- The speaker did extensive research on Jimmy Buffett's life and career, including reading his autobiography and watching a documentary.
- Buffett emphasized the importance of sleep in his success and the quality of his work.
- The speaker recommends the 8 Sleep mattress for improving sleep quality.
- The speaker is hosting a live show in New York City and recommends purchasing tickets.
- The speaker also mentions a product called Vesto, which helps businesses invest idle cash.
- The speaker provides a brief overview of Buffett's life and career, highlighting his adventurous spirit and successful career.

- Jimmy Buffett's grandfather gave him advice to start his own path in life
- Jimmy rebelled against his father's wishes for a conventional existence and pursued a life of adventure as a musician
- He faced struggles and rejection in Nashville, but eventually found his sound in Key West
- Buffett learned important lessons about the music industry and the importance of owning publishing rights
- Despite initial failures, Buffett's perseverance and belief in himself led to his success as a performer and entrepreneur.

- Jimmy Buffett believed in himself and his music, which led him to start his own record label when others wouldn't sign him.
- Buffett moved to Key West, an unconventional and wild place, where he played at local bars and built a loyal following.
- Key West provided Buffett with a unique canvas for his music and allowed him to stand out in a way he wouldn't have in a big city.
- Buffett had a fierce work ethic and dedicated himself to practicing and performing live.
- Despite radio stations and record executives not wanting to take a risk on him, Buffett's concerts were attracting increasing numbers of fans.
- Buffett's unique and uncategorizable sound ultimately allowed him to build a valuable business.
- Nashville was not the right fit for Buffett, as they were not eager to fix a cash machine that wasn't broken.
- Buffett had to find his own way in and do it himself, similar to James Dyson's approach with his vacuum invention.

- The piece discusses the career and success of Jimmy Buffett, highlighting his relentless self-belief and dedication to his work.
- Buffett released an album called "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean" that was unique and true to his own style, not trying to fit into any specific genre.
- He performed in various venues, often engaging with the audience through talking and storytelling, which became a key aspect of his performances.
- Buffett learned the importance of controlling his own distribution after being cheated by the mafia-controlled jukebox industry.
- He focused on selling live music rather than relying on album sales or radio airplay, which proved to be a more sustainable business model.
- Buffett's work ethic and continuous improvement in his music helped him build a loyal and growing audience.
- Similar to the band Phish, Buffett's success was not based on traditional measures like album sales or radio hits, but on his ability to sell live music and connect with his audience.
- Buffett was prolific in his music production and performed extensively, maintaining control over his artistic decisions.
- Despite being accused of narcissism, Buffett defended his approach of staying true to himself and his music.

- The video discusses Jimmy Buffett's relentless self-belief and work ethic in pursuing his dream of becoming a successful musician.
- Buffett faced numerous rejections and criticism from record executives and others in the industry, but he refused to give up.
- He believed in himself and used the negative feedback as fuel to prove his worth.
- Buffett's approach to his career was similar to Kanye West's, combining hard work with unwavering self-belief.
- Buffett focused on the 90 minutes he spent on stage performing, considering it the most important aspect of his career.
- He watched his costs and remained financially efficient, allowing him to turn a profit and build a successful business.
- Buffett's song "Margaritaville" became a hit and marked the beginning of his billion-dollar empire.
- He became friends with influential people in the industry, such as the Eagles, which helped him gain exposure to larger audiences.
- Buffett eventually hired Irving Assoff as his manager, who was highly regarded in the industry.
- Buffett's hero, Mark Twain, influenced his approach to life and career.

- The video discusses the career and success of Jimmy Buffett, drawing parallels to Mark Twain.
- Buffett received advice from Ambassador Burlingame to seek companionship with people of superior intellect and character, which he applied throughout his life.
- Buffett constantly refined his associations and surrounded himself with like-minded individuals.
- Buffett admitted to being addicted to applause, which drove him to continue performing and touring for decades.
- Buffett's career was not driven by hit songs or mass appeal, but by his ability to understand and cater to his fans.
- He unintentionally discovered a lucrative market for a Caribbean-themed lifestyle brand.
- Buffett's success was not dependent on changing musical trends, as his audience was loyal to him as a person.
- Buffett transitioned from being solely an artist to becoming an entrepreneur, using his live music business as a foundation.
- Buffett's fans played a role in pulling new products and ideas out of him, such as Hawaiian shirts and merchandise.
- Buffett expanded his empire by licensing his name and creating businesses like Margaritaville.
- Buffett's success was built on understanding his customers and catering to their needs.
- Buffett started a newsletter called the Coconut Telegraph to maintain direct contact with his fans and control his own distribution.
- All of Buffett's ventures and projects were interconnected and fed into each other's success.

