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Samuel Zamurray

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16
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2018-09-09
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2018-09-09
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  1. “The people who really knew. He peppered them with questions. He wanted to know the specifics, the mood on the Isth, the color and the size of the latest harvest, the speed of the crossing. How fast is the captain running her? This is so stupid watch this listen Is he letting out all the stops? In this way he learned among other things that the banana captains were on orders from Boston to lay off the throttle and cross the gulf at Paddle Speed, thus saving gasoline. But a man focused on the near horizon of cost can lose sight of the far horizon of potential windfall. By quick calculation, Sam realized that whatever money was being saved on fuel was being lost on the high percentage of fruit that ripened during the extra days on the water. These schmucks they're losing more than their Saving”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “He never lost faith in his own agency. With his fortune fast diminishing, it was time to act And now we're going to see what we learned a little bit about him, how he does his work. He started by asking two questions. First, are the challenges facing United Fruit part of the systemic failure of the global economy, meaning there's nothing to do but hope and pray? And second, if the answer to the first question is no, what can be done to move the product, increase profits, resuscitate the company? How can UF be saved? Where did Zamurray go for answers? Did he meet with the economic experts and college professors? Did he call Daniel Wing, the chairman of UF's board and Victor Cutter, its president, and ask, do you have a plan? And even if they did have a plan, so what? These were the same men who had run the company into a ditch. He went to the docks instead, where he spent the winter of nineteen thirty two.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “The Zamuri fortune once figured a thirty million was now valued at less than three million. The greatness of Zamuri lies in the fact that he had never lost faith in his ability to salvage a situation. Bad things happened to him as bad things happened to everyone, but unlike so many, he was never tempted by failure. He never felt powerless or trapped. He was an optimist. He stood in constant defiance. When the Secretary of State teamed up with JP Morgan and the Honduran government in a way contrary to Zamurray's interest, he simply changed the Honduran government. When United Fruit drew a line at the Utila River and said you shall not cross, he crossed anyway. When he was forbidden to build a bridge, I didn't cover this story, but it's hilarious. When he was forbidden to build a bridge, he built a bridge but called it something else. For every move, there is a counter move. For every disaster, there is a recovery.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “And on the very next page, so again, Victors try to buy the company. He's like, no, I'm not going to do this. So now they're in full competition. And this is the two different approaches to acquiring disputed land. And again, I think this is another difference between a founder and a C. So Sam is what's happening is Sam is going down in Honduras and Guatemala and buying up all this land at rock bottom prices. Well, United Fruit notices what he's doing like, oh, we can do this too. So there's a single piece of land that's in between on the border of both Honduras and Guatemala. And the problem is that there's deeds of ownership by Guatemalans and Honduras that they own the land. So United Fruit wants the land and so does Sam. United Fruit is the first one to discover the problem. Oh, we can't buy this because it's not clear who owns it.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “When Andrew Preston and Minor Keith and the rest of these guys died, they should have tried to buy the company and put Samuels and Murray in charge. Instead of they handled Zamurray with contempt. And so it talks about why this is a really bad, this paragraph. So why this is just a really poor calculation by Cutter and the rest of the executives at United Fruit. Here was a self-made man filled with the most dangerous kind of confidence. He had done it before and believed he could do it again. This gave him the air of a berserker who says, If you're going to fight me, you better kill me. If you've ever known such a person, you will recognize that type at once. If he does not say much, it's because he considers small talk a weakness. Wars are not won by running your mouth.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Zamuri was the founder forever on the attack, at work, in progress, growing by trial and error, ready to gamble it all. The difference was best seen on the plantations where Zamuri was constantly inventing. Most people looking at a banana see a delicious fruit. When Zamuri looked at a banana, he saw room for improvement.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Speaking to my heart. I love efficiency. The efficiency of trade, the morale and skill of the employees. It was increasingly clear Samuel Zurray had built the better business QML was superior to united fruit in a dozen ways that did not show up on a balance sheet. UF was a conglomerate, a collection of firms bought up and slapped together. There was a lot of redundancy, duplication of tasks, divisions working against divisions, rivalries, confusing chains of command. And remember, this section is about the difference between a founder and a CEO, and we're going to get to that right here. QML fruit was the Green Bay Packers by comparison. Every decision was made with confidence and authority. Zamuri could move without waiting for permission or a committee report. He could take risks without fear of losing his job. He could hire or fire with Surdy because he actually lived in Honduras and knew the situation on the ground. It was a contrast of styles. The executives who ran United Fruit had taken over from the founders and were less interested in risking than in preserving.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Okay, so it says by 1925, Zamuri had paid off his creditors and he was free and clear. He invested most of his profit back into the business. QML was the rising star of the banana trade, the first company to challenge united fruit in a generation. It was not about numbers. When it came to market share and volume, UF was as dominant as ever. QML was harvesting eight million bunches a year. Remember he started out for year twenty thousand. Now he's doing eight million bunches. United Fruit was harvesting 40 million. QML employed 10,000 workers. United Fruit employed 150,000. So you were still setting up the fish overtaking the whale. They're kind of demonstrating the difference in scale here. QML had working capital of 3 million. United Fruit had a working capital of 27 million. So it's talking about the difference was it wasn't market share, it wasn't size. It was about profit margin. Oh, this is.