Harvey Firestone: Men and Rubber [Outliers]

The most difficult thing in business is first getting yourself to thinking and then getting others to thinking. A person may keep very busy indeed without doing any thinking at all. And the easy course is to keep so busy there will be no time left over for thought. We try to substitute discussion for thought by organizing committies, but a committee is just an elaborate means of fooling oneself into believing that talking is the same as thinking. These words are from Harvey S Firestone's autobiography Men and Rubber.

One of the books that I give away the most frequently as a gift. Well, it was written in nineteen twenty six. Everyone I give it to is surprised not only by the density of wisdom, but by how relevant it remains today. The Knowledge Project. I'm your host, Shane Parrish. In a world where knowledge is power, this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best of what other people have already figured out. In nineteen twenty, Harvey Firestone returned from vacation to find his company drowning in forty three million of debt.

His executives were paralyzed. The banks had cut him off. Competitors were circling. Yet instead of panicking, Firestone did something that shock everyone. He slashed prices by twenty five percent and personally took control of sales. The situation did not frighten me, he later wrote, It put new life into me.

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