How I Built This with Guy Raz

And I checked a couple of weeks ago and I saw that Love in the Time of Cholera was rising on the Amazon charts.

And across the street from my apartment in New York was a Barnes and Nobles. And I went over and I bought this Cisco how to voice our IP book, which was like 700 pages. And I read the entire book cover to cover to figure out how to program these gateways so that I could turn them back on so that I could run this network.

So people that succeed and people that find success, after they have it or find it, it becomes theirs and it's not often shared.

But there's so many people that want to do the same thing, which is succeed. And that doesn't mean that they have to do it your way.

And that doesn't mean that they have to do exactly what you did, but a story that can inform them of how you did gives them a different lens to look through.

And unless you go search for this information, you're never going to find it. It's not offered. It's not volunteered.

So what I do is lay it out for people to come and simply be informed.

So I went down there and I gifted him two of my favorite records, Daniel Johnston, HI, HOW ARE YOU?, and a record by a group called The Shags called Philosophy of the World.

So I went down there and I gifted him two of my favorite records, Daniel Johnston, Hi, How Are You?, and a record by a group called The Shags called Philosophy of the World.

That's an excerpt from my conversation with Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse and her daughter Fannie Singer, the author of Always Home.

One is don't be afraid to ask the question that has no answer. That's off of a Wendell Berry, Mad Farmer Manifesto poem of his about four decades ago.

I'm going to read the title of this book called The Fast Track, The Insider's Guide to Winning Jobs in Management, Consulting, Investment Banking and Securities Trading.

Yeah. So the reason I did that was I thought, well, one, it's a market need. I know how to fill this need. I've done so much recruiting at the two firms I was working at that I knew that there was a need for the book and I wanted to experiment to see what would happen if you create a consumer product that you know that there's a need for.

And I also thought it would be a good project to demonstrate that I had some, I guess, chutzpah to be able to get into Stanford.

So I sold the book, right? And then I knew I had sold the book to a publisher, Broadway, before I, as I was applying. And I think that helped differentiate me as well.

And then I used the advance to pay for business school, which I needed to pay for. So it was a way to pay for school.

When my dad moved out, he handed me these cassette tape from Wayne Dyer and said, 'sweetie, I wish I was your age when I listened to this instead of the age of 40.'

And so I started listening to these and it talked about not caring what other people think about you, not fearing failure.

I started writing books and I wrote a first book called Display of Power.

And it talked about the fact that we all have the same engine underneath our hoods. But are you going to tap into what drives you and what can make you a rock star, make you proficient and bring you success?

Ira came to me and was like, the 10 year anniversary of Harold Washington's death is coming up. And he was like, I'm wondering if we should do something for it. Here's this book, read it and see if you think there's a story there.

And so he gave me this book called Fire on the Prairie by Gary Rivlin, which is all about Mayor Washington.

He introduced me to, you know, so many incredible MCs. He brought me these old things called how to be an MC CDs, which is basically like a bunch of instrumentals, famous instrumentals of the two thousands.

And my mom, she read this book called Driven to Distraction by Dr. Hallowell.

They bought me a book called Franchising for Dummies.

It was written by Dave Thomas.

Oh, the guy from Wendy's.

Yeah, the guy from Wendy's.

She's the author of the book Hiding in the Bathroom and she spoke at the summit about networking for introverts.

Ali just published a book all about blow drying hair. It's called The Drybar Guide to Good Hair for All.

It was 96 pages. It sold for $1.80.

It was really a home produced book.

It was actually done on our kitchen table because actually we only had a kitchen, a kitchen and a bedroom.

We found a little, I mean, we didn't go to a big commercial printer. It was a guy who had this print thing in the basement under his apartment and he printed them for us.

I think it's safe to say probably changed your life. What was that book?

A book called John Goffey's Mill, written by George Woodbury.

the most delightful thing was whole grains when he ground all these wonderful whole wheat flour and whole rye flour and cornmeal and all this, that the public beat a path to his door.

If we could do this, if we could get a mill and do the same thing, the public would beat a path to our door. And we would be in business.

So I started writing books and I wrote a first book called Display of Power. And it talked about the fact that we all have the same engine underneath our hoods. But are you going to tap into what drives you and what can make you a rock star, make you proficient and bring you success?