Ken Langone - The American Dream - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]

Transcript from https://podmenti.com/t/a804e56cfea83b47

Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this is Invest Like the Best.
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My guest today is Ken Langone.
Ken is a legendary American businessman best known for his co-founding of Home Depot.
He is also a former director of the New York Stock Exchange and a passionate philanthropist.
He shares with us a lifetime worth of wisdom building Home Depot into a powerhouse and prioritizing his employees above all else.
He says he still bleeds orange to this day.
You'll hear as he recounts his business endeavors his strict belief in keeping your word and
And his true pride in his country what he knows to be the land of opportunity.
We discussed his work with Ross Perot, the idea of an upside down hierarchy, and the power of loyalty.
For anyone who may find it easier to follow along, we have a transcript of the episode on joincolossis.com.
Please enjoy this conversation with Ken Langone.
So Ken, it's hard to know where to begin a conversation with you given the number of interesting things that you've done across your life, your career. I saw when researching your history so many interesting early anecdotes
with you establishing yourself, especially in your work with Ross Perot. And I always found Ross to be such an interesting character in business history. I'd love to hear the story of you taking his business public.
and what that represented to you at an early stage of your career and what it was like to work with him.
I happen to be at a Mardi Gras ball in Washington and at the party
I met a fellow they have a guy Jack Hype.
And he and I hit it all he was telling me
that he was partners in a company that was getting ready to go public.
And they had Alibaba record.
And I said to him
Is there any chance I can get a
Chance to pitch my firm.
The B the other writer's shoe that I can do.
We had a good time that night. Drank a little bit.
Praise a little hell.
Monday he called me up and he said, You got an appointment in Dallas
At eleven thirty on Wednesday.
Two things almost like.
Don't be late.
You got thirty minutes.
Well the third of that leave.
And don't swear.
'I'dn't swear like a saw sail it.
At this point.
So I took
Two kids with me out of a caught and yes.
I say kids, I was only thirty three myself.
And we went down to Dallas.
The scariest thing was exactly at eleven thirty.
I don't know what was all of this.
There it was sitting behind a big desk.
He's the mere look.
And
I'm fellows.
More.
How you all doing? I said, We're doing fine, Mr. Pearl. I said this is Roger Green, this is Duke Glenn.
So
We should um
En list of farms.
that he met with Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, why well?
Shit a pee body, you
Every one of the top voters of Wall Street
Was there to see ya?
He talks nonstop the twenty nine and Goldman says this, Merrill says that.
Jeter says that, why well says that?
And he says.
What do you think of that? I'm looking I got thirty seconds left.
I don't miss the proof.
I think I'll just
Take advantage of the time I've got to say goodbye and I hope you'll see me again sometime.
What do you mean?
I will Jack High told me I had thirty minutes and right.
By my calculations. Three minutes.
Forget that. Somewhere.
And I thought to myself,
Well I'm gonna blow the thirty minute rule.
I might have to go all the way.
Mr. Perl, that's the biggest power shit I've ever heard in my life.
Okay, what do you mean?
I think this whole process is fairly sure.
You gotta pick somebody who's gonna tell you what.
He thinks you can sell your stock more.
And your bet is can eat.
Go with it on that number.
I said.
It's that simple.
That's all the talk they have about working the market, knowing the market, doing it's all those things.
Wow.
That's interesting, he said. Let's talk a little bit more. We talked.
Until one o'clock. Wow.
Try million.
Two guys.
I was on a front seat. Yeah, the big
Maroon Lincoln.
He was driving us all over Dallas.
We've gotta go back on it three thirty plane in the afternoon.
No, I figured I'm not gonna
So this comedian
We were looking for a drugstore. We could buy shading gear and toothbrush. Yeah, stuff like maybe a T shirt.
'Cause we brought nothing downwards.
We finally found a place.
State at a hotel.
He was gonna make a decision by the following Friday.
And he called up. He said, I'd like to get knowing a little bit better. He said, Come on back down.
So I went back down.
And we talked and we talked and we talked.
I had not seen one number.
On how much his sales were, what his earnings were, nothing.
So he invited me back down. You get a chance, come on back down. Like go, dear sure.
to the third time I went down, I went down a long.
He picked me up at the airport.
We're driving back to his office.
Can
If you give another thought to what you think we're worth.
Mr. Perot, I said first of all, I said.
I haven't had the benefit of your numbers.
That's the sum, the numbers are great.
I should.
Can I get some kind of relevance?
God was all of us.
He had a closet and on the inside of the closet door.
He had a graph, a short.
I didn't know what the numbers were. All it was was a chart.
of the percentage growth.
Of the earnings?
And of the sales.
And it was doubling every year.
And I said to him, I knew what the business
I by now I got a good understanding.
I should based on those numbers and if I could be made comfortable that they can continue that way for a while.
