T-Mobile agreed to acquire Mint Mobile for $1.35 billion. Ryan Reynolds owned roughly 20-25% of the company, making his stake worth several hundred million dollars.
“T-Mobile is set to acquire Ryan Reynolds' Mint Mobile. He owns 20 to 25%, uh, for $1.35 billion.”
A woman bought an original iPhone in 2007, kept it sealed in the box for 15 years, and sold it at auction for $63,000.
“She keeps it in the box, doesn't touch it for 15 years and is now selling it. Just sold it at an auction for $63,000.”
Ben Wilson explains the LDS Church tithes members 10% of income and spun its old businesses into a tax-exempt hedge fund (Ensign Peak) now worth over $100 billion, thanks to its religious tax status.
“So we all pay 10% of our income to the church. And but not only that, the church also has a number of businesses associated with it, has And a lot of this comes from over 100 years ago when essentially the Mormon Church controlled Utah. So it spun off a lot of those businesses. It basically doesn't run businesses anymore. But what it did was create basically a big hedge fund. And because of its association with the church, that hedge fund does not pay taxes and has done really well and now is worth, as you pointed out, over $100 billion.”
The Moonwalkers shoe, a half-roller-skate that lets you walk at 7 mph (about 3x normal walking speed), raised $300,000 on Kickstarter at a price above $1,000 per pair.
“It's, it's on Kickstarter. It's raised $300,000. The shoes cost more than $1,000.”
Booked to keynote a generic 'Private Investor Conference,' Edward Snowden instead screen-shared a news article showing the host had been busted for a $4.4M Ponzi scheme, confirmed it was him on air, then hung up and left.
“He shows up and immediately pulls up an article that says, uh, man busted for $4.4 million Ponzi scheme. And he says, is this you? And the host, the interviewer says, yeah, that's me. He goes, all right, well, I think it's important to tell people this kind of stuff. Bye. And hangs up on him.”
JPMorgan Chase acquired college financial-aid startup Frank for $175M, then shut it down alleging founder Charlie Javice fabricated over 4 million accounts. A first email to the customer list bounced back 70%.
“JPMorgan Chase bought college financial aid platform Frank for $175 million. It has now shut down the website and claims that they fabricated more than 4 million accounts. Um, on their first email to their customer list, they got a 70% bounce back.”
JPMorgan Chase acquired college financial-aid startup Frank for $175M, then shut it down alleging founder Charlie Javice fabricated over 4 million accounts. A first email to the customer list bounced back 70%.
“JPMorgan Chase bought college financial aid platform Frank for $175 million. It has now shut down the website and claims that they fabricated more than 4 million accounts. Um, on their first email to their customer list, they got a 70% bounce back.”
At Camp MFM in Cameron Indoor Stadium, MrBeast offered Shaan $10,000 (in Bitcoin) to make a half-court shot. The clip of Shaan hamming it up to camera went viral on Reels and TikTok, illustrating that committing to a goofy bit on camera drives reach.
“And he goes, I'm about to shoot from half court with MrBeast and whichever one of us makes it first is gonna make $10,000, right? Totally hamming it up. Kind of poking fun at himself, right? The funny thing is when we post the video, it actually popped off and went viral on TikTok.”
Ben Wilson argues that most people already know what makes content or a brand work; the rare differentiator is willingness to fully commit without shame. He cites MrBeast hamming up every camera moment and even Hitler's ridiculous-but-total commitment to his persona as examples of the same mechanic.
“Just very few people are willing to commit to the bit fully, right? Like MrBeast fully commits to the bit. Like he actually does that every time he looks at the camera. I'm about to give $100,000 away to these people if they eat a cockroach or whatever he says, right? And he fully commits to it.”
Steal thisPick the bit your project needs and commit to it completely, ignoring how mockable it looks from the outside.
Ben Wilson explains that the real German military doctrine wasn't 'Blitzkrieg' (an American marketing term) but Schwerpunkt, meaning gravity: massing overwhelming force on a single small point rather than spreading thin. He maps it to Napoleon punching a hole in enemy lines and to Amazon starting with only books.
“What the Germans actually talked about was this word— oh, I can't remember the word in German, but it essentially means gravity. Looking it up, Schwerpunkt, and it means gravity. And so it wasn't just that the attacks were fast, although they were, but it was actually like mass strikes.”
Steal thisPour disproportionate resources into one narrow beachhead, win it decisively, then expand to adjacent victories.
Ben Wilson applies the conqueror's resource-concentration principle to startups: Amazon focused everything on books first, won that, then followed up that victory with adjacent expansion. The pattern of narrowing focus to one small point is what Napoleon, Caesar, and Hitler all shared.
“So like to go back to the Amazon example, It's starting with bookstores, right? It's starting with just books. Like, I'm gonna take tons of resources and just focus on this tiny place and then follow up on that victory. I'm gonna win books first, and then I'm gonna follow up on that with, with other marginal victories.”
Steal thisDon't launch broad. Win one tiny category completely, then use that base to take adjacent ones.
Studying Edison's gaunt, sleepless, obsessive tinkering, Ben Wilson concludes that highly successful people have addictive personalities. Edison's behavior would read as drug addiction if you swapped inventing for meth; the addiction just happens to point at something society rewards.
“And I was like, oh man, like substitute inventing for meth or heroin. And it'd be very clear that this guy was an addict, that he was a junkie. And I— that's when it clicked for me. Oh, all of these people who are super successful have addictive personalities. It just so happens that they're addicted to something that is considered positive.”
Ben Wilson notes that, counterintuitively, studies show high-achieving CEOs and successful people have higher rates of substance abuse and addiction than the general population, supporting the idea that an addictive propensity drives extreme achievement.
