black votes were registered in 1940. In 1947, three years after the case, there were 100k. “Before 1964, only 22 percent of Negroes were registered to tote throughout the American South. Yes, there was the Smith decision, but fear remained; voting rights activists still fell dead from gunfire.” Wil Haygood

Supreme Court:
“During his twenty-four years on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall remained unerringly true to his principles. His concurring opinions and dissents echoed his beliefs about the First Amendment and equality.” Wil Haygood

“Thurgood Marshall wrote 322 majority opinions while on the high court. They delved from freedom of speech to the death penalty, from issues of segregation and discrimination to housing. There were also 363 dissents, giving evidence of a justice who would not bend when he felt the law was against the aggrieved and dispossessed. No justice had come to the high court with the background he possessed in traveling the land and fighting from courthouse to courthouse and devising national strategies that would alter American law.” Wil Haygood

“His were the eyes that had seen, up close, men and women grasping for freedom. He had seen shack-like structures masquerading as Negro schoolhouses. He had heard the wails of Negro mothers crying for their sons who had been sentenced on suspicious rape charges. He had seen how poverty could scar both Negro and white alike. His were eyes that had seen what very few Ivy League-trained lawyers had seen and he knew it, and he wanted them to know he knew it.” Wil Haygood

Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant – Roland Lazenby

Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant by Roland Lazenby
Date read: 4/11/23. Recommendation: 8/10.

The definitive Kobe Bryant biography. Lazenby details Kobe’s upbringing, his struggles, his triumphs, and his coming to terms with how to balance basketball alongside family—often learning the hard way. Throughout the book, Lazenby explores Kobe’s impenetrable, unshakable self-belief, his singular focus, and his ability to punch above his weight. No one understood the power of visualization, preparation, and seeking world-class mentors as well as Kobe. Well worth your time and one of the most powerful sports biographies I’ve read.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Preparation:
Gained a reputation for being a master of study and intense preparation with a singular focus on the details. 

Even as a kid, would pour over footage of players: “Soon Joe was subscribing to a service that delivered video of games directly. Joe and Kobe would pour over them together, taking note of all the key subtleties, the footwork, a primer of drop steps and jab steps and V-cuts, the various offensive and defensive styles of NBA teams and their stars. ‘I used to watch everybody from Magic to Bird to Michael to Dominique Wilkins,’ Bryant recalled. ‘I used to watch their moves and add them to my game.’ It was the beginning of a career-long focus on studying game recordings, normally the domain of the Xs and Os wonks, who serve as assistant coaches.” Roland Lazenby

“By the time he was an NBA player, he would invest long hours each day breaking down his performances and those of opponents, far more than what any other NBA player would ever contemplate undertaking.” Roland Lazenby

By the time Phil Jackson joined the Lakers, Kobe had already mastered the triangle offense because of how much he studied the Bulls growing up. He knew the right spots on the floor, the right actions, etc.

“It began with his immaculate footwork—an array of pivots, reverse pivots, jab steps, and feints that allowed him to create the room to rise up in a tight space, often pinned in against the side-line; to elevate over the defender and make seemingly impossible shots under impossible circumstances. This unique skill was the perfectly formed product of his study of untold hours of videotape of every single one of the game’s great scorers. It also involved conversations and more film study with Tex Winter about footwork, and time spent with Jerry West talking about a million important details, such as the angle of his elbow in relation to his forehead for the perfect shot.” Roland Lazenby

On flights after games, while teammates were sleeping, Bryant would watch the game he just played to review and critique his performance, then watch the scouting video for the next opponent, all before allowing himself to sleep. 

Impenetrable, unshakable self-belief:
“At every turn, his declarations of future greatness have been met with head shaking and raised eyebrows because such dreams as ludicrous, impossible to fulfill. ‘Kobe’s crazy,’ the people around him concluded time and time again with a laugh.” Roland Lazenby

“Bryant’s existence has been a singular, almost inhuman, pursuit of greatness.” Roland Lazenby

“A lot of guys his age didn’t really believe in themselves yet. It’s not enough to be good; you’ve got to know you are good. Kobe, he believed it.” Gary Charles

Willpower: “He was always trying to get better, to the point that he cut everything and everyone off. It was just, he had a vision. He had a goal in mind, and that was it, that was the end-all, be-all. He played like every game was his last, every workout was going to be his last. He would outwit people, man. His will was just unmatched.” Donnie Carr

Visualization:
Kobe would play alone when he didn’t have anyone else to play against while his family was living in Italy. He called it ‘shadow basketball.’ “That, of course, involved intense visualization of the NBA stars he had stored in his imagination from the video screen.” Roland Lazenby

As a young teen playing in a Philadelphia summer league, Kobe’s counselor cautioned him against his fixation on playing in the NBA and urged him to consider more realistic plans. Kobe was focused on being one in a million and had an extreme sense of purpose paired with an elevated skill level to do it. 

“Kobe Bryant had a clear destination in mind, and if you weren’t one board, he had clearly conveyed the idea that he was the sort who wouldn’t hesitate to grab you by the collar and throw you right off the train.” Roland Lazenby

After his rookie season: “For the next six years young Bryant had lived his life as if on a mythical quest. The only way he could keep the whole dream going was to work harder and harder and harder, to spin his fantasies around and around until they wrapped him tight in a new reality. Visualization was immense for that. It drove his many hours of solitary practice time. In America, as in Italy, he took to playing entire games along on the court in his own personal practice right before he played them for real in front of audiences.” Roland Lazenby

Kobe’s focus entering the league was to be an All-Star, to be a starter, and to average 20 points per game. 

“Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question…Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good. If it doesn’t it is of no use.” Carlos Castaneda, The Teaching’s of Don Juan

Focus:
“Kobe on stage was probably the most focused kid I’ve ever seen on the court. No bullshit, no taking it easy. He’s not going to smile at you. He’s going to kill you from bell to bell, no mercy. He didn’t give a fuck.” Sam Rines

Pick a lane: Kobe failed to launch a successful hip-hop career—what many athletes were attempting to do at the time. He was laughed off stage at a performance during All-Star Weekend. “He put it in perspective. You need to respect the ground that everybody else walks on. He didn’t treat music the way he did basketball. It’s a different investment. You can have supreme confidence, but you can’t go in there thinking if you want to do this at a higher level, it takes less than what you put into basketball.” Scoop Jackson

Mental toughness is what set Kobe apart. Being able to accept responsibility night after night after night. 

Severed relationships:
“It’s like F. Scott Fitzgerald. Show me a hero, and I’ll show you a tragedy.” Anthony Gilbert

“In one fell swoop, in the days before the 2001 playoffs began, Bryant had simply removed his family from his life.” Roland Lazenby

“He was like the Russians with the Romanovs. He got rid of them all.” Sonny Vaccaro

Learning the value of family: “Despite all his ambition and drive, the basketball star found nothing more important than his two daughters. The children were the priority for which he would skip a workout….Bryant had long encountered self-destruction in life, and by age thirty-four, he had learned to back away and move toward centering his approach. In a life filled with focus on competitive titles and glory, he was perhaps learning once more that there were other important things to be won.” Roland Lazenby

Distance:
“Since he mostly worked out alone, his teammates rarely saw him developing his game. Between the obvious talent, the inexperience, and his reclusive nature, Bryant presented quite a mystery. Derek Fisher had come in as a rookie with Bryant, had played with him for two seasons, and still had absolutely no idea who the kid was.” Roland Lazenby

“His basic strategy for dealing with other Lakers was to talk as little as possible.” Roland Lazenby

Punch above your weight:
Summer before his senior year of high school, Kobe would scrimmage and play with pros while he was facing a decision on whether or not to go straight to the NBA or go to college first. “It remained difficult to draw too many conclusions from Bryant’s experience working out with the pros that summer except for one impression that really mattered—Bryant’s own. He came away thinking that he could do it, he could play against NBA players right away.” Roland Lazenby

Game 5 - Second Round of NBA playoffs:
Lakers down in the series with the Utah Jazz, 3-1.. Shaq fouled out with just under two minutes to go and the game was then in Kobe’s hands (it was still his rookie season, he was 18 years old). With one minute left in regulation, John Stockton blew by Kobe for a layup to tie the game. Kobe got the last shot to win it in regulation from fourteen feet and threw up an airball. “Overtime would only extend his nightmare. With O’Neal out of the game, the Lakers found themselves putting the extra period in the rookie’s hands. His three deep air balls goosed the home crowd into delight. Bryant raised his eyebrows, licked his lips, appeared almost, for a moment, to squeeze back a tear.” (page 268 for reference)

After Kobe returned to LA he was on the phone with Sonny Vaccaro who asked him how he felt about getting beat up by the press and fans for his crazy air balls. “Fuck ‘em,” Bryant replied quickly. “Nobody else wanted to shoot the ball.”

