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Chuck Feeney

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2021-03-15
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2021-03-15
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  1. “This was his singular ways of telling them about himself and his motivations. So now Danielle is like, okay, I don't like the agreement that we had six years earlier. And so they sue and says a new sediment was reached. They gave Danielle an additional $60 million that comes from the foundation. And then another $40 million that was pledged over five years to a family charitable foundation. Fene insisted that Danielle get all the family homes in Paris, London, the south of France, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York. He wanted them to stay in the family to avoid any bitterness, he said. He took nothing for himself. Okay, so at this time, Chuck is the one that leads the deal with Bernard Arnott, the guy that runs LVMH. And they agreed a purchase price. It's right around $4 billion somewhere in there, three and a half, four billion dollars. That purchase price, I think he gets like $1.6 billion. Two partners, him and another partner agreed to sell. The other partner did not.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Feeney had been spending less and less time at the family's houses, and he made a point of never going on board the yacht that Danielle had purchased. Nor did he set foot in the elegant mansion, which served as a family home on the French Riviera. The children were immensely saddened by the split. They were close to both parents. Their contrast between the mother and father was nevertheless obvious to them. He became a frugal, self-flagellating philanthropist who craved anonymity, whereas Danielle had a big yacht and a big personality. Feeney told his children, now all young adults, that he would be changing his life, that he would be constantly on the road, living only a few weeks at most in any one place at any one time. He gave each a binder with articles explaining what motivated his giving. One was Carnegie's essay on wealth, another was about the excesses of the Sultan of Brunei, who spent a million dollars on a children's birthday.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Which is really interesting. She regrets this later on. And then when they get divorced, she winds up suing for more money. This is more about Chuck's desire for privacy. We see the same, like he definitely moved in secret during his business years and in giving. Eventually, the lawsuit comes out and then he realizes he can't keep staying anonymous if he wants to influence other billionaires to give while they're alive. This is more about his desire for privacy. From the start, Chuck Feeney was adamant that he did not want recognition for his giving. There would be no plaques or names on the buildings he funded. No thank you dinners, no honorary degrees. People should not know that he was behind the foundation. Benefiaries should not even be told his name. While the stem from an absence of a demanding ego being secretive had become almost second nature to Feeney. Practically everything he undertook in his life depended on keeping confidences and maintaining a low profile.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Became things had changed since the 1970s when the company was still young, energetic, entrepreneur-owned fun, and we could argue and debate each other during the day and then go out to dinner that night with our families and never mention work. So he's going to give everything away. He's going to hold back because I don't think his wife was on board. And we see this later on because she gets more money in the divorce. But since Chuck Feeney reached an agreement with Danielle that when they came back to sign everything away, 40 million in the houses would be held back for her and the children and the money paid out over a few years. It was a figure thought necessary to take care of the houses, the kids, the education, clothes, boats, artwork and jewelry. Then I thought to myself, who wants to close boats and jewelry? Well, as we see later on, his wife liked that lifestyle. And that causes a rift and they're going to get divorced a few years after this. So he did agree, okay, I'm not going to give away. He put away almost all of his assets and this money and the houses are in her name, not his, which was.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “on the essence of his giving. He also kept a copy of the essay on his desk. And this is an important point. People can influence you, but you don't have to copy everything they do. We want their ideas. We're not idolizing these people. Says Carnegie was not a precise role model for Chuck Feeney. Carnegie made his fortune harsh and ruthless business methods, and he loved having his name on libraries and schools, neither of which applied to Feeney, but his basic message was clear. Give while alive. And so he's going to give away his fortune. He puts into his foundation. He doesn't tell anybody. Winds up becoming public because there is a lawsuit between the partners because Chuck wants to sell to LVMH and some of them don't. It's just, you know, this is a tale as old as time. It's clearly something to know that partners grew apart as they made more money. The more successful they were, the weaker the bonds of friendship.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Education systems, he'll pay for people's colleges, Feeney, that is, but this idea of if you're aspiring, there's a lot of poor, smart, determined people that don't have access. So if I can use my wealth to give them access, and he does this all over the world, this is in Vietnam, Ireland, America, Australia, everywhere. I think his foundation by the time they're done, they gave away $7 billion, something like that. It's a lot of money. Carnegie also cautioned that a man of Welsh should set an example of modest unostentatious living shunning displays of extravagance. What Carnegie advocated was to have a profound effect on Feeney. I do remember somebody giving me a copy of his speech that Carnegie had given at Cornell, and for some reason I researched that speech and read two books on Carnegie. And so Carnegie continues to, once he becomes influenced by Feeney, once he becomes influenced by Carney, he passes that on, right?”