“But it actually turns out that they have higher rates of addiction and substance abuse than the general population when they study it. And so I think they are born with this propensity to addiction.”
Ben Wilson reframes MrBeast's self-described gambling addiction: YouTube itself is a slot machine where you publish a video and the algorithm randomly delivers a 50-million-view dopamine hit. The addictive personality is simply channeled into a positive outlet.
“And that's what I realized is that for, for him, YouTube is another form of gambling, right? Because like you put out the video and who knows how it's going to do, and then you get that dopamine hit of like, oh, this got 50 million views. Like it's very similar, that variability, the way that the algorithm can pick it up, make anything go viral.”
Recalling meeting future LDS Church leader Dallin H. Oaks at 16, Ben Wilson realized true charisma isn't inward magnetism. Truly charismatic people focus all attention on you, draw you out, and leave you feeling like the special one, getting you 'drunk' on that feeling.
“People think that it's like inward magnetism, but it almost goes the opposite direction of like somehow they're able to make you feel like you're the special one. And, and then you like get like drunk on that almost.”
Citing David Ogilvy, Ben Wilson explains the copywriting rule that the job of the first sentence is to get you to read the second, and so on. He holds up Gladwell as the master where every single sentence is engineered to pull you to the next.
“Ogilvy has this good quote, uh, David Ogilvy, like, uh, very famous copywriter and advertiser, uh, that the job of the first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence. And the job of the second sentence is to get you to read the third sentence.”
Steal thisEngineer every sentence to pull the reader into the next one; that is the whole job of the opening.
Ben Wilson tells how Napoleon took command of a starving, undersupplied French army and marched it to attack the Austrians the very next day rather than fixing inputs first, winning a cheap victory and momentum. He applies it to himself: instead of hiring more researchers, just put out more episodes.
“Every single day you need to be taking steps that have measurable outcomes that advance your goals forward. You need to be doing and you need to have a bias towards doing those things rather than planning and preparing, dude.”
Steal thisEach day, do something with a measurable outcome instead of planning or preparing.
Ben Wilson contrasts the academic Greeks, who tried to derive the geometry of the perfect bridge, with the 'dumb jock' Romans, who just kept building bridges that crumbled and rebuilding until they worked, never learning the underlying math. The Romans' trial-and-error bias to action let them take over the world.
“The Romans just went out and built a bridge and then it kind of crumbled. And then they're like, oh, what if we did this? And then they rebuilt it and then that didn't work out so well. And then over the generations they just went out and did stuff until eventually they had like the perfect way to build a bridge that would stand forever. Did they ever know the math behind it? They literally never did.”
Steal thisStop trying to derive the perfect plan; just keep trying things until you find what works.
Ben cites Eric Newsom's 'diamond' framework for hit podcasts: you can be unique on what it's about, who hosts it, who it's for, or how the story is told. Most failed pods are unique on only one axis; winners differentiate on at least two.
“So he calls it a diamond. But there's really 4 attributes on which you can be unique and you need to be unique on at least, well, really 2 of them. In order to be a successful hit podcast. So the 4 ways you can be unique are what the podcast is about, who hosts it, who it's for, or the way you tell the story.”
Steal thisBefore launching a podcast, make sure you're differentiated on at least two of: topic, host, audience, or storytelling.
Ben's contrarian point: 35,000 followers on YouTube is 'nothing,' but 35,000 podcast downloads per episode can be a half-million-dollar business. Podcasting is hand-to-hand combat to build, but a small audience is far more valuable than the same number elsewhere.
“But the best thing about it, the best thing about podcasting is that you can build a really valuable following with very few followers. If you have 35,000 followers on YouTube, you just can't do much. Like, you're nothing.”
Ben's contrarian point: 35,000 followers on YouTube is 'nothing,' but 35,000 podcast downloads per episode can be a half-million-dollar business. Podcasting is hand-to-hand combat to build, but a small audience is far more valuable than the same number elsewhere.
“But the best thing about it, the best thing about podcasting is that you can build a really valuable following with very few followers. If you have 35,000 followers on YouTube, you just can't do much. Like, you're nothing.”
Ben observes that super-famous guests often do just okay, while unique, rarely-heard-from people (Peter Levels, Dharmesh) blow up. He's pivoting his history pod from broad figures to passionately-niche subjects like Brigham Young, which is on track to be his most downloaded episode.
“And so I've pivoted to doing stuff that's a little more niche. And so I just did an episode on Brigham Young, who most people don't care about, but some people care about very, very passionately. And so it's actually on track to be my most downloaded episode.”
Steal thisBook guests/topics that a small audience is rabidly passionate about rather than broadly famous names.
Ben frames audience-building as Amazon did: start as a bookstore, then DVDs, then dog toys — a collection of niches that compound into 'the everything store.' Content works the same way: collect passionate niches one at a time until you've assembled a broad audience.
“It's a little bit of the Amazon strategy, right? Like, so Amazon is the store for everything online, right? But it didn't start out that way. It was a bookstore and then it was a DVD store and then it was a dog toy store. And it's like actually just a collection of niches that all got bundled. And I think that works for content as well.”
Steal thisGrow a broad audience by stacking one passionate niche at a time instead of going broad from day one.
Producer Ben argues the worst thing content can be is 'fine.' Instead of softening your idea to capture the largest audience, optimize for a small number of people who are totally obsessed — they evangelize and grow it for you.
