Chapter 119 - David Sarnoff: A Biography
Today’s Chapter is based on the book “David Sarnoff”, a biography by Eugene Lyons.
David Sarnoff played a pivotal role in the development of radio and television in the United States. He was instrumental in establishing the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), transforming the media landscape by recognizing the potential of wireless communication to reach mass audiences. Sarnoff's leadership and vision led to significant advancements in broadcasting technology and earned him the nickname "The General" due to his military rank and commanding presence in the industry.
Here’s what I learned:
Self-Improvement
“He that loves reading has everything within his reach.”
— William Godwin
David Sarnoff’s commitment to lifelong learning and self-improvement was a driving force behind his rise from an immigrant office boy to the president of a revolutionary industry. Despite the demands of supporting his family, he pursued knowledge with a voracious appetite, turning every opportunity into a classroom. This dedication to self-education equipped him with the skills and insights needed to navigate and shape the evolving world of radio and television in the United States.
As a matter of fact, when Sarnoff was young, he was greatly inspired by Abraham Lincoln, whose story of self-education and perseverance resonated deeply with him. President Woodrow Wilson once said that “Lincoln owed nothing to his birth, everything to his growth; had no training save what he gave himself; no nurture, but only a wild and native strength. His life was his schooling and every day it gave his character a new touch of development.” Luckily for Sarnoff, there were plenty of opportunities for him to learn during his youth.
“For an intelligent boy eager to learn and to improve his mind, there was no lack of opportunities. David remained undefiled by the meanness of his surroundings. Despite a killing schedule before and after school hours, he found time to soak up knowledge of the new land. He read everything that came to hand and was never without a book from the nearest library.”
— Eugene Lyons
What is the most impressive about Sarnoff’s commitment to learning is that he understood that true education is a continuous process that was not confined by formal education. Arriving in America as an immigrant without knowing a word of English, he quickly immersed himself in the language and culture, devouring books and seeking every opportunity to expand his knowledge. In fact, Lyons explains that “With the mental discipline acquired in his earliest years, the American lessons were scarcely a challenge. He was reading English and beginning to speak it with some fluency even before the year was out.”
Even as a young boy working long hours, he prioritized learning. He joined debating clubs, devoured library books, and took correspondence courses. This dedication laid the foundation for his future success, enabling him to grasp complex technical concepts and articulate his vision with clarity and conviction. This thirst for knowledge propelled him from an office boy to an industry leader. He also recognized the limitations of those who focused solely on the business or technical aspects of their work and strived to bridge the gap, becoming fluent in both.
“I knew that I would have to work twice as hard as most other boys, and that I would have to get my education, as it were, on the run. No, I didn’t think it unfair and I wasn’t bitter. I accepted the handicaps calmly, as facts of life, to be faced and overcome.”
— David Sarnoff
This reminds me of what we have previously learned from Henry Ford who did not believe that one’s knowledge be judged by their formal education. As he once said, “An educated man is not one whose memory is trained to carry a few dates in history—he is one who can accomplish things. A man who cannot think is not an educated man however many college degrees he may have acquired.”
“But the best that education can do for a man is to put him in possession of his powers, give him control of the tools with which destiny has endowed him, and teach him how to think.”
— Henry Ford
Furthermore, similarly to David Sarnoff, Ford believed that one’s education starts after graduation, as the main goal of education “is to teach him how to use his mind in thinking.” As such, when Henry Ford was running the Ford Motor Company, Ford never hired any experts or men with past experiences. His reasoning was that “A man who knows a job sees so much more to be done than he has done, that he is always pressing forward and never gives up an instant of thought to how good and how efficient he is. Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible. The moment one gets into the "expert" state of mind a great number of things become impossible.”
Resilience
“One thing about championship teams is that they’re resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity.”
— Nick Saban
Resilience was, in my opinion, a core trait upon which David Sarnoff built his extraordinary career, a quality that he built through early years of hardship. As mentioned previously, Sarnoff arrived at a young age in America as an immigrant where his family faced poverty. Yet, rather than to succumb to these challenges, Sarnoff took on the pressures of supporting his family. In fact, when he was nine and a half, he hold himself, “If I don’t help my family, who will?”
