Sam Zemurray (The Fish That Ate the Whale)

What I learned from rereading The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen.----Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. Get your tickets here! ----Sponsors: I use EightSleep to get the best sleep of my life. Find out why EightSleep is loved by founders everywhere and get $150 off at eightsleep.com/founders/----Vesto makes it easy for you to invest your businesses idle cash. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you. Here's the legal disclosures to make the lawyers happy:Vesto Advisors, LLC (“Vesto”) is an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. More information about Vesto and our partnership can be found hereWe are entitled to compensation for promoting Vesto Advisors, LLC. Accordingly, we have an incentive to endorse Vesto and its team and services. We are not current advisory clients of the Vesto.----Join Founders AMAMembers of Founders AMA can:-Email me your questions directly (you get a private email address in the confirmation email) -Promote your company to other members by including a link to your website with you question -Unlock 39 Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes immediately-Listen to new Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes every week ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----[4:47] This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does. But I found it invigorating, too. It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making grandees in funny hats but also by street-corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real.[8:56] Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer by Stephen Dando-Collins (Founders #55)[10:00] Unlike Vanderbilt's other adversaries William Walker was not afraid of Cornelius when he should have been.[12:21] The immigrants of that era could not afford to be children.[12:42] The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Negotiator by Rich Cohen[12:54] He was driven by the same raw energy that has always attracted the most ambitious to America, then pushed them to the head of the crowd. Grasper, climber-nasty ways of describing this kid, who wants what you take for granted. From his first months in America, he was scheming, looking for a way to get ahead. You did not need to be a Rockefeller to know the basics of the dream: Start at the bottom, fight your way to the top.[14:01] There is no problem you can't solve if you understand your business from A to Z.[17:08]  Sam spotted an opportunity where others saw nothing.[18:17] As far as he was concerned, ripes were considered trash only because Boston Fruit and similar firms were too slow-footed to cover ground. It was a calculation based on arrogance. I can be fast where others have been slow. I can hus