“That evening after the loss Bryant went straight to a gym at a neighborhood school as soon as he got home to L.A. ‘He went in the gym that night and shot until three or four in the morning,’ Scoop Jackson said. ‘There’s no crying, there’s no running to lay up with some woman he just met in a club. None of that shit. He went straight to the damn gym.’ ‘There’s not another teenager on the planet who could miss those shots, fail the Lakers, and recover from it,’ Vaccaro said, looking back.” Roland Lazenby

“It was an early turning point for me in being able to deal with adversity, deal with public scrutiny and self-doubt. At eighteen years old, it was gut-check time.” Kobe

“What if he didn’t have that game? What if he didn’t have that moment? What if he made one of those shots? What if he made one of those shots to win the game? Would he have turned out to be as good or better? I think that game was vital to how good he became. That level of embarrassment to happen to someone like him? The next year he came out like a fucking maniac.” Robby Schwartz

Mentorship:
“Tex Winter, the Lakers’ new assistant coach and resident offensive genius, would take the kind of grandfatherly approach that Bryant had long responded to. Winter could be harsh in his assessments of players, but he stressed early on to Bryant that when he criticized—and he would criticize often—he was aiming his comments at the player’s actions, not at the player himself.” Roland Lazenby

Mornings on Horseback – David McCullough

Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough
Date read: 2/14/23. Recommendation: 10/10.

The best biography that I’ve read on Theodore Roosevelt—though it only covers his early years from age 10 to 27. These were the years that Roosevelt grew from a fragile child and naive New York assemblyman into a hardened cowboy in the Badlands of North Dakota. McCullough was one of the best biographers and historians we’ll likely ever see. He breathes life into Roosevelt’s coming-of-age, grief, and transformation.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Childhood:
Extremely frail, sickly, undersized, nervous, and timid as a child. Faced chronic stomach trouble, headaches, colds, fevers, and asthma. 

He found joy in adventuring, watching birds and animals, anything to do with nature.

Filled his notebooks with descriptions and observations of ants, spiders, beetles, and dragonflies.

Created his own “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History” in the back hall of the fourth floor of his family home.

Spent childhood summers in houses along the Hudson, riding, swimming, and running barefoot. Went on expeditions with his father to the Adirondacks. It fueled his love for nature and the outdoors. 

Urgency:
Teddy Roosevelt lived his life with urgency, constantly moving and favoring action.

“Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough.” Theodore Roosevelt

“He was a figure of incessant activity, of constant talk, constant hurt, a bee in a bottle.” DM

At Harvard, he busied himself with boxing lessons, dance classes, horseback riding, wrestling, and long hikes. He was always ready to join anything with no questions asked. He held an amazing array of interests. Joined the Rifle Club, Art Club, Glee Club, became president of the Natural History Society, started a Finance Club, was named to the editorial board of the Advocate, the undergrad magazine. 

Purposeful: “The ever-admiring John Woodbury seems to have been alone in his forecast of distinction. Woodbury, as he said later, figured Theodore might amount to something—as a professor of history perhaps—if only because he seemed to know what he wanted. To most others he remained likable but peculiar and much too intense for comfort.” DM

Transforming himself:
Around twelve years old, his father sat him down and said, “Theodore, you have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should…You must make your body.”

Teddy started doing daily workouts and built a gym on their own back piazza.

“It was no good wishing to appear like the heroes he worshipped if he made no effort to be like them. Strength had to come first; one must be strong before everything else.” DM

“There was to be a misconception in later years that he conquered his childhood infirmities mainly through willpower and bodybuilding, that he rid himself of asthma by making himself a strong man. But that is not quite the way it happened. First of all, he never would be rid of asthma entirely, and if there was a point at which he clearly found reprieve from suffering of the kind he had known, it came well before he attained anything like rugged manhood. It came when he went to Harvard, when he left home and was on his own in ways he had never been.” DM

“Look out for Theodore. He’s not strong, but he’s all grit. He’ll kill himself before he’ll even say he’s tired.” Doctor Thompson in 1878 cautioning the guides who Roosevelt ventured into the Maine wilderness alongside. 

Skating expedition:
Indomitable will: One bitter winter’s day while he was at Harvard, Roosevelt went with Richard Welling, fellow classmate and future prominent New York attorney, on a skating expedition to Fresh Pond. It was bitterly cold, windy, and the ice was rough. Any sane man would have turned around, but Theodore kept exclaiming in delight as they beat their way across the pond, despite not knowing how to skate very well. “The harder the wind blew, the more miserable Welling felt, the greater Theodore appeared to be enjoying himself.” Welling felt his own grit had never been put to the test as much as it was that day and finally after being out on the pond for three hours and it was too dark to see, Roosevelt suggested they venture back home. 

Early political career:
At 23, he was the youngest member of the New York Assembly (127 members). But nothing seemed to intimidate him, he plunged ahead, deferred to no one. Spent time mingling with the other assemblymen who were farmers, mechanics, liquor dealers, newspapermen, and lawyers.

During his first term in 1882 (five months), he spoke to everyone he could, grilling them for details on how things were done, issues of the day. He was a voracious reader, working his way through stacks of papers every morning. He saw and formed an opinion on seemingly everything. By his second term in 1883, he knew more about state politics than 90% of the members. 

Was relentless in fighting corruption and championing reform. Went to witness and gather information firsthand, as he did with the Cigar Bill. Was willing to change his mind and do the right thing, even if it went against traditional Republican stance. 

“He never doubted the moral virtue of any of his own positions or the need to punish the wicked. (At one point he called for the return of the public whipping post as punishment for any man who inflicted brutal pain on a woman or child.)” DM

Acted as a gentlemen doing his part in the public interest, never signaled that he was a ‘professional’ politician as that would have been the equivalent of calling himself corrupt. “Oddly, for all his quick success in politics, the passion and energy he exuded, he was still unable, or unwilling, to accept politics as his lifework. He never spoke of it as a career or calling.” DM

Tragedy:
On February 12th, Alice (Teddy’s wife) went into labor and had a baby girl, Alice. They telegraphed Teddy who was in Albany the next morning letting him know that mother and child were doing well. A few hours later a second telegram arrived and Teddy rushed for the next train. When Corinne arrived (Teddy’s sister) Elliot (Teddy’s younger brother) famously said ‘There is a curse on this house! Mother is dying, and Alice is dying too.” Mittie (Teddy’s mother) was dying of Typhoid fever and passed away at 3am on February 14th. Alice died at 2pm that same afternoon while Teddy held her in his arms. 

“The sole, overwhelming lesson was the awful brevity of life, the sense that the precipice awaited not just somewhere off down the road, but at any moment. An asthmatic childhood had shown that life could be stifled, cut off, unless one fought back, and all Papa’s admonition to get action, to seize the moment, had the implicit message that there was not much time after all. Father had died at forty-six; Mittie had been only forty-eight; Alice all of twenty-two, her life barely begun. Nothing lasts. Winter waits.” DM

Teddy’s response: Three days later he returned to Albany and was back at work arguing for his Reform Charter Bill. He poured himself into work—writing, writing, delivering speeches, interviewing witnesses, leading inspections. He worked harder, faster, and longer than he ever had before. He was relentless. 

His newborn daughter, Alice, was entrusted to Bamie (Teddy’s older sister). 

On the day Alice and his mother died, Teddy made a large X on the page in his empty diary on February 14th and wrote, “The light has gone out of my life.”

Dakota Badlands:
After the tragedy he faced losing his mother and sister, and losing the fight against deterring the Republican Party from nominating James G. Blaine as the Republican candidate for the presidency in 1884, he left for the Dakota Badlands to go ranching for the rest of the summer and part of the fall. He was still only 25 and despite his defeat in not getting the candidate he hoped for, he left quite the impression. 

In the Badlands, he found a way to unburden himself of the things he couldn’t talk about. Out West, he was able to reinvent himself and be someone entirely different from the man he had been back home in New York. His background, family, education, all the conventions of polite society counted for nothing. Nobody knew him or his family. Everybody was a stranger and preferred it that way. 

“Some days he rode as much as a hundred miles. The dust and heat were terrific. On stifling hot evenings the mosquitoes would rise from the river bottoms in great clouds to make the nights one long torture for men and horses.” DM

“Rugged, bronzed, and in the prime of health, Theodore Roosevelt passed through St. Paul yesterday, returning from his Dakota ranch to New York and civilization.” Pioneer Press as he returned to visit home

Spent close to three years in the badlands and had his own ranch, the Elkhorn, built. During this time, the American public, political allies, political enemies, thought he had disappeared from the public eye and political arena for good. 

“When he got back into the world again, he was husky as almost any man I have ever seen who wasn’t dependent on his arms for a livelihood. He weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and was clear bone, muscle, and grit.” Bill Sewall

Return:
As soon as he returned to public life, the Republicans asked him to run for mayor of New York. He accepted even though he had no chance of winning. Opponents were Democrat Abram Hewitt and Labor candidate Henry George. Hewitt won, Roosevelt finished third. At 28, he was the youngest man who had ever been a candidate for mayor. 

Presidency:
William McKinley’s assassination in 1901 catapulted Theodore Roosevelt into the presidency and he became the youngest President in history at 42 years old. But well prepared for the job. He had served 6 years as a reform Civil Service Commissioner (under Presidents Harrison and Cleveland), two years as Police Commissioner of New York City, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy on the eve of the Spanish American War, as a colonel in the Rough Riders—and ‘hero of San Juan Hill’—as Governor of New York, and as Vice President. 

Increased the area of national forests by 40 million acres, established five national parks, sixteen national monuments (including the Grand Canyon), 51 national bird sanctuaries, and made conservation a popular cause. 

