#307: The World's Great Family Dynasties: Rockefeller, Rothschild, Morgan, & Toyada

What I learned from reading Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses by David Landes.Supporters of this episode:EightSleep: Get the best sleep of your life and unlock more energy with the Pod 3. Go to eightsleep.com/founders/Meter: Meter is the easiest way for your business to get fast, secure, and reliable internet and WiFi in any commercial space. Go to meter.com/foundersTiny: Tiny is the easiest way to sell your business. Tiny provides quick and straightforward cash exits for Founders. Get in touch by emailing hi@tiny.com----Listen to Invest Like the Best #292 David Senra: Passion and Pain. Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can ask me questions directly and listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes.Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----(4:25) Success causes failure. As the family develops power and prestige, the heirs find many interesting and amusing things to do rather than run their business.(6:00) Those on the margins often come to control the center.(9:00) Great industrial leaders are always fanatically committed to their jobs. They are not lazy, or amateurs. — Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. (Founders #306)(9:50) For many of the great founders “Appetite comes with eating.”(11:00)Rothschild episodes:Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild by Amos Elon. (Founders #197)The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets by Niall Ferguson. (Founders #198)JP Morgan episodes:The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. (Founders #139)The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield. (Founders #142)Rockefeller episodes:Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. Rockefeller. (Founders #148)Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248)John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke. (Founders #254)(13:30) Mayer Rothschild thought that long term relationships were more valuable than immediate profit.(15:45) Nathan Rothschild has extreme levels of self belief: When his prospective father-in-law asked for proof of his prospects, Nathan told him that if he was concerned about having his daughters provided for, he might just as well give them all to Nathan, and be done with it.(19:00) The Rothschilds developed the technique of absolute direction to perfection.(21:15) Wal-Mart stock is staying right where it is. We don’t need the money. We don’t need to buy a yacht. And thank goodness we never thought we had to go out and buy anything like an island. We just don’t have those lands of needs or ambitions, which wreck a lot of companies when they get along in years. Some families sell their stock off a little at a time to live high, and then—boom—somebody takes them over, and it all goes down the drain. One of the real reasons I’m writing