“Too many people think, oh, well, I'll just produce something that's okay. That's good. That's fine. That's inoffensive. I'm going to, try and capture as big of an audience as I possibly can. What you really need to be optimizing for instead is, uh, not panic, obviously, but obsession. It's better to have a smaller audience with a very few people who are totally obsessed with your podcast.”
Steal thisStop sanding down your idea for mass appeal — make choices that get a small group obsessed, then let them evangelize it.
Producer Ben argues the worst thing content can be is 'fine.' Instead of softening your idea to capture the largest audience, optimize for a small number of people who are totally obsessed — they evangelize and grow it for you.
“Too many people think, oh, well, I'll just produce something that's okay. That's good. That's fine. That's inoffensive. I'm going to, try and capture as big of an audience as I possibly can. What you really need to be optimizing for instead is, uh, not panic, obviously, but obsession. It's better to have a smaller audience with a very few people who are totally obsessed with your podcast.”
Steal thisStop sanding down your idea for mass appeal — make choices that get a small group obsessed, then let them evangelize it.
Producer Ben argues the worst thing content can be is 'fine.' Instead of softening your idea to capture the largest audience, optimize for a small number of people who are totally obsessed — they evangelize and grow it for you.
“Too many people think, oh, well, I'll just produce something that's okay. That's good. That's fine. That's inoffensive. I'm going to, try and capture as big of an audience as I possibly can. What you really need to be optimizing for instead is, uh, not panic, obviously, but obsession. It's better to have a smaller audience with a very few people who are totally obsessed with your podcast.”
Steal thisStop sanding down your idea for mass appeal — make choices that get a small group obsessed, then let them evangelize it.
Producer Ben argues the worst thing content can be is 'fine.' Instead of softening your idea to capture the largest audience, optimize for a small number of people who are totally obsessed — they evangelize and grow it for you.
“Too many people think, oh, well, I'll just produce something that's okay. That's good. That's fine. That's inoffensive. I'm going to, try and capture as big of an audience as I possibly can. What you really need to be optimizing for instead is, uh, not panic, obviously, but obsession. It's better to have a smaller audience with a very few people who are totally obsessed with your podcast.”
Steal thisStop sanding down your idea for mass appeal — make choices that get a small group obsessed, then let them evangelize it.
Lacking capital and connections for banking, Mayer Rothschild sold rare coins to nobility via beautiful gold-embossed catalogs, shipping coins free with payment only after the customer chose what to keep — a try-before-you-buy DTC model centuries early.
“Uncommonly for this day and age, these noblemen could look through the catalogs and then choose the medals and coins they were interested in based on the descriptions provided, and Rothschild would send them the medals and coins for free. They could look them over, choose which ones to keep, send back the rest, again free of shipping, and only then was payment required from them. You can see the similarities to these internet direct-to-consumer businesses that do so well today. Mayer's business is almost like a Warby Parker or Casper Mattresses or something like that.”
Steal thisUse a free try-before-you-buy model to win trust and build relationships with high-value customers, not just to sell.
The Rothschilds undercut rivals by issuing government bonds at far lower fees, then more than recouped the difference by speculating on those same bonds in the secondary market — where their information edge made them the best traders alive.
“They would offer to help issue the bonds for much lower fees than anyone else. If they could do that, why just— why wouldn't anyone else do that? Beat them on price? Well, they could make up the difference and much more by speculating on the bonds in the secondary market.”
Steal thisLoss-lead on the headline fee to win the mandate, then monetize the position you're uniquely placed to trade around it.
Lacking capital and connections for banking, Mayer Rothschild sold rare coins to nobility via beautiful gold-embossed catalogs, shipping coins free with payment only after the customer chose what to keep — a try-before-you-buy DTC model centuries early.
“Uncommonly for this day and age, these noblemen could look through the catalogs and then choose the medals and coins they were interested in based on the descriptions provided, and Rothschild would send them the medals and coins for free. They could look them over, choose which ones to keep, send back the rest, again free of shipping, and only then was payment required from them. You can see the similarities to these internet direct-to-consumer businesses that do so well today. Mayer's business is almost like a Warby Parker or Casper Mattresses or something like that.”
Steal thisUse a free try-before-you-buy model to win trust and build relationships with high-value customers, not just to sell.
Lacking capital and connections for banking, Mayer Rothschild sold rare coins to nobility via beautiful gold-embossed catalogs, shipping coins free with payment only after the customer chose what to keep — a try-before-you-buy DTC model centuries early.
“Uncommonly for this day and age, these noblemen could look through the catalogs and then choose the medals and coins they were interested in based on the descriptions provided, and Rothschild would send them the medals and coins for free. They could look them over, choose which ones to keep, send back the rest, again free of shipping, and only then was payment required from them. You can see the similarities to these internet direct-to-consumer businesses that do so well today. Mayer's business is almost like a Warby Parker or Casper Mattresses or something like that.”
Steal thisUse a free try-before-you-buy model to win trust and build relationships with high-value customers, not just to sell.
The Rothschilds undercut rivals by issuing government bonds at far lower fees, then more than recouped the difference by speculating on those same bonds in the secondary market — where their information edge made them the best traders alive.
“They would offer to help issue the bonds for much lower fees than anyone else. If they could do that, why just— why wouldn't anyone else do that? Beat them on price? Well, they could make up the difference and much more by speculating on the bonds in the secondary market.”
Steal thisLoss-lead on the headline fee to win the mandate, then monetize the position you're uniquely placed to trade around it.
The Rothschilds undercut rivals by issuing government bonds at far lower fees, then more than recouped the difference by speculating on those same bonds in the secondary market — where their information edge made them the best traders alive.
