Friday Fun(d) - King of Cashmere
Happy. Friday. 👏
We got a good Friday Fun(d) to send you off into your weekend. The lineup includes:
What I Learned this Week
What to Read
Podcast to Listen to
Historical Find
Patent App of the week
Enjoy!
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Now for the King of Cashmere👇
What I Learned This Week
I can’t recommend this written interview enough with Brunello Cucinelli or the “King of Cashmere.” The interviewer, Om Malik (you can read his work here), found himself in Italy with the chance to visit this mysterious man. I read this on a flight and was lucky I didn’t have any WiFi; otherwise, I would have shot off a massive tweetstorm (I’ve been on a Twitter hiatus). He touches on everything from how he built his company to his love of philosophy. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“Mankind is becoming more ethical, but it is not happening because man has decided to become better than he was 100 years ago. It’s because we know we live in a glasshouse where everybody can see.”
I wish I had seen this before I wrote my piece, Moral Justice… Cool Trend or New Normal? This quote sums up perfectly what I was trying to convey. Much like my attitude, Cucinelli goes on to indicate this notion is not a killer to society; instead, it’s a new normal with a broad learning curve.
*In talking about his decision to pursue cashmere*“I had read Theodore Levitt, the American, who used to say that developed countries were supposed to manufacture special handcrafted goods, because one day, new people would arrive who would make the same things but at a better price.”
This theme always arises when studying very successful companies. Seldomly does a cheap, wholesale solution sustain. At some point, if it’s basic enough, globalization will suffocate you. An entrepreneur (I can’t remember who) was describing how he sifts through ideas. One exercise he does is describing the first 100 people who would use the product or service. From there, he is as descriptive as possible of these theoretical consumers.
Using Cucinelli’s cashmere company as an example, the exercise would describe the consumers of these luxury cashmere sweaters. Maybe they are men in their 40s, rich, drive a BMW, in business relations, go to fancy dinners often, have children, live in the city (not suburbs), shop primarily with their wife or divorced and going on dates again, and so on.
This idea of specialized goods directly relates with one of my favorite books by Peter Thiel, Zero to One (which I wrote an essay on here). Thiel writes on today’s monopoly and lays out a crucial framework for how they form. Thiel has a similar quote saying, “If you can’t monopolize a unique solution for a small market, you’ll be stuck with vicious competition.” There is a theme here.
“Say I work for Apple. Maybe I have the humblest kind of job, but I’m not ashamed that I work for Apple. Because it is still Apple. Whereas here in Italy, you say, “I’m a tailor” or “I’m a waiter,” and you still get that kind of respect.”
This take was so unique. I don’t consume foreign opinion enough, but I might make an effort to change that for a perspective like this. To re-phrase Cucinelli’s point: Do we take jobs just so we can have the status of that company? The answer is an emphatic yes. How many people at your company are there just to say they work there? Are you one of them? I genuinely believe future generations will change this course, though. The passion economy is booming, and people are finding less of identity with companies.
Also, another analogy to this is the kids in high school who would play sports just to say they played sports. You hated them because you were stuck pulling their dead weight. Business organizations are not any different.
*On his love of philosophy* “Respect the human being, and that will be better. Hadrian the emperor said, “I never met anyone who after being paid a compliment did not feel better.””
One deep breath in and out. The little markings you are doing today are painting a much bigger picture. You’re crushing it, so don’t stop! Now, pay that compliment forward.
Electives:
What to Read:
I’m not really too enthused about the Olympics this year. It’ll be cool to catch a few events, but Covid handicapped sports have been uninteresting to me. I did find this article to be a good read dissecting what athletes from 205 nations shipping to the Games. Does it get any more British than bringing 45,000 tea bags and 8,000 porridge pots?
Podcast to Listen to:
The Tim Ferris Show: Graham Duncan — Talent Is the Best Asset Class (#362)
Graham Duncan is the co-founder of an investment firm. It’s a must-listen for anyone in business. I’ve been on a run of listening to old podcasts and seeing what certain people hit and missed on. This episode is from 2019 (as if that’s old), but it’s still funny to hear some things that have changed. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“If you had to rate something 1-10 and could not give it a 7, what would you rate it? This takes away a person’s safety net and forces them to pick aside.”
“You should always feel comfortable holding cash.” I love this one because I often feel pressured to keep investing. At the end of the day, you stuck with the choice of investing is better than no choice at all.
*When asked about what he looks for when hiring employees* “I look for ambitious people who almost give the vibe they are out to get me.” He is saying that he can teach you the technical skills (as most jobs are this way), but he can’t instill a motive/work ethic in you. You have to pull that out of yourself.
Historical Find:
Take a look at George Washington’s first ledger:
I love how most of these transactions are simply to other people instead of “Target.” I don’t know just thought that was cool. Obviously, the accountant in me is humored by this, but the blockchain fan in me loves it more. Our financial systems have always been built around ledgers. They will only continue to evolve. **It’s MWF. There has to be some reference to tech!
Patent App of the Week:
I subscribe to the weekly newsletter PATENT DROP, which curates some noteworthy patent applications big companies are applying for. I decided to dive into the United States Patent & Trademark Office Application Database myself and see if I could find some cool developments. Here is one I found this week:
METHOD FOR REMOTE VEHICLE DIAGNOSTICS AND DEVICE
In sum, a company out of Hong Kong is working on more user-friendly diagnostics solutions for your car. For example, when you see a service light come on, you visit a mechanic to see what the issue is. This diagnostics device wants to capture all of your car’s data to deliver real-time performance reports. I know cars like Tesla already feature this, but it would be an excellent product for the other 99.9% of us who don’t own a Tesla.