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Hello everyone. A few days ago, we discussed what we call forever episodes, which are the few episodes of our show that we think will be as popular a decade from now as they are today. When I re-listened to this episode with David Senra, I left wildly energized and wanting to share that feeling. So we are re-releasing it today for anyone who missed it the first time or hadn’t yet discovered Invest Like the Best. Please share it with your friends and loved ones as I think anyone will benefit from David’s perspective and enthusiasm. Have a great weekend and we’ll be back with more next week.

David Senra has studied history’s great founders and entrepreneurs in more depth than anyone I’ve ever met, and I’d wager more than anyone else alive. In this conversation, we cover many of the most common themes he’s discovered studying hundreds of entrepreneurs like Estée Lauder, John Rockefeller, Enzo Ferrari, and Edwin Land. Please enjoy this great conversation with David Senra.

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For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls – Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Show Notes

[00:03:01] – [First question] – When he first fell in love with reading

[00:07:01] – What’s rooted in his own history that’s made him obsessive about studying history’s great entrepreneurs and founders – Founders Podcast

[00:10:34] – The first time he connected with someone as a positive role model that he was reading about 

[00:13:45] – How often obsession is apparent in the founders he’s studied across hundreds of biographies 

[00:18:08] – What is often behind obsession and how people listening can apply the lessons to their own lives

[00:22:45] – The dynamic and relationship between inspiration and perspiration 

[00:27:11] – Commonalities between the layers of leadership and support underneath founders

[00:31:52] – Where else he’s seen ego rear its head in good and bad ways 

[00:38:34] – How often do great founders break the law or enter gray areas of it 

[00:41:22] – The role constant learning and listening plays in success

[00:45:12] – Talking about how anything worth doing is worth doing to excess 

[00:52:18] – Describing the soul of founders and businesses

[00:58:39] – What he’s learned about all of these founders as it relates to marketing 

[01:04:38] – A common story that process is often art 

[01:08:10] – Who his idols are in podcasting specifically 

[01:14:55] – Major aspects of people he’s studied that haven’t been discussed yet

[01:19:55] – The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him