“They would offer to help issue the bonds for much lower fees than anyone else. If they could do that, why just— why wouldn't anyone else do that? Beat them on price? Well, they could make up the difference and much more by speculating on the bonds in the secondary market.”
Steal thisLoss-lead on the headline fee to win the mandate, then monetize the position you're uniquely placed to trade around it.
The Rothschilds undercut rivals by issuing government bonds at far lower fees, then more than recouped the difference by speculating on those same bonds in the secondary market — where their information edge made them the best traders alive.
“They would offer to help issue the bonds for much lower fees than anyone else. If they could do that, why just— why wouldn't anyone else do that? Beat them on price? Well, they could make up the difference and much more by speculating on the bonds in the secondary market.”
Steal thisLoss-lead on the headline fee to win the mandate, then monetize the position you're uniquely placed to trade around it.
Lacking capital and connections for banking, Mayer Rothschild sold rare coins to nobility via beautiful gold-embossed catalogs, shipping coins free with payment only after the customer chose what to keep — a try-before-you-buy DTC model centuries early.
“Uncommonly for this day and age, these noblemen could look through the catalogs and then choose the medals and coins they were interested in based on the descriptions provided, and Rothschild would send them the medals and coins for free. They could look them over, choose which ones to keep, send back the rest, again free of shipping, and only then was payment required from them. You can see the similarities to these internet direct-to-consumer businesses that do so well today. Mayer's business is almost like a Warby Parker or Casper Mattresses or something like that.”
Steal thisUse a free try-before-you-buy model to win trust and build relationships with high-value customers, not just to sell.
The Rothschilds undercut rivals by issuing government bonds at far lower fees, then more than recouped the difference by speculating on those same bonds in the secondary market — where their information edge made them the best traders alive.
“They would offer to help issue the bonds for much lower fees than anyone else. If they could do that, why just— why wouldn't anyone else do that? Beat them on price? Well, they could make up the difference and much more by speculating on the bonds in the secondary market.”
Steal thisLoss-lead on the headline fee to win the mandate, then monetize the position you're uniquely placed to trade around it.
The Rothschilds undercut rivals by issuing government bonds at far lower fees, then more than recouped the difference by speculating on those same bonds in the secondary market — where their information edge made them the best traders alive.
“They would offer to help issue the bonds for much lower fees than anyone else. If they could do that, why just— why wouldn't anyone else do that? Beat them on price? Well, they could make up the difference and much more by speculating on the bonds in the secondary market.”
Steal thisLoss-lead on the headline fee to win the mandate, then monetize the position you're uniquely placed to trade around it.
Lacking capital and connections for banking, Mayer Rothschild sold rare coins to nobility via beautiful gold-embossed catalogs, shipping coins free with payment only after the customer chose what to keep — a try-before-you-buy DTC model centuries early.
“Uncommonly for this day and age, these noblemen could look through the catalogs and then choose the medals and coins they were interested in based on the descriptions provided, and Rothschild would send them the medals and coins for free. They could look them over, choose which ones to keep, send back the rest, again free of shipping, and only then was payment required from them. You can see the similarities to these internet direct-to-consumer businesses that do so well today. Mayer's business is almost like a Warby Parker or Casper Mattresses or something like that.”
Steal thisUse a free try-before-you-buy model to win trust and build relationships with high-value customers, not just to sell.
Western Union and J.P. Morgan capitalized Edison's new electric light venture with $395,000 — roughly $10.5 million in 2020 dollars — putting Edison on the hook to actually deliver the bulb he'd already claimed to invent.
“They capitalize his new electric light company to the tune of $395,000. Which is the equivalent of about $10.5 million in 2020 money. He's well-funded, but he's on the hook. He has to invent the light bulb now.”
As a fresh immigrant with shaky English, Tesla took Edison's offhand joke — 'if you can invent something I can't, you can have $50,000' — at face value. When Tesla delivered and demanded the money, Edison said it was a joke, and Tesla left in a huff.
“And Edison goes, "Look, buddy, if you can invent something that I can't invent, you can have $50,000." Edison is joking, you know, he was not flush with cash at this time. He didn't have $50,000 to give, but Tesla is a very recent immigrant. His English is not great and he doesn't get the joke, right?”
As a fresh immigrant with shaky English, Tesla took Edison's offhand joke — 'if you can invent something I can't, you can have $50,000' — at face value. When Tesla delivered and demanded the money, Edison said it was a joke, and Tesla left in a huff.
“And Edison goes, "Look, buddy, if you can invent something that I can't invent, you can have $50,000." Edison is joking, you know, he was not flush with cash at this time. He didn't have $50,000 to give, but Tesla is a very recent immigrant. His English is not great and he doesn't get the joke, right?”
Western Union and J.P. Morgan capitalized Edison's new electric light venture with $395,000 — roughly $10.5 million in 2020 dollars — putting Edison on the hook to actually deliver the bulb he'd already claimed to invent.
“They capitalize his new electric light company to the tune of $395,000. Which is the equivalent of about $10.5 million in 2020 money. He's well-funded, but he's on the hook. He has to invent the light bulb now.”
Western Union and J.P. Morgan capitalized Edison's new electric light venture with $395,000 — roughly $10.5 million in 2020 dollars — putting Edison on the hook to actually deliver the bulb he'd already claimed to invent.
“They capitalize his new electric light company to the tune of $395,000. Which is the equivalent of about $10.5 million in 2020 money. He's well-funded, but he's on the hook. He has to invent the light bulb now.”
Western Union and J.P. Morgan capitalized Edison's new electric light venture with $395,000 — roughly $10.5 million in 2020 dollars — putting Edison on the hook to actually deliver the bulb he'd already claimed to invent.