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “So, this is where I mean he's just very, he's unlike anybody else that I've studied so far. He's a paradox because it's like, okay, he clearly doesn't like having money, but he likes making money. So paradoxically, while Feeney became more frugal, he was pushing himself ever harder to build up the business that was making himself even richer. He seemed more driven, more involved in his professional interests. He read business books and biographies of successful businessmen. He was constantly traveling. Associates remembered Feeney those days as a driven man, constantly searching for new opportunities, constantly traveling and constantly studying. This is more about how Chuck worked at this time. He was very focused and serious about business. He brings a focus on business that I hadn't experienced before. If something doesn't work, he has four or so different thoughts. He has a multifaceted way of looking at business. He is detail oriented in his approach. He would visit the main store, he would talk to the salespeople and check on display and pricing.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “What they profess to the outside world does not match up with their actions, let's put it that way. All right, so it says he was even beginning to have doubts about his right to have so much money. When asked if he was rich at this point in his life, he replied, how much is rich beyond all expectations, beyond all deserving? I just reached the conclusion with myself that money, buying boats and all the trimmings didn't appeal to me. He was consciously cultivating a frugal lifestyle, wearing a cheap watch and buying a second hand car. He insisted that he and his family fly economy class. He reluctantly attended a few black tie dinners in Paris, but when a picture of him and Danielle appeared in the media, he was furious. He stopped attending such events and broke off all connection with the wealthy social group the coupled had started to become a part of.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Of it. It's like we're not keeping this on. We're going to do he was a big proponent of giving white living. And he did not like the idea of these foundations that calcify over time. And they stop acting entrepreneurial and they're giving. And there's a lot of grift he said. And you have people, there's examples in the book of people who are supposed to be working for charities, making a couple million dollars a year, taking limos to lunch, and, you know, just, you can clearly see that the...”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “They're going to wind up being divorced. I'll tell you more about that in a little bit. But it says the time went by. Feeney was starting to rethink his attitude about that kind of life. He was so far removed from the life he had lived, the life that his family and friends continue to live in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the values of thrift that were imbued in him from his childhood. It only became clear to Danielle afterward how strongly her American husband felt that strongly her American husband felt that he did not belong to the world of blacked identners and leisure yachts and how much he was coming to hate ostentation and despise the life of wealthy socialites. And so this is where we start to see this development of philosophy he continues to this day. I think he's 5253 when he gives all his money away. He's 89 now. And I like how he set up his foundation where it doesn't have an impetuity. They spent all, I think closing 2016. They spent all”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “His wife found it easy to live in luxury in Hong Kong. She had domestic help, construction, and food was cheap. She brought jewelry and antiques and made the apartment a showcase of decor and beautiful objects. So it's important to note all the other shareholders are not, like eventually Feeni realizes, I don't like this lifestyle. I don't like having money. He felt, I don't even... His daughter says he was self-flagellating is the way she would describe him later in life. Like, he just felt guilty about it. And so that's going to, eventually it's going to cause a rift between all his partners. They're still worth billions to stay. His wife, eventually, you know, she's...”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “They adopted the name that Feeney had bought. They would now be known as duty free shoppers. So let's go to the beginning of their business. It's going to start small, but it's not going to start to stay that way. This description of this store in Hawaii, they're eventually going to pay Hawaii over a billion dollars for this concession. Listen to how it starts. The duty-free shops at Honolulu International Airport, when Chuck arrived to run it in late 1965, was little more than a market stall. Its floor area was just over 100 square feet. It had three four foot counters that were held together with scotch tape. So Chuck is also in the right place at the right time because this is where Hawaii is starting to experience this huge influx of Japanese tourists. So not only are the numbers of Japanese tourists going to increase, but there is domestic tax policy decisions in Japan that benefited Chuck's business. So it says the Japanese were genuinely astonished at the duty-free prices.