- Jimmy Buffett's career has thrived despite not having a hit in 10 years
- His success is due to his ability to build a brand and loyal fanbase
- Buffett has expanded his business beyond music, including restaurants, hotels, resorts, and cruises
- He focuses on his audience and does not compromise his artistic vision
- Buffett's success is a result of hard work, attention to detail, and staying in the game long enough to seize new opportunities

- The text discusses the life and career of Jimmy Buffett, highlighting his relentless self-belief and dedication to his work.
- Buffett emphasized the importance of sleep in his success and the quality of his work.
- The speaker recommends the 8 Sleep mattress for improving sleep quality.
- The speaker is hosting a live show in New York City and recommends purchasing tickets.
- The speaker also mentions a product called Vesto, which helps businesses invest idle cash.
- Buffett's career was not driven by hit songs or mass appeal, but by his ability to understand and cater to his fans.
- Buffett transitioned from being solely an artist to becoming an entrepreneur, using his live music business as a foundation.
- Buffett's success is a result of hard work, attention to detail, and staying in the game long enough to seize new opportunities.
- Buffett has expanded his business beyond music, including restaurants, hotels, resorts, and cruises.

- Warren Buffett reflects on the importance of seizing opportunities in one's career
- He believes that those who choose not to take opportunities often become bitter
- Buffett took risks and faced challenges in his career, but it was just the beginning for him
- The speaker recommends buying the book for the full story
- Buying the book supports the podcast
- There have been 323 books so far, with 1,000 more to go

Warren Buffett emphasizes the significance of seizing career opportunities and warns against becoming bitter by not taking them. He shares his own experiences of taking risks and facing challenges in his career. The speaker suggests buying the book for the complete story, which supports the podcast. It is mentioned that there have been 323 books so far, with 1,000 more to come.

What I learned from reading Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way by Ryan White and A Pirate Looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett.

I think you're going to like this episode.

I read over 700 pages, read a bunch of articles on all his different business holdings.

And then I also watched his documentary where he was interviewed for about an hour over 20 years ago.

And he said something in that documentary that I thought was fascinating.

He also mentions it in 1 of the biographies as well.

And he talked about the more serious he got in his career, the older he got, the more serious he took in the practice of his craft and the service that he was providing to his customers, the more important his sleep became.

And Jimmy had a great line where he's like, I wake up now at the time I used to go to bed.

And Jimmy's not alone in that realization that, hey, the quality of your sleep is tied to the quality of decisions you make and the quality of the product and the service that you're putting out.

And so therefore, you should try to do everything you can to optimize and make sure that you're getting the best rest possible.

And the only thing that I have found that has actually improved my sleep has been an 8 sleep.

I have never had the ability before to change the temperature of my bed before I had an 8 sleep.

I had no idea how that 1 thing would actually improve the quality of my sleep.

I like to keep my 8 Sleep ice cold, and I make sure that it's cold before I get into bed so I can fall asleep faster, and I wake up less during the night.

I truly believe that feature alone is worth 10 times the price.

8 Sleep is so good that now every time I travel, you know the product's good is because you notice its absence.

It's to the point now when I know if I have to travel, I'm like, Oh my goodness, I'm not going to have my 8 sleep.

I've heard from a bunch of people, listen to founders that bought their 8 sleep and love it.

But it's also spreading in my own household.

My daughter was feeling down and she wanted to sleep in bed with her mom.

And so I gave her my side of obviously the bed and I was like, Hey, do you want me to keep the 8 sleep on or do you want me to turn it off?

So the next morning I asked her, I was like, what'd you think?

I believe there's very few no-brainer investments in life, and I do believe 8 Sleep is 1 of them.

If you wanna try an 8 Sleep and get your own, you can get $150 off by going to eightsleep.com forward slash founders.

Again, to get $150 off and get the best sleep of your life.

Go to eightsleep.com forward slash founders.

And speaking of travel and noticing a product's absence, I'm actually traveling to New York city in less than 2 weeks.

There's only 2 weeks left before I'm doing this live show in New York city.

I'm doing with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast.

There is less than a hundred tickets left available.