Decoded – Jay-Z

Decoded – by Jay-Z
Date read: 1/25/23. Recommendation: 10/10.

Jay-Z details his own story and deconstructs the lyrics of the most important songs in his career. I couldn’t put this book down—Jay-Z’s rise to become a self-made billionaire is one of the most inspiring stories you will come across. It’s crazy smart and packs a punch. There are great lessons in fundamentals, depth, truth, flow, and motion that are worth reflecting on and instilling in your own life and work.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Origins:
Nine years old, summer of 1978, saw a circle of kids on his way home from playing Little League with his cousin and he moved through the crowd towards the middle, “It felt like gravity pulling me into that swirl of kids, no bullshit, like a planet pulled into orbit by a star…His name was Slate and he was a kid I used to see around the neighborhood, an older kid who barely made an impression. In the circle, though, he was transformed, like the church ladies touched by the spirit, and everyone was mesmerized. He was rhyming, throwing out couplet after couplet like he was in a trance, for a crazy long time—thirty minutes straight off the top of his head, never losing the beat, riding the handclaps…I was dazzled. That’s some cool shit was the first thing I thought. Then: I could do that.” Jay-Z

Natural talent: Started writing rhymes in his spiral notebook that same night. The paper was unlined and he filled every space on every page, writing vertically, horizontally, crowding words together as best he could, scratching out others.

Finding your voice: Jay connected with an older kid and the best rapper in Marcy, Jaz-O. The two would practice their rhymes and record on an old tape recorder with a makeshift microphone attached. “I saw it as an opening, a way to re-create myself and reimagine my world. After I recorded a rhyme, it gave me an unbelievable rush to play it back, to hear that voice.” Jay-Z

Life experiences give you credibility: “I wasn’t even in high school yet and I’d discovered my voice. But I still needed a story to tell.” Jay-Z

Jay wasn’t sure he could get rich from rap, but he knew it would become much bigger than it was before it went away and he leaned into that.

“Manager? That’s a promotion, not a dream.” Jay-Z

Flow:
“From the beginning, it was easy, a constant flow. For days, I filled page after page. Then I’d bang a beat out on the table, my bedroom window, whatever had a flat surface, and practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep.” Jay-Z

“Everywhere I went I’d write. If I was crossing a street with my friends and a rhyme came to me, I’d break out my binder, spread it on a mailbox or lamppost and write the rhyme before I crossed the street. I didn’t care if my friends left me at the light, I had to get it out.” Jay-Z

“I was good at battling and I practiced it like a sport. I’d spend free time reading the dictionary, building my vocabulary for battles.”

Loved rhyming for the sake of rhyming and the challenge of structuring rhymes in the most effective way possible—moving around couplets and triplets, stacking double entendres, and speed rapping.

Fundamentals:
Jay-Z and his early mentor Jaz-O would go back and forth to each other’s houses and write rhymes for hours. They’d lock themselves in a room with pen and paper. They would test new flows and focus on improving their speed, delivery, and composition.

Putting in the work: “It’s true that I’m able to sometimes come up with songs in a matter of minutes after hearing a track, but that’s a skill that I’ve honed over hundreds of hours of practice and work since I was nine. My earliest mentors in rap taught me that making music is work, whether it was Jaz locking himself in a room working on different flows or Big Daddy Kane taking the time to meticulously put together a stage show. There’s unquestionably magic involved in great music, songwriting, and performances—like those nights when a star athlete is in the zone and can’t miss. But there’s also work. Without the work, the magic won’t come.” Jay-Z

“A tour requires stamina, willpower, and the ability to self-motivate, to hype yourself into game mode night after night….When it comes to signing up new talent, that’s what I’m looking for—not just someone who has skill, but someone built for this life. Someone who has the work ethic, the drive.”

First exposure to the record industry:
When Jay-O got a record deal with EMI in the UK, Jay went along and soaked up all that he could in the recording sessions and meetings.

Producers at EMI convinced Jaz-O to record a pop song with a ukulele on the hook, “Hawaiian Sophie” which tanked. EMI stopped returning his phone calls and instead started courting Jay behind his back. Jay was sick to his stomach and thought the business lacked any sense of honor and integrity. So he buried his rap dreams and went back to hustling.

Hustling:
Got into selling drugs because he was already risking his life by living in the projects, he might as well get paid for it. A friend introduced him to hustling (neither smoked nor used their own supply) and communicated that it required vision and hustle.

“In the mirror, all I saw was a hustler—a hustler who wrote rhymes on corner-store paper bags and memorized them in hotel rooms far away from home—but still, first a hustler. It’s who I’d been since I was sixteen years old on my own in Trenton, New Jersey. I couldn’t even think about wanting to be something else; I wouldn’t let myself visualize another life. But I wrote because I couldn’t stop. It was a release, a mental exercise, a way of keeping sane.” Jay-Z

Find your deep, dark place and create from there:
Jay was interested in the interior of a young kid’s head, his psychology, and bringing that to life through his lyrics. Everything he wrote he wanted to be rooted in the truth of an experience “To tell the story of the kid with the gun without telling the story of why he has it is to tell a kind of lie. To tell the story of the pain without telling the story of the rewards—the money, the girls, the excitement—is a different kind of evasion.” Jay-Z

“I lost people I loved, was betrayed by people I trusted, felt the breeze of bullets flying by my head. I saw crack addiction destroy families—it almost destroyed mine—but I sold it too…But no matter what, it is the place where I learned not just who I was, but who we were, who all of us are.” Jay-Z

Embracing contradiction: “For any image or symbol or creative act to mean something, it has to touch something deeper, connect to something true. I know that the spirit of the struggle and insurgency was woven into the lives of the people I grew up with in Bed-Stuy, even if in sometimes fucked up and corrupted ways….But to have contradictions—especially when you’re fighting for your life—is human, and to wear the Che (Guevara) shirt and the platinum and diamonds together is honest. In the end I wore it because I meant it.” Jay-Z

“The words are witty and blind, abstract and linear, sober and fucked up. And when we decode that torrent of words—by which I mean really listen to them with our minds and hearts open—we can understand their world better. And ours, too. It’s the same world.” Jay-Z

Entrepreneurial mindset:
“You have to make sure the match runs according to your style and rhythm and not get caught up in someone else’s gameplay. You have to be willing to suffer and to make someone else suffer, because only one of you can win.” Jay-Z

A great product and the hustle to move it are the ultimate advantage.

“Success could only mean self-sufficiency, being a boss, not a dependent.”

“I’m also lucky never to have needed the approval of the gatekeepers in the industry because from the start we came into the game as entrepreneurs. That gave me the freedom to just be myself, which is the secret to any long-term success, but that’s hard to see when you’re young and desperate to get put on.” Jay-Z ^ the opposite of this was Jaz-O recording “Hawaiian Sophie” because he trusted producers that got Will Smith airplay even though it didn’t resonate with him.

The depth of hip-hop:
It’s dense with multiple meanings and unresolved layers you might not understand until you’ve listened to it multiple times through. Those layers of meaning help get at complicated truths in a way that straightforward storytelling might not.

“Every hustler knows the value of a feint. It keeps you one step ahead of whoever’s listening in, which is also a great thing about the art of hip-hop. And it makes it all the more gratifying to the listener when they finally catch up.” Jay-Z

Rap is built to handle contradictions: “It doesn’t force you to pretend to be only one thing or another, to be a saint or sinner. It recognizes that you can be true to yourself and still have unexpected dimensions or opposing ideas…The real bullshit is when you act like you don’t have contradictions inside you, that you’re so dull and unimaginative that your mind never changes or wanders into strange, unexpected places.” Jay-Z

The curse of outrage:
“It’s hard to beat the entertainment value of people who deliberately misunderstand the world, people dying to be insulted, running around looking for a bullet to get in front of.” Jay-Z

Life is motion:
“I’ve always believed in motion and action, in following connections wherever they take me, and in not getting entrenched. My life has been more poetry than prose, more about unpredictable leaps and links than simple steady movement, or worse, stagnation. It’s allowed me to stay open to the next thing without feeling held back by a preconceived notion of what I’m supposed to be doing next.” Jay-Z

The truth is always relevant:
“When it seems like I’m bragging or threatening or whatever, what I’m actually trying to do is embody a certain spirit, give voice to a certain emotion. I’m giving the listener a way to articulate that emotion in their own lives, however it applies. Even when I do a song that feels like a complete autobiography, like ‘December 4th,’ I’m still trying to speak to something that everyone can find themselves in.” Jay-Z

“My songs are my stories, but they take on their own life in the minds of people listening. The connection that creates is sometimes overwhelming.” Jay-Z

Empire State of Mind – Zack O'Malley Greenburg

Empire State of Mind – by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
Date read: 1/16/23. Recommendation: 8/10.

An exceptional Jay-Z biography that details his journey as one of the greatest artists and entrepreneurs of our generation. This book aims to answer a simple question: How did Jay-Z rise from a Brooklyn housing project to a position as one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs? It contains great lessons in the power of controlling your own destiny, honing resourcefulness, doing the work, taking risks, and allowing your voice to evolve.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

This book aims to answer a simple question: How did Jay-Z rise from a Brooklyn housing project to a position as one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs? 

