What I learned from reading Copy This!: How I turned Dyslexia, ADHD, and 100 square feet into a company called Kinkos by Paul Orfalea.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----Follow Invest Like The Best in your favorite podcast player hereTwo episodes I recommend: Paul Orfalea - It's About the Money episode 299David Senra - Passion & Pain episode 292 [5:23] I've never met a more circular, out-of-the-box thinker. It's often exhausting trying to keep up with him.[6:21] I graduated from high school eighth from the bottom of my class of 1,200. Frankly, I still have no idea how those seven kids managed to do worse than I did.[9:29] I also have no mechanical ability to speak of. There isn't a machine at Kinko's I can operate. I could barely run the first copier we leased back in 1970. It didn't matter. All I knew was that was I could sell what came out of it.[11:24] Building an entirely new sort of business from a single Xerox copy machine gave me the life the world seemed determined to deny me when I was younger.[14:04] The A students work for the B students, the C students run the companies, and the D students dedicate the buildings.[24:02] I learned to turn a lot of busywork over to other people. That's an important skill. If you don't develop it, you'll be so busy, busy, busy that you can't get a free hour, not to mention a free week or month, to sit back and think creatively about where you want to be heading and how you are going to get there.[25:07] There's no better way to stay "on" your business than to think creatively and constantly about your marketing: how you are marketing, who you are marketing to, and, always, how you could be doing a better job at it. You'd be amazed what kind of business you can generate by a seemingly simple thing like handing out flyers.[27:18] The phone rang. It was one of our store managers calling to ask me how to handle a bounced check. I held the receiver away from my face and looked at it, flabbergasted. If every store manager needed my help to deal with a bounced check, then we really had problems.[40:55] I never walked in the back door used by coworkers. I walked in the front door so I could see things from the customer's perspective.[49:06] You had to remember he'd been picking up the best ideas from all around the country.[55:14] I believe in getting out of as much work as I possibly can.[55:45] By now, you’d have to be as bad a reader as I am not to figure out that I have a dark side. You rarely hear people talk about their dark sides, especially business leaders, which is a shame because successful businesses aren't usually started by laid-back personalities. I don't hide the fact that I have a problem with anger.[1:04:37] I'll give you an example of a corporate view of money. We used to sell passport photos at Kinko's and we advertised the service in the local Yellow Pages. It would cost us 75 cents to make a passport photo. I calculated that price jumped by $1 to $1.75 when you added in the cost of the Yellow Pages ads. We'd sell those photos for $13 a piece. You think this is a nice business? Shortly after we sold a controlling stake in Kinko's, the new budget people came in and, to make their numbers, they got rid of the Yellow Pages ads. They saw it as an advertising expense and didn't take into account how it affected the rest of our business. I used to go to the office and think, "Are they deliberately trying to be idiots?" These straight-A types drove me nuts. Then, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, we abandoned our passport business. That is corporate dyslexia. There is a lot of corporate dyslexia going on out there.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes----“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.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“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. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Learn about Paul Orfalea's unconventional journey from academic struggles to founding Kinko's, emphasizing the importance of turning disadvantages into opportunities and continuous improvement in business. Explore personal challenges, customer focus, and the emotional journey post-business sale in this insightful podcast.

My guest today is Paul Orfalea. Paul founded Kinkos, the popular copy chain, in 1970. He started with a single photocopy shop in California and grew the business into a $2 billion multinational operation over the course of his 30 years in charge. Paul is a non-traditional leader in the best sense and we discuss his philosophy of business building, from why your subordinates should frustrate you, why you shouldn’t love your business and tips he learned on hiring well. Please enjoy this conversation with Paul Orfalea.  Founders podcast on Paul Orfalea. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern SaaS platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.  ----- Today's episode is brought to you by Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:02:58] - [First question] - What it was like to be a very bad student in highschool[00:04:22] - When he first realized he was unemployable[00:05:02] - The origin story of the very first Kinko’s[00:07:53] - Finding what has worked well in each Kinko’s and coaching managers[00:11:45] - The difference of working on and not in the business[00:13:57] - Why a good salesperson will sell you broke  [00:15:36] - Why he teaches, what he teaches, and his teaching style[00:18:31] - Explaining the Federal Reserve in two minutes  [00:21:58] - The role of anger in his career and something he’s worked on over time[00:22:31] - Where Kinko’s falls on the spectrum of bad to great businesses[00:26:18] - Lessons learned about using the word employee[00:27:21] - The most clever marketing strategy he ever deployed or designed[00:27:45] - Learning to spread the glory instead of the money  [00:28:30] - The state of entrepreneurship today compared to when he started [00:30:42] - What motivated him across his career[00:31:35] - Why being in it for the money seems odd in today’s lens[00:32:34] - Who he most admired or most admires today [00:32:51] - Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman[00:33:08] - Preserving the alignment of integrity and action [00:34:57] - How good he is naturally with numbers and math being dyslexic [00:38:05] - His parents’ impression of him while he was building Kinko’s [00:39:56] - The most interesting person he’s ever worked with at Kinko’s[00:40:48] - What he would have done differently if he started from scratch[00:41:24] - Something that is most underappreciated about the United States [00:43:00] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him [00:43:57] - A big lesson he’s earned in a deeper way that he wishes he could share with others

Paul Orfalea is the legendary founder Kinko’s. If you guys haven’t heard of Kinko’s before, it was a leading retail chain for people to use copying machines in the late 90s.  Paul ran the company for 30 years, and it was later acquired by FedEx for $2.4 billion dollars in 2004! Paul is an AMAZING entrepreneur and also very humble. In this episode, Paul shares the top life and business lessons he learned over the years. Full show notes: https://okdork.com/podcast/273 Get the BEST daily deals on software at: https://appsumo.com/noah   ✉️ Signup for my weekly newsletter (I reply to emails): https://okdork.com/email-newsletter/ 

In today’s episode, we’re trying something different!   Usually, y’all know I have one guest and I ask them a whole bunch of questions.    BUT today, I have THREE guests. And I asked each of them to give me the advice they wish they could tell their 20-year-old self.   In today’s episode, you’ll hear from:   - Bing Gordon: Former chief creative officer of the video game company Electronic Arts  - Paul Orfalea: Founder of Kinkos… which sold for over $2.6 BILLION dollars!! - And Bob Metcalfe: Who invented the ethernet cable… which was the original internet.   ALL of these guys have two things in common: They’re AT LEAST 70-years-old and they’re all multi-millionaires… or billionaires!   Who better to get advice from in your 20s!? If you’ve ever wanted to learn about what 70 year-olds would tell their 20-year-old selves, you’ll love this episode.   In this conversation, you’ll enjoy 3 BIG things: - What Bing Gordon DIDN’T do in his 20s that would have made his life a whole lot easier - The advice Paul Orfalea’s mom gave him when HE was in his 20s - And the ONE skill Bob Metcalfe wishes he learned sooner… that you can learn NOW.   Enjoy those 3 things… plus a bunch more ear nuggets along the way.   If today’s episode inspires you to start your own business but you don’t know where to start — join my Monthly1K course!! I just reopened it and you can join it now for just $10 bucks. Yep, it’s not a subscription. You just buy it once and I walk you step by step through how to create a one thousand dollar per month business. Head over to OkDork.com/Monthly1K to sign up. And check out TidyCal, our scheduling tool. New Mutual Availability beta feature out now! ✉️ Signup for my weekly newsletter (I reply to emails): https://okdork.com/email-newsletter/