AVOID COMPETITION

“I said, if you're a kid growing and wanting to be athletic, and you want to play sports like football, basketball, baseball, any of those sports, don't do deadlifts. The risk-reward ratio is a fucking joke. I've got tons of NFL friends. Not one of them deadlifts. They hang clean. They'll side handle deadlift on off season. But I've seen contracts from pro bowl offensive linemen that say, if you deadlift, you get this fine.”

“In 1899, two guys from Chattanooga, Tennessee, named Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, come to Candler with a proposal. They want to bottle Coca-Cola. Candler thinks it over and he's like, that's a pretty good deal. I've got nothing to lose here. So in July of 1899, the three of them sign a contract that includes the following terms for a token contract price of $1, which Candler never collects. The Coca-Cola Company will sell syrup to Thomas and Whitehead at a volume discount price of $1 per gallon. There is no term length on the contract.”

“I literally, I went on a regimen of taking mushrooms to compete. I'm writing a book about it right now. So I did 3.5, which is, if you know that, that's the full dose. A heroic dose is five grams. If you wanna talk to God, it's 3.5 grams. So I'm on 3.5, fully involved, me, God and all the others. And I'm doing the photo shoot.”

“Berkshire owns about 9.5% of Coca-Cola today. That stake is worth about $28 billion, which is a 22, 23x gross return on the $1.3 billion investment over the course of 40 years, which equates to only just over about an 8% IRR. But Coca-Cola stock kicks off, these days, about $1 billion a year in dividends to Berkshire. So a $40 billion total return on $1.3 billion invested. Including dividends over that same time period, the S&P 500 is up about 11% annually. So the famous Berkshire Hathaway Coca-Cola investment today is actually underperforming the market.”

“All I ever wanted to do was I wanted to be a history teacher and I wanted to coach high school football. I can do this. This right here. I promise you I will use this as a platform to do something. I promise you. And I promised her right there. And she got all teary-eyed and from there, it took me less than eight months to be at World's.”

“In 1931, Coke commissions the artist Haddon Sunbloom to create Christmas ad imagery for Coca-Cola featuring Santa Claus. So this being a Coke ad, Sunbloom is like, well, I'm going to make Santa as red as possible in Coca-Cola red, and then I'm going to make him as big as possible to get as much Coca-Cola red in the picture. Before this point in time, you couldn't really get mass-produced color images out to the public. So Santa didn't have a color. Nobody really thought about what color Santa was.”

“So they create this design brief and they send it around to 10 different glass companies around the country that says, we want to develop a bottle so distinct that you would recognize it by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground. The Root Glass Company of Terry Hote, Indiana, designs the bottle that goes on to win the contest. Something got lost in translation and the bottle was designed to look like the cocoa plant. The cocoa pod that you smash open to get out cocoa beans. This is a whole different thing called the coca plant, not the cocoa plant.”

“Have you ever heard David that Coke tastes better when you get it from McDonald's? The thing that is definitely true is Coca-Cola ships the formula to McDonald's in stainless steel tanks, instead of being delivered in bags. McDonald's does some stuff. They pre-chill the water and they make sure that the hoses are chilled all the way up in the dispenser. McDonald's apparently actually has a different syrup to water ratio that accounts for ice melt. They add a little bit more syrup than the standard recipe, which sounds like it would be heresy.”

“Brian invited me to do the arm wrestling match. I'm all in, bud. I'm all in. I like it like I used to like football. And so arm wrestling, it motivates me like that. Like it motivates me in a competitive way that I just haven't felt since I was like a teenager. I like the combativeness.”

“In 1934, Pepsi, in almost a last ditch effort to try and just do something to stay alive and save the company, tests using recycled beer bottles, which are 12 ounce bottles, to sell Pepsi, also for a nickel. The amount of liquid in the bottle is approximately free. Whether you're serving six ounces of liquid per bottle or 12 ounces of liquid per bottle, not going to impact your margins that much. Pepsi starts selling 12-ounce bottles also for a nickel. Twice as much cola for the same price.”