The benefits of starting late:
“My first album didn’t come out until I was twenty-six, so I had a bit more maturity….My debut album had all these emotions and complexities and layers that a typical hip-hop album wouldn’t have if you were making it at sixteen, seventeen years old. That isn’t enough wealth of experience to share with the world.” Jay-Z

Control your own destiny:
Record companies had a habit of taking advantage of artists financially. Jay-Z was focused on making great music and controlling the business side too.

Built “an unparalleled commercial hip-hop empire encompassing music, film, liquor, and a clothing company that grew from a few sewing machines into a giant that produced $700 million in annual revenues.” ZG

“Jay-Z’s ability to make money by attaching his name to products is one of his greatest strengths as a businessman, and it was especially important during a period of declining numbers in the record industry, when barely one-fifth of his earnings came from record sales.” ZG 

Jaz-O:
Jay-Z’s early mentor helped him fine-tune his rhymes—his lyrics became wittier, his delivery faster, and his syncopation sharper. Jay-Z would practice his rap skills at school by freestyling to beats pounded out on the cafeteria table.

In 1988, Jaz-O became the first rapper to land a deal with the British label EMI. He brought Jay-Z along to London where he got his first exposure to the broader music industry.

In 1989 after returning to the U.S., Jay-Z talked his way onto the tour bus of Big Daddy Kane (a successful rapper). Would go on stage during intermissions to entertain crowds with his freestyle. Spent four months working unpaid for a place to sleep on the tour bus floor and food. 

“After the tour, Jay-Z found himself between worlds. Nearly twenty years old, he’d gotten a taste of the good life with Jaz-O in London, and he’d rubbed elbows with the biggest names in hip-hop on Big Daddy Kane’s tour. But he’d dropped out of high school, and his own musical career hadn’t gotten to a point where he could make serious money as an artist. So he picked up where he left off as a hustler.” ZG

Hustling:
Childhood friend DeHaven Irby introduced Jay to the lucrative opportunities offered by drug dealing. At 18, Jay started taking the train to Trenton on weekends where Irby taught him everything he knew about the local drug market. 

Jay-Z saw music as a side hustle, his first album was supposed to be his only album. But selling drugs was what he saw as the most lucrative path. But in 1994, in an ambush by rivals, Jay-Z was shot at multiple times before a gun jammed, which saved his life. At that point, he got out of the drug trade in the mid-90s. He knew he couldn’t run the streets forever and the only way out was likely death or prison. 

Natural talent:
“What set Jay-Z apart as an artist was the sharpness and rapidity with which he delivered his lyrics; that verbal dexterity earned him some attention in the underground scene.” ZG

Memorization:
Jay-Z is famous for memorizing all his verses instead of writing them down. Early in his career (1992), Clark Kent (A&R department at Atlantic Records) wanted Jay to lay down a song with rapper Sauce Money. Producer, Patrick Lawrence, was in charge of booking studio time for them. After three hours of Jay and Sauce laughing and talking, Lawrence got on them for wasting studio time. Jay asked to hear the song. “Lawrence played the track. Jay-Z began mumbling along to it, then picked up a pen and a notebook and seemed to write several lines. He placed the pad on the sofa and started pacing back and forth, muttering half-formed words. After five minutes, he glanced once more at the pad and told Lawrence he was ready. While Jay-Z was in the sound booth recording his verse, Lawrence went over to see what he’d written in the notebook, still sitting on the couch. ‘I walk to the pad, and there’s fucking nothing on it,’ Lawrence recalls. ‘He was doing it as a fucking joke, like just to show people.’” ZG

Recording Brooklyn’s Finest with Notorious B.I.G.—Big saw Jay do his part without having anything written down. He had to go home to do his part and fill in the blanks and only after he saw Jay do that, he also stopped writing down his rhymes. 

Debut Album:
Thanks to connections, Jay-Z landed tracks from well-respected producers for his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. With his debut album nearly complete, he shopped it to all major record labels but no one was interested. 

Seize creative control: After getting rejected by every major label, Jay-Z and his business partner, Damon Dash, pooled their resources to start their own record label, Roc-A-Fella Records. 

Resourcefulness and doing whatever it takes: They pressed their own records, their CDs, their T-shirts, their stickers, their flyers. Pedaled music from the backs of their cars. Traveled across the five boroughs distributing tracks in clubs, barbershops, and street corners. Went to open mic nights. 

Creating their own brands:
One of Dash and Jay’z primary tenants was that they shouldn’t let other people make money off of them or give free advertising—meaning they should always be compensated for endorsements or create their own brands. 

During the late 90s, Jay and Dash would often wear Iceberg (Italian knitwear designer). His fans started wearing it and Iceberg’s sales took off. They approached the brand about a partnership and were shrugged off. Jay and Dash then went on to start Rocawear. 

Rocawear was started in the back of the Roc-A-Fella Records office with three sewing machines where they stitched a Roc-A-Fella logo on the front of a T-shirt. But they barely knew how to sew and realized they had no idea what they were doing so they started working with Russell Simmons when founded Phat Farm for advice and partners. Within 18 months, Rocawear was doing $80 million in revenue. 

Transcending mentors and business partners:
“Just as he honed his lyrical skills with Jaz-O’s help as a teenager in Brooklyn and developed his hustler’s sense selling crack with DeHaven Irby in Trenton, he learned legitimate entrepreneurialism from Damon Dash. In each case, Jay-Z absorbed the best qualities of his mentor, applied his own considerable talents to the subject at hand, quickly surpassed said mentor, and moved on to the next one.” ZG

Taking over as president at Def Jam:
When he started at Def Jam, he found people who had been living off one act for the past 20 years, there was no excitement, nothing fresh. During a retreat, he went around the room asking employees to share their reasons for getting into the record business to revitalize their sense of meaning and connection to their work. “We got people to go back to that inner kid and the joy of being in the record business.” Jay-Z

The key to staying on top is to treat everything like it’s your first project—stay humble and curious. 

In December of 2007, his three-year contract was nearing an end and he had launched the careers of Rihanna, Kanye West, and Ne-Yo. His musical career was again on the rise and he immersed himself back into that. 

Blazing the trail for hip-hop at rock festivals:
Headlined Glastonbury in UK in 2008. Many, including Noel Gallagher (Oasis), spoke out against a rapper playing a traditionally rock-focused show. Critics thought Jay would be booed off the stage. Jay came out with a parody of the Oasis song “Wonderwall” and the crow erupted. 

Allow your voice to evolve:
“But the most remarkable aspect of 4:44 was its reflection of an artist who’d evolved from a closed-off adolescent to victory-obsessed hot-head to overly stoic dad to middle-aged sage finally in touch with his emotions and vulnerability.” ZG

Washington: A Life – Ron Chernow

Washington: A Life – by Ron Chernow
Recommendation: 9/10. Date read: 4/27/21.

The definitive biography of George Washington. Chernow tracks the entirety of Washington’s celebrated life from childhood to his early experiences in the French and Indian War, and eventually through his role as commander of the Continental Army and years serving as American’s first president. The depth of Washington’s life is awe-inspiring. At every turn, he demonstrated an ability to make difficult decisions by relying on his strong moral compass during turbulent times when outcomes were far from certain—especially through the American Revolution and the early years of a newly formed government. He was a deeply private figure, cloaking himself in mystery despite the fame that followed him in later life. Although reluctant to accept political roles he found his way into, he was purposeful in his every move—a true statesman who put the wellbeing of the nation over his desire for a quiet life.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Cloak yourself in mystery:
“An important element in Washington’s leadership both as a military commander and as President was his dignified, even forbidding, demeanor, his aloofness, the distance he consciously set and maintained between himself and nearly all the rest of the world.” W.W. Abbot

Washington often focused on learning the maximum about other people’s thoughts while revealing the minimum about his own.

“Let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly.” Benjamin Franklin

Washington possessed the gift of silence and had great self-command. Exerted more power by withholding opinions than by expressing them. His public role led him to create a barrier that prevented intimacy with all but a few. This secrecy and evasion allowed him to avoid compromising his position and alerting the enemy to weaknesses during the American Revolution when he was (almost always) deficient of men, munitions, and supplies.

Character:
“With command of his tongue and temper, he had the supreme temperament for leadership compared to his scheming rivals. It was perhaps less his military skills than his character that eclipsed all competitors. Washington was dignified, circumspect, and upright, whereas his enemies seemed petty and skulking.” RC

At the end of the American Revolution, Washington resigned his position and return to privacy at Mount Vernon. “The figure hurrying back to his long-forgotten past had just accomplished something more extraordinary than any military feat during the war. At war’s end, he stood alone at the pinnacle of power, but he never became drunk with that influence, as had so many generals before him, and treated his commission as a public trust to be returned as soon as possible to the people’s representatives. Throughout history victorious generals had sought to parlay their fame into political power, whereas Washington had only a craving for privacy. Instead of glorying in his might, he feared its terrible weight and potential misuse.” RC

“He brought maturity, sobriety, judgment, and integrity to a political experiment that could easily have grown giddy with its own vaulted success, and he avoided the backbiting, envy, and intrigue that detracted from the achievements of other founders.” RC

Purposeful:
Young Washington was adventurous (swimming, riding, hunting, fencing) and combined this with an ability to master social etiquette, enabling him to climb the ladder of high society. “He was an unusually sober and purposeful young man.” RC

Moral compass:
“George Washington possessed the gift of inspired simplicity, a clarity and purity of vision that never failed him. Whatever petty partisan disputes swirled around him, he kept his eyes fixed on the transcendent goals that motivated his quest. As sensitive to criticism as any other man, he never allowed personal attacks or threats to distract him, following an inner compass that charted the way ahead.” RC

Decision making:
“Always fearful of failure, Washington wanted to push ahead only if he was armed with detailed knowledge and enjoyed a high likelihood of success. This cautious, disciplined political style would persist long after the original insecurity that had prompted it had disappeared.”