I would argue you come before the harder time journalists.
What?
Yeah. About a hundred times right.
Are you sure? I suppose it was.
I'm not sure of anything, I'm sure of this.
Those numbers or what you say? I had no idea whether it was five million or nine million well, it turns out.
It was seven million of revenues.
And three million are pre-taxed profit.
It was a staggering march.
And
The clear prospects.
That it continued this set.
So
You I wanna think about it.
I left.
About
Two weeks later.
What he had done was she was calling all the other firms up. So okay.
What do you think on Morris?
They settled that around thirty times.
Now when d
Mate.
Call me up at least it be on.
Are you comfortable with what you've said as your rose?
I'll say it again.
that you can continue this progression.
You just do simple math.
You gotta cut the multiple every year.
By two.
Do it's not gonna take long to get this thing down a twenty five time during it.
But I said.
I won't be able to tell you that until
I can get a better fix on the business. So he said, Well come on down, bring some God down
Let's get to know each other better and talk about
How we do things.
He brought it up on you guys.
One after the other, I swear to God.
Yeah, some kind of a machine.
They created these guys. It was unbelievable.
One more talented than the other.
One man.
Common sense.
Plain spoken.
Gentlemen.
No because he had a best coat, white suit white shirts.
No tassel overst.
Wing tip shoes, highly shine.
No facial hair.
Military style haircuts.
And the more I
Got exposed the more excited I got it.
So he th Okay, well let me think about it.
This comes in the June, two weeks later, we call it again.
Mitch Horn and I have been talking.
One of the things we expect of people
You know, we talk to we're optimistic people.
And very frankly he said Mich and I are a little worried.
That you don't show much enthusiasm.
I'm going, what the hell?
I said, Who'll be on next plane down? What are you talking about?
I said I've never seen anything like this, but I told you that.
Well I know I thought Russ, I'm coming down. No no don't come down.
He's you know, we tax teams have a good rule here.
Well then if you got a good
Sassy Yuma, you're a good text and I god damn it.
You guys were paying me yes too, okay? So anyway
He gives me the deal.
The rest of Wall Street is stunt.
Railroad find out.
Getting the most short after piece of business probably in the last five or ten years.
And
We go through the whole process. He wants the how to do it. I go, Russ, I'm gonna make the one promise I didn't take before.
I'm personally going to be on every meeting with every investment.
That's what I intend to deliver. You sure oh, I know.
Call me up.
At the very end decide the
He's gonna give me the business one of the forums of one of the G H walk.
It was a guy there by the Cherry Lodge, who he knew to who he liked.
Well I tried.
But
We're gonna do the deal harder time, Johnny. She said we're us.
We'll go to a harder time journey.
So Ruff called me up and said that he'd got this call and
How do I feel about having a pawn? As a law for me question.
And then you want to iron a high
Racing speed clock going two hundred miles an hour.
I got the steel wheel and you got the brakes.
We're sitting next to each other.
How long people are gonna hit the wall, because we're gonna hit the wall.
I said, Ross, well I'm going to go two hundred miles an hour.
I got control of the clutch, steering wheel shift.
Everything.
Or I get in that car.
I'm standing rushed.
Wanna get on the deal.
If you're more comfortable with them, you can give it to them, I'm gonna be around.
I'm sure we'll figure a way out.
Oh sorry, that
You were the one that made him go from seventy to a hundred. You're my man.
Let's go. We spent a whole summer getting the prospectus together and the more I learned about it, the more excited I got.
I had a whole monkey.
Now back then
New York State had a stock trench with that.
You soul stock?
It was the tax.
And the way you get around it with an underwriting
You go through the tunnel.
After midnight.
On the day of the deal?
Sign all the papers in Jersey. Then drive back in.
So the deal was done, and sure it was legal.
The night before the other ready, Elaine and I and Margle and Ross had dinner at twenty one. We got to know each other that summer.
We really hit it personally well.
By the way, I tell you.
One of the great joys of my life was his friendship.
And this is an aside.
One of the great honors of my life was when I got the call from the family Ross.
Doing it.
They'd like me to deliver the ultimate funeral.
Wow.
Me.
So anyway.
We're driving through the tunnel.
Elaine.
Went home because our kids ought to go to school the next day. We had three kids.
So
We're in a literacy.
By the way.
The limousine driver was always the witness signing the paper show.
So we're driving through the top.
It was a s back seat where you had two seats looking at each other.
Margo and Ross are looking ahead.
I'm setting
With my back to the front.
Looking at that.
Well, he should borrow
All the other guys on Law Street Tallin now is one he's gonna back away from what he said he's gonna do.
What are you talking about, Ruth? Well I'm told again.
Isn't when you guys say sorry, Russ.
I miscalculated, I can't do it at the hundred times, Ernest. I gotta do it at a lower number.
