"Rule Breaker Investing" Great Quotes, Vol. 19: Authors in August
In this podcast, Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner reminds listeners about the three authors that Rule Breaker Investing will be hosting next month and gives one great quote from each.
We've also got five powerful quotes from past featured August authors Seth Godin, Priya Parker, Amor Towles, Shirzad Chamine, and Warren Berger -- with many other books and quotes peppered in. How does the wisdom from each of these brilliant thinkers break the rules, and what do they teach us about investing, business, and life?
To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our quick-start guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.
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David Gardner: Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing five idle thoughts of a summer's day. A lot of fun to do last week. This time we're a little more focused. It is our great quotes, Volume 19, the 19th, in this long-running series that dates back to 2015 for this podcast. This is the 19th. As I mentioned at the top, we're going to look back at great quotes from great books from Rule Breaker Investing Authors in August of the past. I've got five cued up. I'm excited to share with them. If you're a long time listener, you'll remember these books or authors. You may or may not remember the quotes. Before I go into those quotes, let me mention who's showing up next month for our authors in August 2024. I did mention this a few weeks back, but in order, there are three weeks in August that we will be doing authors. The first week will be Games Agency as Art. The author is Thi Nguyen.
The games philosopher can't wait to have Thi back. I had him last year on this podcast he said, we have to do it again, and Authors in August was a great excuse. Games Agency is Art. The second week, the whole story, basically, the life story and the business story from one of the world's great living entrepreneurs today, John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods Market. Then the third week, it's Sum a remarkable book, a short read by Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman. There's more I could say about Sum, but rather than say anything about these books, I'm just here to encourage you to join me each of what will be three very special weeks in August. In fact, since we're doing quotes and authors in August, let me produce for you one quote from each of those three books that I've so enjoyed reading just to share as an enticement. We're getting very quote this week on the podcast. Let's get started with that.
Again, these are not the five, we're going to be covering very shortly, these are just teasers for my authors in August this year. Games agency is art. Author Thi says, and I quote, "Games can seem like an utterly silly way to spend one's time. We struggle and strain and sweat. And for what? The goals of games seem so arbitrary. Game players burn energy and effort, not on curing cancer or saving the environment, but on trying to beat each other at some unnecessary invented activity. Why not spend that time on something real?" We'll talk about that. John Mackey's book, the Whole Story, which came out earlier this year. I'm going to quote early on from his book right now for you. "It was energizing to imagine the store we could create. But more than that, it was fun. Who knew business could be so much fun? I'd always love science fiction and fantasy literature, entering imaginary worlds and living vicariously through the characters inside them but this was even better. It was a new world, but it wasn't just fantasy. We could and would build this store, this beautiful edifice of food, health, teamwork and business out of nothing more than dreams, hard work, and some investors capital.
I felt momentarily like some ancient alchemist dabbling in the act of creation. What a joy it was in that moment to be an entrepreneur. I was beginning to love this thing called business". Then, from Sum by David Eagleman, here's a quote for week 3. "When soldiers part ways at war's end. The breakup of the platoon triggers the same emotion as the death of a person. It is the final bloodless death of the war. The same mood haunts actors on the drop of the final curtain. After months of working together, something greater than themselves has just died. After a store closes its doors on its final evening, or a Congress wraps its final session, the participants amble away, feeling that they were part of something larger than themselves, something they intuit had a life, even though they can't quite put a finger on it. In this way, death is not only for humans, but for everything that existed. It turns out that anything which enjoys life enjoys an afterlife". Each of these books very readable starting now July 24, as this podcast came out right into August.
If you can't read any of them ahead of time, I know you'll enjoy the authors in our discussion, and I bet you'll be inspired, as many have told me, be inspired to go on to read after we do Authors in August, the books that we covered. I had a wonderful time with our members at Fool Fest here in Washington, DC a couple of weekends ago. Number of you remarked, you look forward to authors in August every year so do I. On to great quote number 1. Seth Godin, the long time writer about business, especially marketing and branding, wrote a book called Purple Cow. I know many of you will know this book. It came out in 2003.