“They capitalize his new electric light company to the tune of $395,000. Which is the equivalent of about $10.5 million in 2020 money. He's well-funded, but he's on the hook. He has to invent the light bulb now.”
As a fresh immigrant with shaky English, Tesla took Edison's offhand joke — 'if you can invent something I can't, you can have $50,000' — at face value. When Tesla delivered and demanded the money, Edison said it was a joke, and Tesla left in a huff.
“And Edison goes, "Look, buddy, if you can invent something that I can't invent, you can have $50,000." Edison is joking, you know, he was not flush with cash at this time. He didn't have $50,000 to give, but Tesla is a very recent immigrant. His English is not great and he doesn't get the joke, right?”
Western Union and J.P. Morgan capitalized Edison's new electric light venture with $395,000 — roughly $10.5 million in 2020 dollars — putting Edison on the hook to actually deliver the bulb he'd already claimed to invent.
“They capitalize his new electric light company to the tune of $395,000. Which is the equivalent of about $10.5 million in 2020 money. He's well-funded, but he's on the hook. He has to invent the light bulb now.”
Wilson argues the tramp telegraph operators were a textbook 'tribe of maniacs' that mirrors early Silicon Valley: both on America's frontier a generation after settlement, both run by tinkering 20-somethings with access to the most advanced tech of the day.
“I've talked before about the tribe of maniacs phenomenon, and it was in full effect here. In fact, this is sort of a textbook example, and it's crazy how much it resembles Silicon Valley in its heyday. Both are on the frontiers of America, born a generation or two after it was settled, and during a time of really rapid population growth. Both had access to the most advanced technology at the time— silicon chips in the case of California, telegraphs in the case of Edison and his contemporaries. Both scenes were started and run by men in their 20s who were obsessed with tinkering”
Wilson argues the tramp telegraph operators were a textbook 'tribe of maniacs' that mirrors early Silicon Valley: both on America's frontier a generation after settlement, both run by tinkering 20-somethings with access to the most advanced tech of the day.
“I've talked before about the tribe of maniacs phenomenon, and it was in full effect here. In fact, this is sort of a textbook example, and it's crazy how much it resembles Silicon Valley in its heyday. Both are on the frontiers of America, born a generation or two after it was settled, and during a time of really rapid population growth. Both had access to the most advanced technology at the time— silicon chips in the case of California, telegraphs in the case of Edison and his contemporaries. Both scenes were started and run by men in their 20s who were obsessed with tinkering”
Wilson argues the tramp telegraph operators were a textbook 'tribe of maniacs' that mirrors early Silicon Valley: both on America's frontier a generation after settlement, both run by tinkering 20-somethings with access to the most advanced tech of the day.
“I've talked before about the tribe of maniacs phenomenon, and it was in full effect here. In fact, this is sort of a textbook example, and it's crazy how much it resembles Silicon Valley in its heyday. Both are on the frontiers of America, born a generation or two after it was settled, and during a time of really rapid population growth. Both had access to the most advanced technology at the time— silicon chips in the case of California, telegraphs in the case of Edison and his contemporaries. Both scenes were started and run by men in their 20s who were obsessed with tinkering”
Wilson argues the tramp telegraph operators were a textbook 'tribe of maniacs' that mirrors early Silicon Valley: both on America's frontier a generation after settlement, both run by tinkering 20-somethings with access to the most advanced tech of the day.
“I've talked before about the tribe of maniacs phenomenon, and it was in full effect here. In fact, this is sort of a textbook example, and it's crazy how much it resembles Silicon Valley in its heyday. Both are on the frontiers of America, born a generation or two after it was settled, and during a time of really rapid population growth. Both had access to the most advanced technology at the time— silicon chips in the case of California, telegraphs in the case of Edison and his contemporaries. Both scenes were started and run by men in their 20s who were obsessed with tinkering”
Ben Wilson recounts that Walt Disney went bankrupt and had to start completely over three separate times before he succeeded with Mickey Mouse, yet kept an almost illogical optimism each time.
“This was important because if you've been keeping track, he basically hit rock bottom and had to start over 3 different times.”
Ben Wilson recounts that Walt Disney went bankrupt and had to start completely over three separate times before he succeeded with Mickey Mouse, yet kept an almost illogical optimism each time.
“This was important because if you've been keeping track, he basically hit rock bottom and had to start over 3 different times.”
Ben Wilson recounts that Walt Disney went bankrupt and had to start completely over three separate times before he succeeded with Mickey Mouse, yet kept an almost illogical optimism each time.
“This was important because if you've been keeping track, he basically hit rock bottom and had to start over 3 different times.”
Ben Wilson recounts that Walt Disney went bankrupt and had to start completely over three separate times before he succeeded with Mickey Mouse, yet kept an almost illogical optimism each time.
“This was important because if you've been keeping track, he basically hit rock bottom and had to start over 3 different times.”
Ben Wilson recounts that Walt Disney went bankrupt and had to start completely over three separate times before he succeeded with Mickey Mouse, yet kept an almost illogical optimism each time.
“This was important because if you've been keeping track, he basically hit rock bottom and had to start over 3 different times.”
Ben Wilson recounts that Walt Disney went bankrupt and had to start completely over three separate times before he succeeded with Mickey Mouse, yet kept an almost illogical optimism each time.
“This was important because if you've been keeping track, he basically hit rock bottom and had to start over 3 different times.”
Ben Wilson recounts that Walt Disney went bankrupt and had to start completely over three separate times before he succeeded with Mickey Mouse, yet kept an almost illogical optimism each time.
“This was important because if you've been keeping track, he basically hit rock bottom and had to start over 3 different times.”