What are you talking about?
Because I suppose this is what you're gonna tell me I'm not getting a hundred times earning.
I said, how'd you do that?
Same on, same on now.
I said, How's she know that?
What do you mean? I said I'm not gonna do it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
See Mario, there they are, they're all I like up here.
They get us country boys up here and they pick us clean.
Excellent.
Wait.
Wait.
Does a hard time journalist mean that much to you?
Yeah, right, it's just Texas you put your hand out your words your bot.
Means a lot to me. Not just the number, but the fact you kept your word.
I said, look.
The last thing I want is another happy client.
We'll do it at a hundred time, Jeremy.
Yeah, you will.
So more gold.
I wake it more.
Well he was a little bit of a Tizzy.
She says to me, God bless Wah was she show up.
She will, Ken, what were you gonna do with that?
I was gonna do it at a hundred and fifteen times, journey, but the only one's a hundred time journey it's so key with me.
We did it at a hundred fifteen times, right?
And by the way, it went from sixteen to twenty four first day.
So it was a very successful deal.
And that deal.
For lack of a better way to describe it, put me on a map.
The most important thing of all was
He was a man who when you delivered to have it, you kept your word.
He never forgot it.
So he became
Perhaps my storage is that.
I was a young kid, thirty three. I never done another right.
That friendship is last year.
All through his life, and now it was his family as well.
Вот авз стал.
Do you feel is most lacking in
in the world of leadership today.
If anything.
Integrity.
That's it.
Man the man was maniacal.
By keeping his word.
And
The second thing would be loyalty.
If you
Promised two and delivered for.
You never forget it.
And this will be it.

ideas of yours is this notion of leaving more on the table
for the other guy than you think the other guy thinks.
Did that
Come from Ross?

Let me tell where that came from.
That came from my experiences as a poor kid.
What I realized
If somebody expected this of me.
I gave him that plus something.
And
To me.
The order negotiating is not say who best who.
You are negotiating to me is to get a deal for yourself.
But make sure the guy you're dealing with
feels he got more than he thought he was gonna get or he should get.
Hundred times earnings to one hundred and fifteen times earnings.
I can't think of a deal I've done.
where I couldn't have got more than I got.
That's okay.
Because
The element of trust
is the most precious thing.
In live.
If I trust my doctor
But he's gonna do the right thing for me.
There's a better chance he's gonna be more candid with me.
The more willing
to try and help me whatever my condition is, or a friendship or a marriage. I don't care what it is.
I'll give you I'll give you a first.
I did a deal with a guy.
I bought a company.
He negoti he was a tough negotiator, he negotiated back.
Yeah.
And I guess she gave it her every point.
Got done around nine thirty at night, my office.
I should know you say oh happy couldn't be happy.
Okay. Let's go back.
I'll drop you up.
No tell them.
Pick it up in the morning or at breakfast or talk school. It's okay.
So that's one of you pick them up.
We're driving to my office.
You said can can I be asked. I said please don't.
He's uh I'm sorry, he's I reflect on this, I don't think.
Uh this is a good enough idea for me as I'm entitled.
That's all that's what.
That's okay.
Where do you think?
This thing is the fish.
The o.
He tells me.
It's okay, you got it.
Yes.
Tell me what you want. You got it.
I got over to something else.
I will never miss you again.
You blogging hard all day yesterday.
You assured me at the end of the day
It was exactly what you wanted, you were fairly treated.
I said, I can't think of one point I didn't see you.
I said I'm sorry.
You got what you want on this deal.
But I never wanted the business we can look at.
And I feel strongly about that.
Um
The best test of won't he is.
I never had a fear of
Corium.
Or a potential partner of the deal.
Saying something bad about me.
Because
But okay.
Oh, it's okay.
You see where I started sitting where I am right this minute.
And it's okay to bargain all it.
But when you're done, you got.
Um
You were shy. I said you got your deal. You got exactly what you want.
Die.
Frankly, I said I thought you had a great deal last night, but
Obviously you thought there might be more on the table, so
I won't disappoint you.
Well the way that comedy turned out to be a home run.
Okay.
So
That's the philosophy of life.
I pride myself on that.
I think there's nothing more precious in my life.
other than my family than my work.
Was there an early formative experience, like a specific experience that most
Taught you that lesson.
How did you come to that conclusion? Sounds like at a really young age.
My mother at all.
They were humble.
Uneducated.
But incredibly honorable people.
But
Just how they live their lives.
That was really weird.
It was chiseled home to chiseled home to me.
Yeah, keep your word.
Work as hard as you can and give it all you got.
Yeah.
Live by the golden rule?
One of the things that
I feel strongly about.
I'm very forthright about my job.
Because
That's what all short.
That I had a good fortune.
Mean this lovely lady.
