The Big Four: Lessons

Amazon

• earth’s biggest store

• online retailer of choice for most Americans and the world

• Don’t shop there for luxury goods, but for the boring stuff-stuff that we need to survive

• No great effort shopping: No hunting, little gathering, just clicking

Apple

• Global “badge” of wealth, education, and Western values

• Fulfills 2 instinctual needs (as per Galloway):

  1. to feel closer to God

  2. be more attractive to the opposite sex

• religious congregation: the innovation class

• low cost products that sell at premium prices

• the most profitable company in history

Facebook

• the most successful thing in the history of humankind (galloway)

• measure by adoption and usage

• 1.2 billion people access Facebook daily

• most popular apps in the USA:

  • Facebook

  • Facebook Messenger

  • Instagram

• 1 in every 5 minutes is spent on Facebook

Google

• modern man’s God (Galloway)

• “It’s our source of knowledge—-ever present, aware of our deepest secrets, reassuring us where we are and where we need to go, answering questions from trivial to profound.”

• Ages in revers: Becomes more valuable with use

• 2 billion people, 24 hours a day

• 3.5 billion queries each day

A retailer that refuses to pay sales tax, treats its employees poorly, destroys hundreds of thousands of jobs, and yet is celebrated as a paragon of business innovation

Amazon

A computer company that withholds information about domestic act or terrorism from federal investigators, with the support of a fan following that views the firm similar to a religion

Apple

A social media firm that analyzes thousands of images of your children, activates your phone as a listening device, and sells this information to Fortune 500 companies

Facebook

An ad platform that commands, in some markets, a 90% share of the most lucrative sector in media, yet avoids anticompetitive regulation through aggressive litigation and lobbyists

Google

Galloway Personal Success Factors Part 1

• smart people who work hard and treat people well do better than people whose thinking is muddled, who are lazy, or who are unpleasant to colleagues

• comfortable in taking direction and giving it

• how to interact with people

• understand role in a group

• curiosity is crucial!

• ownership is an important skill

Galloway Personal Success Factors Part 2

• emotional maturity is very important

  • jobs no longer require reporting to just one boss, a specific set of tasks , and unchanging paramters for job expectations

• have a strong sense of identity

• remain poised under stress

• learn how to apply what you’re learning

Galloway Personal Success Factors - go to college

• even those who drop out, college experience is still instrumental

• USA’s caste system is college

• Top University is not the only brand you should pursue

  • friends are as valuable

• Cost of college has skyrocketed, but disruptive education is still questionable (MOOCs, Online Degrees)\

  • disruptors in education are still the biggies (harvard, columbia, mit, usc, ucla, etc.)

Galloway Personal Success Factors - get a certification

• especially if college is not an option

• CFA, CPA, Union Card, Pilot’s Instrument Rating, RN, Yoga Teacher Certification, Certified Health Education Specialist

Galloway Personal Success Factors - go to where your skill is valued

• find a company that is a good fit with your skills

Galloway Personal Success Factors - work on the accomplishment habit

• “People who achieve goals in one area achieve them in all areas” (galloway)

• Accomplishment is a habit that can be cultivated and repeated

• Winners have to be competitors!

  • learn how to compete and lose

  • only can accomplish something if you risk failure

• Competition takes grit

  • your learn a lot of grit in sports

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - get to a city

• geographic trajectory is key to someone’s success!

• “work anywhere” in the magic of the information superhighway is questionable

  • side note: COVID-19 is testing its limits right now

• Wealth, information, power, and opportunities are concentrated in the cities

  • 80% often world’s GDP is generated in the cities

• Progress typically happens in person

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - have a career and manage it

• you’re not the only one with emotional maturity, curiosity and grit

• your work and achievements should speak for themselves, but they usually don’t

• learn to separate yourself from others

• network!

• work your strengths, spend modest timing in getting your weaknesses to average

• DONT FOLLOW YOUR PASSION, FOLLOW YOUR TALENT

Galloway: Personal Success Factor - Boom(er)

• no matter how old you are, don’t let age be a factor

• if older, learn from the young and vice versa

• get in the game (whatever the game is!)

• Lifelong learning is important

• Ask for help and give help

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - regression to the mean

• “nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems.”

• regression to the mean is a powerful force

  • following a big victory, avoid risk for a while

  • following a loss, dust off and try harder

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - Sexy Job vs ROI

• take the jobs with the higher ROI as compared to the sexy job

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - Strength

• be mindful of the ratio of sweating to watching others sweat

• have both mental and physical grit

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - myth of balance

• balancing life and work is a challenge

• just be aware of this and find something that works for you

• this is ever more important because of the COVID quarantine

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - are you an entreprenuer

1. are you comfortable with public failure

2. do you like to sell?

3. do you lack the skills to work at a big firm?

Galloway: Personal Success Factors - summary

• go to college

• get a certification

• cultivate and repeat the accomplishment habit

• go to a city (or a superpower of concentration of wealth, information, power, and opportunity in your field)

• have a career and dont stop

• lifelong learning is important

• ask for and give help

• take the jobs with the higher ROI as compared to the sexy job

• have both mental and physical grit

• regress to the mean, regardless of a win or loss

• find a work-life balance that works for you