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “We had no choice but to salvage the company or to go over a cliff. This winds up marrying. He met a French lady, marries her name's Danielle. And this is what she was talking about, or how she described Chuck during this crisis. Danielle Feeney saw a change in her husband during the crisis. To her, Chuck had always seemed driven by a desire to succeed. When they got married, he never talked about money, only making a go of his business ventures. A fortune was not his real goal, she perceived. His work was his challenge. Now she saw his hopes had been shattered and his ego wounded. But that's an example you got to take a negative and turn it into a positive. Yeah, he's down, he's depressed, his ego's wounded, but it also could be super motivating. I don't like the state of my life right now. So I'll work really hard to change it, right? So it says Fene and Miller, they wind up figuring out the best path forward. Phenie and Miller dropped the names tourists international cars international. Since they were reduced to the retail.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “1962 is when they had the foresight, Chuck had the foresight. Hey, why don't we try to go to the less crowded? And they started doing that and they won that bid for the Honolulu airport. And that's where they realized, okay, at this point, they have to start from scratch. Everybody jumps ship. Everybody left them. It's now down back to two original founders. They're going to close down their business, Terce International. They're going to close down the car business. And they're going to focus on the duty-free stores they have. So Sisfene and Miller, we're almost back to where they started. Miller recalled telling Feeney. Well, Chuck, just you and I now. Looks like shit's hit the fan. We've got to get out of this thing. It's back to you and I to figure out how to do it. There's still a chance of getting out of the mess, said Feeney. They could perhaps boost the cash flow from the duty free shops in Hong Kong and Hawaii to clear off the debts. Feeney had moments of despair and this is him talking about, of course. It goes with the territory, but there wasn't much we could do. It was something we had started and we thought we were going to make a million dollars out of it.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “and I was always dampening, I was always putting the damper on him, saying to him, are you out of your mind? But it was a very exciting chapter in my life. Feeney was traveling around so much that he had no permanent address. Well, let me read this quote to you first. I didn't have a domicile at that stage. It would have been superfluous, he recalled. He really never stops living like this. He kind of is just a wanderer, even when he's very wealthy and even after he gives all his money away. He doesn't really stay in any place for very long. So I need to get to the point where they're running into problems. So they're making a good amount of money. Even as competitors come in, obviously the numbers are going to drop in a little bit, and I'll share that with you. But this is really wild. They're all young. They don't know what they're doing. There's money coming in, coming out. Essentially, what I'm telling you is they have no cash control. And it was interesting as I read this, I was like, wow, this reminds me of the early days of GM because...”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “You're not going to have 15 duty free sellers in an airport. Usually it's one. And so at the time, Chuck decides, hey, we're going to bid for this duty free contract. And this is going to be a very slow road to growth. It starts out very slow, then accelerates very fastly, very quickly, but this is going to save his company later down the road. And what's going to help the business grow is some things that are out of his control. Like at the point, he's going to build his business off of Japanese turse, right? And they're flying into Hawaii. And one of the things that helped their business grow was that Boeing starts manufacturing the 707 and they start flying that into Hawaii. I don't remember the model plane that flew previously into Hawaii, but the Boeing 707 essentially doubles the amount of passengers per flight, but it doesn't start out like that. So it says the bid guaranteed to pay Honolulu Airport $78,000 for five years of the duty-free concession. So they have to renew these bids are usually four years, five years, ten years.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “It says Chuck and his team were aggressive, self confident, and borderline legal. They enjoyed a great sense of commodity. So one of the saddest parts about the story is this camaraderie, as we've seen over and over and over again, the more money you make, it seems to just it eliminates the bonds between coworkers and early workers in many cases. And they become, I wouldn't say enemies, but they have no relationship later on. It's one of the saddest parts of the story. But it says At this part, they're aggressive, self-confident, borderline legal, and they're having a great sense of camaraderie. The new age of affluence in the United States meant that their American customers had disposable cash and money rolled in. They were in the right place at the right time. The key to their success was that they did not have to maintain inventories. They sold liquor and cars, neither of which required a dollar up front, and the business was offshore, which meant that they did not have to pay US taxes. Okay, so they're doing well for a while.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Selling directly to on ships. And this is reminded me of an insight that Jeff Bezos had. I'll tell you how I tie this together in a second. When Feeni and Miller were collecting orders to obtain onboard ships, they found themselves being asked if they were the guys who sold cars. They weren't, but they soon were. They discovered that American service personnel abroad also had the right to buy cars duty-free, and some rival salesmen had already got in on the act. Miller and Feeney picked up brochures from showrooms and brought them on board the ships. They found that selling cars was just like selling booze. Remember that part? They took a deposit, paid in advance to the car dealer, and ordered the car shipped to the customer's home port. Once they became known as the guys who sold cars, they were overwhelmed with orders. So this is something I forgot. I read Invent and Wander. I think it's like maybe founders number 155, something like that, and it's a collected writing from Jeff Bezos. I had forgotten this.