“Harrison later described Casey's management style as management by suggestion. Irving would say something like, if we had such and such account, that would fit just exactly. And what that meant was get your ass out there and get the account. There was no directive. It was a suggestion that carried the full weight of an order, but left you room to figure out how. And if you couldn't figure out how, you didn't last long.”

“Harrison later explained the playbook in his own words. We always established a beachhead in a foreign country by shipping product in from an existing operation. Even if it doesn't make any money, we're going to establish that beachhead and build volume until we have sufficient load to justify a factory. The logic was elegant because every step funded the next and limited downside export first, which was low cost and low commitment, hire local salespeople. If the market proved out then and only then build or buy a plan.”

“McCann does when it comes on board with the Coke account, is it starts conducting scientific market research. And one of the first things they do, is they run a blind taste test between Coke and Pepsi. Consumers, when presented with the two drinks, Coke and Pepsi, in a blind taste test, a statistically significant number of people prefer the taste of Pepsi. They come, they present it to Woodruff. They present the findings, and his response is, do not ever share this with anyone, and do not ever run this test again.”

“Dr. John Pemberton, a Confederate war veteran who had not only been stabbed, he had also been shot during the war and got army disease just like all these other soldiers and was addicted to morphine for the rest of his life. So after the war, he moves to Atlanta and as part of his entrepreneurial aspirations in this new patent medicine consumer economy, and also to probably solve his own problem, he starts casting about for other drugs that could cure him and others of army disease. And that is how in the mid-1880s, he learns about a new miracle drug, sweeping America, promising to cure all ill including army disease, cocaine.”

“Benedict Magnuson fucking hates me. He hates me because I told a story one time. He told me a story and I didn't know it was private. So we're sitting in the cab, and he says something. And finally, he says enough that I switched off. I literally took my hands, and I put them like this behind my back, and I put my chin forward. And I was like, it's there for you, but I'm going to take your fucking life afterwards. I would have bit his ear off and shoved it down his throat.”

“New Coke. The company immediately starts getting thousands of letters and phone calls every single day. One of my favorites is a letter that reads, My dearest Coke, you have betrayed me. We went out just last week as we had so often. And when we kissed, I knew our love affair was over. But last week, I tasted betrayal on your lips. You had the smooth, seductive, sweet taste of a lie. You have become corrupted by money, denying your ideals.”

“Then came a question that tested Harrison's instincts on branding. Should McCain sell under its own name in Germany or create a German sounding brand? The debate amongst his team lasted into the night. The majority wanted a local name. Harrison sat back and said almost nothing while everyone else argued. Finally, around 08:00 in the evening, he ended it. Boys, that was a great conversation. Great. Lots of input. Now here's what we're going to do. We're gonna call it McCain. We're gonna call it McCain. Now let's go and eat.”

“Mormons really take care of you. They've got, so like, there's a whole company called Deseret Industries. And when you're a Mormon and you're financially in trouble, or you're like, you need food or substance or whatever, there's like a whole, here there's stores. And it was like a full grocery store. Like get all your milk, get all your stuff. All this stuff produced by the Mormons in Salt Lake City.”

“I was literally the only person that stayed with my dad. And I only stayed because I felt bad, like he was fucking schizo alone, you know? And I remember we were living behind an apple orchard. We had power on the weekends because he would drive his work truck home and he would plug in the generator on the work truck. So like the TV would work, but if you tried to microwave something, it all go out. And so like the last two years of high school, I lived in a dark house with a schizophrenic dad with no water.”

“Harrison decided from the very first day to reinvest everything. We invested every nickel we made, he said, and every nickel we could borrow. There were no dividends, no money off the table, and all of it was plowed back in every year.”

“Both brothers visited a senior McDonald's buyer. McDonald's was interested enough to ask for a tour of the Florenceville plant. Harrison's response had a bit too much chutzpah. He told the man, tell us what you want, and we will produce it. We know how to make French fries, and we don't need you guys to tour our plant. That was the end of the conversation, and it would take years to recover. It was a rare mistake born of pride.”