She was sixteen and I was eighteen.
We got married, she was eighteen and I was twenty.
Almost sixty eight years later was still hanging around each.
Yeah. Pretty good.
What's the key to doing that well?
Happy fights, but not a carry gludge.
Don't go to bed, so it.
Well two kids.
truly love each other and
With Trump and success wouldn't change. I hope it hasn't.
I urge my kids to be
J wanted to be authentic.
That have to be very important being or
Life and business is a repeat game.
the story you just told about not doing the second deal with that guy.
Even just the way you've
created successful financial outcomes seems to have been by holding
Longer than anybody else.
My love.
Loyalty.
If I would like to be remembered for work.
Only one thing.
I'd like to be remembered that I was a loyal.
A loyal husband, a loyal father.
Whatever you want.
Loyalty isn't short supply.
The world has become very transactional.
Maar heb ik daar ook wel iets blitsen.
Wish I would say yes, I could tell you right.
He ain't coming back for war, I can tell you right now, he ain't coming back from war.
I got his air screen.
And it was a fight that I loved every single second.
But they're
People were saying to me
But
I showed my own to the the grass, so I said, No, and that can spot away.
It wasn't just loyalty.
It was the facts.
The facts were that the whole committee, all nine of us.
always about to get out of the sweeping give them these pay back.
Which by the way will magnify because
Every previous chairman of the stock exchange.
Never had a tenure short of more than ten years.
So I know when you got these.
The other year five years, six years, seven years, but
Dick Grasso started at the exchange at eighty two dollar and fifty cent a week.
Union Court. Union Court.
Well from that all the way to the ch how I guess what, he had thirty seven years of service.
Or you put the yard stick to that.
Woo!
Oh.
That's what you wanted. He created it that way.
To get people to stay.
Look what he did. Well he took over the twelve hundred listings.
When he got the bullet in his head, he had twenty eight hundred.
He made all of us.
I bought seats for seventy two thousand dollars apiece.
I got eight million dollars.
We each one of them.
I'm not bear the deal of that.
We are guys on the floor exchange more out of it.
The whole key of the exchange was liftings.
But people say well that was loyalty. Yeah, it was loyalty, but more importantly
Who's being loyal.
To the truth.
I knew the truth. The truth was
Every single member of that committee knew exactly
That was a sad thing to me, that I'm not high powered guys.
That with it under the skies that's it.
Bring along, baby. I'll show you how work.
Okay? Bring'em on.
We did. We got it.
What was that?
I didn't want it to have.
When Cuomo replaced him as A G
And one
The Court of Appeals
Found in our favor seven zero.
Call me, call me up.
And it was a Wednesday. That's when the decisions came out.
He should be you know he should um
I don't know, give me some advice.
He said I'm thinking about feeling it. I might he's lost. I know I know he's playing with my head.
He says, I'm thinking of appealing to you. What do you think? I've two things I think.
Nouvel one.
The most joyous
thing I could hear is the fact you gotta repeal it that the game goes on.'Cause I'm having a hell of a time with my life.
Another two.
You haven't got the balls to reveal it.
D and I became good friends, by the way.
So
Well T C short spil up.
The idea about loyalty
rings through the Home Depot story in such an incredible way. Like so many stories of people
kinda like Grasso starting as a cashier and becoming, you know, a senior executive.
I would just love to hear
the beauty of the long term at Home Depot, as you've experienced it as a co founder and now
incredibly long term holder of that business.
The most precious thing home people has.
All the kids on the floor.
The R shapers are.
We had what we call the most
Corporations have a trial.
That the base
And the point at the top.
And the point at the top is where the CEO is.
And the base
Higher employee is.
We turn it upside down.
We should have the most important person in the company.
If of course that comes in touch with the customer.
That customer.
That's what he wants.
At a fair price.
And Fields got great service.
He's never going any place else again.
The most precious part of that.
Which in there.
I call me kidding. Anybody under eighty eight I'm eighty eight years old.
You under radiate, you're a kid.
So I'll get pissed off.
Those kids.
Really challenging jobs.
They need to learn what they're selling.
They don't have the luxury of
Not being able to handle the difficult
Customer?
They have crazy hours.
Most of them store right at the bar with our leg.
College education.
And those kids made this cut.
If there's one thing home beat must go for it.
It's our service.
Big thing.
We give you great prices, no question about that. We're always in stock, no question about that.
We have every imaginable item to want to give a category.
You gotta show up.
But the thing that holds all together.
As a kid that's dealing with you.
I need your first.
This is a good friend of mine.
Customer.
His force it was trippy.

Meaning that the washer.
That'd be out.
So what it got through.
What about?
Point of the nozzle of the force and drip, drip, drip, drip.
Three o'clock in the morning and your wife catch you and says.
Go fit the four. I can't sleep the trip was keeping me awake.