Ben Wilson says a single mention on My First Million took his 'How to Take Over the World' podcast from roughly 200 daily listeners to many thousands a day, a vivid case study in audience slingshotting.
“Yeah, yeah. If you're looking at where from a daily perspective, yeah, that's right. It was about 200 per day to many thousands per day.”
MrBeast told producer Ben how he'd take a podcast to YouTube: keep full episodes but edit the script so it's gripping second-by-second, add animations, and produce it highly. Podcasts can be casual background listening; YouTube has to pull viewers every second.
“And what he said is do the full episodes. Uh, you probably want to edit the scripts a little bit so that it's not quite quite so casual, uh, because podcasts, like, you listen to as you're washing the dishes. Like, it doesn't matter that it's not gripping every second of the, of the audio. But for YouTube, like, it does need to be gripping every second. Like, really needs to pull people second by second. So he said, you need to edit your script a little bit for video, do animations, do it highly produced, and do the full episodes, like 45 minutes to an hour long.”
Steal thisWhen repurposing audio to YouTube, rewrite the script to grip second-by-second and produce it highly, not casually.
Ben predicts crypto is right at the peak of its initial hype cycle, about to hit a trough of disillusionment where many people leave the space, before it finds legitimate uses a few years later. Said December 2021, near the all-time high.
“You know the hype cycle where it goes way up and then you have the trough of disillusionment and then it comes kind of back up? I think we're right at like the top of the initial hype cycle for crypto. We're gonna hit like a big, uh, like disillusionment period where a lot of people are gonna leave the space, and then it will find its footing and find some legitimate uses a few years from now.”
Ben Wilson's research process: never rely on a single biography because you only get one perspective. He reads at least two data points per person, ideally including an autobiography so he can see how the subject thought about themselves.
“So I decided early on, I didn't want to just read one biography for each person, because then you're getting someone else's perspective. So I decided I always want at least two data points. And if I can, I want one of those data points to be autobiographical so that I can see what they thought about, you know, themselves. So I read at least a couple biographies, and usually some— it's usually like three or four books for each major biography that I do.”
Steal thisWhen researching a person, read 3-4 sources including an autobiography so you triangulate the truth instead of inheriting one author's bias.
Shaan describes why Ben's format works: instead of narrating text written to be read silently, he reads the books and then retells the story in his own words. It saves the listener time without the boredom of a flat audiobook read.
“But when— what you did was nice, which is that you read the books, but then you told a story. And it's like audio first. It's like you, you're not just reading off of a page what was meant to be like read silently in somebody's head. You're actually just like, kind of doing the summary yourself. So it saved me the time, but it didn't bore me, which is like the sweet spot, I think.”
Steal thisMake audio content audio-first: digest your sources, then retell in your own voice rather than reading written text aloud.
Ben reframed loss aversion for a banker hesitating to start a company: if you believe you'll succeed, visualize that success daily — every day you delay launching, you're 'losing' the millions you'd have made by acting.
“So I essentially said you need to make loss aversion work for you. Essentially, if you believe that you're going to be successful, then, um, you need to visualize that success and say to yourself and realize every day that you delay starting your, your new thing is going to make you billions, you're losing millions of dollars because you're, you're failing to act.”
Steal thisFrame inaction as an active loss: every day you delay is money already being lost.
Ben argues Walt Disney slowed down only when advisors pushed him to focus on the 'reasonable' thing (pumping out animations). His obsession with model trains looked irrational but grew into Disneyland. The lesson for MrBeast: don't let anyone talk you out of your unreasonable passions.
“And like when he did that, the whole thing kind of went downhill. And then he goes crazy and he starts obsessing over little toy trains and like really going off the rails. But those, those model trains then get bigger and bigger and becomes Disneyland. And that is when he comes out of his funk and starts innovating again. And so for MrBeast, it's just like the don't let anyone convince you that you need to be working on the reasonable thing. Like you need to follow your unreasonable passions because somehow great things are gonna come out of that.”
As a 12-year-old, Edison bought up an entire newspaper stock for 5 cents each, bribed a telegraph operator to tease the Battle of Shiloh news ahead at every train stop, then sold the papers for a couple dollars each, making a mini fortune in a day.
“And so he buys all the newspapers for 5 cents, the entire stock, and sells them for like a couple dollars. And in one day makes like a mini fortune, right, for a 12-year-old, which is how old he was. So, uh, yeah, he was this little like Mark Twain type type character.”
Ben Wilson's heuristic for greatness: judge an invention by how far it pulls the future forward. The iPhone pulled the smartphone forward maybe 5-10 years; the phonograph and recorded sound, he argues, pulled the future forward about 50 years.
“I like to think of inventions in terms of how far forward does it pull the future, right? So like if you think about Steve Jobs and the iPhone, the smartphone, he probably pulled the future forward like 5, 10 years, right? If Steve Jobs had never existed, the smartphone was still gonna happen at some point, right? I think with the phonograph, with recorded sound, he pulled the future forward like 50 years.”
Steal thisMeasure an innovation's true greatness by how many years sooner it made the future arrive than it otherwise would have.
Ben Wilson, riffing on the quote 'the simplicity of genius,' argues genius doesn't come from being involved in everything and beating everyone — it comes from focusing on a single thing and becoming the best at that one thing.
“That genius does not come from being involved in all these things and being able to beat everyone everywhere. No, genius comes from simplicity, comes from focus on a single thing and becoming the best at that one thing.”
Ben Wilson, riffing on the quote 'the simplicity of genius,' argues genius doesn't come from being involved in everything and beating everyone — it comes from focusing on a single thing and becoming the best at that one thing.
