History Channel’s The Men Who Built America: Additional Reading
I have received a number of emails asking for book recommendations for people who are interested in learning more about these men. While biographies are one of my favorite genres I must confess that many of the 900-1000 page books I have manged to work my way through are very dry reading and take a serious commitment to finish. Quite surprisingly, many don’t even have any actionable lessons that the reader can implement in his or her own business.
However, there is one book I can recommend for anyone interested in learning more about these tycoons and how they grew their business empires from nothing. The book is also quite an enjoyable read, relatively speaking, because it does offer some insights into their tactics, strategies, and tricks.
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History Channel’s The Men Who Built America
I have a few minor quibbles with this otherwise excellent series on the growth strategies of America’s greatest tycoons.
Space Aliens on the History Channel
So far I have seen the first three episodes and will most definitely catch the fourth when it airs next week. This series indicates a possible change in direction for the History Channel. If it truly is returning to serious history, then I welcome the move. All the emphasis of recent years on space aliens was a turn off for me.
My only real criticism of the show is the way they shoe-horned so many celebrities into the first episode for quick sound-bytes. Couldn’t Donald Trump use a rest by now? I would certainly hope so. To be clear, I enjoy hearing from the historians and biographers of Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt as they have interesting insights to add. In contrast, I was rather shocked to see Carly Fiorina, one of the very worst CEOs in history, appear for a couple of soundbites in the third episode. This is the woman who single-handedly destroyed a great American company and Silicon Valley icon. I refer to Hewlett-Packard, of course.
The Bank of Dave
How do you achieve the impossible? How do you crash your way into one of the most exclusive and powerful clubs on the planet? How do you as a tiny player unleash a disruptive strategy in an industry controlled by giants?
Bank of Dave’s David Fishwick
The answers all lie in the Channel 4 documentary Bank of Dave. For context, Dave Fishwick is a successful minibus dealer from a small town in northern England. When the banks stop lending to small business, Dave comes up with the crazy idea of opening his own community bank to lend to local businesses. This is when he is confronted with a seemingly impenetrable wall regulations designed to keep outsiders out.
Dave is a joy and an inspiration to watch in action. He is relentless. Nothing stops him. Every regulation, obstacle, is just something to be swept away, overcome, or dismissed with contempt.
A long time ago, one of my profs told me that it’s far better to do something and ask for forgiveness afterwards then to wait for permission. It’s one of the best pieces of advice I have ever been given. Study tycoons and you will see that all follow this principle.
Dave reminds me of an Al Pacino quote:
There’s no such thing as too far. You understand? You push everything as far as you can. You push and you push and you push until it starts pushing back. And then you push some goddamn more. – Al Pacino
Go watch this extraordinary story and then do a search on his results.
History Channel’s The Men Who Built America
I recently watched the History Channel’s program Sun Tzu’s Art of War which in 90 minutes did, arguably, the best job of not only explaining the classic’s lessons but, more importantly, showing how they all dove tail together. If you have any interest in strategy, for business or war, watch the program.
The program reminded me of a controversy that raged back in the 1990s over whether or not, war was a valid metaphor for business. As I read the views of various business book authors I found myself sitting on the proverbial fence. Part of me felt that it was true that business is warfare minus the bloodshed but another part wanted to believe that it was a more gentlemanly affair. Over time I came to accept that business truly is war if you want to build anything significant. If your goal is to settle for running a small Main Street shop out in Springfield, you maybe able to get away with telling yourself that it’s not. The reason for business being war is that building anything significant requires that you upset the status quo and ruffle some feathers. This is going to generate push back from vested interests.
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