The French and Indian War:
Taught Washington invaluable lessons in frontier warfare which the Indians demonstrated so well—mobile style of warfare that relied on ambushing, sniping from trees, and vanishing into the forest. His defeat on the frontier came be seen as a doomed but heroic defense rather than a military blunder.

“Some men will gain as much experience in the course of three or four years as some will in ten or a dozen.” Washington


“It was this process of subtle, silent, unrelenting self-criticism that enabled him to rise above his earthly defeats.” RC

Must undergo a hard winter training to develop true confidence:

“As a member of the British forces, he had begun to articulate a comprehensive critique of British fighting methods in North America. For a young man, he acquired an amazing amount of experience and these precocious achievements yielded a lasting reservoir of self-confidence. He had proved his toughness and courage in the face of massacres and defeats. He had learned to train and drill regiments and developed a rudimentary sense of military strategy. He had shown a real capacity to lead and take responsibility for fulfilling the most arduous missions. Perhaps, most important, his experience in the French and Indian War made him a believer in strong central government and a vigorous executive. Forced to deal with destructive competition, among the colonies, dilatory legislative committees, and squabbling, shortsighted politicians, he had passed an excellent dress rehearsal for the prolonged ordeal of the American Revolution.” RC

Skin in the game:
Part of the reason that Washington commanded such a deep respect from everyone throughout his life and career is because he was always willing to put himself in the heat of battle. He never shied away from the front lines.

“Washington was no remote leader but an active, rousing presence.” RC

“To obtain the applause of deserving men is a heartfelt satisfaction; to merit them is my highest wish.” Joseph Addison

American Revolution:
Great Britain was bad for local business, which created the unique situation and historical anomaly of a revolution inaugurated by affluent, conservative leaders.

Early on Washington learned to shift his strategy and wage a defensive war in order to keep the cause alive. See retreat from Long Island on page 250. See calamities at Forts Washington and Lee on page 264 (futility of trying to defend positions along seaboard and moved instead into countryside where mobility favored Continental Army).

Crossing the Delaware, 1776: Washington was more concerned about patriotic support tapering off and short enlistments that would allow most of his army to depart at the end of the year than he was about the strength of the British Army. Washington knew without a momentous victory and a daring strike, it would be difficult to inject energy into the cause. Washington and the army crossed the river in treacherous conditions and descended on Trenton. The battle was over in an hour. After this victory and the next at Princeton, the psychology of the war was dramatically reversed. Page 269.

“His military triumphs had been neither frequent nor epic in scale. He had lost more battles than he had won…But he was a different kind of general fighting a different kind of war…His fortitude in keeping the impoverished Continental Army intact was a major historic accomplishment.” RC

“In defining the culture of the Continental Army, he had helped to mold the very character of the country, preventing the Revolution from taking a bloodthirsty, or despotic turn.” RC

Missionaries > Mercenaries:
“The unconquerable resolution of our citizens, the conscious rectitude of our cause, and a confident trust that we should not be forsaken by heaven.” Washington

Moderation:
When Washington was appointed General and Commander in Chief, he acted as the glue that helped bind the colonies together. Hailing from Virginia, he knew how to bridge the North and South. “Many southerners feared that New Englanders were a rash, obstinate people, prone to extremism, and worried that an army led by a New England general might someday turn despotic and conquer the South. The appointment of George Washington would soothe such fears and form a perfect political compromise between North and South.” RC

“He also provided a conservative counterweight to some of the more unruly impulses of the American Revolution, ensuring incremental progress and averting the bloody excesses associated with the French Revolution.” RC

Second-order thinking:
“His overriding goal was to contrast his own humane behavior with the predatory ways of the enemy.” RC

Washington preached fair treatment of civilians, respect for private property, and doled out harsh punishment for anyone who violated this. “The spirit and willingness of the people must in a great measure take the place of coercion.” Washington

Presidency:
Not every decision you face will be a ‘hell yes.’ Washington was extremely reluctant to leave a sense of privacy and peacefulness at Mount Vernon to take on the challenges facing the country. He had serious doubts. The way he rationalized it was that he felt he could serve a couple of years then bow out before he even finished his first term. If he knew he would have served 8 years, he likely wouldn’t have agreed to it.

“The presidency is the powerful office it is in large part because of Washington’s initial behavior. Washington had forged the executive branch of the federal government, appointed outstanding department heads, and set a benchmark for fairness, efficiency, and integrity that future administrations would aspire to match.” RC

Leadership in Turbulent Times – Doris Kearns Goodwin

Leadership in Turbulent Times – by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Date read: 4/25/20. Recommendation: 10/10.

This was one of the best books, if not the best, that I’ve read in the past twelve months. Goodwin highlights lessons in leadership demonstrated by four US Presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. Goodwin explores how each president came from a very different upbringing and the role that played in their leadership style. She also looks at how each man responded to extreme hardship during the bleakest moments of their lives—three of the four emerged from catastrophic turns of fortune with an enlarged capacity for leadership. Each president demonstrated their own unique capacity for transformational, crisis, turnaround, and visionary leadership. Goodwin structures the book in an accessible way that proves to be a great jumping-off point to explore both the lives and the leadership principles that helped guide a few of our best presidents.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Formative Years:
“Privilege can stunt ambition, just as the lack of privilege can fire ambition.” DKG

“Temperament is the great separator.” Richard Neustadt

Lincoln: 
Incredible motivation and willpower to develop every talent to the fullest.

Lincoln’s hallmark: the philosophical and poetic depths of his mind.

Honed a clear and inquisitive mind through hard work. He would rewrite passages that stuck him and keep them in a scrapbook. “I am slow to learn and slow to forget what I have learned.” Lincoln

“While his mind was neither quick nor facile, young Lincoln possessed singular powers of reasoning and comprehension, unflagging curiosity, and a fierce, almost irresistible, compulsion to understand the meaning of what he heard, read, or was taught.” DKG

Formal education ended at the age of nine, after that he had to educate himself. He was voracious reader, scoured the countryside to borrow books and read every volume. 

Of the four presidents in this book, “Only Abraham Lincoln, who had actually endured physical danger and the bitter hardships of wilderness life, never romanticized his family’s past.” DKG

Teddy Roosevelt: 
“His ability to concentrate was such that the house might fall about his head and we would not be diverted.”

Teddy’s hallmark: his scintillating breadth of intelligence. 

Franklin Roosevelt: 
Optimistic spirit and expectation that things would turn out for the best were a testament to the self-confidence he developed during the peacefulness and regularity of his childhood days.

FDR’s hallmark: “An uncommon intuitive capacity and interpersonal intelligence allowed him as a child to read the intentions and desires of his parents, to react appropriately to shifting household moods—gifts that he would nurture and develop in the years ahead. While he did not learn as a felling academic often does—by mastering vast reading material and applying analytical skills—he possessed an incredibly shrewd, complicated, problem-solving intelligence.” DKG

His ability in later years to adapt to changing circumstances also proved vital to his leadership success. Adaptability was forced upon him at the age of eight when his father suffered a heart attack. “The need to navigate the altered dynamic of Springwood required new measures of secrecy, duplicity, and manipulation—qualities that would later prove troubling but were at this juncture benign, designed only to protect a loved one from harm.”

After his father’s heart attack, FDR spent more time in the house (rather than sledding, horseback riding, fishing, which he and his father did daily in his early years). Here he began to build collections of stamps, maps, model ships, etc.

Collecting is a way of ordering a disordered world. It holds a special meaning for children, offering a small corner of the world where the child is in charge, experiencing the “thrill of acquisition.” (Summarizing Walter Benjamin)

Test and learn: “He would fling things agains the wall, seeing if they would stick; if they didn’t, he would acknowledge his mistake and try something else.” DKG

Hobbies and Meditative Space:

• Lincoln was able to relax with poetry and theater.

• Teddy was interested in birds, exploration, and the latest novels.

• FDR spent hours away sailing, playing with stamps, enjoying poker and social chatter.

• LBJ, in contrast, could never unwind and let go for a few hours.

