YouSaid · the spoken record

Ron Shaich

lines on the record: 112
first: 2025-11-11
most recent: 2025-11-11
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

“I've always come from a place of wanting to make a difference in people's lives. My way of approaching the world was essentially initially in a political context. And I discovered through some experiences in university, and we can talk about these, but I discovered that business is probably one of the most creative things you can ever do. And for a kid who couldn't dance and couldn't sing, I was blown away by the power of business, both the creativity of it, and it is a lever to change. I think I've been involved in more change as a business person, more positive change for the world than I ever could have been if I had done politics or gone into government or been a lawyer. I mean, you take Panera. Panera was one of the two first brands to introduce antibiotic free chicken in America. It led to”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, but I have to put that in context as well. Look it, I'm seventy one. I couldn't feel more blessed. I've had an amazing life. I've had great health. I'm still in the prime of my life. I have extraordinary family. I've had the chance to do really interesting work and impact hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. I've been able to engage my mind. I've had this opportunity to live a blessed life. I look backwards and there are certainly lessons I've learned and things I might do differently. But taken as a whole, I couldn't be more at peace and more pleased.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I'm there eight AM, and I get it done before the day begins basically. And I've started to be able to... Kind to myself. I'm not doing it 5 30 a.m. anymore, but I still want to get it done before the day starts because if it's really important, it's one of the key things I'm trying to drive and it's one of the projects I'm focused on, then I have to make sure I make time.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Simply my strength and I'm playing with a bunch of different things. But again, all these are project against an end of trying to recognize it's my responsibility to care for myself. And nobody knows how this is all going to play out and whether I will remain healthy or not or any of us will. But I can do what I can do and on a regular basis I'm sitting there and I'm literally writing it down. I'm really saying this is where I'm trying to get to and then I am literally writing it down. It's controversial when I talk to people about exercising every day. People are like, you're crazy. You need rest. And I'm like, it's easier to exercise every day than it is five days a week for me anyway. Yeah, I'm committed to it every day. And in fact, what I did, again, part of that project is I set an appointment for 8 a.m. every day and I either do it with a trainer or my.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm trying to nobody knows where we're going to end up, but I'm trying to create a state. And then the question is, what are the projects, the things I can do to do that? And then to sit down and say every quarter, how am I doing against that? So now we're fifteen years later, I still wear that continuous glucose monitor. My blood sugar is lone normal, but it's a way in which I keep the data and I've become educated. It's an ongoing project. Same thing now with exercise. I have a different trainer. I've evolved, but I'm really trying hard now to push up my VO2 max, I suppose.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Glucose monitor, and he wanted me to see how I was affected by paner food. And that whole experience between my doctor and this work I was doing in Panera made me realize I needed to manage my own relationship with carbohydrates, my own relationship with my diet, and that led me to say, hey, if you're ever going to do this, I was at that time mid fifties. I said if I'm ever going to do that, I got to get to work on doing it. And I then put that into projects, one of which was, in my case, to move to a more vegan diet. Another piece of that was to hire a trainer. And I hired a Ukrainian former Olympic trainer, track and field coach, who would come to my house at 5.30 in the morning and did so for twelve years. And so what I'm really saying is.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Calendar and look at how you're spending your time to you. Yes, we look at time, but it's not so much about time. Time is a means, it's not the end. I'm really looking at what did I get done? Did I get done the things that I said I needed to do to create that condition that I'm trying to attain in three, five, and ten years? So I give you a very specific example and we're staying in the health domain. I think it was probably fifteen years ago. I went to my doctor and I realized I was on the edge of becoming pre-diabetic. I was also doing work at Panera and I had a medical advisor helping me deal with how our food manifested itself. We wanted to really serve people. We had done a clean food initiative. And he put me on a continuum.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that process of defining what I'll respect is where I began, and I would then on a basically codify those initiatives, those things I was trying to accomplish, I'd codify them into projects. And then literally sit down with myself once a quarter and say, how am I doing? Am I actually full of baloney or not? Am I actually getting done what I signed up to do? And so increasingly over time, bring it back, I have found myself realizing that I have to do a better job of caring for my body and that the power of exercise, the power of physical engagement really matters, and I think I feel better about that relationship today than probably at any other point in my life. Take me through one of those quarterly reviews. What does that look like, Tia? Do you like pull up your camera?”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I began to realize there's a judgment day. I can't tell you, Shane, it's up there that's a personal spiritual decision. But I can tell you if you have a chronic illness and you have the opportunity, you have a judgment day, a self judgment as you go through the end of life, and watching them die thirty years ago, I concluded for me, I wanted that opportunity to have that judgment day not in the ninth inning with two outs, but in the seventh inning, the fifth inning the third inning, when I could really do something about it. And ever since I began on an annual basis sitting down and saying What is it in five years and ten years? I'm going to respect in the context of my relationships with my work, my relationships with my family and friends, my relationships with my body, and my own relationships with my own spirituality.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was probably more focused on work and relationships family and as I gain perspective on it, if I'm ever going to do it, now is the time. So I'm trying to literally work out every day in some serious way and really eat well take the right medication supplements, anything I can to help myself. But to me, that's about an attitude towards life. And that attitude essentially starts with a view that it's our responsibility to figure out what it is that we're going to respect in the future. I tell it by way of a story. I watch my mom and dad pass away now thirty odd years ago. One of them died very much apiece, the other not so much at peace, and they really were second guessing some of the decisions they made in their”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Starts with three words. Are you obsessed with lately? My health actually. What does that mean for you to be obsessed with that? Well, I'm seventy one, and I look at my kids, I look at my relationships, and there's so much to live for and so much to see, and I really want to do everything I can to give myself every opportunity to live and see how the world unfolds. And how has that changed your behaviors? I got more serious about it because I would say in my earlier years thirties, forties, and fifties.”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've done this now over half a century. I was part of building bakery cafes in America between Old Bumpen, Panera. These were the dominant brands. How do you develop the long-term thinking that you've brought to all these different concepts? I have an expression. I'm long-term greedy, not short-term, stupid. Now it seems so obvious, but how did you hit on this insight at the time? I think that the most powerful skill that I have as a business person and what I would challenge entrepreneurs to acquire is the skill of it. Talk to me about the difficulties of running a business, the family cost, the social cost. When you're doing anything that takes powerful commitment, that commitment owns you. You don't own it. There's a very real personal price. I've been married twice. It's not something I'm proud of. Everything I believe in about business”
2025-11-11 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Panera Founder Ron Shaich · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source