active mind
business is fundamentally about brain power. a powerful mind is a thinking mind, that is, a conceptual mind.
The process of concept formation does not consist merely of grasping a few simple abstractions. . . . It is not a passive state of registering random impressions. It is an actively sustained process of identifying one’s impressions in conceptual terms, of integrating every event and every observation into a conceptual context, of grasping relationships, differences, similarities in one’s perceptual material and of abstracting them into new concepts, of drawing inferences, of making deductions, of reaching conclusions, of asking new questions and discovering new answers and expanding one’s knowledge into an ever-growing sum. The faculty that directs this process . . . is: reason. The process is thinking.
ITOE
there are many good examples of active minds. e.g., edison, rockefeller, keiser, or jobs. what they seem to be able to do very well is to see the whole and the parts, simultaneously. the movement is constant between the concrete and the abstract. why is this important? because you need to know where you are going and how.
relentless mental activity
action
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aristotle vs plato
By divorcing reason from the sensory world, Plato made contemplation an end in itself and thereby divorced thought from action. In contrast, Aristotle made reason this-worldly, leading to an integration of thought and action.
a prime mover cannot be a platonist. action in the physical world, for plato, is a lower form of consciousness. the philosopher-king wants to turn away from the sensory world and go into intellectual contemplation of the forms. are you a platonist? have you ever wanted to study a field thoroughly before action because you think that is responsible? or omitting action because you think that acting before perfect understanding could be reckless? this is a trap/mistake. full theoretical understanding never arrives. secondly, no amount of reading will ever substitute the actual doing. the doer alone learneth. you need to be in the arena. more beautifully put by aristotle, phronesis (practical wisdom) is not derivable from theoretical knowledge, it develops through action and experience. the prime mover knows this. i also suspect that, psychologically, the platonist's preference for the ivory tower is a response to not confronting enough anxiety. it is a sort of defense mechanism, or rationalization.
the sam walton principle
walton was not first. but he borrowed principles from others, and applied them more effectively and consistently than anyone else. the success of walmart was not about any novel idea yielding a competitive advantage. walton found what already was working, understood it more deeply than the people doing it, and executed it relentlessly.
the second principle is information extraction. walton questions his managers incisively, gathering all he can from them. he seeks out the most knowledgeable person in the industry. no self-image protection. pursue truth. very similar to henry ford's idea of not sparing yourself in any issue.
another interesting quote about walty is the following:
Walton is less afraid of being wrong than anyone I know.
mind-body integration in a business context
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impatience
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overconfidence and self-doubt
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hard goals and overreaching
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healthy or neurotic
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risk
risk is a function of your ability.
james j. hill
work, hard work, intelligent work, and then more work.
fred smith's tenacity at fedex
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thinking means to focus on reality
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mr. big and impression management
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primary focus is outward
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love
the single most important thing in your business career, whatever, is, make sure [that] no matter what you do, that you love what you are doing. because if you do not love what you are doing, the stress is gonna increase by a 1000 percent ... do not spend all that time in something you do not like, a lot.
creation is reciprocal to money making
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vanderbilt
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iron clad conviction
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jack welch & rationality
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independence not contrarianism
Independence as one's acceptance of the responsibility of using one's own judgment for the purpose of sustaining one's own life.
every mind-body is individual. defaulting the responsibility of judgment to others undermines your own capacity to live. why? because you can only live as a parasite on the thinking and effort of others. however, seeking out knowledge discovered by others is necessary and good, but it is in the judgment of the content and the experts that one has to make for oneself. you may accept the premises and conclusions of some other person, or not, the point is that you do not default your mind. even intelligent minds sometimes fall into contrarianism, e.g., thiel, bezos, or jobs. but this is an emotionalist defiance to authority. it is defiance for the sake of defiance. which obviously is just another form of dependence.
take nucor's ken iverson as an example. he went against the crowd because he judged the crowd to be wrong about what creates long term value. it had nothing to with wanting to be contrarian.
how do we apply independence to competition?
business is competitive. part of holding the full context of knowledge relevant to your business is knowing your competition. but please differentiate between understanding what they are up to vs blindly copying them. walton is a great example here.
watson's honesty at ibm
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the trader principle
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john allison at bb&t
I love my work. I love the process of building a financial institution. And I love the fact that due to stock appreciation we have made many employees wealthy.
political relationships vs commercial value creation
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competitor obsession vs having a vision
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cost-consciousness
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active marathon running
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evergreen strats
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compound interest
the rate is set by how consistently and completely the principles are applied.
the one thing
What's the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?