“Roosevelt’s childhood hobbies (mainly sorting and arranging his stamp collection) would serve in later years as invaluable tools in nourishing his leadership—providing a meditative state, a space which he could turn things over in his mind, the means by which he could relax and replenish his energy.” DKG

Adversity and Growth:
Growth in the face of frustration and extracting wisdom from experience: “Some people lose their bearings; their lives are forever stunted. Others resume their normal behaviors after a period of time. Still others, through reflection and adaptive capacity, are able to transcend their ordeal, armed with a greater resolve and purpose.” DKG

“Each of these three men (Lincoln, Teddy, FDR) emerged from a catastrophic turn of fortune with an enlarged capacity for leadership.” DKG

Lincoln: 
Alive time vs. dead time (see Robert Greene): The half-decade after Lincoln’s unhappy tenure in Congress was anything but a passive time. “It was, on the contrary, and intense period of personal, intellectual, moral and professional growth, for during these years he learned to position himself as a lawyer and leader able to cope with the tremors that were beginning to rack the country.” 

“What fired in Lincoln in this furious and fertile time of self-improvement? The answer lay in his readiness to gaze in the mirror and soberly scrutinize himself.” DKG

“Leave nothing for tomorrow that can be done today.” Lincoln

One of the key’s to Lincoln’s success was his ability to break complex problems into their simplest elements.

Teddy Roosevelt: 
After his wife and mother died just hours apart in 1884, Teddy set off for the North Dakota where he would remain for two years, working on a cattle ranch and learning how heal, grow, and move past the trauma. He’d later regard this as “the most important educational asset” of his entire life. He built grit and cultivated his new identity as “a hybrid of the cultivated easterner and the hard-bitten westerner.” 

Franklin Roosevelt: 
Trial and error was fundamental to his leadership style. “In the Navy Department, he had flung ideas against the wall to see which ones might stick; during the New Deal he would experiment with one program after another, swiftly changing course if the present one proved ineffective.” DKG

Lessons in Leadership:

Lincoln: 
Team of rivals: Unlike James Buchanan who had chosen a cabinet of like-minded men who wouldn’t question his authority, Lincoln actively sought the opposite. “Lincoln created a team of independent, strong-minded men, all of whom were more experienced in public life, better educated, and more celebrated than he. In the top three positions, at the State Department, the Treasury, and the Justice Department, he placed his three chief rivals—William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates—each of whom thought he should be president instead of the prairie lawyer from Illinois.” Lincoln did this because he knew the country was in peril and these were the strongest men he knew. 

“Lincoln possessed a deep-rooted integrity and humility combined with an ever-growing confidence in his capacity to lead. Most of all, he brought a mind tempered by failure, a mind able to fashion the appalling suffering ahead into a narrative that would give direction, purpose, and lasting inspiration.” DKG

Control anger: When angry at a colleague, Lincoln would write out a letter with all his frustrations and gripes, then put the letter aside until he calmed down and could review what he had written. The act of talking through his frustrations with himself was always enough and he never sent the vast majority of these. 

Other key transformational leadership lessons from Lincoln:

• Gather firsthand information, ask questions.

• Find time and space in which to think.

• Assume full responsibility for a pivotal decision.

• Understand the emotional needs of each member of the team.

• Refuse to let past resentments fester; transcend personal vendettas.

• Shield colleagues from blame and don’t allow subordinates to take the blame.

Lincoln was a master of combining transactional and transformational leadership. He knew how to combine an appeal to self-interest to influence behavior of others while layering on an inspiring vision so people could also identify with something larger than themselves. 

Franklin Roosevelt: 
Make yourself appear confident in order to become more confident: “The remarkable thing about him (FDR) was his readiness to assume responsibility and his taking that responsibility with a smile.” FDR

Fireside chats: Communicated challenges facing the country by translating stories in a way that could be better understood by himself and the average citizen, rather than in highly specialized language of the legal and banking worlds. Used simple, direct communication and identified the questions people asked themselves so he could answer them. 

“Roosevelt’s gift of communication prove the vital instrument of his success in developing a common mission, clarifying problems, mobilizing action, and earning people’s trust.” DKG

Be open to experiment: “Roosevelt stressed the improvisational, experimental nature of the New Deal.” He was adaptable, willing to shift ground, revise, and accommodate changing circumstances, due to the entirely new problems the country faced.

Bias for action: “Do the very best you can in making up your mind, but once your mind is made up go ahead.” FDR

In victory know when to stop:
Theodore Roosevelt announced he would not run for a third term and instead backed William Howard Taft and set sail for a year-long safari. But when he returned he decided he wanted to challenge Taft for the nomination after all and lost. Later Roosevelt decided to run as a third party candidate and allowed Woodrow Wilson to win the election, hurting the progressive cause he stood for. 

Degrees Kelvin – David Lindley

Degrees Kelvin – by David Lindley
Date read: 9/25/19. Recommendation: 7/10.

A biography of mathematical physicist and engineer, Sir William Thomson (1824-1907). This is a challenging read to get through, especially if you’re not well-versed in thermodynamics or electromagnetism (I’m not). But there’s a compelling story at the heart of Thomson’s life, and that’s what kept me going. Thomson was undeniably brilliant. At 22 he was appointed chair of natural philosophy at Glasgow, and by 31 he helped lay the foundations of thermodynamics. But his early brilliance turned into resistance and obstructionism as he grew older. He refused to keep up with the times and grew out of touch with the latest developments in science. He was remarkably and adamantly wrong about quite a few important topics: he doubted the existence of atoms, believed earth was no more than 100 million years old, and had reservations about radioactivity. Thomson’s story is a cautionary tale of clinging to an antiquated worldview. Everyone tends to think their formative years were sacred. Don’t fall into this trap. If you cling to your era and your generation too tightly, you blind yourself to new ideas.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Sir William Thomson (1824-1907), first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords (Lord Kelvin). At 22 became the professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow which he would hold for more than 50 years.

Combining theoretical with practical:
In 1845, Kelvin worked in the Paris laboratory of Victor Regnault to measure the thermal properties of steam and improve steam engine design. Steam power was critical during the industrial revolution. Opened Kelvin’s eyes to practical science and the implications of the theory of heat in technology. Shifted from a mathematician to a scientist during this time. 

Telegraphy introduced him to a world of innovation and patents that helped him generate money through consulting and advising. Mixed science with business meetings. Made his mark in the world of commerce and enterprise. 

Multidisciplinary:
Kelvin was a scientist + technologist, academic + entrepreneur, philosopher + practical thinker. 

Divide in his reputation (from young to old):
In newspapers and publications, his scientific knowledge was remarkable. At meetings and conferences, he was a crank. 

Refused to keep up with the times and grew out of touch with the latest developments in science. And he was remarkably wrong about quite a few important topics: doubted the existence of atoms, believed earth was no more than 100 million years old, had reservations about radioactivity. 

And he was relentless in his defense of incorrect positions such as the 100m year assessment of earth. Wrote to the London Times in 1906 arguing against radioactivity (even though it was widely accepted that radioactive decay involved the transmutation of one element into another). 

Everyone tends to think their formative years were sacred, don’t fall into this trap. Don’t cling to your era and your generation too tightly or you blind yourself to the latest developments. Kelvin is a perfect example of someone who grew out of touch as the years passed.

Brilliance at a young age (laying foundations of thermodynamics all before he turned 31, exploring the nature of electricity and magnetism) turned into resistance and obstructionism as he grew older. 

Took a very “mechanical” view of the universe that limited his imagination and rendered him an antique. 

Michael Faraday:
Part of Kelvin’s brilliance and folly was the fact that he couldn’t understand or contemplate an idea until he was able to put it in a mathematical form. Michael Faraday, by contrast, took a complete opposite approach because he didn’t know mathematics. Faraday’s power was one of pure imagination - he devised theories in pictures

At 13, Faraday apprenticed under a bookseller and read whatever he could get his hands on. Electricity and chemistry peaked his interest, bought glass jars, and began to run his own experiments. He was fanatical and orderly in taking notes. Completely dedicated to self-improvement. Similar narrative to Benjamin Franklin.

Drawdown periods and isolation: Faraday wasn’t a regular at meetings and conferences and he turned down numerous offers for professorial positions. “After spending his early research years mainly on chemical work (notably he succeeded in liquefying chlorine), he moved into electrochemistry (reactions stimulated by the passage of electric current through solutions) and thence into his pioneering and utterly original studies of electricity and magnetism.” DL

Vision: Faraday shaped modern view of electromagnetic field more than anyone else. “He was a magnificent experimenter, but guiding his experiments was a powerful vision of electromagnetism. He had one of the great theoretical minds in physics.” DL (this is what Kelvin lacked)

Constructing a theory:
Kelvin’s method: “Apply sound reasoning to empirical knowledge and thereby create a theory that was sweeping and general but at the same time founded on fact.” DL

“He had an exceptional ability to sort and clarify, to resolve confusion and contradiction, and many of the standard elements of classical thermodynamics trace back to his definitions and arguments.” DL

Development of thermodynamics:
Great example of how murky discoveries in science can be. Rarely can one person be credited with a discovery. Rankine, Thomson, Clausius, Carnot, Joule, all made major contributions. Helped establish thermodynamics as a fundamental discipline of physical science. 

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World – Jack Weatherford

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World – by Jack Weatherford
Date read: 2/15/19. Recommendation: 8/10.