Within weeks from his arrival in America, Sarnoff was already handing over this mother pennies that he would earn by selling newspapers on the streets against the competition of older and more experienced boys. And by age then, his earnings determined whether his family ate or went hungry, a burden that surely shaped Sarnoff’s character and work ethic.
“The boy Sarnoff was never to know, except at second hand, that childhood could be bright and joyful. He had put away childish things when he was barely five and had plunged into the worries of maturity—the eternal problems of rent and grocery bills—when he was barely ten.”
— Eugene Lyons
As such, even as a young man, Sarnoff endured a grueling schedule often working multiple jobs. Lyon mentions that, despite his long working hours, "Always David was prompt, hard-working, dependable. For fear that his employers might think him too tired for the job, he concealed the fact that by the time he reached the office, cheerful and alert, he had already put in four hours delivering papers."
This resiliency of Sarnoff truly shined when he was running the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) from 1919 to his retirement in 1970. This is especially true when the company was facing economic storms. For example, Sarnoff once voluntarily cut his own salary from $80,000 to $51,000 a year during a business crisis. Yet, Sarnoff differed from other industrialists by the fact that he always wanted to make sure that RCA’s research division was not only maintained by expanded even during hard times. This decision to prioritize long-term innovation over short-term survival underscores his belief that resilience involves not just enduring hardship but leveraging it for future growth. Sarnoff often encountered skepticism, but rather than allowing it to deter him, he used it as fuel for his ambition.
This reminds me of the story of Chung Ju-Yung, the founder of Hyundai. Chung believed that giving it your all and working diligently can make up for any shortfalls you may have. For example, while Chung Ju-Yung stopped his formal education after the sixth grade, he more than made up for it by reading books diligently. In fact, he once said that “if my first mentors were my parents, then my second mentors were books.”
“The story of my life demonstrates that one does not need great wealth and education to become successful. Even though I was poor and had little education, I am running one of the world's most successful businesses. For those people who are in a difficult situation but continue to have big dreams, I hope my life can be an example that inspires them to push forward toward a better life through honest, hard work.”
— Chung Ju-Yung
Furthermore, Chung believes that one must work diligently every day in order to have steady improvement in life which can lead to success. In fact, he once said that “unless your life goal is wasting time, then the first thing I recommend is to be diligent. Being diligent forces you to move a lot, think a lot, and work a lot. Diligence mirrors your sincerity about living a full life. So I don't trust anyone who is lazy. If you are diligent in attending to your daily needs, then over time you will become credible and reap the benefits of your diligence.”
“If you are diligent for a day, you will sleep comfortably for a night. If you are diligent for a month, the quality of your life will noticeably improve. If you are diligent for a year, two years, 10 years, your whole life... your accomplishments will be recognized by all. The diligent lead lives a 100 times more productive than the lazy. Their lives are thus more fulfilling. If you work 10 times more than a lazy person, then you are in fact shouldering the lives of hundreds.”
— Chung Ju-Yung
Visionary Leadership
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
— Steve Jobs
David Sarnoff’s greatest gift was his ability to envision futures others deemed impossible. While many of his contemporaries focused on incremental advancements, Sarnoff saw the broader potential of emerging technologies. As Eugene Lyons wrote, “During the larger part of his business life, Sarnoff found himself committed to objectives which others considered ‘impossible’.”
In fact, Sarnoff’s impact on the electronics industry was profound, transforming it into a central part of modern life. He was not just a business leader but a true visionary who saw the potential for technology to reshape society. Eugene Lyons observed that Sarnoff “has probably affected the patterns of the daily lives of more Americans than anyone since Thomas Edison."
For example, one of Sarnoff’s greatest achievement was his proposal of a “Radio Music Box” in 1915, a precursor to the home radio receiver. While radio was only seen as a niche tool for maritime communication at the time, he already imagined that the radio could become a household staple. While he was dismissed by his peers, Sarnoff famously said, “I think that whatever one might deem necessary and expedient to tell another, it should, nevertheless, be remembered that ‘It is a great mistake to fool oneself.’ No matter what we may determine amongst ourselves, the ultimate and most important decision is reached by the consumer and the people on the outside who are competent to judge.”
