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#190 Brad Jacobs: Building a Business Empire
Manage episode 407688920 series 72423
Brad Jacobs has started five companies from scratch and led each to become a billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar enterprise. These include three publicly traded companies: XPO Logistics, where he serves as Chairman and CEO, United Rentals, and United Waste Systems. Before starting XPO in 2011, Jacobs founded United Rentals in 1997 and led the company as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 1989, he founded United Waste Systems.
(04:44) The future of AI
(07:21) How to think rationally
(08:48) The major trend
(10:57) The research process
(13:29) On asking better questions
(19:35) On rearranging your brain
(22:23) On music, math, simplicity, and business
(32:26) Leverage, debt, and optionality
(35:11) What it takes to take contrarian bets
(40:45) Confidence and parents
(50:21) Why negative-only feedback is detrimental for employees
(56:14) Money lessons
(58:13) A deep dive on M&A (Jacobs' secret sauce to growing his companies)
(01:07:51) Questions to immediately get to know anyone
(01:11:14) On boards and board meetings
(01:16:57) On decision-making
(01:23:37) The role of capital markets
(01:25:41) The type of person you don't want to hire
(01:31:16) The best capital allocators
(01:33:53) Biggest lesson Jacobs learned from the past year
(01:37:20) On success
Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos
Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/
My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/
Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish
Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/
Sponsors:
Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet
Shopify: Making commerce better for everyone. https://www.shopify.com/shane
204 episodes
Manage episode 407688920 series 72423
Brad Jacobs has started five companies from scratch and led each to become a billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar enterprise. These include three publicly traded companies: XPO Logistics, where he serves as Chairman and CEO, United Rentals, and United Waste Systems. Before starting XPO in 2011, Jacobs founded United Rentals in 1997 and led the company as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 1989, he founded United Waste Systems.
(04:44) The future of AI
(07:21) How to think rationally
(08:48) The major trend
(10:57) The research process
(13:29) On asking better questions
(19:35) On rearranging your brain
(22:23) On music, math, simplicity, and business
(32:26) Leverage, debt, and optionality
(35:11) What it takes to take contrarian bets
(40:45) Confidence and parents
(50:21) Why negative-only feedback is detrimental for employees
(56:14) Money lessons
(58:13) A deep dive on M&A (Jacobs' secret sauce to growing his companies)
(01:07:51) Questions to immediately get to know anyone
(01:11:14) On boards and board meetings
(01:16:57) On decision-making
(01:23:37) The role of capital markets
(01:25:41) The type of person you don't want to hire
(01:31:16) The best capital allocators
(01:33:53) Biggest lesson Jacobs learned from the past year
(01:37:20) On success
Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos
Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/
My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/
Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish
Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/
Sponsors:
Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet
Shopify: Making commerce better for everyone. https://www.shopify.com/shane
204 episodes
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