The Dyslexic Entrepreneur Who Built Kinkos

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Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko's, struggled with dyslexia and started a small copy shop in college which eventually grew to be worth billions
Orfalea's secret to success was spending most of his time on the road and visiting Kinko's stores, asking employees what was working and looking for innovation
Kinko's success was largely due to the employees' creativity and willingness to innovate

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Seth Godin is the author of 20 international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about marketing, leadership, and work. His blog (which you can find by typing "seth" into Google) is the most viewed marketing blog in the world. Some of my favorite books of his are… Tribes, Linchpin, Purple Cow, and most recently The Song of Significance.

Notes:

Hiring Leaders — when deciding who to hire for a leadership role: look at the careers of the people who have worked for them. And look at the careers of the people they’ve led. Leaders aren’t managers with fancy titles. Leaders are planting the seeds for generations of impact to come.
Let's get real or let's not play.
Tension is what we seek.
It's important to show up early.
Frederick Taylor met Henry Ford and management was created.
Study bees - They leave their home and have 72 hours to find their next one.
Matt Mullenweg (Automatic CEO) - "Create the conditions for forward motion."
To create the environment for the people they’re leading to flourish. How are you intentionally creating the environment for the people you’re leading to do their best work?
Management doesn’t just exist. It was invented. When you race to the bottom, You see people as resources, not as people. (I don't like the term human capital management)
When Paul Orfalea was building kinkos (which he later sold to fed ex for $2B), he said his best technique for growing the business was simple. He would walk into their stores and ask someone there to tell him about an innovation they’ve recently made. And then he’d tell all the other stores about it…
“Real value is no longer created by traditional measures of productivity. It’s created by personal interactions, innovation, creative solutions, resilience, and the power of speed.”