Seth is famous for his blogs. He's blogged on the internet. Since before blogging was cool, I'm not even sure blogging is still cool. I still think it's cool, and Seth does, too. He continues to blog every single day. This from his book, Purple Cow 2003. By the way, if you want to go back and listen, Seth joined me on August 1 of 2018. In fact, he was the first ever author in August. I've certainly had many authors outside of August on this podcast going back over the last nine years, but I really started Authors in August in 2018. That means this is the seventh year that we'll be doing it. This was the first ever authors in August's interview. Here is Seth's quote from Purple Cow. "Starbucks is cheating. The coffee bar phenomenon was invented by them and now whenever we think coffee, we think Starbucks. Vanguard is cheating. Their low cost index funds make it impossible for a full service broker to compete. Amazon.com is cheating. Their free shipping and huge selection give them an unfair advantage over the neighborhood store. [Alphabet's] Google is cheating. They learn from the mistakes of the first generation portals, and they don't carry the baggage of their peers. To their entrenched but nervous competitors, these companies appear to be cheating because they're not playing by the rules". Seth closes by asking, why aren't you cheating? Which is a pretty funny and provocative way to angle a one page chapter in his book, Purple Cow.
I think we can all appreciate that these things are not actually cheating. In fact, Seth as a follow up column. It's so short, I'm going to read it in a little bit. But he's, of course, talking about taking advantages that are enjoyed by the likes of Starbucks or Vanguard or Amazon, and just fully exploiting them in the competitive marketplace in which each of these companies operates. If you're a competitor of theirs, it feels like they're cheating. Trait number two of Rule Breaker Investing, I've always called sustainable competitive advantage. It is such an important trait to look for in our investing, especially if you're a rule breaker investor, and if you're a capital F fool, by definition, you are investing over years, if not decades, even more important than to identify a sustainable competitive advantage. That's always been such an important thing to look for in the stocks that we buy that we've recommended over the years that we hope you're still holding. By the way, Seth wrote that passage in 2000. Well, the book was 2003. He probably wrote in 2002 or one. Think how well that passage has aged. Imagine if you'd just gone back, time Machine and bought Starbucks, Amazon Google. You couldn't buy Vanguard it's a private company, but if you'd bought those three companies he was writing about that were cheating with their unfair competitive advantages more than two decades ago, you'd be a very happy investor today.
So it's a reminder that competitive advantage is something that runs much deeper than I think most people realize. I would also say those companies have distinguished themselves for their customer centric approach. Jeff Bezos famously said in the very first, I think it was his first annual letter to shareholders that Amazon was hoping to be earth's most customer centric company. That was said at a time where the company was just selling books online and look what's happened over the roughly 30 years since. We can see the incredible advantages of putting customer first in these companies that are supposedly in Seth's words cheating. I think it's a lot of fun to use a word like cheating, which, again, I sten to add, has an incredibly negative connotation as a word, and for very good reason. It's not what you or I should do. I think Seth, in some senses, was speaking back to himself. As I share with you this short 2020. It was August, in fact, August 2020 blog from Seth Godin. This one was entitled cheating.
It makes a different point. But yet, again, another good point worth sharing here on Rule Breaker Investing. From this August 18, 2020 blog, you can look it up online. Seth wrote this about cheating. He said, "There are really only two ways to approach this. We don't cheat or we cheat when we get away with it. The posture of our side doesn't cheat is the belief in the validity of the game itself. It's a statement of moral authority, a promise of consistency and valor. It respects the process. The posture of cheat, if you can, is the belief in the ends at any cost. It degrades the system, because if everyone cheats, then there is no system left. Cheaters often brag about their exploits because they want to normalize them. Sophisticated competitors, the ones who really want to win, understand that cheating destroys the very thing they set out to do because once cheating is normalized, the winner is the person who had the guts to cheat the most and destroy the system, not the one who deserve to win. Being against cheating doesn't mean you don't want to compete, it means that you do. In every community, on every team, there are people who believe that the only chance they've got is to cheat.
Our systems persist, only when peers in the community step up and insist that the cheater stop. Be being on a team that wins by cheating is ultimately self defeating". That's Seth's blog cheating. By the way, as I mentioned, Seth continues to blog, every single day, seths.blog is the URL to bookmark, if you want to enjoy his insights, his short, highly consumable insights, every single day of the week. I often say I try to talk out both sides of my mouth because it's helpful to see 360 degrees, not just 180 degrees. In general, I say, I don't sell, but then people say, Do you never sell? I'm like, no, I do sell sometimes, but you said you don't sell and so I really appreciate Seth Godin promoting cheating in the sense of Starbucks and Amazon, and then quickly denigrating cheating. Well, not quickly. It was about 18 years later. I hope you can see both sides of that, and I really appreciate Seth Godin and his great quote number 1.
