What I learned from reading The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. 

----

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! 

----

Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. 

---

[0:01] I believe it’s much the same in one’s profession: Superb, reliable results take time. 

[4:55] How Jack Dorsey describes The Score Takes Care of Itself: He took at team that was at the bottom and brought them to the top. He focused on the details. He didn’t say you need to win games. He said you need to tuck in your shirts. You need to clean your lockers. This is how we answer the phones here. He set a new standard of performance. 

[6:53] Bill Walsh on his father / What he learned from his early life 

[10:15] Bill Walsh on why should you care about your standard of performance: Pursuing your ambitions, especially those of any magnitude, can be grueling and hazardous, and produce agonizing failure along the way, but achieving those goals is among life’s most gratifying and thrilling experiences. 

[14:15] A great description of the book: Bill Walsh loved to teach. This is his final lecture on leadership. 

[16:20] Bill Walsh built a new culture. He calls it his Standard of Performance. 

[20:30] Make a commitment to be the best version of yourself— even when your current external results may not warrant that belief 

[26:16] The prime directive was not victory  

[28:45] Winners act like winners before their winners  

[32:20] Bill Walsh experiences the entrepreneurial roller coaster 

[37:00] An incredible story about his idea of the west coast offense 

[46:20] Be unswerving in moving towards your goal 

[47:25] Sweat the little details but the right little details 

[49:00] Don’t focus on your competitors —spend that time making yourself better so it is harder for them to compete against you 

[50:00] Don’t let anybody call you a genius / If you sleep on a win you’ll wake up with a loss / Success Disease 

[54:15] Without a healthy ego you’ve got a big problem  

[58:05] There is no mystery to mastery  

[1:03:05] A pretty package will not sell a crappy product  

[1:04:16] Avoid burnout: Can you imagine how burned out you must be to wait fourteen years to return to doing something you love? 

----

“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast