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Amancio Ortega

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2024-11-29
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2024-11-29
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  1. “Part is excellent. I ask him if he's bothered by other people's opinions. This is what he says. I don't think it's important to know how other people see me. I never cared. Also, there are thousands of entrepreneurs who have done the same as me. If I'm somewhat different since I don't go to parties or I don't accept awards, it's because all of my life I've tried to do what I like the most. I would almost say I've been selfish in that sense because I didn't just do what I had to do, but what I wanted to do. I turned 72 last March and I feel that my growth can't stop. What keeps me going after all these years is to learn and to grow. I continue observing what happens in the world and I listen. Work is what I enjoy most. And then the author gives us a great summary of Ortega's career. He is a person who will die with his boots on. His life is the company.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Is a love of simplicity says there's a lack of common sense in managing life. He says multiple times that he thinks people overcomplicate things, that the simple things in life are the great things in life. In fact, there's a line in the book that says simplicity is the heritage of geniuses.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “When he was asked for advice for future generations of entrepreneurs, he said, The first thing is that you like what you are doing, that you are passionate about your work. I insist on this idea because it is very important. It has to be something that you would almost pay to do. You get the sense that he would pay to do what he's doing. That's why he's working for decades after he needed the money. That's why he's working on birthdays. And that's why he's working on holidays. He just loves it. He says more advice for future generations entrepreneurs. You also have to aim to achieve something different, something creative. It is a satisfaction to dedicate yourself to what you really believe you should do. So keep in mind, you know, people might read that and like, oh yeah, but he copies his product. He sees what high-end fashion does and then creates a version like a cheaper, less expensive version. The product may be copied, but his company is not. He definitely achieved something creative, something different, something nobody else could do.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Known in the business world. Them back to Ortega. He's in the same cafeteria as his employees. He continues to walk through the halls of the headquarters to lend a hand. He does not like to lead sitting in a chair. He doesn't raise his voice. He says you always have to speak in plural when referring to our work. Never say I did this. He has never liked praise. More than once I've told him what a beautiful collection, how happy the customers are, and he always interrupts me and asks me, now tell me what's wrong.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Is what I call a form of intelligent flexibility in leading a major growing business. And so I think the fact that he's stubborn but he's willing to listen and be just ready to go in another direction and combine that with also the fact that he is listening, he's absorbing everything with the sponge, I think it fuels one of his superpowers, which people believe that one of his superpowers is that he has the ability to synthesize the most complex ideas as if they were simple and that he has used that ability throughout his entire life. Another example of him allowing himself to be persuaded, he was not very fond of going public. It made him doubtful. He did not like the dependence of this external opinion, but he was finally persuaded because he decided that going public was a way to impose a certain discipline on the company. They had to run it tighter. And he thought it safeguarded the company's future for when he's no longer around. And so it was during the section of the book where they're talking about the IPO, talking about should we do it, should we not do it, how they got ready for it? I found one of the most interesting”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Tag and I were in total agreement that it was important to buy it, but the rest of the company did not see it that way. We thought it could be effective to combine clothing and something else, but most people believed that it was a distraction and that we should continue to invest in Zara, that cosmetics and perfume were a business that we didn't know and we didn't control. And the final result was that we didn't buy it.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “All of them, what they share in common, they wanted to build and design the best business in their category, not just make the most money, and I think all three of those cases they might have made the most money, but their main goal is like they want to build and design the best business in their industry. Let's go back to this idea that Ortega is never complacent. He believes that complacency is the worst if you want to achieve something significant. He said, in this company, we have never been complacent, not in those years when we were taking our first steps and nor now that we have stores all over the world. He says growth is a mechanism of survival.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “He has an aversion to the term exclusivity. In fact, there's a bunch of other fashion brands throughout the book that approach him to buy their company, and he always declines because he doesn't like luxury or the exclusivity that it implies. This isn't a fault. This is a huge asset, is the fact that he stayed focused on his one great objective, which was to enable the entire world to dress well. This is a little bit about how stubborn and headstrong, as you can imagine. You don't accidentally build $160 billion company, I think, without those. Those traits. Says Ortega always likes to have his own way. If experts advise against the opening of Zara in Venezuela, for example, and he is convinced that they need to be there, he will purchase the most expensive building in the company's history up until that time, or take a really aims not to settle halfway to excellence. And he loves the satisfaction of a job well done. I really think about that as excellence for excellence's sake. If you think about James Shea Hill, Ingbar Kamprad, or Tega the last few weeks.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Step of the podium. They say he's very stubborn and that he has a habit of fostering competitiveness among his teams. He believes that there should always be a desire for improvement and a consistent capacity for criticism. He says, I've always thought that to succeed, we had to turn the organization upside down every day.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “One piece of advice, and it was in one sentence love the people. Or take us as an inditex is the most beautiful company in the world. He said he wanted a company with a soul. About 15 years after opening his first Zara store, he opens the first Zara store in New York. There were so many people waiting outside that it made him cry. He literally went inside the store, locked himself in the bathroom and cried his eyes out and thought about his parents. He thought about how proud they would be of their son. And then the next year he opens his first store in Paris. And again, there were people waiting in line to get in. And this time he cried in the front door like a child, he says. I couldn't even hide it. I couldn't even make it into the story. I just started crying. He was so happy. He insisted that the author ask people that working for him what his faults were. These are some of the faults they attribute to him. They say he has an excessive amount of ambition that he insists on placing his company at all costs on the highest.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Better. That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Nick Saban. I've mentioned a bunch of times. Nick Saban says average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached and great players want to be told the truth. Ortega understood that people admire him. Now, especially that now he's one of the wealthiest people in the world. They're only going to say nice things to him. But that is not the truth. And great players want to be told the truth. Ortega knows it's his responsibility to maintain the essence of the company. He remains a man who knows every detail. Ortega says the store is the heart of the company, that it's the protagonist in this company. In fact, Ortega has a great quote on this. And this quote, I really, it's what Ortega really thinks this company is. He says, we are a chain of stores with a company attached. We live so that the store is focused on selling all the rest of us are at your service when he hired a new director of human resources. This is what Ortega said. He only gave them...”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Day and he says he just went to work and she's having another conversation with him a few years later. What are you doing at Inditex today? Instead of quietly celebrating your birthday at home and she says I received the same answer that I've heard on other occasions why should I stop coming in today? I do what I want to do. I do what I always do work Ortega believes in management by walking around. I don't have an office. I've never had one. My work is not among the papers, but in the whole factory and as you walk around with him. You notice he knows the name of each worker that he sees. He had a kind word for everyone. It goes back to not raising his voice, wanting every single person in the company to feel that they are valuable part of the team. Another trait of his is he always wants to know what he could be doing better. I use the opportunity to make a series of comments about what I admired about his company, and he interrupted me and said, I'm going to ask you for a favor. Why don't you explain to me the things about Zara that you don't like? I highly value your opinion, and I would like you to critique what could be done.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “And the fact that they were buying groceries on credit and the credit was turned off. But there's a lot of these examples where, you know, because of his low class, the fact that he was poor, he was just constantly felt that he wasn't good enough. He was embarrassed at the thought that he was not good enough. So one day a mom comes in to the stories working in, you know, when he's a kid and he wanted to date this the daughter of this mother and she finds out that this little kid working in the store is not the son of the store owner. It's just some poor kid and she wouldn't let him date her daughter because he was just a simple sales assistant and he wasn't good enough. And so by now it's probably obvious, you know, he starts working at 13, still working at 88. Look at what he's accomplished over those multiple decades. Like his dedication to work is complete and total. So here's an example. The author is asking Rottega, hey, what are you doing to celebrate New Year's Day?”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “And so then finally I organized my notes, and this section I think might be the most fascinating. It's because it's how Ortega manages Spencer's time and thinks about his company. And a lot of this is in his own words. So he says, I spend my days moving from one part of the factory to another to see how everything is going. If I'm not in the warehouse, I'm in design. I'm interested in the entire process. He insists, another way, another managerial technique, he will not, he does not allow people to call him Mr. Ortega. He insists that everybody just call him Ortega. He has something in common with Rockefeller. He talks about the fact that he never raises his voice. He says I never raised my voice because I don't like others to suffer. So he's not one of these bosses that yell and scream. And part of the way he explains that he's always, ever since he was a kid, he was just very sensitive to scorn. There's other, I guess I should probably tell you some of these stories because it makes sense. Like, why has this complete and total dedication to work? Obviously, we know the story when you're 12 years old.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “And when he finally agrees to have the book written, he just asks for two things. Number one, do not only tell good things about me, something he repeats over and over again is that all humans, all of us have good and bad parts to us. So don't just say the good things about me. And number two, do not say that I created this company. There have been more than 80,000 people that have helped me build it. He says, Inditex is the story of many thousands of people who have given their lives to the company. And the impending IPO is the first time he actually consented and allowed himself to be photographed, but he would explain why this is important to him, why privacy was so important to him. He says, I only want my family and my friends and the people who work with me to recognize me on the street. I aim to live quietly, to be one among the many, to be able to go anywhere, to have a coffee, to take a walk with my wife without anyone knowing who I am.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “So, I want to talk about how he learned to do this, and he talks about the fact that I did not have time to study. I had to work 20, he says 24 hours a day when he was younger. There was just no possible chance for him to attend college. I mean, he didn't even attend high school, for God's sake. He's not going to go to college. And he said two very fascinating things that he makes up for his lack of formal education by listening a lot to those around me and learning from them and by treating his profession as his university. He says my profession had to be my university. And he was so successful. This is one of my favorite lines in the entire book. It says, Ortega has created a business model that is studied in universities to which he could not access. He says a few times that he thinks people overcomplicate things. And so for his life, he just wanted to focus on work. In fact, he was very extreme about privacy. Some people call him a recluse. I don't think he's a recluse, but he does want to protect his privacy. So Ortega was never photographed. Only his friends, family.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “He owns the store. So he rents them. And then now because they've become such a large tenant, developers will now tell him in advance or give him advance notice when they're opening what they think is going to be a prime retail location. And so the way I thought about this is, okay, well, you're spending money on prime retail locations instead of advertising. Prime retail location is advertising because if you are just, again, just where the people are, where they're walking by, your stores become a demo. And as you and I know, because we've talked about and done episodes and read books about the greatest advertiser agency founders and greatest copywriters throughout history, a demo is always better than an ad. And so I would argue it's just a matter of accounting. They're spending a lot more on advertising and marketing, but they're doing so in the form of prime retail locations.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Okay, one more thing about his unique approach to the way he built his company and how he runs his company compared to everybody else in his industry. And then I want to get into who he is as a person. Kind of did this in reverse than I normally do. But I found this very, very fascinating. So glad I read this book. So he viewed real estate as a form of marketing and advertising. So they spend like less than 1% of its estimate, less than 1% of their revenue on marketing and advertising. And instead, they spend their money on prime, prime retail locations. Very, very, very expensive. And this is also interesting. So, you know, I mentioned earlier he's got, you know, this massive commercial real estate portfolio. And at the beginning, he was like buying. It says over time with the growth of inditex, he actually changed his formula instead of buying the locations for Zara. He now rents them. And that's surprised me for a second. So I thought more about it. I was like, well, yeah, because he wants the very best store locations. And what if he doesn't own that store location? He doesn't want to sacrifice on not having the best just because.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “And this is why it was so important that over 50 years ago, he's like, I need to be closer to the customer. I'm not just going to sell distorts. I'm going to control everything because if you control everything, you control the speed your company moves at. Ortega came to administer a holding company of 99 companies. It's got to be bigger than this now. Of 99 companies that guarantee complete vertical integration covering not only the textile and clothing sections, but also logistics, marketing, construction, real estate, finance, and energy generation. Okay, so I think you got the idea of how it's structured and why he did something. I need to bring out something else. So I think Zara's understanding of human psychology is extremely advanced. And I don't know if Ortega knew this from the very beginning or this was just a positive byproduct of this rapid distribution system. You know, from idea, this is great. Think about how crazy it is, the system that he built. From idea to on the hangar in a major city in the world in 15 days. But one of the things”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Quickly. That is why Inditex has invested time, effort, and a lot of money in establishing logistics centers with the latest technology. And you go back to this idea of Ortega saying, hey, I don't care for the argument that nobody else in our industry does it. I don't care. I'm going to do it. And so what happens is most apparel companies have become overly reliant on factories in Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, right? So Zara also produces in those countries, but more than half of Zara's production comes from what they call proximity. And so what they mean by proximity is literally manufacturing facilities closer to headquarters, so in places like Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Morocco. And the reason they do that is because the closer they manufacture, the more rapid the distribution in the source, the more rapid the distribution in the stores, the more they can turn over their inventory, the more they turn over their inventory, the more money they make.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Ortega was interested in what the customer asked for and was willing to adapt the entire production process to their demand. He was convinced that if he managed to complete the cycle, meaning completely integrated, he could reduce the margins by between 70 and 80 percent, which would clearly affect the price the end consumer had to pay for each garment. This was always Ortega's obsession, reworked, reinvented clothes in direct connection with what the consumer expected, clothes that appear very shortly after. And so, again, people around him, when he started, had this idea and starts building this up and making these crazy investments in technology and other people in this industry just don't understand this, then nobody else does it. You know, people like, oh, you can't do this. Nobody else does this. Orkega did not care for that argument. He says, even if no one else does it, I'm going to do it. This is another thing that he had in common with Henry Ford. He's the Henry Ford of fashion, I'm telling you. It's very obvious to me. Henry Ford says, I refuse.”

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  22. “To customers' desires. Now, the reason this is so important is because unlike a car, in fashion, the desires of the customer change all the time. So the way I would think about this is he actually wants to build a company capable of responding to customer desires. And he knew those desires will absolutely change over time. So he has to invent the logistics and distribution system that enables his company to respond immediately to changing customer desires. And what he does next at the time he does it blows my mind. So he says the next step is to computerize the company. So this is 1974. I'm going to draw another parallel between Ortega and one of the History Case entrepreneurs. This could be Sam Walton, who I've already mentioned a few times. Sam Walton does something very similar in 1979. Okay, the way I think about, the reason this came to mind is because they're both. Ortega and Walton were both applying the most sophisticated technology of their day to very ancient industries. Humans have”

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  23. “But reading through the line, like understanding who he is as a person is reading RP. I don't think this guy would ever. I know for a His idea was like, I'm just gonna have one store. He is relentlessly dissatisfied. He is never complacent. And one hint that he was not going to stop at one store is his decision to computerize. That's the quote. Computerize the company. And he does this in 1974 before he has the first Zara store. This is one of the craziest things. But I need to go back to this idea before I get there that, you know, he states over and over again. I'm going to make what I understand customers will demand. Just like Henry Ford said, I am going to figure out a way to make a simple affordable car that the average worker could buy. Henry Ford had to invent the way to mass produce automobiles to get the price down to an average worker could buy. The same exact situation is happening here with Ortega. To do what his stated goal is, I'm going to make what customers will demand. To do this, he has to invent the logistics and distribution system that enables responding immediately.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Products that they want to see in the world, and then they'll educate and sell to the customer and try to convince the customer to buy them. Ortega is not interested in that at all. He says over and over again, it's better to start with the customer work backwards. I'm going to manufacture what the customer wants. So to do so, he has to have a very tight relationship with the customer, be able to react fast. Because when you're just a manufacturer, when he was just a manufacturer to say, and he sold his products to other stores, what he realizes is like, oh, they're just guessing at what the customer wanted. And Ortega noticed this dislocation between, well, I go into these stores, the buyer at the stores I'm selling to when I'm just a manufacturer, right? They're asking for products. Then I leave the store and I go out on the street and none of the customers are wearing that. And that observation of the difference between what the buyers actually want in the stores and what the customers were actually wearing on the streets, that gave him the initial idea, maybe I need to have my own stores. And so when he opens this first store, this is not stated.”

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  25. “Ford had that idea, so he had to invent the company and the processes to make his dream a reality. The same is true for Ortega in 1975 when he opens his first store. He's got to invent the company and the process where you can make and distribute clothes that are both fashionable and affordable and obviously do so at a profit. And so to do this, number one, he needs to work backwards from the customer. He's going to think about his very tight and close relationship with the customer as a form of a competitive intelligence. And number two, he has to invent. And working backwards from the customer in the fashion industry. So think about all the episodes. Like I've read biographies of Christian Dior and Coco Chanel and Valenciaga and Ralph Lauren. They are way more like Steve Jobs in their approach. They have a perspective. They have a point of view. They have an idea in their mind's eye that they want to bring forth and make reality. In many cases, they are creating the”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “What I would share, what I think Henry Ford and Ortega share is that they really built their career on one idea. And so Ortega says, since I started working, I had an idea that obsessed me. Why can't I invent something different from everything else on the market? I clearly saw that I wanted to fill a gap that existed in the textile business and I decided to follow that impulse. Ortega's great idea was the ability to enable what he wanted to do. He wanted to enable the entire world to dress well. The problem that he's trying to solve is how do you make and distribute clothes that are fashionable and affordable. The existing fashion industry, when Ortega starts, right? The existing fashion industry already knew how to make clothes fashionable and expensive. Ortega is going to invent the process to make them fashionable and affordable. Henry Ford's one big idea was to mass produce a simple, affordable car that the average worker could buy. That was impossible at the time when Henry”

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  27. “So, this is Ortega talking about the early years at Goa and why he wanted to eventually control every single aspect of his business. So he says, when I started manufacturing, we sold to third parties. I never really liked this. We couldn't sell a nice dress no matter how nice it was if what that customer asked for at the moment was something else. I was convinced that I had to dominate the customer. And at the same time be by their side, but I would only achieve it if I managed to sell to them directly. The product has to be right. That is the key. That was the first hint of what I would argue is Ortega's most important insight. He realizes that it's better to start with the customer and work backwards. And he says over and over again, I'm just going to manufacture what the customer wants. So this is the beginning of why I think that I would call Ortega the Henry Ford of fashion.”

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  28. “And distribution operations and has hired a team of designers. But he is not satisfied with the state of affairs because something he observed in that shirt sore. You're ignoring the customer. So in 1975, this is going to be about 12 years after he starts Goa. He's going to open the very first Zara store. Ortega's around 39 years old when he does this. And it'll be obvious in the quote that I'm about to read to you from Ortega talking about why he did this. The trait that he shares with most of the entrepreneurs and almost all of his case entrepreneurs, they want control. And if you want control, you're going to naturally vertically integrate. I loved on the James J. Hill episode last week when he's building, you know, the most profitable, the most successful railroad in American history. He understood the importance of controlling all aspects of his business. So he starts vertically integrating, but he didn't call it vertical integration. He called it rational integration. And I think for entrepreneurs, obsess control, that's exactly what it is. It is very rational to us, rational integration.”

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  29. “They're going to leave with him and help him set up the business. So he actually gets a bank loan of 2,500 peseta. That is in 1963. This was the currency of Spain at the time. And so with his soon-to-be wife, his brother and friends of the family, they set up a modest workshop and they started manufacturing bathrobes. And these bathrobes sell much better than expected. He starts manufacturing more clothing. And at this point, he's just selling clothing to stores. He does not to other stores. He does not have his own stores. This, I think, is an insight, or I guess some kind of indication that he was a gifted entrepreneur, even it takes him a long time to build up intite texts. But from reading this biography, it's clear that every step along the way, he's just trying to do the best with the opportunity in front of him. So he starts selling, he's just manufacturing clothing at this time. But within 10 years, so from 27 to around 37 years old, okay, 10 years later, his company has more than 500 employees, has absorbed the supply.”

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  30. “Massive edge and something strangely that no one else in his industry was doing before Ortega came along. And so Ortega has that quote that the most important lesson he learned at the store was that customers should never be lost sight of. This sounds a lot like Sam Walton who would preach inside of Walmart. He would say there's only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down simply by spending his money somewhere else. So he's working in the apparel industry for about 14 years before he finally quits his job and sets up his own company. So he's around 27 years old. He quits his job and starts his own company that's going to manufacture clothing. This company is going to be called Goa, which is just his initials in reverse. So he didn't have a lot of money, but he did have some assets, non-monetary assets, that is to say. So he's got contacts with fabric manufacturers as a result of working in the industry for 14 years. He had relationships with customers. And he's got the trust of his family and friends.”

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  31. “First thing he does is get a job in a shirt store. He's 12 or 13, and he's just a gopher, an errand boy. He also is responsible for cleaning the store. There's two really important parts to this one, he said from day one he took his work seriously and with a sense of responsibility. He was like that at 13 at 72 when the book is written. He's still like that. And so even though his tasks were like minor, some people might think they weren't important, you know, just running errands or sweeping the store. You're helping the customer overflow. There is this maxim that tends to reappear in the history of entrepreneurship. And it's that opportunity handled well leads to more opportunity. And you just see it over and over again. The importance of doing the best you can with the opportunity in front of you because that's going to unlock an opportunity. You couldn't possibly predict or even see at that moment. And then the second most important part about this experience is that he just realized that customers should never be lost sight of. His main critique of the fashion industry is that they basically ignore the customer. And so what he's going to realize is that total dedication to serving his customer in ways that other companies cannot or will not is going to be a massive”

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  32. “Of growing. We have never been complacent, nor have we accepted easy success. Optimism can be very negative. You have to take risks. This was something I repeated tirelessly to all those who have joined the company. Another example of this, we gave it every day. My priority has always been the company, and I have committed myself to it with full dedication from day one. And it's not just that he describes himself as a man on a mission. Other people literally say that. Ortega is a man of mission. He is so convinced of what he is and what he has to do. And when Ortega is asked, like, what is the why behind life? He says, I am absolutely convinced that we all come to this world to fulfill a mission. None of us are here by chance.”

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  33. “Remains consistent. So, again, the way you think about Artake is a man on the mission. I just want to pull some of his quotes. This is something he repeats over and over again in the book across many years and nearly all the chapters. He says, we are all born for something. He often repeats with an absolute conviction that he has a mission to fulfill. That mission started that day when he was 12 years old. He says, there is something deeper in me that drives me to work that has moved me since that day as a child. This has led me to do things tirelessly. Another way he describes the importance of having a mission. The important thing is to set goals in life and put all of your soul into fulfilling them. He is 72 when this book is published. He's 88 now. He's 72 years old when he says that the important thing in life is the seconds and put all of your soul into fulfilling them. He says, I have dreamed of growing this company since I was nobody a few chapters later. He says the same thing. Since I was nobody and had hardly anything I dreamed.”

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  34. “Child will never be a bullfighter. To face a bull, you have to go hungry. And I think the author included that story because the same applies to Ortega. He says over and over again how hearing that exchange, the fact that his family could go hungry, made him determined to work and to be able to contribute to the family. I would also say he never uses these words, but I would have to imagine as a 12-year-old boy that it also made him afraid. And so the way I think about Ortega is he's a man on a mission. In fact, he says that over and over again in the book. So I guess I got to back up. The reason it's taken me so long to cover Ortega, even though so many people have asked me to do so, is because all the biographies on Ortega are in Spanish. So actually, my friend Cameron Priest translated this book and he sent it to me. And after I finished reading it, I organized all the highlights and notes by subject matter because he's Ortega's remarkably consistent. He knew the author for over two decades and he repeats what's important to him because what's important to him.”

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  35. “Property from Ortega. In fact, his commercial real estate portfolio alone is worth around $20 billion. And the reason I brought that up now is because I thought being a landlord to tech companies is fitting because I don't think this is actually a story about fashion. Instead, it's a story about applying technology to an ancient industry. I think of Ortega as the Henry Ford of Fashion, and I'll explain why. But before I do that, I want to go back to his childhood and his decision to immediately start working to help save his family. So the author of this book tells a story inside of this book where she's actually interviewing this very famous bullfighter many years ago. This bullfighter in Spain named Luis Miguel. So Luis Miguel at the time that he's having the conversation with the author was at the peak of his career. And they're at Luis Miguel's house. And Luis Miguel and the author are watching Luis's son play in the garden of their home. And this is what Louise says. He says this.”

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  36. “After reacting with shock to the words he had just heard, he made an irrevocable decision. This will never happen to my mother again. I saw it very clearly from that day onwards. I would start working to earn money and help at home. I quit school, left my books, and got a job as an assistant in a shirt store. That incident marked a before and after in his life. And this is what Ortega said about it. The impact of that story cannot be overstated. That gentleman will never know that he was the cause of what came after.”

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  37. “One afternoon after school, I went with my mother to a store to buy food. I was the youngest of my siblings. Many times I accompanied her for a walk while she did her errands. The story we walked into was one of those old time grocery stores with a high counter so high that I couldn't see who my mother was talking to, but I heard something that despite the time that has passed I have never forgotten. I'm sorry, ma'am, I'm very sorry, but I cannot lend you any more money. That left me shattered. I was only twelve. At that moment still holding his mother's hand, Ortega stopped being a child.”

    2024-11-29 · Founders · #372: Amancio Ortega: The Genius Behind the Inditex Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source