Onto great quote number 2. This one, It was actually one week later, August 8th of 2018 that I had Priya Parker on to talk about her book published in 2018 called The Art of Gathering. If you dear listener, have not yet read The Art of Gathering, I completely recommend it to your attention. I think it's a book every human being should read, because what are gatherings they are gatherings of you and me. Actually, it's anywhere that three or more are gathered, that is gathering by Priya's definition, and we can do it better, whether it's a corporate offsite or a funeral or a dinner party or a college reunion. If you just think about, what are we really trying to do? Where is it located? How does it start? How does it finish?
Any one of those, if you just make a slightly better decision, you will improve that gathering, and that is the art of gathering. We're not really going to talk about gatherings because this quote pulled from Priya's book is actually pulled from her introduction, and it's as she introduces herself. I think she has such a remarkable background. A lot of us can probably not relate at all, as you'll shortly hear. But I'm sure all of us, especially for from two different cultures, depending on who our parents are, for you, you especially can relate. I think this is such an interesting way to start a book. Priya starts, great quote number 2. "In my work, I strive to help people experience a sense of belonging. This probably has something to do with the fact that I've spent my own life trying to figure out where and to whom I belong. I come on my mother's side from Indian cow worshipers in Varanasi, an ancient city known as the Spiritual center of India.
On my father's side, from American cow slaughterers in South Dakota. To cut a very long story short. My parents met in Iowa, fell in love, married, had me in Zimbabwe, worked in fishing villages across Africa and Asia, fell out of love, divorced in Virginia, and went their separate ways. Both of them went on to remarry, finding spouses more of their own world and world view. After the divorce, I moved every two weeks, between my mother's and father's households, toggling back and forth between a vegetarian, liberal, incense filled Buddhist Hindu New age universe, and a meat eating conservative, twice a week church going evangelical Christian realm. So it was perhaps inevitable that I ended up, she closes, in the field of conflict resolution". This gifted author of the book, the Art of Gathering isn't even necessarily a professional gatherings person. She's a mediator and conflict resolver who wrote a remarkable book that, as I mentioned, every human should read, whether in August or any other month of the year. Just a few thoughts about this quote. First of all, her background illustrates for a lot of us, the richness and complexity of where we all came from. America, more than any country in the world is a melting pot. There are others out there, but that really is our identity as a country. We are all immigrants. It's worth reminding ourselves of that all the time. But especially if you have this cultural duality. In Priya's world, her mother and that world and her father and that world, gives you a unique perspective. I would say, especially probably for what belonging means and how to build community. Obviously, she parlayed that into that 2018 book, The Art of Gathering. I also think you're forced to adapt.
Probably to empathize much more than the average person, much more than I had to when I was a kid or when I as an adult, was her age, moving between such different worlds probably makes you realize the importance of evolving and adapting to different situations, but it also begs this question in closing on great quote Number 2, "where do you find your identity?" A lot of people would ultimately say, I ultimately relate to my mother or to my father. A lot of times when you're faced with two vastly different worlds, you're probably starting to choose one over the other for whatever reason you're picking. It forces you to confront inner conflicts and probably maintain a balancing act in order to decide who you really are. There is probably that third way not to pick moms, not to pick dads, but just recognize you're you. What you have come from and who you are is probably not just one of the other, it's that third way. Before I go to quote Number 3, it reminds me briefly of how I first picked NVIDIA, the stock.
I talked about this a year or two ago, but I'm quite sure a lot of people listening to me right now may not remember that. It's just hilarious for me now to think back on it. In the mid to late 1990s, I picked the competitor of NVIDIA as my stock pick for the Motley Fool, and for our members. The company was 3dfx. For some of you who may remember, especially computer gamers, vintage computer gamers of that era, you remember that getting a good graphics card, it's still true today, but getting a good graphics card, maybe swapping out what Dell computer shipped you, and getting a much better graphics card for better graphics for our video games was worth doing. In fact, 3dfx, first mover in this field was good enough and strong enough that they got their brand, their logo put on the front of some of the best computer games of the time, probably games like civilization or more graphic intense games like Doom. You would see 3dfx inside that meant that this is a computer game, a video game, that if you have a 3dfx card, it will be enhanced because you have that graphics card in your computer. 3dfx managed to position itself on the front of most of the popular video game boxes at the time, saying, you should have our graphics card. This will be a better game with better graphics if you have our card. There was this other competitor NVIDIA. That's the one I didn't pick.