“Our great asset is the vast ignorance about electronics. (…) The ignorance is what remains to be explored and conquered—because that’s where we have unlimited potentials for an industry, in fact for many industries, that are still in their infancy or as yet unborn.”
— David Sarnoff
Not only did Sarnoff’s vision laid the groundwork for home radio, he also predicted modern broadcasting and color TV. In fact, in 1927, he once said, “If we let our imagination plunge ahead, we may also dream of television in faithful colors.”But why was Sarnoff so confident in making these type of predictions despite having no technological background? The main reason is because he often saw great ideas where others didn’t. As Eugene Lyons explained, “General Sarnoff had a faculty of listening silently to the shop talk of engineers. He would pick up a hint, a half-thought, and would explore it, expand it, analyze its potentials for use. Frequently he pounced on an idea or a research indication which the engineers themselves thought of no importance.”
David Sarnoff’s story reminds me of how innovation often comes through unconventional thinking. As we have previously learned from Elon Musk, when facing a complex problem, he often used first-principles thinking in order to solve it. By breaking down the complicated problem into basic components, it will become much easier to find creative ways of solving the issue at hand. His work at Space X is a great example of this. Considering that rockets are absurdly expensive, Musk knew that he had to find a way to build cheaper rockets to send people to Mars.
As such, he implemented an “idiot index”, which calculated how much more costly a finished product was compared to the cost of its basic materials. By consequence, he realized that a rocket, which has a high idiot index, was around two percent of the typical material price. This was often due to inefficient manufacturing. As Musk would put it, “If the ratio is high, you’re an idiot.”
By consequence, Musk knew that the solution for cheaper rockets was for Musk to build them himself. If he could device a more efficient rocket manufacturing technique, he would be able to make rockets at a fraction of the cost.
“I think people’s thinking process is too bound by convention or analogy to prior experiences. It’s rare that people try to think of something on a first principles basis. They’ll say, “We’ll do that because it’s always been done that way.” Or they’ll not do it because “Well, nobody’s ever done that, so it must not be good. But that’s just a ridiculous way to think. You have to build up the reasoning from the ground up—“from the first principles” is the phrase that’s used in physics. You look at the fundamentals and construct your reasoning from that, and then you see if you have a conclusion that works or doesn’t work, and it may or may not be different from what people have done in the past.”
— Elon Musk
Furthermore, Musk loved to question every requirements, especially when it came from regulators. In fact, a big reason why rocket components were expensive is due to the fact that they are subject to hundreds of specifications and requirements mandated by the military and NASA. Elon Musk would often asks his engineers, both at Tesla and at SpaceX, to always question these “requirements” through first-principle thinking. By doing so, one realises that more often than not, these requirements are not necessary.
As Musk would say, “Step one should be to question the requirements, make them less wrong and dumb, because all requirements are somewhat wrong and dumb. And then delete, delete, delete.” By questioning requirements and seeing them as mere recommendations, Musk was not only able to save money, but he was also able to make his manufacturing of rockets and cars much more efficient.
“The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.”
— Elon Musk
Elon Musk was so serious about this concept of questioning all requirements that he implemented a five-point checklist that was dubbed “the algorithm”. Here’s a summary of it:
“1. Question every requirement. Each should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from a department, such as from “the legal department” or “the safety department.” You need to know the name of the real person who made that requirement. Then you should question it, no matter how smart that person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous, because people are less likely to question them.Always do so, even if the requirement came from me. Then make the requirements less dumb.
2. Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn’t delete enough.
3. Simplify and optimize. This should come after step two. A common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part or a process that should not exist.
4. Accelerate cycle time. Every process can be speeded up. But only do this after you have followed the first three steps. In the Tesla factory, I mistakenly spent a lot of time accelerating processes that I later realized should have been deleted.
5. Automate. That comes last. The big mistake in Nevada and at Fremont was that I began by trying to automate every step. We should have waited until all the requirements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and the bugs were shaken out.”
Beyond the Book
Read “ Henry Ford and the Actual Value of Education” by Farnam Street
Read “ First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge” by Farnam Street
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