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Had to be rolled away in a chair when he. This is hilarious. When he failed to appear at a reception in Havana, Cuba, which had been thrown in his honor, a lieutenant tracked him down to the wharf, where he was going over manifest documents with a ship's purser. He was wildly ambitious and innovated like Matt, that's 100% accurate innovation. We're going to get to more in that in a minute. As soon as he had full control of his company, he began to visit boatyards. He wanted to build a fleet so he could, and this is another, I think, really important where there's, I think, a misunderstanding of a lot of people. I think entrepreneurship has been glamorized, which is good. You look upon some people. I hate to use the word like glory because I don't think in these terms, but like, you know, they want like.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “And I love the fact that he's gained all by doing, he's gained all this knowledge, this hidden knowledge, this secret that you could only uncover by actually doing the hard work. And now he's using that exploiting that advantage over the people that didn't do the same. Okay, so he was up every morning at dawn having breakfast standing on his head, walking in the fields. As far as possible, he refrained from giving interviews, addressing shareholders or attending functions. And this is so important, so important when I look at the different schedule. I love that essay by Paul Graham. Manager, it's the difference between a manager schedule and a maker schedule. This guy was running a massive corporation, but he had a maker schedule. So he talks about this. So why is he refraining from giving interviews? Why is he not addressing shareholders? Why is he not attending functions? All of which took him away from his work. He was one of those men who toiled all day, every day until...”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Looking for the land he was going to eventually buy. He crossed almost the entire country of Honduras on a mule. Okay, he had managed the fruit and money, the mercenaries and government men. He understood the meaning of every change in the weather, the significance of every date on the calendar. There was not a job he could not do, nor a task he could not accomplish. He considered it a secret to his success. And why is that a secret to success? Because although it's obvious that you should be doing this, because it's hard work, most people won't.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “and who had been seen standing on his head beside a shade tree in the process of proving or disproving that inversion benefits the digestion. I kid you not. So every day he'd eat breakfast and then he'd stand on his head because he thought it would, it helped him digest his food. As for the reports, sales figures and yields, the length of the average banana, the market rate per stem. Zamuri went through these fast. A scan, a few mental notes done. He disdained bureaucracy, hated paperwork. So seldom does he dictate a letter that he requires no full time secretary. So what they're talking about is he never liked to leave records of anything. He basically ran his entire business in his head. He will telephone division managers in half a dozen countries, correlate their reports in his head, and reach his decision without touching a pencil.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “While funding the revolution, as well as an additional 24,000 acres on the north coast of Honduras to be claimed at a later date. No taxes, no duties, free land. These were the conditions that would let Sam Zamuray take on United Fruit. Okay, so I want to skip ahead. I found his routine very interesting, so I want to share a little bit about that now. He's up early each morning and eats a breakfast of raw vegetables and bananas. In other cases, I might not linger on what a man had for breakfast, but such details fascinated and confused Zamuri's competitors. Executives at United Fruit were bewildered by reports of the jungle.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “interest on the loans So does Samuel Zamurray listen to Knox? No, he does not. At this time, he's rather rich and he owns a bunch of boats. So he uses the boats of his fruit company and the money he's accumulated for running the fruit company buys a bunch of weapons. He has a guy named.”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Don't get involved? How about I overthrow the fucking government? Is that too involved? You made a deal with the president of Honduras, Miguel Davila? Well, what if Signor Davila wasn't president no more? Consider the audacity. In defying Philander Knox and J. Pierpont Morgan, J.P. Morgan, Sam Zemurray was challenging two of the most powerful men in America. So I got to give you some background there. Why is JP Morgan tied up in this? Because at the heart of the reason the State Department in Washington is getting involved in the Central American states and it's something that continues today is because they loan them a lot of money. And so these governments are in debt, usually to very rich American bankers. And so the government is acting as a proxy for these bankers to get these governments to repay their loans or at least start paying the”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Okay, so this is him talking about. He goes, I was doing a small business buying fruit from independent planners, but I wanted to expand, Zamuri told the American magazine. I wanted to build railroads and raise my own fruit. The duty on railroad equipment was prohibitive, a cent a pound. And so I had to have concessions that would enable me to import the stuff duty-free. If the banks were running Honduras and collecting their loans from custom duties, how far would I have gotten? So that's his problem, right? When Zamuri stood to leave, Knox warned him a second time, don't meddle. Keep your head down. Stay out of it. I better not hear you've got yourself mixed up in the politics of Honduras. Zamuri nodded and seemed to agree, but Secretary Knox was not so sure. Though he tried to pit people at ease, Zumuri often struck those in power as a man who could not be controlled, that's 100% correct, by the way. If you want to know...”

    2018-09-09 · Founders · #37 The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source