I'm excited to do my first ever live show.

I will be missing my 8 sleep mattress because obviously we sleep in a hotel in New York city.

However, if you have not gotten your tickets yet, I will leave a link down below and you can also go to founderspodcast.com to get tickets and you can go directly to the venues website, which is Webster Hall in New York city.

This is going to be a 1 time only show, so make sure you don't miss it before you go.

Patrick just invited me to be interviewed on his excellent podcast.

I will leave a link down below, but if not, you can just search in your podcast player, whatever you're listening to this on, and search for Invest Like the Best.

Look for episode 343, David Senra, in the service of founders.

I really enjoyed that conversation and really any conversation I get to have with Patrick.

It's 90 minutes, I think there's a lot of useful information.

1 other thing before we jump into this incredible world and life.

The Jimmy Buffet story's got me super inspired.

I spent an unbelievable amount of time just living in this guy's mind in his world.

What he was able to build over such a long period of time, I found very, very inspiring.

But I do want to tell you about 1 other product that several of my founder friends are also using, and that is Vesto.

So that's V as in Victor, E as in egg, S as in Senra, T as in Tom, O as in Oprah.

And Vesto's mission is to make it easy for you to invest your business's idle cash.

What Vesto does is help businesses of all size invest their cash in U.S.

When you do that, when your business owns treasury, that cash is backed by the U.S.

Government and it earns interest while it sits there.

I have 1 founder friend who raised a bunch of venture capital money, And so he uses Vesto as a way to extend his runway.

And I have another founder friend who bootstrapped his company and he uses Vesto to get a better rate of return than if that cash was just sitting in his bank account.

If this sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend that you go to Vesto.com.

Remember Vesto with AVV as in Victor, E-S-T-O.com, and check out what they have to offer.

I know the founder, Ben, I actually just saw him again.

I've spent a bunch of time with him, but I actually just saw him again.

If you schedule a demo, so if you go to Vesto.com and you schedule a demo, you actually speak directly to the founder of Ben.

I think if you speak to him, you'll be impressed as well.

Make sure when you speak to him that you tell him that David from Founders sent you.

And with that, let's get into the life of Jimmy Buffett and the world that He created.

I made it through adolescence without killing myself in a car.

I lived on the beach, lived in the French Quarter, finally got laid, and didn't go to Vietnam.

I got back into school, Started a band, got a job on Bourbon Street.

Graduated from college, broke up my band, and went out on the road solo.

I signed a record deal, got married, moved to Nashville, had my guitar stolen, bought a Mercedes, worked at Billboard Magazine, put out my first album, and went broke.

Wrecked the Mercedes, got divorced, and moved to Key West.

Broke my leg 3 times in 1 year, had a baby girl, made more records, bought a bigger boat, and sailed away to St.

I got Separated from the girl, sold the boat, sold the house in Aspen, moved back to Key West, worked the road and made more records.

I rented an apartment in Paris, went to Brazil for Carnival, learned to fly, went into therapy, quit doing dope, bought my first seaplane, flew all over the Caribbean, almost got a second divorce, moved to Malibu for more therapy, and got back with the right girl.

I worked the road, moved back to Nashville, took off in an F-14 from an aircraft carrier, bought a summer home on Long Island, and had another baby girl.

I found the perfect seaplane and moved back to Florida.

I built a home on Long Island, crashed the perfect seaplane in Nantucket, lived through it thanks to Navy training, tried to slow down a little, woke up 1 morning and I was looking at 50, trying to figure out what comes next.

That was an excerpt from Jimmy Buffett's autobiography, A Pirate Looks at 50.

That is not the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, although I did read it to prepare for this podcast.

99 percent of the stuff I'm going to talk to you about today actually comes from a biography of Jimmy Buffett called Jimmy Buffett, A Good Life All The Way, and that book was written by Ryan White.

And the subtitle, A Good Life All The Way, is actually a quote from Jimmy Buffett when he was older, describing his life up until that point.

And so Jimmy passed away a few weeks ago, and I think now is the perfect time to do an episode on his amazing life and career.

There's a great line later on the book when they were talking about the fact, you know, Jimmy wasn't a mainstream artist, didn't have a ton of like top, you know, top 10 or top 100 hits.

And somebody said, if you looked at his career compared to other people that had similar like a similar record, he should be going on and performing at 3 p.m.

And yet that is not at all the outcome that he had.