In fact, it's like sports. Once you have your team and you're invested in that stock, those other guys are your rival. It might be your arch rival, which was the case between 3dfx and NVIDIA. I tended to dismiss NVIDIA, not really pay much attention to it. I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for those of you, especially in the United States, who know about the rivalry between North Carolina and Duke, 3dfx was North Carolina, in my mind and NVIDIA was Duke. I cheered against NVIDIA, until, as the years proceeded, 3dfx didn't do so well, and eventually, literally got bought out at a discount by NVIDIA.
All of a sudden, my arch rivals, those other guys bought my company and ended that bad investment. I think it probably took a few years of healing as I sat there and thought, what just happened there? What did I get wrong? I still didn't feel great about NVIDIA. As I started thinking in April of 2005, what will be my next stock pick for Motley Fool stock advisor, based on what was happening at the time, it was tax day of all days. We came out, and that day's recommendation from my side of stock advisor was NVIDIA. I can't remember if I wrote the story up in the buy report, but now you know the story in the background and how I cheered against them for 10 years until the day I finally picked them. Now 20 years later, now that it's become the stock that's the first stock in everyone's minds these days and a stock that has risen hundreds of times in value for Motley Fool stock advisor members who followed me on tax day of 2005, now you know the full story. There was a Priya Parker like duality to some of that backstory that I'm giving you that I hope some will appreciate.
Let's move on to great quote Number 3. Amor Towles, the world class novelist has been on our podcast twice. In fact, once was August of 2018, and then last summer, August of 2023, first, he was talking about A Gentleman in Moscow. Last year talking about the Lincoln Highway, and I've always connected so well. I think Amor connects so well with our members, because a lot of you are readers, but not just any novel, beautifully written novel, somebody who is a master stylist. In fact, when the New York Times conducted, I think this is the New York Times book review recently conducted, it's what are the best novels of the 21st century thus far. Admittedly, we're only one quarter through it, but A Gentleman in Moscow ranks Number 3. This is a remarkable book, and here's the quote. This is a shorter, simpler quote from A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, and I quote. "After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we've just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven or a brush stroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour."
I think all of us, me included, are guided by our first impressions, and there, I'm sure evolutionary reasons why. A lot of the time we get it right, I'm not certainly here to dismiss first impressions. They can be very meaningful. I think a lot of us, especially in important circumstances, try to make a really good first impression in the context in which we find ourselves. But I, of course, love Towles reminding us to sit back a little bit and wait. I don't think I have to preach patience to rule breaker investing listeners or Motley Fool members, [inaudible]. I think a lot of us recognize that patience is our best friend as investors. In fact, I was coming across this Benjamin Graham, quote paraphrased. He said, "the stock market was invented to move money from those who are impatient to those who are patient." Now, I think that's a fairly cynical view. I'm assuming that's intended to be a witticism as much as any other. I don't think and I doubt Graham thought that the stock market was actually invented to do that. But I do agree that that is in large part, what happens over time is people jumping in and jumping out of the market based on only first impressions of companies or stock charts they're looking at, generally trade out eventually and trade us in 2005 on the other side of a trade NVIDIA.
Then you and I can buy and keep holding and add to it over time. Those impatient traders are over time giving a lot of their money away to people who are more patient. There's something to be said about patience and sitting back past one's first impression that Amor does a beautiful job capturing. In some ways, that word he uses in the passage, reconsideration. He says, not only our consideration, but our reconsideration. Imagine if reconsideration were an acknowledged virtue. It's a word I rarely use. A lot of us will say, I reconsider, although often we're just talking about a thought that we had, but to actually reconsider a fellow human being, not being too swayed by one's first impression, maybe especially in an election year or a year where Americans, I hope, are going to be reminded that we share far more with each other in common than the things that divide us, especially voices that try to divide us, I think reconsideration is potentially a beautiful virtue to keep in mind. It does remind me of Arthur Brooks on this podcast last year, encouraging us all not to dismiss other people, not to treat them as Brooks would say with contempt, which, by definition, is like, talk to the hand I don't care about you.
You're not even human at its worst, you're not even human to me. That treatment of others has led to all kinds of misery throughout human history. Not only should we love our enemies, which was the title of Brooks' book, but at the very least, we should look past our first impressions and go a little bit deeper with people that we've gotten to know over time. It makes me think, in some ways to go back to investing of the merits of buying in thirds, because in a lot of ways, we've coached a lot of you over the years to not just buy that stock and put everything in it right now. For a lot of people that paralyzes them. They're like, I don't know, it's in it's new highs. Should I buy NVIDIA today? It's already done so well, and I'm not here to say whether you should or should not. But what I am here to say is that what unblocks a lot of people from buying any stock at its new high is not committing all of your position at once. From the earliest days, I've practiced this. We've talked about this at the Motley Fool, buying in thirds. How about take a third of the money? Let's pretend you want to put $3,000 into a stock. Take $1000 now, and just put it in the stock right away. First impressions. You have a first impression. It's good. I'm not suggesting it's a mere first impression. I hope you've researched the company, but you're just going to get into it right now. You're not going to dilly dally or wait for the dip. You're going to just right away with one third of your money, commit it now and buy that stock. Then over the succeeding weeks or months, there are different reasons to trigger that second, third or that third third.
Some people want to see a good earnings report. Other people like me, just will say, I'm going to buy it mechanically on today the 24th, and then next month, my next third on the 24th of, in this case, August, and then the month after that September 24th, I'll put in my third third. That's mechanically dollar-cost averaging. There are different ways to approach this, but more than anything, you are acting right away, but you're not allowing your first impression to dominate your whole investment. That patience, that consideration and reconsideration works not just in life, which is what Amor Towles is talking about, or in art, but indeed in investing as well.
All right, onto great Number 4, he joined this podcast to discuss his book, Positive Intelligence on August 4th of 2021, Shirzad Chamine, Positive Intelligence. The book came out in 2012. I didn't hear about it. Four years later I had him initially on the podcast just to discuss his ideas. You can find his work at positive intelligence.com. Then I thought, I enjoyed that so much. I want to make sure I read his book. A year later, we had Shirzad Chamine on the podcast. It's what I'm doing with Tin Wen coming up next month. I just wanted to talk games with him last year. This time, we're going to talk about his book. Before I share my main great quote from Shirzad, let me just share another quote from the same book because it speaks back to Amor Towles. Great books talk to each other, great authors, talk to each other. Not sure they've ever met. But this quote from Shirzad Chamine's positive Intelligence is going to remind you of what we just heard from Amor Towles. This is what Shirzad says at one point, in fact, page 171, and I quote "Even as an expert in this field, I have been humbled by how difficult it is to correctly guess another person's needs and intentions.
I have learned that it is critical to check with them rather than assume. Assumptions regarding others intentions are often incorrect and provide much of the fuel for conflicts. Our judges, that is that judgey thing inside us that judges others and situations. Our judges are much more certain about the other person's true needs and intentions than our data and experience warrants." Well said, Shirzad, from an expert in the field. Don't trust those first impressions too strongly. But now on to the great quote, this is one of the magnet moments of his book, Positive Intelligence, where he tells the stallion story. This is not original to Shirzad. I believe it's a Chinese fable. This goes back centuries. Even if you haven't read the book, you may have heard this one before, but if you've never heard this one before, it's my privilege to share with you, great quote Number 4, the stallion story from Shirzad Chamine book, Positive Intelligence, and I quote, "An old farmer lives on his farm with his teenage son. He also has a beautiful stallion that he lovingly cares for. The Farmer enters his stallion into the annual country fair competition. His stallion wins first prize. The farmer's neighbors gather to congratulate him on this great win. He calmly says, who knows what is good and what is bad. Puzzled by this reaction, the neighbors go away. The next week, some thieves who heard about the stallion's increased value, steal the horse. When the neighbors come to commiserate with the farmer, they find him again, very calm and gathered. He says, who knows what is good and what is bad. Several days later, the spirited stallion escapes from the thieves and finds his way back to the farm. Bringing with him a few wild mares he has befriended along the way. To his neighbors excited rounds of congratulations, the old farmer once again says, who knows what is good, and what is bad? A few weeks later, the farmer's son is thrown off one of these new mares, as he's trying to break it in, and his leg is fractured.
As the neighbors gather to commiserate with the old farmer, he once again reminds them, who knows what is good and what is bad. The following week, the Imperial Army marches through the village, conscripting all eligible young men for the war that has just broken out. The old farmer's son is spared due to his fractured leg. The neighbors no longer bother to come to the old farmer to congratulate him. By now they know what his response will be. Who knows what is good, and what is bad?" I have many thoughts about that story. I'm sure for you, it triggers a lot of different thoughts. One is simply that events themselves are often neutral. It's the value we place on them good or bad that determines our perspective and often subsequent outcomes. I think it shows the importance of maintaining a balanced viewpoint and be willing to accept uncertainty. The farmers repeated question, who knows what is good and what is bad underscores the acceptance of life's inherent uncertainty. Then I think also about how events are interconnected. Each of those on its own, seems to be a single chapter in a book or maybe the whole short story. But in fact, each of them is interconnected with what looked like unpredictable life events that came after. One incident leads to another often in unforeseen ways. It reminds us that immediate judgments can be premature. How did you arrive at the conclusion that you've reached? That question was asked in the book, Mindwise by Nick Epley. Nick wasn't an author in August from the past. He was just an author before we had authors in August, but it's a wonderful question that you can ask anytime you find yourself, especially this year, in a conversation with somebody whose politics you sense are quite different from your own. A lot of people either want to dismiss it altogether and not even have a conversation or immediately begin, let's say, advocating for my own viewpoint, your own viewpoint, without really considering what you've just heard, the more that we can talk about these things, I think Priya Parker would agree as a conflict resolver and a mediator, the more that we can bring these things out in the open, it can be a little bit hard sometimes. There can be friction, the stronger our relationships will be, I would say it, the stronger our nation will be. That's why Nick Epley had such a great thought when he said, next time you find yourself in that situation, rather than start judging that person based with Amor Towles on that first impression, Why not ask them instead, how did you arrive at the conclusion that you've reached? As I've sometimes said in the past, two things usually will come from asking that question in that conversation.
On the one hand, you may hear a remarkable story that opens your eyes, might even bring a tear or two to your eyes depending on what the context is, about how that person did learn that lesson and arrived at that conclusion. You might be blown away by the human story that led that human being to arrive at that conclusion. You're only ever going to get there if you simply, open-mindedly, ask them how they arrived there. That is outcome number 1.
The second outcome sometimes it's a gift, it's a little bit of a passive-aggressive gift you're giving them, but sometimes it's a gift when they open their mouth and they don't have a great answer about how they did arrive at that conclusion that they've reached. Maybe their parents believe that or that's the party platform, they don't have a lot of thought sometimes between the conclusion that you've reached. Simply socratically asking how they arrived at that conclusion can help them get a little smarter and maybe open their mind a little bit, too. How did you arrive at the conclusion that you've reached? Thank you, [inaudible] It's a reminder we've had so many great authors, not even necessarily just in August. There is one more thought about who knows what is good and what is bad. I think Shirzad speaks to this just after that in his book, as I recall, but it's about passivity versus agency, because the farmer's calm acceptance is on the one hand, admirable, but it does raise a challenging question about the balance between, I would say, acceptance and then taking proactive steps. I mean, is there a risk, instead of having a passive mindset and passive acceptance of the neutral events of the world? Maybe if you took some necessary actions you might improve the situation. You have agency, which reminds me that our first author in August coming up in a couple of weeks is Thi Nguyen. His book is entitled, Games: Agency as Art. Spoiler alert, part of what Shirzad talks about, and if you listen to his talk, last year, you already know this, part of what he talks about is that just as the visual element is what most defines painting, sound, A-U-R-A-L, pleasure in our ears is what defines music at its quintessence. What is at the core of games as art? What makes them unique as an art form, is they give us agency as players.
We'll talk a lot more about that in a couple of weeks, but games are the only art form where you are literally invited in, and you make choices that affect what happens. In a lot of ways, that speaks back to a Chinese farmer from fables long ago, or to you and me today as we try to balance. Yes, passive acceptance and a recognition, everything's connected, and it doesn't all end with the first impression, but also taking action and agency.
There's a golden mean there, I think that we're all shooting for. Before we move on to great Quote 5, my wife, Margaret, pushed me this quote from another past author, again, not in August, but David Allen, the author of the book, Getting Things Done. We're all about books this week on the podcast, so many wonderful gifts I've been given from so many authors. David Allen joining us on this podcast to discuss getting things done, his approach to productivity, which is profoundly shaped my own over the last couple of decades since reading his book in 2003. But this is a great quote from David Allen, and I think it speaks in some senses to what we've just been talking about that flow state when you're in your art form. Allen said this, he's given a lot of seminars about his approach to productivity, getting things done. "In my seminars, David," wrote, "I am animated and intensely on for many hours on end. I'm often asked at the end, aren't you tired? Actually I am, but it is usually the kind of tired I feel after a good physical workout. I don't have the energy to do much more of that, but I'm invigorated and renewed on many other levels. I find myself wasted and burned out only when I've been expecting results not matched by reality, like trying to push water upstream. That's when I need a vacation, that's when I'm off track. But when I express myself with integrity, completion, and closure, keep my own agreements with myself and accept the reality of life as it is delivered to me, it's cool at any speed." I feel like so many of these quotes are interconnected with each other, he's speaking there to accepting the reality of life as it is delivered to me. I think we see some Shirzad Chamine in that as well.
But let's move on. Before we get to Quote 5, let me remind you, next week is the Rule Breaker Investing Mailbag. rbi@fool.com is my email address, drop us a note. My producer Des and I read every note that comes in and the best ones usually get airing on next week's podcast. That's the way this podcast has worked for many years now, the final Wednesday of every month is your mail bag, and that is next week. If you find yourself, inspired by anything you heard this week or provoked, if you think I got something right or wrong, I would love to hear from you. Love to share the Motley variety of impressions that we get. Again, our email, rbi@fool.com. You can tweet us on Twitter X at RBI podcast. On to great Quote 5. This one comes from author Warren Berger. Warren wrote a wonderful book. I've talked about it a lot over the years, A More Beautiful Question. He published it in 2014. In fact, he was kind enough to send me the 10th anniversary edition, the reup with some new content earlier this year. Warren, a past guest multiple times on this podcast. He first appeared Authors in August 2019, 8/7/2019. If you want to Google it or scroll back and hear our full conversation. In his book, A More Beautiful Question, Warren spends 40 pages. I think it's Page 135 to Page 175 on a chapter simply entitled Questioning in Business. Instead of having just a single great quote for you, I'm just going to put forward here five or six of his beautiful questions that he encourages us to ask ourselves whether you're an entrepreneur, like John Mackey or whether you are a working professional.
Maybe you're in legal or accounting at a big American corporation or maybe you have your own small business, you got your own shop, so many of us. In fact, the private sector far outnumbers the public sector in the United States of America. Many of us are in business or are connected to those who are. That's why I think asking, in Berger's words, beautiful questions like the ones I'm about to share with you, can be so valuable. Here are six of the beautiful questions he asks in those 40 pages entitled, Questioning in Business. The first one, what is something I believe that nearly no one agrees with me on? I think he attributed that to one of PayPal's founders, Peter Thiel. But what a beautiful question that is, every one of us can relate, I'm sure, I come up with some kind of an answer, and often, since this is about business, this final great quote, often this might lead you to where you want to spend your time, whether starting a business of your own or joining somebody else's. What is something I believe that nearly no one agrees with me on? Question 2, what does the world need most that we are uniquely positioned to provide? I think that one speaks for itself, but especially, it speaks to being purpose driven and asking, what is the highest purpose that I can see for the business that I've started or have joined? By the way, maybe at the seat of it was that nearly no one agreed with you. I would say I can relate to that because nearly no one agrees with me that you can beat the stock market averages over time.
It continues to be the conventional wisdom today in the year 2024, that beating the stock market would just be luck, it's blind monkeys throwing darts at dart boards. They have as much chance of hitting a winning stock as you or I do. I have completely disagreed with that my entire life. It's in part, what started the Motley Fool. I think many of us at the Motley Fool, I won't even speak for all of us, there are many Motley voices. I think many of us firmly believe that, yes, you, our members, our listeners can and I would say, should beat the market averages over meaningful amounts of time. We have so many advantages as individual investors that institutions don't. We can hold, we don't have to constantly rebalance. We don't have to diversify into companies that we don't think are good, we can just buy the best ones. It sounds a little bit like cheating, doesn't it? Go back to Seth Godin, and in fact, when I think about Rule Breaker Investing at its quintessence, we propose this. That you can spend less time and make more money. That sounds a lot like cheating, doesn't it? It also sounds like something I've believed that nearly no one agrees with me on.
What did the world need most that we were uniquely positioned to provide? Back to Berger's third question. These are just in this chapter, they're not ordered or numbered this way, they're just ones that I loved from that chapter. Here's beautiful question number 3, what if we could become a cause and not just a company? That encourages every business person to ask, what is a deeper meaning? What is a more important outcome than just the PnL or this quarter's numbers? It can open our eyes to new realities and new pursuits that truly will inspire others. Who isn't more inspired when they walk in Patagonia as a store? Who isn't more inspired by some of the most purpose-driven companies of our time? Even silly fun companies like Ben and Jerry's have inspired people by picking with intention, flavors and naming them in such a way that they say something more than just about ice cream to the world at large. What if you and your company could become a cause, and not just a company? Three more for you to close, beautiful question number 4, who have we as a company historically been when we've been at our best? A wonderful opportunity for reflection. It reminds me of another great author didn't get to have him on this podcast. He's no longer living. But Warren Bennis, who wrote so many great books about leadership.