“This couponing strategy aligns incentives for everybody in the value chain in a way that had never been done before. Consumers, they love it. They get free drinks of this great tasting beverage. Drugstores and soda fountains, they super love it, because now they're getting more foot traffic. And then once consumers come back and start buying their second, third, fourth, you know, four hundredth drinks, is a highly profitable drink for them to sell.”

“The first requirement to be successful, in my opinion, is a single mindedness of purpose. And I don't think the professors that teach kids who wanna be a great success in their field pointed out to them with enough figure and say, do you understand? You have to sacrifice. You have to make difficult choices and say, goddamn it. I said I was going to do it. I'm going to do it, and I'm going to do it if it kills me, and you'll win. You'll beat up the other guy who doesn't have that single mindedness of purpose.”

“No. No. No. You're making a terrible mistake. I'm just exactly the man you want. I'll borrow money from my old man to buy a car, and I'll work for no pay. You only have to pay my expenses. No pay for a solid year. At the end of the year, you pay me my wages for the full year or shake hands. Your choice, not mine. The sales manager said no. But two days later, he called him back and he said, I can't even sleep at night thinking about your offer. I'm giving you the job.”

“A McCain Foods marketing employee heard through the grapevine that Coca Cola was planning to introduce a mixture of five citrus juices that had already succeeded in The US market. So he registered the trademark five alive in Canada before Coca Cola could. Several months later, the president of Coca Cola contacted McCain Foods to purchase it. When the issue was raised with Harrison, his response was immediate. Sell it to them for $1. We are not goddamn crooks. This is not the way for us to do business.”

“Harrison's instinct started to sniff opportunity in the lack of competition. There was not a single serious frozen fry producer in the entire country. Instead of fighting for shelf space against five other brands, the fight would be creating the shelf itself. To learn more, he showed up at frozen food plants across The US and talked his way in, walking production lines, asking questions, and studying machinery.”

“I got bit hard during the lockdowns and just, like I grew up a kid in California. And so doing that, I went from making 30, 40 grand a month to making $200 a month because of the censorship. And I was trying really, really hard to keep things up. I was trying really hard to keep making money there and all this stuff. And it was just it just became a battle like that was never ending.”

“I was filming something with a guy that I didn't want to film. And in that thing, I was taking a sword and doing all this stuff, and I came down with the sword, and I cut my foot in half, my entire foot. And in that moment, I really felt like clarity. And in that moment, I felt like I don't care if I lose my foot. I know what I'm doing now. And this right here is the bloody shoe that got cut in half.”

“He noticed that the province was seeking job creation projects. He also noticed it was an election year. So he walked away with a $470,000 bond guarantee. Then he went to the local county council and secured a near total tax exemption for the first two years, telling them the federal and provincial governments were already backing him. Five different sources of capital, and he didn't give up any equity.”

“By the time America enters World War II in 1941, the military and the US government realize, hey, Coke may actually be one of America's best weapons in this war. The military under Eisenhower grants Coca-Cola employees quote unquote, technical observer status, meaning that they can participate in the supply and infrastructure build out of the military around the world just the same as military infrastructure people. As the American military is advancing in the global theater all around the world, Coca-Cola is right there with them setting up bottling plants and production lines to supply the troops.”

“Bill Gates lets it slip on a panel with Warren and Roberto and Don Keough that Warren has always told Bill that Coca-Cola could be run by a ham sandwich. While Roberto is sitting right there. Roberto gets very offended and apparently never talks to Bill Gates again. Now, given what's about to happen here, it's actually highly debatable whether Roberto was a ham sandwich or not.”

“I had a full ride scholarship. Well, I was taking the one in Nebraska, but I was offered from everywhere. I had a box of letters, all every school you'd ever heard of, asking me to come out. You know, it's funny. This is so fucking stupid, it's embarrassing. But I was such a fucking idiot redneck, I didn't even know you were supposed to open the letters, fill out the thing and send it back. I thought that box is still intact at my mom's house with not a single letter open.”