An intriguing look into the life of Genghis Khan and the far-reaching impact of the Mongol Empire that continues to be felt in the modern world. Genghis Khan’s life and character were shaped by the rugged terrain of the Mongolian steppe. He faced a bitter fight for survival from the moment he entered the world. He would take the harsh lessons he learned from an early age to unite warring tribes on the steppe and inspire a deep loyalty in his people. In 25 years under Genghis Khan, the Mongol army conquered more lands and people than the Romans conquered in 400 years. But his most significant contribution was that he set the foundation for the modern world with free commerce, open communication, shared knowledge, secular politics, religious coexistence, international law, and diplomatic immunity.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Beginnings
Genghis Khan was born in 1162, unified all tribes on steppe and founded the Mongol nation in 1206. His life and character were shaped by rugged landscape on the Mongolian steppe.

Genghis Khan was self-made. Grew up in a world of violence (murder, kidnapping, enslavement), encountered no more than a few hundred people on the Mongolian steppe in his childhood, received no formal education. He showed remarkable instinct for survival and self-preservation.

Military Genius
Brilliant use of speed and surprise on battlefield. Perfected siege warfare, negating benefits of walled cities. Goal of every invasion was to frighten the enemy into surrendering before the battle began.

Turned massive populations against the places they invaded by terrifying peasants at the foothills and sending swarms of refugees into the cities which could not support them. 

Traveling lightly, quickly: Traveled without a supply train (waited until cold months so horses could graze, better for hunting) or siege engines and equipment. Instead, brought along a faster-moving engineering corps to build whatever they dreamed up or the situation required. Mobility boost from all cavalry (no marching infantry). 

“Victory did not come to the one who played by the rules; it came to the one who made the rules and imposed them on his enemy. Triumph could not be partial. It was complete, total, and undeniable – or it was nothing.” JW

In 25 years under Genghis Khan, the Mongol army conquered more lands and people than the Romans conquered in 400 years. 

Leveraged his own naiveté as a tool - did not grow up in cities of have access to antiquated tactics. Had to create his own, such as diverting a channel of the Yellow River to flood the fortified Tangut capital. 

Would often lure enemy away from battlefield in false retreat, drew enemy further away (in overconfidence) and exhausted them. Once enemies became disorganized and tired, Mongols would turn and shoot them down. (See example of Duke Henry II of Silesia and army of 30,000 knights, page 152). 

Benefits of Multiculturalism
“Genghis Khan’s army combined the traditional fierceness and speed of the steppe warrior with the highest technological sophistication of Chinese civilization.” JW

Each step of the way, combined new ideas and strategies he learned or discovered from different challenges or cultures. Always learning, experimenting, adapting, and revising. Never fought the same war twice. 

Genghis Khan sought talented men as his closest advisors, no matter their origin.

“Whether in their policy of religious tolerance, devising a universal alphabet, maintaining relay stations, playing games, or printing almanacs, money, or astronomy charts, the rulers of the Mongol Empire displayed a persistent universalism. Because they had no system of their own to impose upon their subjects, they were willing to adopt and combine systems from everywhere. Without deep cultural preferences in these areas, the Mongols implemented pragmatics rather than ideological solutions.” JW

Arbitrary Authority
Distrust of arbitrary authority – Championed individual merit, loyalty, achievement and smashed feudal system of aristocratic privilege and birth.

Killed all aristocratic leaders (rich and powerful) in each conquered land to decapitate social system of enemy and eliminate future resistance.

Loyalty
Inspired deep loyalty in his people by taking conquered people into his tribe (sans aristocrats) as equal members in good standing who could share fairly in future prosperity. This helped unite his future empire.

Second-order thinking: When looting, ordered a soldier’s share for each widow and orphan of anyone killed in the raid. Main benefit was to avoid temptation to rush looting without complete victory. Also, inspired soldiers who knew he would take care of their families.

In six decades, none of his generals deserted him. He also never harmed or punished a single one of them. Unrivaled fidelity among all great kings throughout history. 

Organized warriors across different tribes and kin into units of ten (arban) who were to fight and live together as loyally as blood. Helped unite tribes and people across the empire.

Sought to remove all animosity/dissension within the ranks of his followers: Forbade the enslavement of any Mongol, declared all children legitimate, forbade selling of women into marriage, outlawed adultery, punished theft of animals, forbade hunting of animals during breeding times (March-October), decreed complete and total religious freedom. 

Legacy
First to connect China and Europe with diplomatic and commercial contacts–opened the world to new commerce in goods, ideas, knowledge. Unrivaled carriers of culture. 

Literacy and the number of books increased drastically during the Mongol dynasty.

First in history to decree compete religious freedom for everyone in the empire. Recognized the disruptive potential of competing religions.

After initial destruction and shock of conquest in each country the Mongols set foot in, unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, improved civilization. Mongol influence, in many ways, led Europe to the Renaissance.

“Without the vision of a goal, a man cannot manage his own life, much less the lives of others.” GK

Fostered exchange of medical knowledge by establishing hospitals and training centers, bringing together the best doctors of the time from India and the Middle East with Chinese healers.

Set foundation for modern world with free commerce, open communication, shared knowledge, secular politics, religious coexistence, international law, and diplomatic immunity. 

Khubilai Khan
Lacked military skills of Genghis, but also recognized he couldn’t conquer China by mere force. Combined brilliant ideas with great implementation with allowed him to manage his territory and its expansion south. 

Commissioned Chinese-style imperial capital which grew into modern capital of Beijing. 

Previous dynasties had tried to unite Chinese states, but Khubilai was the first one to pull it off. Accomplished this by empowering Peasants by giving them responsibility in local community (acting as local governments), public schools, education, literacy. “The greatest legacy of the Mongol Empire bequeathed to the Chinese is the Chinese nation itself.” Hidehiro Okada

Downfall of the Mongol Empire
The plague cut off each part of the Mongol Empire (Persia, Russia, China) from the other and interlocking system collapsed. Depended on quick, constant movement of people and information. During the plague, various parts of empire were either decimated or isolated themselves for survival. 

1492, more than a century after the last khan ruled over China, Christopher Columbus set off to revive lost contact with Mongol court. Reached United States thinking it must be southern neighbors of Mongols in India (hints naming, “Indians”).

The Tigress of Forlì – Elizabeth Lev

The Tigress of Forlì – by Elizabeth Lev
Date read: 2/7/19. Recommendation: 8/10.

The story of Renaissance Italy’s most courageous countess, Caterina Sforza. Her tale is one of clever strategy, boldness, and determination. Sforza’s life reads like a storybook as she fights off her husband’s assassins, the French Army, and Cesare Borgia. Throughout her life, powerful men viewed her as a pawn on the chessboard of Italian politics. They doubted her ability to rule and never took her seriously. She would prove this to be foolish, time and time again. Fascinating, inspiring biography.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de’ Medici

Legacy: Ingenuity, boldness, cunning, astute strategies, and iron determination. Fended off her husband’s assassins, the French Army, and Cesare Borgia.

Warrior: Grew up learning to bear and wield arms in the tradition of her warrior family. Her family emphasized training of female children along males the use of weapons, riding and hunting. Gave her an unusual advantage and first-class education in the fundamentals of military leadership. 

Influences:
Galeazzo Maria Sforza (father, Duke of Milan): Admired his boldness, warrior nature that he blended with his love for the arts. He turned Milan into an intellectual rival to Florence. He defined Caterina’s ideal of bravery and elegance.

Bona of Savoy (Galeazzo’s second wife, not Caterina’s biological mother): After Galeazzo was murdered, she transformed from a quiet, patient mother and wife, into a competent head of state, dealing with threats and taking on all responsibility. Safely transported Caterina to join her husband (Girolamo Riario) in Rome after her father’s death.

Defying Expectations:
Throughout her life, powerful men viewed her as a pawn on the chessboard of Italian politics, to be used and sacrificed at will. They doubted her ability to rule and never took her seriously. She would prove this to be foolish, time and time again. 

Brutally realistic expectations set by early marriage (at age 10) to a foolish, self-indulgent husband (Girolamo) and the murder of her father forced her to build deep well of fortitude and resilience.

She was held in high-esteem, her intelligence, manners, and sense of fashion were widely admired. While Girolamo was holed up, wary of strangers, she would take to the streets to walk among her subjects and actively engage the citizens. Even when the bubonic plague hit, she would visit the poorest quarters, tend to the ill and bring food/medicine.

Girolamo’s missteps:
Caterina was constantly helping to negotiate her husbands errant moves, whether failed assassination plots, greedy exploitations, his fear of combat, or his antagonization of powerful families in northern Italy. Girolamo lacked substance and intelligence. She never complained, but she took a more active role after the first couple years. She didn’t want to sit idly by as her husband squandered the family name and the children’s inheritance. 

Boldness:
Upon Pope Sixtus’s death: mobs raced to the Riarios’ house in Rome and tore it down in pent up rage towards Girolamo. Caterina and Girolamo were safe in Forlì, but instead of hiding behind her husband’s forces, she jumped on a horse (seven months pregnant at the time) and rode to Rome. She seized the papal fort of Castle Sant’Angelo and turned the cannons towards all access roads around the Vatican to cut off the cardinals. She single-handedly held the College of Cardinals at bay for eleven days and negotiated that her family retain the lands of Immola and Forlì.

Dimensional thinking - there’s a time for patience and there’s a time for boldness. Caterina knew how the balance the two.

