Chapter 122 - Maxims of Life and Business
Today’s Chapter is based on the book “Maxims of Life and Business” by John Wanamaker.
John Wanamaker was a pioneering American merchant and founder of one of the first modern department stores, Wanamaker's, in Philadelphia. He is also known for serving as the 35th United States Postmaster General from 1889 to 1893, where he introduced significant postal reforms such as rural free delivery and the first commemorative stamps.
Here’s what I learned:
Seizing Opportunities
“Ability is of little account without opportunity.”
— Napoleon
In the book “Maxims of Life and Business”, John Wanamaker offers timeless insights into achieving success both in business and in life. One of the lessons we can learn from Wanamaker is the importance of persistent effort and the ability to seize opportunities when they arise. This duality of hard work and timely action forms the bedrock of personal and professional growth.
In fact, Wanamaker emphasizes that success is not a product of chance or external wealth but rather the result of an individual’s initiative. He explains that “It is not extraordinary circumstances, or rich friends, or large capital, that create the golden opportunities of life. It is something in the person that thinks and gets an idea, and seizes the first possible moment to do what he can toward developing it.”
“To think hard and quickly, see the core of a subject, seize it and base action upon it, is the secret of successfulness.”
— John Wanamaker
Moreover, Wanamaker believed that those that succeed are those that make the best of their opportunities that they have created through persistent effort. As he once stated, “A wise man is a maker of opportunities.” As such, this suggests that waiting for the perfect opportunity is futile, instead, one should work towards creating the conditions required for success through foresight and effort. As he once said, “While too much enthusiasm is better than none, the large majority of us can only achieve an approach to eminence by persistent energy, without which man is not much more than a two-legged creature.”
And more importantly, it is primordial to act quickly once a great opportunity presents itself. As he once said, “Opportunities grow stale unless promptly seized and used.” In business and life, timing is critical, and delaying action can render even the best opportunities obsolete. As Jeff Bezos once said, "Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70 percent of the information you wish you had…if you wait for 90 percent, in most cases, you’re probably being slow."
“Knocking steadily at the door of opportunity will surely open it to success.”
— John Wanamaker
This idea that persistent effort can lead to the creation of opportunities is certainly not an uncommon concept. As a matter of fact, we have previously learned from Chung Ju-Yung, the founder of Hyundai who had this life motto of “Do your best till there is nothing more to do” that came to him from his observation of bedbugs. He explains that "Even bedbugs think long and hard, and use every bit of energy they have to achieve their goal, and ultimately they succeed. I'm no bedbug, I'm a man. These bedbugs can surely teach a man a few lessons. If these bedbugs can do it, why can't we men do it? We just need to stick to it and not quit. We need to emulate these bedbugs.”
Chung Ju-Yung believes 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
Continuous Self-Learning
"Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.”
— Charlie Munger
Another profound lesson that we can learn from John Wanamaker is the emphasis on self-development and the lifelong pursuit of knowledge. He genuinely believed that true success often comes from a commitment to learning and self-improvement. As he once said, “Progress is the result of self-development.”
As such, Wanamaker encourages us to invest in ourselves as we are our most valuable asset. By honing our skills and by expanding our knowledge, we can prepare ourselves to navigate any challenges and grasp any opportunities that may present in front of us. Wanamaker mentions that “To wise people it is given to be in school every day, learning something interesting and useful from every incident of life.” This also suggests that Wanamaker understood that wisdom is not confined to formal education but can be cultivated through self-learning.
Moreover, similarly to how Charlie Munger once said, “Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.”, Wanamaker understood that in order to avoid settling into mediocrity, it is primordial to seek for continuous improvement on a daily basis. This rejection of complacency was a core tenet of his business philosophy, as he once mentioned that “The men who are perfectly satisfied with what they are doing for me are not the men I want. We shall improve every day and go ahead.”
“I will not stand still: I must learn all the time.”
— John Wanamaker
In the same way, Charlie Munger believed that Berkshire Hathaway’s exceptional success is due to the fact that both Munger and Warren Buffett are both compounding learning machine. As a matter of fact, Munger mentions that he doesn’t know any single successful investor who do not read voraciously.
More importantly, Munger understood that the fastest way to earn wisdom is to learn from the success and failure of others. As a matter of fact, life is way too short to learn everything on your own, and that’s without saying how much pain we can avoid by learning from mistakes of others instead of committing them ourselves.
As Charlie Munger once said, “I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart.”
In the case of Charlie Munger, he loved to read biographies as it is a great way to learn from the masters of each disciplines. Here’s how he explains it:
“I am a biography nut myself. And I think when you’re trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them. I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among the “eminent dead,” but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better for you in life and work better in education. It’s way better than just giving the basic concepts.”