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “It inverse. They just assumed mailing out catalogs was efficient, was going to be good enough for distribution. It's very interesting. All right, go back to this. So he says not at a loss for words. He spoke very fast, asking what is to become of this company, these offices, and what the orders that were still in the pipeline. Feeney then pulled out a pen and started making copious notes. Feeney was convinced that the principal sound and that the company could still survive and thrive with proper marketing, which they failed at, right? Feeney made an offer for up to $10,000 of the company stock. So now he's going to own the limited assets and the name. He's not going to use that name. I think we're like four years away from when he actually is going to switch over and switch not only the name of the company, what the company does. And I'll get there in a minute. A little bit about his personality that I thought was very, very, very interesting. Feeney came and went. He was always walking fast. He was forever thinking of new ideas. He used to order food.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Only a trickle came in on the day Feeney turned up, Adler was paying overdue bills and clearing out his desk. It was his last day of business. Not knowing the dire straits of the company, Feeney told him that he thought this idea was tremendous and was surely very successful and proposed to Adler that if they inserted his liquor brochures in their next catalog, we're going to get to the huge mistake that Adler and Damon had made in one second. So it says, if they inserted his liquor bushers in the next catalog, he would give them a commission on all liquor orders that resulted. And this is what Adler said. The irony of it all. He was a fellow who thought that the idea could not fail and was coming to us to help him distribute his cockanamy flyers. I really had no choice but to be honest. Dear friend, I said, our distribution was a huge one time gamble. That's the mistake.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “beautifully printed brochure that is advertising it's not selling liquor but it's advertising a bunch of other duty free merchandise to American vacationers in Europe so he's like oh wow I got to go meet these guys maybe I can do a deal with them and this is what he says Feeney believed this company was way ahead of the game He thought now this is the name of the company. He's going to buy this company. I'm not going to bury the lead here. And this company is eventually going to make him a billionaire, but not in its present incarnation. They actually go bankrupt and make a series of mistakes. So let's get into that now. Fene believe this company was way ahead of the game. He thought they might agree to insert his looker brochures into the next catalog if they weren't selling booze themselves. So he calls him up. He says he was surprised when the manager answered the telephone himself and invited him to come over right away. Duty free shoppers. That's the name of the company. That's the name of, it's going to be the name of Feeney's company moving forward.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “It's really, really fascinating. It didn't matter where you bought it or where you shipped it from. As long as you declared it when you got back to the United States, Feeney printed up tens of thousands of brochures to tell American tourists traveling in Europe that they could buy duty-free liquor from tourists international. That is the name of the company. The beginning, the incarnation of this company that Miller and Feeney are going to operate. They are going to ditch this later on. And I'm going to tell you why and how that came about. So they could buy duty-free liquor from tourist international and have it shipped to their doorstep. And why are they doing it? Same reason that the people on board are doing it. A five-pack, this is just one example. A five-pack of Seagram's VO would cost $47.75 in New York, but it could be bought from Turkey Internationals for $22. So quite a bit of saving, over 50% there. At this time, Feeney feels like he stumbled onto this great idea. Then one day he's shocked, right? He finds this beautiful...”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “We're not there yet. Let me go ahead and tell you what I found interesting. It's like, why is this all working? So in 1950s America, there's a boom going on. So Americans at the time had a lot of disposable income. They like to drink, so they're spending a lot of that on liquor. And this is where Chuck realizes that he doesn't have to only sell to the military. And there's a couple different points in his life where he realizes, wait a minute, I am artificially constraining my market here. Like this market is a lot bigger than I think anybody actually knows. So this is where he comes up with an idea to expand his market. A lot of this is because he's constantly sourcing information, he reads. He talks to people and he realizes, okay, there's a loophole in the duty-free that applies to military, right? As just a benefit to being in the military and serving the country, but it also applies to people living in 15 specific states back in the United States. And a lot of these Americans from these 15 states and other states, obviously,”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “So it says the booze business had become very competitive, and the two look for other things to sell. They got ideas for expanding their inventory. They started adding items such as perfume, cameras, toy trains, and transistor radios. The orders and the money piled up. Feeney boasted to Miller that they were on their way to making a million dollars. They called themselves the young Turks. And so that's one of the wild things to think about. Think about that. Right now they're selling just to people in the military. They're just selling liquor. They're excited about having the opportunity to make a million dollars. This is a business that by the time if you take out all the dividends that they take out for the four partners, Miller and Feeney being the major partners, they owned almost 40% of the company each and the sale to Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. They're going to pull out about $8 billion out of this company. This is a wild, wild story. I think you're going to like it. Okay, so let me.