Girolamo’s Death: murdered in his palace, Caterina immediately jumped into action, barricading the the room that she and the children were in to buy herself time. She immediately issued instructions for a messenger to send for her allies (and her brother, the duke of Milan). Once captured, she was brought to her castle, Ravaldino, to negotiate its surrender. She devised elaborate schemes to buy time, negotiating the castle’s surrender, plotting with Tommaso Feo (the guardian of the castle and who she was supposed to be negotiating with). After one negotiation session, he claimed to take her captive and locked out her kidnappers (the Orsis). The kidnappers brought her children out front and threatened their lives in front of Caterina. She was able to think strategically, as she knew her children, being the nephews of the duke of Milan, could not be killed without retaliation. She also knew that surrendering would give her no advantage–her family would likely be poisoned or imprisoned–so she held her position and strode to the edge of the ramparts with daggers drawn. She held the castle for 13 days until reinforcements arrived. Preserving Forlì and her family.

Cesare Borgia’s Invasion of Ravaldino:
December 19, 1499, Borgia began his siege. Caterina embarrassed and befuddled him. Frustrated by her resistance, raised the bounty of her head to ten-thousand ducats, but no one inside the fortress was willing to betray her. She commanded a deep loyalty. People flocked to Forlì to witness her defense and fearlessness against the most cruel man in Italy. The longer Borgia was stalled by a woman, the weaker he seemed in the eyes of his adversaries. On January 12, he threw everything he had at the fortress and broke in. Caterina fought on the front ranks for two hours, side by side with her men against Borgia’s soldiers. She was the equal of any man on the battlefield. She was eventually captured, but did not go quietly.

Benjamin Franklin – Walter Isaacson

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life – by Walter Isaacson
Date read: 8/1/18. Recommendation: 9/10.

Brilliant look at the multi-disciplinary life of Benjamin Franklin. As a scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, business strategist, and political thinker, it's fascinating how many pivotal moments of early American history he was involved in. In each aspect of his life, he prided himself in practical solutions that served the common good. As Isaacson suggests, Franklin was the first great American exemplar of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason–as defined by an emphasis on reason, education, and a distrust of arbitrary authority. He was unapologetically self-taught and self-made. Isaacson doesn't shy away from Franklin's complexities and does a great job explaining how his legacy has shifted over time, reflecting the values of different eras. There's a reason he's held in such high-esteem by some of the most brilliant minds of our time.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews. 

My Notes:

Multidisciplinary life: scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, business strategist, practical political thinker

But the most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.

Franklin's most important vision: an American identity based on the virtues and values of its middle class.
-How does one live a life that is useful, virtuous, worthy, moral and spiritually meaningful?
-Questions are just as vital for a self-satisfied age as they were for a revolutionary one.

Early American settlers were pursuing both religious freedom AND economic opportunity.

"Industry and frugality are the means of procuring wealth and thereby securing virtue." -BF

Maxims from his almanacs:
"Fish and visitors stink in three days."
"Little strokes fell great oaks."
"Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead."
"Diligence is the mother of good luck."
"Love your enemies, for they will tell you your faults."

Franklin excelled in writing, but failed math. Still became one of the most ingenious scientists of his era, but did not transcend into a profound theorist (i.e. Newton). 

"From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books." -BF
*Books most important formative influence in his life. He would sneak books from apprentices who worked for booksellers as long as he returned them clean. Was a vegetarian early in life so he could save more money for books.

His writing lacked poetic flourish, but was powerful in its directness.

His most notable trait was a personal magnetism; he attracted people who wanted to help him.

American individualists sometimes boast of not worrying about what others think of them. Frankin, more typically nurtured his reputation, as a matter of both pride and utility. 
*An apostle of being, and appearing, studious. 

Lesson he learned early: people are more likely to admire your work if you're able to keep them from feeling jealous of you. Indulge their vanity (give them opportunities to demonstrate their abilities), they will praise you in turn.

Franklin easily made friends and intellectual companions, but was less good at nurturing lasting bonds that involved deep personal commitments or emotional relationships, even within his own family. 

On deciding whether or not to take a customer's money and run a defamatory article that violated his principles:
-Paused to make the decision, went home and slept on it.
-Practiced voluntary hardship, slept on the floor, ate plainly.
-Determined that he could live this way, was not worth corrupting his values for a more comfortable subsistence. 

Writing to discover: Franklin began to clarify his religious beliefs through a series of essays and letters.

Moral Perfection Project:
-Made a list of 13 virtues he aspired to master
-Focused on improving one virtue each week (related it to weeding a garden, not all at once, but one bed at a time)

First great American exemplar of the Enlightenment and its Age of Reason. Born in Europe in the late 17th century, defined by an emphasis on reason and observable experience, a distrust of religious orthodoxy and traditional authority, and an optimism about education and progress.

"The general foible of mankind is in the pursuit of wealth to no end." BF

Franklin's subscription library (The Library Company of Philadelphia), first of its type in America. Subscribers pay dues to borrow books. Improved the intelligence of common tradesmen and farmers, as local subscription libraries caught on.

His work focused on lightning and electricity led to his first becoming a popular hero.
-Believed science should be pursued initially for pure fascination and curiosity, then practical uses would eventually flow.

Self-made: Thirst for knowledge made him the best self-taught writer and scientist of his times.

Pride for practical solutions:
Crossing the Atlantic in the summer of 1757, nearly wrecked on the Scilly Isles. "Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint. But as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a lighthouse." BF

Traveling: Franklin's summer travels were the source of great joy
-Deborah didn't share his love for travel and curiosity for the world.
-She was as independent in her own way as he was in his.
-Spent 15 of the last 17 years of their marriage an ocean away.
-Throughout his life, had few emotional bonds tying him to any one place, glided through the world the way he glided through relationships.

Modern election campaigns are often criticized for being negative, and today's press is slammed for being scurrilous. But the most brutal of modern attack ads pale in comparison to the barrage of pamphlets in the 1764 Assembly election. 

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin:
-His goal was to describe how he rose from obscurity to prominence and to provide some useful hints about how he succeeded, for others to imitate.
-If he found himself writing with too much pride about an event, he would revise it by adding a self-deprecating comment.
-Autobiographies existed, but this was the first masterpiece by a self-made man.

Second continental congress:
-Franklin, nearing 70, was by far the oldest of the 62 participants
-Many of the younger, hotter-tempered delegates had never witnessed Franklin's artifice of silence, his trick of seeming sage by saying nothing (oratory did not come naturally to him).
-No one had a clue where he stood on the question of independence. He was biding his time to convert key figures close to him to the rebel cause.

Distaste for established elites, arbitrary authority, nepotism:
-Chafed at authority, why he ran away from his brother's print shop in Boston.
-Was not awed by established elites – Mathers, Penns, peers in the house of lords.
-Opposed unfair tax policies by Penns, even though they would have served his personal advantage.
-Stressed is all his letters that America should not replicate rigid ruling hierarchies of Old World based on birth rather than merit, virtue, and hard work. 
-Groundless and absurd to honor a worthy person's descendants (should instead honor the person's parents since they had some role in it, like Chinese do).
-Rose up social ladder, but did so in a way that resisted taking on elitist pretensions (fur-capped persona). 

At 70, he was continuing to embark on missions for Congress:
-Cambridge, MA to help Washington with disciplining the militia that would form the nucleus of a true continental army.
-Quebec to support American forces focused on preventing Britain from splitting colonies via Hudson River.
-Showed his eagerness to be involved in practical details, rather than detached theorizing.
-He was also, both as a teen and as an old man, revitalized by travel.

Declaration of Independence:
-Jefferson asked Franklin to help edit. Most important change was to Jefferson's phrase, "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident."
-Changed this phrase from an assertion of religion to an assertion of rationality.

Fate of the Revolution placed into Franklin's hands, just as much as those of Washington and others. He needed to secure support of France–its aid, its recognition, its navy. Displayed dexterity that would make him one of the greatest American diplomats.
-He was instrumental in shaping the three great documents of the war: the Declaration of Independence, the alliance with France, and the treaty with England.

"Moderate your desire of victory over your adversary, and be pleased with the one over yourself." BF

The Constitutional Convention of 1787:
-He was by far the most traveled of all the delegates, and knew not only the nations of Europe but the thirteens states (franchised printing operations, time as postmaster, etc.). More receptive to needs of each state and open to diversity of opinions.

Sensibility, willingness to change mind, and humility to be open to different opinions:
-On crafting the constitution, Franklin realized that they had succeeded not because they were self-assured, but because they were willing to concede that they might be fallible.
-"We are making experiments in politics. We must not expect that a new government may be formed as a game of chess may be played, by a skillful hand, without a fault." BF
-"For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise." BF

Legacy:
-During the three centuries since his birth, the changing assessments of Franklin have tended to reveal less about him than about the values of the people judging him. Reflect, or refract, the attitudes of each succeeding era.
-His reputation was elevated by the emergence of distinctly American philosophy known as pragmatism - holds that truth of any proposition (whether scientific, moral, theological, or social) is based on how well it correlates with experimental results and produces a practical outcome.
-Unfairly attacked over the years by romantics whose real targets were capitalism and middle-class morality. 

In most of the endeavors of his soul and mind, his greatness sprang more from his practicality than from profundity or poetry.

His guiding principle was a "dislike of everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people."