The Tim Ferriss Show #229: Ricardo Semler -- The Seven-Day Weekend and How to Break the Rules
Refugee Roots
- Semler's parents were Austrian refugees, and his mother lived in a refugee camp.
- This background influenced his unconventional approach to business and life.
Mass Firing
- Ricardo Semler fired 60% of top managers upon taking over his father's company.
- This drastic move, made in his early 20s, allowed him to rebuild the company with his own vision.
The Three Whys
- Challenge every rule and convention by asking "why" three times in a row.
- If a rule lacks a solid justification after three "whys," consider discarding it.
Ricardo Semler (@ricardosemler) is the former CEO of Semco Partners, a Brazilian company best known perhaps for its radical form of industrial democracy and corporate re-engineering. During his leadership, Semco grew from four million in 1982 to two hundred and twelve million in 2003. His innovative -- but very controversial -- business management policies have attracted widespread interest from all over the world. He is the best-selling author of Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace and The Seven-Day Weekend: A Better Way to Work in the 21st Century (not to be confused with another book titled in an admittedly similar fashion). Ricardo recently started a podcast called LeadWise, where he has conversations with leaders about "challenging assumptions and changing how we live and work." Entrepreneurship and education are just two of the topics discussed in this wide-ranging conversation. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ricardo Semler as much as I did! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is the #1 cloud bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients. FreshBooks tells you when your clients have viewed your invoices, helps you customize your invoices, track your hours, automatically organize your receipts, have late payment reminders sent automatically and much more. Right now you can get a free month of complete and unrestricted use. You do not need a credit card for the trial. To claim your free month and see how the brand new Freshbooks can change your business, go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter "Tim" in the "how did you hear about us" section. This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $5B under management. In fact, some of my good investor friends in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it's all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they'll show you -- for free -- exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it. Well worth a few minutes: wealthfront.com/tim.
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