Here are my notes from Passion Capital by Paul Alofs.
A nice inspiration read. Andrew Daniel had sent out an article based on the book and it was interesting enough that I bought the book. Passion Capital is an easy read and full of stories (both personal and from history) that Alofs uses as examples of his seven principles which he says are the basis for passion capital. They are: Creed, Culture, Courage, Brand, Resources, Strategy, and Persistence. His formula for passion capital is Passion Capital = Energy + Intensity + Sustainability.
Book notes by page number
p6
Passion with a plan.
p19
“Whole Foods has a deeper purpose.” Mackey has said. “Most of the companies I admire in the world have a deeper purpose.”
And what is that purpose? “Business serves society,” he said in a profile in the New Yorker. “It produces goods and services that makes people’s lives better. Doctors heal the sick. Teachers educate people. Architects design buildings. Whole Foods puts food on people’s tables and we improve people’s health. We provide jobs. We provide capital through profits that spur improvements in the world. And we’re good citizens in the communities; we take our citizenship very seriously at Whole Foods.” (Five per cent of profits are donated to charity.)
p50
He talked about the future. He looked like the future.
p60
The key is to understand your failures. “I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes,” Soros has said.
p77
Some of them have been very successful. But the larger companies are losing market share to smaller, more innovative companies that are making more interesting beer.
p96
At any given moment, certain resources have inherently more worth than others. The formula is rarely static. You need people or ideas or money or time. But what you need most changes month to month.
p128
At the time (late 19th century with Fredrick Winslow Taylor), the world was in the throes of the machine age, and the goals was to have people, as far as possible, mimic machines.
p144
Strategy in business depends on three issues: know yourself, know the enemy, know the market.
p148
Most strategies overestimate what can be accomplished in a year and underestimate what can be accomplished in five years.
163
The public sector is short on innovation but has responsibilities to society. The private sector possesses innovative ideas, but few of them are directed toward the larger benefit of society.
177
But a larger problem was that Ballard cared less about victory, which he couldn’t dictate, than exercising power, which he could. Ultimately, his passion wasn’t for winning but for power.
185
Where is the zeitgeist going? You need to hire for what is coming next, not what happened last.
196
What did I create? What do I value?
196
… playwright Arthur Miller said, all we can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.