— Charlie Munger
Companies Are Built By People
“Four Seasons is the sum of its people—many, many good people.”
— Isadore Sharp
John Wanamaker was also an advocate that companies are built and driven by the people surrounding it, notably its employees and its customers. As a matter of fact, Wanamaker once mentioned that “Business is not a matter of machinery; it is not a great granite building; it is not iron, steel and rock; it is the human force that is in it; it is the man.” In an age where we can encourage the use of automation and artificial intelligence, this insight can serve as a reminder that businesses don’t thrive on machinery or infrastructure, but on the people who drive them.
And, in order to build a good workforce in the company, Wanamaker believes that it first starts with the people at the top. Wanamaker explains that “No business organization can rise higher than its leader and owner, constantly in the field, directing each day’s plans and work. Proxies are not responsible or equal to it.” As such, it is up to the leadership team to set a great example for their employees to follow and perhaps to use great incentive schemes make sure that the interests of the employees match those of the company.
Furthermore, Wanamaker’s emphasis on personal involvement suggests that success hinges on a leader’s direct engagement with their team and operations. It’s a call to lead by example rather than delegate without oversight.
“The aim and purpose of the business must always be that as the business rises it must lift every worker with it.”
— John Wanamaker
This reminds me of Paul Orfalea’s story at Kinko’s. Similarly to Wanamaker, Orfalea realized that the workers behind the counter at Kinko’s were the true heroes of the company. As a matter of fact, being in the retail copy centers business, Orfalea had plenty of competitors considering it is an industry with no barriers to entry.
As such, if he wanted to beat his competitors, he would have to make Kinko’s a great place to work; he would have to create an incredible corporate culture and make it a competitive advantage. This starts by setting the right incentives in place. In fact, Orfalea mentions that it is a lot easier to manage the work environment than the people in a store. He once said that “when people are properly motivated, they will essentially manage themselves.”
As such, he started calling his employees as coworkers to remind himself that he didn’t want to “use” people, but to work with “empowered entrepreneurs”. To instill this sense of entrepreneurship among Kinko’s workers, the company gave a share of the profits of the store to everyone — partners, managers, and even workers behind the counter.
Orfalea mentions that initially, Kinko’s “gave each manager 25 percent of his or her store's profits. Later, we expanded the system of profit sharing when we started giving each manager 15 percent of the store's profits and earmarking the remaining 10 percent to be split among that store's coworkers.”
“At Kinko's, we were building a family together at the same time we were building a business.”
— Paul Orfalea
Furthermore, Wanamaker also connects business’ success to the customers. In fact, he explains that customers do not have short memories, and as such, he believed in providing great customer services. As he once said, “We would rather not make a sale than make one for the buyer to regret.” Wanamaker understood that building trust and loyalty requires consistently delivering value and exceeding customer expectations. He advocated for a customer-centric approach, prioritizing their needs and ensuring their satisfaction rather than focusing on generating sales.
Moreover, Wanamaker understood that in order to maintain great customer satisfaction, it was important to maintain vigilance even into the smallest of details. As he once said, “Carelessness in business, even in little things, is its worth moth.” This insight should also be a warning for companies to not be complacent.
“Anyone who thinks he can be negligent in business is on the road to ruin. No man should be satisfied in thinking only of his long and good experience, his excellent location, his large run of customers, and ‘let it go at that.’ It is wise for him to think of his weak points, and take steps immediately to remove them.”
— John Wanamaker
This reminds me of Andy Grove’s philosophy. The former CEO of Intel believed that healthy paranoia is an essential quality for business success. As he once said, "I believe in the value of paranoia. Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction." This notion may sound extreme, but Grove's logic is hard to refute. In fast-moving, hyper competitive markets, complacency is the main reason for the downfall for even the largest companies.
This risk comes from the fact that when companies are doing well, the leadership teams can become complacent as they fail to recognize the warning signs that the industry is slowly changing beneath their feet. Grove saw this dynamic play out time and again, as once-dominant players in the tech sector found their fortunes suddenly in free fall.
Grove illustrates this point by recounting the experiences of his own company, Intel, as it navigated a strategic inflection point in the computer industry, where there are often changes to the rules of the game. He observes that "sometimes these rules change—often in very significant ways. Yet there is no flashing sign that heralds these rule changes. They creep up on you as they crept up on us, without warning." His solution is to encourage a guardian attitude among his management team, where vigilance against potential threats was the default mindset.
"I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people's attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management."
— Andy Grove
Beyond the Book
Read "Reversible and Irreversible Decisions" by Farnam Street
Read "The Buffett Formula: Going to Bed Smarter Than When You Woke Up" by Farnam Street
Read "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" by Farnam Street
Read "The Power of Incentives: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior" by Farnam Street
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