He made personally 30 to 70 million dollars a year.

He was respected by his peers, loved by his family, and had millions of fans.

So the biography I'm holding in my hand tells the story of how that happened.

Before I get into this book, I want to read 1 more passage from his autobiography, which I absolutely loved.

And he was asked, what are you going to do with your life?

I've been called a lot of things in these 50 years on earth.

But The thing I believe I am the most is lucky.

I have always looked at life as a voyage, mostly wonderful, sometimes frightening.

In my family and friends I have discovered treasure more valuable than gold.

I have seen and done things that I read about as a kid.

I have dodged many storms and bounced across the bottom on occasion, but so far lady luck and the stars by which I steer have kept me off the rocks.

I have paid attention when I had to, and I've made more right decisions than wrong ones, to end up at this moment, with a thousand ports of call behind me, and I hope a thousand more to see.

My voyage was never a well-conceived plan, nor will it ever be.

I have made it up as I went along." So I wanna start with his father.

He's gonna have a rather tumultuous relationship with his dad.

They actually are estranged for quite a while.

And I think Jimmy wasn't in wasn't until Jimmy was in his 30s that he actually reconciled with his father.

And I think you could trace Jimmy's desire to live an interesting life and to have treat life like an adventure to his grandfather, because that's exactly what his grandfather did.

Jimmy Buffett wasn't the first Buffett to set out for adventure.

That would have been his grandfather, the former sea captain.

His grandfather ran oil and ammunition to Europe during World War I.

He had hustled oil to Japan for the Standard Oil Company, and he had been a seal hunter in the Indian Ocean.

His grandfather spent a lot of his life exploring the world by sea.

Jimmy would do some of that later in life as well.

And it said life would loosen up when his grandfather was gone and tidy up when he returned.

To his grandkids, he was the key to the universe.

Everybody around Jimmy lived a conventional existence besides his grandfather, and his grandfather changes the course of his life, not only by his example, but in 1 of these conversations.

So it says, on 1 day, the captain pulled out a nautical chart and led his grandson to the pier.

Jimmy's a little kid when this is happening.

Look again, the captain said, pointing to the chart.

They were at the beginning of everything.

From where they stood, from that point, the only thing standing between Jimmy and the world would be a lack of imagination or an overabundance of caution.

At the bottom of the map, Captain Buffett had written 2 words, start here.

All he had to do was leap and the world would be his.

And this is such an important point to think about because the captain is giving the advice to his grandson, the advice that he took himself in his life.

He was expected to be a coal miner when he was younger.

Instead, he jumped out of a window, ran away, and chased after a life on the sea.

And so much later in life, Jimmy had reconciled with his father.

And they go back to Nova Scotia shortly before he dies, and they just want to see where their whole family started.

And I think what Jimmy's father says here about his own father, Jimmy's grandfather, is very important to think about how the decisions that you and I make today can resonate through the generations.

And so Jimmy's asking his dad, what'd you think of this day?

We went and saw where the captain had grown up, where all his family is from.

And his dad said, well, I'm just glad that he jumped out that window or We would have all been goddamn coal miners.

And so when I read that, I thought of the powerful effect that the decisions of Captain Buffett had on not only his son, but his grandson.

But I also thought it was interesting because now Jimmy's dad is a much older man.

The source of conflict in their relationship, in that father-son relationship, was the fact that Jimmy's dad lived a conventional existence.

He wanted his son to do the same, and Jimmy rebelled.

So he runs away and decides, hey, I want to be a musician.

I will play on street corners for tips, which he does for a long time.

Jimmy is in his early to mid 20s and what is fascinating is when you read a lot of these biographies, you realize that there is some sort of innate talent that is usually revealed early.

So nobody knows who Jimmy Buffett is now, doesn't have a record deal, is playing in you know bars and pizza joints and on the street.

But he's starting to, at this time the center of the music universe, especially for the music that he thought he was going to play, was in Nashville.

So he's going to these meetings and people would notice the same thing.

They said, the first thing I noticed when Jimmy walked in the room was that persona, the Jimmy persona.

He wasn't yet the Caribbean cowboy, but he had a glow.

Remember that point for later, because it's really important to understanding the success that Jimmy has later in life.

Really what I think of him as a, is a performer and an entrepreneur.

And I think that'll be obvious by the time we get to the end of this story.

But I think it's important to stop and really think about the risk he was taking.

He said like, Once he discovered his guitar, there's no way that he was going to have a conventional existence.