“That genius does not come from being involved in all these things and being able to beat everyone everywhere. No, genius comes from simplicity, comes from focus on a single thing and becoming the best at that one thing.”
Ben confirms that after six months of fruitless lobbying to build the power grid, Edison's single dark-room demonstration flipped the politicians: the very next day they approved it. A reminder that one great demo can outweigh months of arguing.
“And like for 6 months, they had basically been lobbying to let them build this power grid. And nothing had happened. And then in one night, the next day everyone was like, okay, yep, go ahead. Yeah.”
Steal thisWhen persuasion stalls, stop arguing and build a demo that lets people feel the outcome.
Ben argues Tesla is overrated as an inventor relative to Edison: his standout invention, alternating current, was a real discovery but was independently made by three other people within the following year, meaning he pulled the future forward by only months.
“So yeah, Tesla has one really great invention to his name, which is alternating current, which was a big discovery, but like 3 other people discovered it independently in the next year. So like, when you talk about how how far forward you're pulling the future. It was like a year. It was like 6 months for Tesla.”
The next 'How to Take Over the World' subject is Laszlo Polgar, who claimed a foolproof method to raise a genius. He applied it to his three daughters, who became three of the greatest women's chess players of all time.
“And so this guy, Laszlo Polgar, claimed, claimed that he came up with a strategy, a technique by which you could— a foolproof way to raise a genius, right? So he had 3 kids. He's like, I'm going to raise them all to be geniuses. And he had 3 daughters and they were the 3 greatest women's chess players of all time.”
Shaan goes on the record predicting that Ben Wilson's 'How to Take Over the World' will be twice the size of My First Million within two years, crediting the strong content and niche plus the boost MFM is giving it.
“I believe, and I will also make my best effort, I believe your podcast is going to be twice as big as ours within 2 years. That's my prediction for this thing.”
Grammarly is best known as a simple Chrome extension that fixes your writing. Producer Ben notes that the seemingly random market it serves made it a $13 billion company.
“But what you might not know is that Grammarly, this Chrome extension, is actually a $13 billion company.”
Ben's takeaway from Ross writing his entire criminal plan in a diary that became courtroom evidence: a founder who journals should keep incriminating material out and keep themselves covered.
“If you keep a diary, keep the bad stuff out, keep yourself covered. But he wrote down basically everything in his diary.”
Ben recounts a banker telling him he could easily get paid $50,000 per appearance to come speak to the bank — the consulting opportunity that triggered his impostor syndrome.
“Um, and he's like, you could get paid like easy, like $50 grand a pop to come up and give me—”
Ben's editorial thesis: most history podcasts are 'history nerds talking about history,' which buries the audience in detail. He focuses instead on what the listener needs to know, how it applies to them, and why it's interesting, aiming for crossover appeal.
“it's a lot of history nerds talking about history. And like, I just don't think that's what people want, you know? Like, they don't want to get bogged down in those details. Like you were saying, Sean, like They want to know, what do I need to know? How does it apply to me? Why is this interesting to me? So that's what I try and focus on.”
Steal thisFrame any niche or technical content around what the audience needs to know and how it applies to them, not exhaustive detail.
Late in life Edison was nearly fully deaf, yet he was perfecting the phonograph. To judge the sound he would bite the wooden casing so the vibrations traveled through his teeth into his skull — and he insisted his idiosyncratic judgments about the music were right.
“And so what he would actually do is they had, you know, wood casing and he would bite the wood and the sound would vibrate through his teeth into his skull, and that's how he would hear.”
Late in life Edison was nearly fully deaf, yet he was perfecting the phonograph. To judge the sound he would bite the wooden casing so the vibrations traveled through his teeth into his skull — and he insisted his idiosyncratic judgments about the music were right.
“And so what he would actually do is they had, you know, wood casing and he would bite the wood and the sound would vibrate through his teeth into his skull, and that's how he would hear.”
Late in life Edison was nearly fully deaf, yet he was perfecting the phonograph. To judge the sound he would bite the wooden casing so the vibrations traveled through his teeth into his skull — and he insisted his idiosyncratic judgments about the music were right.
“And so what he would actually do is they had, you know, wood casing and he would bite the wood and the sound would vibrate through his teeth into his skull, and that's how he would hear.”
Late in life Edison was nearly fully deaf, yet he was perfecting the phonograph. To judge the sound he would bite the wooden casing so the vibrations traveled through his teeth into his skull — and he insisted his idiosyncratic judgments about the music were right.
“And so what he would actually do is they had, you know, wood casing and he would bite the wood and the sound would vibrate through his teeth into his skull, and that's how he would hear.”
Late in life Edison was nearly fully deaf, yet he was perfecting the phonograph. To judge the sound he would bite the wooden casing so the vibrations traveled through his teeth into his skull — and he insisted his idiosyncratic judgments about the music were right.
“And so what he would actually do is they had, you know, wood casing and he would bite the wood and the sound would vibrate through his teeth into his skull, and that's how he would hear.”
When his board refused to let Edison Electric get into manufacturing, he spun up Edison Machine Works as a separate company to build his own machinery. That side company became General Electric.
“so he starts Edison Machine Works as a separate company, which turned out to be a pretty good call, as that little company would go on to become what we know as General Electric, which was a pretty big deal for quite a long time.”
When his board refused to let Edison Electric get into manufacturing, he spun up Edison Machine Works as a separate company to build his own machinery. That side company became General Electric.
“so he starts Edison Machine Works as a separate company, which turned out to be a pretty good call, as that little company would go on to become what we know as General Electric, which was a pretty big deal for quite a long time.”