His book, On Becoming a Leader, which is the one I always quote from, he said there are four essential lessons of self-knowledge. The fourth one, he wrote that true understanding comes from reflecting on your experience. That's just the fourth of the four lessons of self-knowledge. You can look up or Google the others. But who have we as a company, historically been when we've been at our best? I would say if you were with us at Fool Fest a couple of weekends ago, I know a lot of our employees are probably listening to me at different points too, didn't we see the Motley Fool at its best when we're in and around members. When we're interacting with people who followed our advice, and then come to tell us two decades later at Fool Fest, I just retired early because of this or that stock recommendation or following the Motley Fool over the years. Who has your company been historically, when it's been at its best? The fifth one, why were only the newcomers seizing this opportunity?
In his book, A More Beautiful Question, at this point, Warren Berger is talking about one of my heroes, Clayton Christiansen, the Harvard Business School professor who's responsible for the phrase disruptive innovation. Who wrote the book, The Innovator's Dilemma. A lot of longtime Rule Breakers will recognize that name, Clayton Christiansen, maybe others don't. But Clayton was the first one who, I would say, scientifically gathered data and arrived at this conclusion that many of the biggest companies in America over the course of time, get disrupted by small rule-breaking upstarts. I would say, by top dogs and first movers in important emerging situations, they get disrupted because they didn't, with their established leaders and all of their know-how, and all of their resources, those great big companies didn't pay attention to the low end of their market. They kept swimming higher and higher price points with better and better products and services, more and more exclusivity, serving their best clients, and they forgot about the world at large, the broader market. They ceded that to newcomers who come along and disrupt them. Warren Berger asks channeling Clayton Christiansen, why were only the newcomers seizing this opportunity? It's food for thought. The sixth and final question, which relates directly back to the fifth, is this, where within the company can you explore heretical questions that could threaten the business as it is without contaminating what you're doing now? Or phrased another way, also elsewhere in the chapter, where is the place at a company that we can be a start-up again? Well, great Quote 5, was just a series of beautiful questions and I realize this one, in particular, was aimed very specifically at business people, which is a group of people I care a lot about and like to speak to from time to time. We're speaking with this one much more expressly toward business.
But, in conclusion, I would say, business always ties back to investing. When you think about some of those beautiful questions, hit 32nd rewind on your podcast platform if you like and relisten to them again, I think you're going to see a lot of our investing tenets baked into those. In fact, when I think about what does the world need most, and what if we could become a cause, I think about Habit number 4 of the Rule Breaker Investor, which is to embrace the four tenets of conscious capitalism. I think conscious capitalism is going to continue to grow and rule the world and the four tenets, if you don't know them, please look them up, but that should affect your investing. You should be actively looking to invest in companies that get it, and probably not in the ones that don't. I also obviously see Trait 1, baked into these business quotes, these business questions, Trait 1 of the Rule Breaker Stock. Which is, to be a top dog and first mover in an important emerging industry. I agree with Clayton Christiansen's conclusions, and therefore, for about 30 years now, I've been looking at the upstarts, the rule breakers, the ones that are going to shape the future. We buy them now, and we keep holding them well past Wall Street, that works well for investors. Then I also think I guess of that fifth trait of rule breaker stocks, which is strong consumer appeal. Who are the brands that you want to buy from? Who's cheating because their brand is so good that nobody else can compete with them? Well, thus much for Great Quotes Authors in August edition, thanks for sticking with me all the way through to the end. I love the great quote series, it's been such a delight each time to present five quotes that inspire, educate, and I would say amuse, as well sometimes. We've done about 95, we never repeat 95 different quotes in this series over the years. Each one of those quotes, I treasure, wanted to share with you and continue to look back on them fondly. Well, from Seth Godin's two views of cheating to Priya Parker's remarkable origins, to Amor Towles' first impressions. Then to Shirzad Chamine's stallion story, we closed it out with questioning in business, encouraging us to formulate and articulate beautiful questions. I can't wait for this coming authors in August, but in the meantime, we have mailbag next week, rbi@fool.com is your email address, drop us a line. Enjoy your summer, Fool on.
John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. David Gardner has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