He actually talks about that multiple times.

It's like I had to go in an opposite direction.

There's a lot of Mark Twain and Jimmy Buffett.

This was top of mind because I just did an episode of Mark Twain.

That was episode 312 if you haven't listened to it.

But the other person that a young Jimmy Buffett reminded me of is actually surprisingly, Arnold Schwarzenegger has this great line in his biography.

The 1, the biography that he wrote when he was in his 70s called total recall and in that book He says there was nothing normal about me My drive was not normal my vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal the whole idea of a conventional Existence was like kryptonite to me that line especially the whole idea of a conventional existence was like kryptonite to me, applies to Jimmy Buffett as well.

And so to try to make it as a musician, Buffett starts to give himself a different kind of education.

He's willing to perform anywhere that will take him.

He studied the way musicians work the crowds.

He would set up on street corners and work for tips.

And so this is a great description of what's happening.

Buffett was smart enough to see a street corner and a bourbon street bar as but another departure point with as much potential as the old Crab Pier.

And so it's by taking every single job that's offered to him that he actually gets his first permanent gig.

He gets a permanent gig at a bar in the corner of a hotel.

This is very important because you can think about the life and career of Jimmy Buffett just like you could think of the life and career of his good friend Warren Buffett.

Their lives are illustrations in the power of compounding and so this is the first time in his career that he's able to stay in 1 spot and start developing a dedicated audience.

Start small, every day gets a little bigger and a little bigger and a little bigger.

Remember there is 50 years ahead of Buffett.

Most of his success and most of his money is going to be made 30, 35 years from now.

Just like if you ever look at the net worth of Warren Buffett by age, something like 99% of it or something like that comes after the age of 50.

And so while he's working on his permanent gig, he's also going back and forth to Nashville to try to get a record deal, try to make as much music as possible, try to become known.

Nashville is the center of what he believes at this time is the center of the music world.

It's where he has to be if he's going to succeed.

He's going to accidentally realize that's not the case because he doesn't succeed at all in Nashville and he flees to Key West and that's where he finds his sound.

He really defines his own genre and becomes in turn completely differentiated from anything else that was around.

He has to get a real job at Billboard magazine because he can't pay his bills.

The side effect of this job though is not just a paycheck.

It helps him build a lot of relationships inside the music industry and it helps them school them to the game at the exact same time.

Billboard magazine said they needed a writer.

Like every day, there's a new artist that's being broken in Nashville.

He will also write music reviews of albums and shows and things like that.

But the most important thing this job did was that it opened a number of doors.

He winds up meeting people, music executives, he winds up people working at the studios, he winds up meeting people that work at publishing houses, he winds up developing friendships with people that work at Billboard that actually teach him the music business.

Bill Williams was the editor of Billboard's Nashville headquarters, and this is what he taught Buffett.

He knew the town and the business that turned its gears.

A hit song was nice, but owning the publishing on a hit song was even better.

So they would hang out, they would drink at the end of the day, and Bill is just sitting there schooling a young Jimmy Buffett to the game.

And so this is the first time in the book that this is mentioned, but it's mentioned over and over again, is the fact that artists are a disposable commodity.

There's always another kid coming to town who can sing.

You've got to handle the business end of the music business.

You cannot think of yourself as just an artist, as just a musician.

Talks about, You know, yeah, you have a hit song, but the guy that owned the publishing is making all the money.

And Buffett is gonna take these lessons and put them to use, maybe better than almost any other musician in history.

Like there's been what, hundreds, maybe tens of thousands of musicians.

How many of them built businesses bigger than their music?

And when I'm reading this part, this part reminded me, I did an episode on Jay-Z's autobiography, which is absolutely excellent.

It's episode 238, if you haven't listened to it.

But there's a time where, Jay Z's in his early 20s, this is reminding me of the lesson that Jimmy Buffett's getting in his early 20s.

Jay Z's in his early 20s when he reads this book called The Hitman, and The Hitman is essentially a history of the music industry about how artists get taken advantage of by executives and the people that actually control and own all the valuable assets.

And so Jay-Z in his 20s is just like Jimmy Buffett in his 20s was like, okay, I'm going to learn this and I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen to me.

And the interesting thing is if you fast forward 30 or 40 years into both of their careers, they both apply these lessons to the point where they both built multiple billion dollar fortunes where their stories depart is Jay-Z's first album was a success.

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