Guy gets up in the morning.
He goes to the whole people store, how they make.
Seth the kid, I need to do one of these.
Res to him.
The new one or what?
He said, I need a whole new stamps. Like it's not so you need a wash.
No.
Yeah.
Little glassy and bags.
The shortest size washes.

Twenty five cents or
Takes it off the pay.
Opens it up, gets the right size, wash it.
As a screwdriver.
Takes it off, unscrews the screw.
Takes a bed washer out.
Takes the good truck, wash it, puts it in.
What's the screw back in?
And he says to the guy here, Go where will you?
Guys what I L E he said not so he said happy came to old people.

The wife wants into the kitchen.
You've gotta go to one of these fool food joys.
Kiss it and bad guys.
We're going to make right.
They went back, they found my kid.
Kid brought'em over to the kitchen designer.
Well we sold kitchens.
We got one hundred thousand dollar kitchen over it.
That's the value.
Do we make it effective?
Train the kids.
Make an effort to treat him failing.
Last year unilaterally we raised wages one billion dollars.
Why?
We upload case.
They own stock.
Well, I guess I could say I made some money.
Just a bit. I'll tell you this.
The greatest
number of a wall to me.
It's got my network.
We have three thousand kids that are still working for the company today. Three thousand of them.
They started out pushing coits and
From a lot.
They multi millionaires.
And they're still working for the company.
You want to talk about culture carries?
Trust me.
That's the value of treating your people right and taking care of. We do everything we can for it.
And they know.
What?
in the history of Home Depot went the most wrong.
And how
Did you fix it?
Well.
The thing that one both rule.
With a mindset.
That costs
was more important than the culture.
How do we fix it?
We change leadership.
That's so.
Right. I guess.
Alright.
Two thousand three, two thousand four.
That point we were uh
twenty three, twenty four years old.
But I have a club.
founder of the company.
Why?
Right.
Restore it.
The culture.
He led by example.
No doubt about it.
His selection as CEO.
was I think the smartest
decision and I take great pride in that personally.
'cause when we were kind of we decided that we had those different ways a lot.
By the way, get bought credit.
First four years were cut.
Everything he touched he made better.
Okay.
However, once we got past that four years he started it.
Now get a little
Too aggressive, and I think.
Yeah, we've the coach.
Fride was not a popular choice.
is a natural.
The reason Frank is so natural.
If he embraces the values.
Even me could have.
One year Frank didn't even want to take a bonus.
No, I don't think
We're just getting this thing going right, I don't know.
F
Fight to least what is it?
Three four hours.
Graduate of Hobbit.
Columbia Law School graduate.
Clerk to Justice Stevens of the Supreme Court.
Going on at them a year.
Number two or three guy and I think
Falling of energy.
Come to work out strategy.
And nerdy shot a guy immediately.
You'll never get a prize for me.
A picture of Satorial Splendid, okay.
And I say that.
I mean that's right.
What you see is what you get.
And I talk about being authentic.
He is the best example of authenticity I could.
Magic.
So
Culture is there is it.
Interesting aside.
When I was at the joy.
Then why are you medical setup?
Places that are shames.
Oh.
Goral was terrible. They just
merge their hospital with outside eye.
I want to is an example of it.
each side, but it was true on the other side.
They were getting a bad ass, so we were getting to
Two bad hospitals.
I made it one thing
One huge bad aspect.
The element of distrust is powerful.
So I took the job, I went I said the body look me to do this like.
Water was champion.
What's
Really bad. I couldn't.
I was okay more than I want the hospital back.
I want to send you burst.
I think that would be easy legal to get that legal.
We did it.
And I think we own people we birdie and a lot of myself and Pat.
We put this culture a place they want.
We love it.
We live.
I tell people here I had highly educated.
Double degree, triple degree, doc.

And the same thing I did with a six eight year old kid that barely got out of high school.
Well this
Professional highly accomplished.
Fabulous stock.
Should the same way and it worked.
Just guess what? The EMBs get the day.
Gotta.
Celebrate.
How will these people on the floor?
They are the key to the
This is the
Magic sauce.
Okay. This is a secret source.
Not so much a secret.
But it takes effort. It takes time for you.
Try to do everything you can.
to let these kids know that they really matter that they can make a difference.
That they are paying it.
Share with us your idea. Share with us.
We amazed the number of great ideas we had.
We implemented it the shores that came out of the more wide of it.
Shit to barely get out of high school.
We encourage that to be all that.
Come express themselves.
I give you for instance.
We will be installing Elmont.
So the Wednesday
before the stores got all when I'm in there.
No they can't the plumbing to plumb.
'Cause I can he said that.
Are you somebody in this cutney?
Yeah.
Come on, I'll show you something.
I'm curious, were you guys born stupid or something?
Oh yeah, yeah, it should.
Maybe it's a combination of both.
You don't want these kids to feel
Intimidated a threat. You wanna get it out of their head.
It's just
Okay.
So he takes me over and he shows me a big cardboard box.
It's on the floor.
At the bottom.
Of Iraq.
And in the box.
Or a bunch of plungers.
We got stopped up to that.
If you put your hand in that box
You think you were in a coal mine, you come out black.
So
Nobody sees the plunges.
Yeah.
Think of this.
You don't wake up on a Saturday morning and say, I mean, let's go to Home Depot and buy a punch.
It's three o'clock in the morning.
The toilet's stopped up and you haven't got to plunge it.
You get your ass to the home depot store as soon as it opens to get the punch.
So the k the killer is okay.
What would you do?
If I get pipe hooks.
Like in a gun store, you know they show guns on the war.
And I put the plunges at the end of the thing on a rack.
Why don't you do it?
Is that
Yeah, I think why is.
Think if such a good idea, why don't you do it?
Okay.
Saturday at eleven o'clock, the store's now open.
People clap.
Come on, come here, come here, come here.
Like all that.
It's not plagiarism.
Pipe cooks.
I
Oh, you put them back in the box? No, they're co-
Hey Arnie, three hours.
Why don't you go back three three fifty four?
Hey Honda, we need a plunge. I don't have a plunge.

You made it an impulse.
That was out of the mind.
Yeah, the Pell I got out of high school.
You don't know where you're gonna fight a gem.
But you're never gonna find them if you don't look for them.
What do you think?
Was the reason you've been able to hold on to these
investments these positions for so much longer than everybody else.
So the average length of your investments is thirty five years or something crazy like that. Forty two years. Sorry. I don't want to take that.
Because I'm still.
I mean the loyalty investment positions.
What about you?
Yeah, you're loyal, you're loyal, right?
Look.
I got my lily stock.
Two years before Home Beeple was found.
And a little medical device chuck people with.
I got to know the magic people. I liked them. You know, they were solid midwestern people.
The guy that I negotiated the deal with.
Was a tough son of a bitch.
Well the name of Jean Step?
But I had such admiration and respect for Gene.
I had no doubt.
that Lily would turn out to be a great company.
Now.
It didn't hurt.
Then if I'd sold a stock I'd have had out of the tax.
My court basis
The little device company I took over at a proxy fight. Ready?
Had a market cap.
The millionaire towns.
Yeah.
I don't want to get a million and a half dollars.
Louis gave us fifty million dollars.
That was approximately five May of seventy two.
Lily gave us
A million and a half shares of lowly stock.
Worth thirty seven fifty a share of our stock.
Yeah, roughly that.
And Louis paid a dividend. So the dividend was an ice state.
Well Lily Stark has split over those all those years.
From seventy seven to now, sixteen to one.
So the three year and a half shares
Six, nine.
It's twenty four million shares.
Okay.
You ready out?
eighteen billion
Three hundred and sixty million dollars.
Now catch this.
Lily stock.
From seventy seven to
Oh true.
One from thirty seven got to his high as a hundred and all.
From O two
The eighteen.
The stock did nothing.
It was a a one oh nine and oh two, and it was one oh nine and
Eighteen.
How I
On back.
To seventy seven, November thirty, seventy seven.
Until last August.
Counting the dividend.
You clear sixteen years or nothing.
They come down to the fifteen percent a year.
You're a home run.
But every stock I own compounded at fifteen percent.
I spent a lot of time with companies.
I get to know the management.
My first and my major and my principal concern is
People.
I bet on Pete.
Got it
Home depot position now literally forty seven years.
People I got.
Forty six years.
JP Morgan.
I bought the warrants, but I bought them way back
I got my JP Morgan stock today.
Sixteen years.
I got my pocket heart.
Sixteen years.
They're puppies, too. They're still babies.
I got a new position called
Option shareholders.
I bought it six years ago, I'll be there with'em.
Long as the management stays.
quality people.
Well the prospects in the business
Oh great.
It's like my life.
These guys to get married three and four times. How do they remember who to what to call them, what name to use? I mean can you imagine Jane Mary
Life is simple.
And
Holding on to these situations.
No
The food I ate as a kid is still my favorite food.
Peasant food.
What's your death row meal?
Pasta Vajol. What's your last pasta vajol?
I've got all me and beans.
Clint Parmesan.
Fried peppers and potatoes Oh God, they cook fried peppers and potatoes.
I got my mother got she was so quick.
But those are my favorite foods.
I got a little dive in Paul Washington like
The Marios?
Great pizza.
Bowl of pasta fajoli or a bowl of
Got all on beans.
Man, it's like dying to go into heaven.
What do you love most about capitalism? I love that title of your book.
If you had to sum it up, what do you love most?
