This week’s episode of SWS contains a review of the book Never Enough of Andrew Wilkinson, a review of the first part of the book about the story of Burger King, a video about the Whopper Story and a guide on good enough AI prompting.
Welcome back to this week’s episode of Ctrl+V: Stuff Worth Sharing. As always, I have read and listened to far too much media. The highlights of my weekly consumption I want to share with you.
🎧 Never Enough — From Barista To Billionaire by Andrew Wilkinson
This audiobook was a breeze to listen to. I’ve completed it in less than a week.
Andrew Wilkinson shares his journey from working as a barista to being a billionaire. His business started with web design work, which he grew to a profitable agency.
Then he shifted his focus to his new company, Tiny, where he invested in different startups. I really liked his detailed storytelling about the time he bought the coffee maker AeroPress, which I use and love. This story again showed Andrew’s determination to close the deal.
He also got into detail how his meetings with Charlie Munger went. Charlie Munger seems like a very down to earth man, who even used a fake gold watch to save some money.
At the end, the title of the book got very present. Andrew never seemed to get enough. He was always in a competition to get more. More money, better houses, a yacht, a bigger yacht and so on. He got very critical regarding this cycle and described multiple conversations with other billionaires, who also could not get enough. In the end, he broke out of this cycle of doom and gave away more money, trying also to reduce his money-hungry lifestyle.
In my opinion, this is a very inspiring read for everybody who wants to share a business. Initially, the hunt for money seems to be one of the most important topics in business creation. If you keep in mind all the struggles that arise with having much money, maybe you start with a slower speed, not trying to sell your company at the first chance and building a sustainable business over the long term. Many other people Andrew talked to shared their wish to just get back to the early days, program for themselves in their companies, and so on.
Try to appreciate what you have and not only go after the big money.
🎧 The Burger King by Jim McLamore
After finishing “Never Enough”, I’ve started listening to the next audiobook, this time the memoirs of the founder and first CEO of Burger King, Jim McLamore. Some years ago I’ve read “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s” which told the story of Ray Kroc, who made McDonald’s as big as it is today. I found it very insightful and inspiring, so I’ve also decided to tune in to the story of its competitor, Burger King.
The audiobook often mentions the parallels between Burger King and McDonald’s. McLamore started with a small restaurant he owned, then moving its operations to Florida. He tells all the hurdles he had to take, like driving long hours through the US as commercial flying was not available in the beginning.
One of the first restaurants was opened in Florida, where he did not see the seasonal aspects, as Florida was then only traveled to in the winter months, which lead to missing business during the rest of the year. He struggled to make a profit, but with clever marketing (a boy rang the evening bell outside the store to get people inside and making special meal deals like a cheap steak) he returned to profit.
From this point, he shares the growth journey of the business. Another interesting aspect is the manufacturing of their own kitchen equipment, which allowed them to produce more food in a shorter time, but also added requirements like founding and operating manufacturing sites.
I’ve listened to a third of the book and look forward to the coming stories to be told.
Staying on the fast food topic, this video I’ve stumbled upon while searching for the link to the Burger King book describes the history of the Whopper. The Whopper was one of the biggest marketing coups Burger King had, as many people liked getting big burgers. In the video, McLamore shares his visit to a heavily visited burger store which drew large amounts of customers to it, whereas on the same street the Burger King got none. This inspired McLamore to offer one of the big burgers in Burger King.
This can also be taken as a marketing lesson, as watching and testing your competition is one of the most important steps to take when starting and running a business to always keep ahead of the game.
📄 Getting started with AI: Good enough prompting by Ethan Mollick
As my time on this Sunday starts to run out, here is one last not burger-related link for you. In this article about AI prompting, Ethan Mollick goes into detail on how to approach AI prompting.
Where many suggest learning the science (or rather art) of prompting, Ethan takes another path: Just spend some hours (10 in his example) playing with the AI and seeing which prompts are more effective than others.
An often taken hint is to see the AI assistant as an intern who works for you.
This visualisation does not work that well, rather Ethan wants you to view “AI like an infinitely patient new coworker who forgets everything you tell them each new conversation, one that comes highly recommended but whose actual abilities are not that clear”.
He also highlights the importance of “being clear, giving the AI examples, and giving it step-by-step directions” to get better results.
At the end, the concept of AI used as a rubber duck is discussed. Like the metaphorical duck which programmers talk to while thinking about a problem, the AI can also be used to gain new insights just by the AI listening to you.
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