Embracing Pain as a Path to Excellence

My guest today is David Senra. David has studied history’s great founders and entrepreneurs in more depth than anyone I’ve ever met, and I’d wager more than anyone else alive. In this conversation, we cover many of the most common themes he’s discovered studying hundreds of entrepreneurs like Estée Lauder, John Rockefeller, Enzo Ferrari, and Edwin Land. I found this to be one of the most energizing conversations I’ve had in a long time, and one I’ll return to often.

David’s work and extraordinary energy aligns so well with our mission at Colossus that we’re excited to partner with him. You’ll soon be able to find his podcasts and transcripts at joincolossus.com where we hope you’ll learn as much from him as we have. If you like this conversation, be sure to subscribe to David’s podcast called Founders. Now onto our discussion. Please enjoy this great conversation with David Senra.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:01] - [First question] - When he first fell in love with reading

[00:07:01] - What’s rooted in his own history that’s made him obsessive about studying history’s great entrepreneurs and founders - Founders Podcast

[00:13:45] - How often obsession is apparent in the founders he’s studied across hundreds of biographies 

[00:18:08] - What is often behind obsession and how people listening can apply the lessons to their own lives

[00:22:45] - The dynamic and relationship between inspiration and perspiration 

[00:27:11] - Commonalities between the layers of leadership and support underneath founders

[00:31:52] - Where else he’s seen ego rear its head in good and bad ways 

[00:38:34] - How often do great founders break the law or enter gray areas of it 

[00:41:22] - The role constant learning and listening plays in success

[00:45:12] - Talking about how anything worth doing is worth doing to excess 

[00:52:18] - Describing the soul of founders and businesses

[00:58:39] - What he’s learned about all of these founders as it relates to marketing 

[01:08:10] - Who his idols are in podcasting specifically 

[01:14:55] - Major aspects of people he’s studied that haven’t been discussed yet

[01:19:55] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him