The good it does for me, Card.
Good for it.
Look at our society.
Look at every other country that moved towards socialism. Of course happened.
Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina. Look at them.
Brazil.
No.
Okay, you are
Good work.
I look.
A poor kid.
Working his ass off.
With a shot at the brass ring?
You may never get it.
Well he's gonna do a lot of good along the way, even if he didn't get it.
Well I'll give you a four instance.
You got a call one day, kid.
We opened our first memoir in in the late eighties.
I walked the store. He was working at one of our first stores on the island.
Bam, ten minutes just to be more come see you today.
Okay.
And I have a rule, home people employees can forest it very call me.
It was another call we can actually fall as I'll call you back again.
The kid comes in on the same day.
Hi Mark, what's up?
This is what I wanted to let you know. I thought you should know.
He said.
The spawning.
I got a call for my marijuana okay.
But my Home Depot stock is now worth a million dollars.
I'm a billionaire.
That's found.
Yeah, the only thing is something else.
He said, I paid my parents mortgage up before.
I paid my mortgage off.
My two kids are in college.
I'm a millionaire.
Do you know
The impact that had on that general people in the store.
He did it, I can do it.
They gotta work on it.
You gotta have.
Things that don't always work.
I
She got six months to tell you all my bad deals.
That really isn't a home run.
Oh, I'd be happy if they were break even, but
You gotta get off the plate and take a sway.
You're gonna hit up hit the ball every time. You're gonna have a few strikeouts.
That's twite.
But what is capitalism do?
I think it always promised me.
B.
A plum of sun, capitarian sun?
Not a very good student.
I thought it was best suit.
Look at what capitalism allowed me to do.
You can't take that widely.
That's heavy duty start.
What did you see
most commonly in the opportunity
around Home Depot or other stuff that you got involved with early on.
Beyond the people. Like I know you were optimizing for
Amazing people. Was it just that?
That's ninety five percent.
You weren't doing
Store fragmentation calculation for
Mm.
You get into a bad idea with a great guy.
The great guys gotta tell you it's a bad idea, but made a mistake.
Immobile art.
I don't know, I haven't got a crystal ball.
But that's
The key.
Jesse Haddock was a golf coach too.
At week four.
One time I asked Jesse, what do you look for on a high school kid?
You the one thing I never do is I don't mess with their sway.
If what they had doing.
And there was also there
Why
gives them my attached I give my attached to because I got a very bracket.
I'll leave them alone.
I don't know. Jesse.
He said, I look for the kid that gets a line on a part three.
And actually all goes back and worries.
Yeah, look for resilient.
And that's about it.
I look for a management guy.
Bernie Wampers.
Five at forty nine years old, no money.
A mortgage.
No health insurance.
Alright, let's go. Let's do it. Let's start it.
Same thing.
By fire, same thing, just took bank.
You want people can bounce.
More people do go back.
They gotta fight.
Yeah. Hey.
Okay, that didn't work, but I'm going to give it a shot again.
All people at it.
You realize you have a walk capital approximately.
Four hundred billion dollars.
Why do you dolls?
That's a lot of money.
Hm.
Not bad.
What bad deal most stands out in your memory? We don't have six months, sadly, but we got a few minutes.
What bad deal is most memorable?
I did a deal.
That I got by virtue of there was an article in Fortune Magazine, yeah pro deal.
I
Title of the Article, The Fastest, Richest Texan Ever.
Back to role.
And in that article.
He was
Incredibly generous.
in describing me.
The guy called me up.
Mm.
A bar, New York, outside of Watchester.
They were building it.
module homes.
And it factory.
I went to see it.
Yeah, blew my mind.
I got so caught up in the moment.
Or they would do work.
I failed.
Myself.
Just take a step back and talk about the pee.
I didn't.
And to go out a hot hand.
There's nothing I could do.
uh people were gonna jump on.
Those guys ended up all going to jail.
Fortunately.
I didn't know anything about it.
They left me to deal for
Likely seven it was bad year.
They left me and they went to Maryland Lynch.
It's all about reputation.
Always is and always.
Nothing matters to me more.
No it was a map but you cheap my word.
Curious how the hospital thing resolved.
It was a mess when you showed up.
And you oversaw it for a long time.
And it's one of the best ever.
We got a culture that won't stop.
We're not all selling this.
We got three and a half billion dollars cash in the bank.
The greatest thing of all
We took over a run down, broken down hospital in Brooklyn called Luther Hospital.
The zip code has the highest percentage
of welfare patients in the United States.
It's the poorest
Zip coal in the country.
We don't make a nickel on that hospital.
But that Austin Lana Song was now right number one.
We have three house.
Well Allen Brookman
And
Manhattan.
We've put all those three in separately.
All three of them separately got A.
Number one.
How gonna we do with we're kicking ass and taking names like you can't believe. Is it all culture?
Hundred percent!
Oh, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Culture.
And making sure you bring the very best with you.
as you embrace that culture.
We're number one in brain surgery.
Well number one in urology.
The top ten and burst you every special you can name.
Urology.
Dermatology, you name it.
Where they are.
How do we do it?
We celebrate these people.
We pay them well.
Okay, we pay them well.
But with delivery of product
Second and not.
A guy shot me the other day in a restaurant.
I own a peaceful restaurant down here in Bulgaria.
Gallagher is it's unbelievable.
That there's a good example.
The kid that runs Gallig is in sixty seven, I call the kid. He bought that restaurant that was doing six million a year in two thousand and twelve.
Last year we did third million of business.
One restaurant.
Call and run.
This year he's gonna do thirty three, thirty four million dollars in business.
It's all about.
People.
No.
All I can say to you is
Actually all the time.
Under promise and over to deliver.
But it's always about the people.
And if you get those people to go, you gotta take good care, you gotta be fair with them.
It's critical.
I'm a restaurant the other way comes to me before they go.
You must have yes or.
Your husband saved my wife's life.
That's a pretty strong statement. No, I'm not telling you.
It's got tears coming down his.
I should get use paper like that.
Somebody.
How do we do it?
Who the hell are you and grab a guard?
They think I'm a white job. I walk in and I say
I was security guys big security guy. You happy?
Yeah, I'm happy. You like it, I love it.
Well if you ever got a problem, I hope you know who I am.
And I prefer that you call me Ken, by the way.
Mystery is a barrier.
That blocks you from
Authenticity with each other.
Call me whatever you want, just don't call me like for an order. Okay? That would just be over.
The last question I ask everybody.
Is what is the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you?
Oh God.
I've got so many current things done for me.
I can't count.
I'll give you a free instance.
You want that.
I worked in a butcher shop as a kid.
Among my many jobs.
I had two or three jobs we talked.
Fight that work in the bush shop.
And the guy that ran a bush shop didn't know I worked for the supermarket down the street.
A down parking.
Actually, the shelves up the store closed nine o'clock at night.

Anyway.
Next to that.
Which a shop was a liquor store.
And
The UN family room.
Maybe we had five Jewish families in Ross.
When you want.
Good man.
Kind of me.
Suddenly.
Hey Kitty, she wanna make a couple of bucks. I should she shoot out.
Couple of bucks I checked for a couple.
What do you mean I do I want you?
I got cardboard boxes that like comes in. I put'em up.
Yeah, a little porch.
Back up a stool.
This is a garbage shop, we will come and take it.
You gotta take them down.
Hundred and fifty yards where there's a spot where they pick them up.
Well you gotta do it the boxes.
Yeah, yeah, right.
I'll give you a
Dollar a week.
Do two nights a week, fifty cents.
Good.
You got it, man.
But three weeks after I'm doing one day I'm carrying the boxes.
The guy on a garbage truck.
It's the uh put in the boxes by not you breaking the boxes up.
What are you doing with the boxes?
Oh, he should uh worth a lot of money. Yeah, he should
I break'em up or I tie'em up or I take'em to the junk yard.
And they buy scrap paper.
Yeah, probably get.
Three bucks a day.
Who can
Yeah.
So you're back all right.
Got a tío.
I said
If you let me break the boxes up.
Stack about a power on eco box is broke.
You got a lot of space.
I'm gonna tie them up with twine.
And
I'm not paying out.
Why not? It's'cause I'll be able to sell it.
Okay.
Two to four. Make it three, four, five dollars a week.
Show all the bikes?
How do you answer that?
I'm walking like a store.
He said, Hey.
Yeah.
So here you're going to college.
I said yeah.
Spun it.
Takes me in yeah, a counter.
Yeah, a little
Opening to the back.
The back.
The shot back.
Here's a counter here's a shovel.
Back of that shelf.
Yeah, a little desk.
Wait, that is book you.
Takes out a double.
He said he could child. He said.
Who might need that.
You put a dollar a week.
To me envelope.
For all those weeks I was
Show my someone's
You talk about kindness?
Pang on. There have been so many people who have been so kind to me, I can't count.
People are good.
Talk about kindness.
If you gave me a month, I couldn't have enough time to list all the people.
That have been good to me. Kind of me.
That's one of the reasons I believe in God.
I really do.
That's me.
Your story
Your book
All your ideas, they're wonderful.
Remember this?
Most important thing back book covered.
An American story. It only happened in America.
This is the genius of America.
But a poor kid rough around the edges like me.
Could do okay.
That whole promise.
Not to the matter board.
Now with a sober spoon in my mouth, just a chance to live him in this great country.
What's already
I've so enjoyed our time together. Thanks for doing this with me.
Cheers.
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