When his board refused to let Edison Electric get into manufacturing, he spun up Edison Machine Works as a separate company to build his own machinery. That side company became General Electric.
“so he starts Edison Machine Works as a separate company, which turned out to be a pretty good call, as that little company would go on to become what we know as General Electric, which was a pretty big deal for quite a long time.”
When his board refused to let Edison Electric get into manufacturing, he spun up Edison Machine Works as a separate company to build his own machinery. That side company became General Electric.
“so he starts Edison Machine Works as a separate company, which turned out to be a pretty good call, as that little company would go on to become what we know as General Electric, which was a pretty big deal for quite a long time.”
When his board refused to let Edison Electric get into manufacturing, he spun up Edison Machine Works as a separate company to build his own machinery. That side company became General Electric.
“so he starts Edison Machine Works as a separate company, which turned out to be a pretty good call, as that little company would go on to become what we know as General Electric, which was a pretty big deal for quite a long time.”
When his board refused to let Edison Electric get into manufacturing, he spun up Edison Machine Works as a separate company to build his own machinery. That side company became General Electric.
“so he starts Edison Machine Works as a separate company, which turned out to be a pretty good call, as that little company would go on to become what we know as General Electric, which was a pretty big deal for quite a long time.”
When his board refused to let Edison Electric get into manufacturing, he spun up Edison Machine Works as a separate company to build his own machinery. That side company became General Electric.
“so he starts Edison Machine Works as a separate company, which turned out to be a pretty good call, as that little company would go on to become what we know as General Electric, which was a pretty big deal for quite a long time.”
Ben explains the origin of 'How to Take Over the World': reading biographies of great people left him feeling like he'd been injected with testosterone and ready to take over the world, and he wanted to give listeners that same charged feeling.
“I was just gonna say that that's actually the reason I started doing this is because I would read these, these biographies, and I'd come out of it just feeling like I'd been injected with bull testosterone or something and gorilla testosterone. And just like ready to take over the world.”
Wilson's core takeaway from Edison's tinkering: as a self-taught non-theorist, Edison brute-forced inventions by trying every material rather than reasoning from first principles. The lesson is to spend less time planning and more time running reps and failing.
“He just dove in and started trying stuff, and he was just unbelievably persistent. He tried and he tried until he brute-forced his way into a solution, into an answer.”
Steal thisPlan less, do more: stop debating the optimal approach and start running reps, failing, and adapting on the fly.
Wilson's core takeaway from Edison's tinkering: as a self-taught non-theorist, Edison brute-forced inventions by trying every material rather than reasoning from first principles. The lesson is to spend less time planning and more time running reps and failing.
“He just dove in and started trying stuff, and he was just unbelievably persistent. He tried and he tried until he brute-forced his way into a solution, into an answer.”
Steal thisPlan less, do more: stop debating the optimal approach and start running reps, failing, and adapting on the fly.
Wilson's core takeaway from Edison's tinkering: as a self-taught non-theorist, Edison brute-forced inventions by trying every material rather than reasoning from first principles. The lesson is to spend less time planning and more time running reps and failing.
“He just dove in and started trying stuff, and he was just unbelievably persistent. He tried and he tried until he brute-forced his way into a solution, into an answer.”
Steal thisPlan less, do more: stop debating the optimal approach and start running reps, failing, and adapting on the fly.
Wilson's core takeaway from Edison's tinkering: as a self-taught non-theorist, Edison brute-forced inventions by trying every material rather than reasoning from first principles. The lesson is to spend less time planning and more time running reps and failing.
“He just dove in and started trying stuff, and he was just unbelievably persistent. He tried and he tried until he brute-forced his way into a solution, into an answer.”
Steal thisPlan less, do more: stop debating the optimal approach and start running reps, failing, and adapting on the fly.
Ben Wilson cites research that testosterone levels are dropping about 1% per year and fertility is crashing, with projections that in 50 years people may not be able to have unassisted children — linked to rising plastic use.
“the short of it is basically like our testosterone levels are decreasing at 1% per year. Fertility levels are just like crashing. And it's not just people who want to have children less, like people who are trying to have children are able to have them at much lower rates than in the past, to the point where it's like— and our plastic use is increasing so much that they're like, in 50 years, we're not sure that anyone is going to be able to have unassisted children anymore.”
Per the Harvard researcher Ben cites, the single highest-leverage move on microplastics is to never heat plastic — a water bottle left in the sun to 100 degrees leaches roughly 10x the plastic of room-temperature water.
“the biggest thing that she said was never heat plastic. That is like, if you can do one thing, it's never heat up plastic.”
Steal thisNever microwave or sun-heat food/drinks in plastic; the heat multiplies leaching dramatically.
DEA estimates put $1.2 billion of illegal drug transactions through Silk Road at then-current Bitcoin prices: $46 million marijuana, $17.4 million cocaine, $8.9 million heroin, plus meth.
“$1.2 billion, uh, $46 million of that is marijuana, $17.4 is cocaine, $8.9 is heroin.”
Ben's idea for the MFM marketing budget: release the raw video files so anyone can cut content, then pay $20,000 every month to whoever drives the most views on TikTok/Reels — a 99designs-style rolling contest that crowdsources distribution.
“what if we just put up $10,000 or $20,000 and just said, hey, we're gonna put out the video files from My First Million. Anyone can access the raw video files. And, uh, if you wanna make content for us, great. And at the end of the month, we'll give $10,000 or $20,000 to whoever gets the most views on TikTok or Instagram Reels.”
Steal thisOpen-source your raw content and run a monthly cash bounty for whoever drives the most views — crowdsource your clip distribution.