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “And so one of that is like, how do you get distribution? How do you get customers to know that you exist? And so they call the people that give them information bird dogs. Okay, so this is a little bit about that. They found bird dogs on board the ships to whom they promised commission for getting sailors to sign up for five packs. Now this also gives an insight into Feeney's really unique mind. They say working with him, he did a lot by instinct. He calls it mulling. He would just think about things and try to really go with whatever he felt bad, like felt the best opportunity was. And a lot of that was just making sure he had the flexibility to take the best path forward. Now he's going to need that because this is going to work for a while. They're going to make a good amount of money until others start seeing the same opportunity. Just like once Bob knew it, Bob Edmonds knew it. Well, then he told it to Chuck. Chuck tells it to Bob Miller. And so this is going to go on and on.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Something to keep in mind about the business is there's no need for capital. They did not have to pay for the merchandise in advance. Essentially, there's just drop shipping everything. So it says let's go back to this conversation with Bob, though. We're not there yet. 40 ships are coming in, he told Feeney. I can only see 20. I'm looking for a guy that can see the other 20. What do you mean? asked Feeney. Go and talk to them about buying booze. So Feeney's successful almost immediately. He's not going to work with Bob very long. He's going to wind up trying to do this on his own. He travels to Barcelona and he runs into somebody that also went to Cornell. And this is going to be his long-term partner. And this is Robert Warren Miller. Bob, everybody calls him Bob Miller. And says Miller recognized the wiry blue-eyed American immediately. Feeney, he said, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? replied Chuck. That casual exchange marked the start of one of the most profitable partnerships in international.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Chuck is applying to get a ride. Okay, so this is again a very short lesson on differentiation. Getting rides was difficult as there were so many people on the roads holding up handwritten signs to show their destination. So Chuck does something different. He displayed a notice in large letters saying English conversations offered. He had no trouble getting a lift after that. Okay, so at this point in his life, he's 26 years old. He's living in France. He's actually running a summer camp for American kids. Has no idea what he wants to do with his life. And this is where an opportunity pops up. This is the opportunity the kernel of the idea that is going to, over the course of about two decades, make him billions and billions of dollars. So it says one night in a bar he met Bob Edmonds, who was trying to start a business selling duty-free liquor to American sailors at ports around the Mediterranean. He asked Feeney to help him.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “His friend remembers. He says that three of us would sleep in, but Chuck would go off to summer school in the morning to take lessons in Russian. So he winds up serving the military. He stays over in Europe. And at this time, he's hitchhiking as another example of the way he just thinks very differently than most people. He's hitchhiking in France and he realizes the power of differentiation. So there's a ton of hitchhikers all over Europe at this time that they're holding up signs saying, hey, I'm going to Paris. I'm going to Munich. I'm going to essentially advertising where they want you to take them. Now, if you haven't listened to last week's podcast, I highly recommend you do because I can't stop thinking about all the lessons Claude Hopkins taught, but it's specifically his idea that you always have to start with service. I think that book that he wrote was a masterclass in what incentivizes and what motivates humans. And so in his advertising, he always starts with service. We're going to see the same thing that Claude Hopkins applied in his life writing advertising for companies and everybody else that”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Chuck Feeney felt a profound sense of relief. He had flown into the Bahamas that morning an extremely rich man. Now he was flying out with little more to his name than when he had started out on his various business ventures three decades earlier. He celebrated having divested himself personally of the vast wealth with which fate and his genius for making money had burdened him. It was all done with the utmost secrecy. Few outside the small group that gathered that day in the Bahamas would know what had taken place for a long time to come. Four years later, Forbes magazine listed Feeney as the twenty third richest American alive, declaring him to be a billionaire with one point three billion dollars. But Forbes had got it wrong. Chuck Feeney had gotten rid of it all. He was the billionaire who wasn't.”

    2021-03-15 · Founders · #171: Chuck Feeney (The Billionaire who gave all of his money away) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source