YouSaid · the spoken record

Gaston Glock

lines on the record: 6
first: 2023-06-19
most recent: 2023-06-19
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“A provincial manager of a radiator factory to a world traveling industrialist. That is one of the craziest sentences in the entire book because it is true. He evolved from a provincial manager of a radiator factory to a world traveling industrialist. He's owned all of the company. This company is worth billions of dollars. Glock built a cash machine with margins in the neighborhood of seventy percent, the slogan Glock Perfection was not puffery to Gaston Glock. He believed it. His organization projected coolness, certainty, and arrogance. The founder was capable of charm, and at other times he struck people as distant and condescending. He expressed disdain. This is the weird thing. He expressed disdain for Glock's American employees based on nothing more than their nationality. He hires a bunch of people to also speak German and that happen to work in America, and they just like to talk in German.”
2023-06-19 · Founders · #308 The Founder of Glock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mentioned earlier that this guy's obsessed with control. You see this example. He objected to the Pentagon, so he's going to compete and then win at this. He objected to the Pentagon's insistence that the rights to manufacture the winning gun design would be open to competitive bidding. Glock intended to collect all profit from the production of his gun himself. It's really smart. Again, goes back to the advice from James Dyson. Retention of total control. And so then this goes back to how if you go back in Glock's life, even before he had a lot of financial success, he was obsessed with quality. In fact, there's a great line that comes somewhere later in the book where it says quality will always bring you more money. Glock demanded high quality. The motto of the company is perfection. Glock perfection to this day. It's like all on the walls and everything. But this was very interesting. This is these three-star general in the Austrian army, and he's describing Glock at the early days of building his company. So Glock is still alive today. He's like 93.”
2023-06-19 · Founders · #308 The Founder of Glock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I worked for two years day and night to bring the sample to the Army on time, move fast. And then as we'll see a few times today, Glock has a lot in common with James Dyson. Difference for the sake of it, and retention of total control. To this day, the Glock family owns the company. Glock is obsessed with control, just like James Dyson was, if you don't know what I'm talking about, listen to episode 300. That's the third or fourth time I read Dyson's autobiography. Two are overarching concepts would set the Glock 17 apart. Remember, he's bidding against other existing pistol manufacturers, okay? First, it was to be made largely out of light, resilient injection molded plastic. And second, it was designed without a pre-existing factory. I need to go ahead a few pages before I come back to this because this comes up over and over again. It's black plastic and metal construction set it apart from everything else on the market, suggesting modernism and efficiency difference for the sake of the...”
2023-06-19 · Founders · #308 The Founder of Glock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Invention, so he called the gun, he called his gun the Glock seventeen. So from zero to patent, that's one year, then from finally actually submitting the actual prototype two, which is going to be his first customer, that's another year, so two years in total. After another year of testing and improvement, Glock submitted four samples of the pistol to the Austrian army.”
2023-06-19 · Founders · #308 The Founder of Glock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Knives and bayonets to the Austrian army. And this is where he's going to find any opportunity. Watch how fast he moves once he realizes there's a huge opportunity here. One day in 1980 he overheard a hallway conversation between two colonels that jolted his imagination. The army needed a new pistol to replace the antiquated ones from World War II. Glock interrupted the conversation and asked if it was possible if his company could bid on the pistol contract. He's asking to bid on a pistol contract. He's never made a pistol. Designing firearms was something far beyond his experience. He asked the colonels to describe the army's requirements for a new handgun, and I just love his mindset here. He's like, well, this shouldn't be too difficult to make because he just describes it. To him, the handgun was simply another accoutrement that attached to a soldier's belt, similar to a knife. As Gaston Glock himself put in an interview that I knew nothing was my advantage that I knew nothing was my advantage.”
2023-06-19 · Founders · #308 The Founder of Glock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Other option Glock fought with his hands. He swung his large fists into the attacker's eyes and mouths, though he was seventy years old, Glock put up a stout defense. He drew blood and knocked out several of his attackers' teeth, despite the hammer blows to his head, he gained the advantage. When the police arrived they found a bizarre scene. The bloodied attacker lay collapsed on top of Glock with his arms outstretched like Jesus. Glock was pinned to the ground but not mortally wounded. His attacker was unconscious. Glock had suffered several hammer blows to the head and lost a leader of blood. At the hospital though, he was strikingly composed. Before doctors finished patching him up, he summoned his personal bankers. Those two bankers held seventy million dollars of his cash in accounts to which Ewart had access. Within three hours of the attack had moved forty million.”
2023-06-19 · Founders · #308 The Founder of Glock · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source