Gurley recounts how Danny Meyer's uncle gave permission to pursue restaurants instead of law school.
“And this led to a conversation where his uncle Richard told him, you know, Danny, all you ever do is think about restaurants.”
Gurley recommends keeping fanboy journals studying people defining your field to accelerate learning.
“Like, there's there's never been a better time in the history of the world to learn on your own time.”
“Yeah. I mean, if I have one goal of this book, it's to be Uncle Richard for as many people as possible.”
Gurley recommends profiling field-defining figures to study what makes them great using available resources.
“Like if you're gonna go be a writer, you know, have a profile of Michael Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell and Krakauer and like study what makes them great.”
Gurley recommends creating profiles studying great practitioners in your field, saying there's never been better time to learn.
“Like, there's there's never been a better time in the history of the world to learn on your own time. Right. There's so much stuff out there.”
Gurley recommends studying profiles of field leaders noting unprecedented learning resources available including podcasts YouTube and AI.
“Like, there's there's never been a better time in the history of the world to learn on your own time. Right. There's so much stuff out there. Yep. Podcasts, interviews on YouTube, AI.”
Gurley says Silicon Valley's willingness to grant fifteen-minute meetings is shockingly higher than Wall Street.
“In Silicon Valley, the frequency with which you can ask someone for fifteen minutes of their time and get a yes is shockingly high.”
Gurley says Seinfeld initially didn't know stand up comedy could be a real professional career.
“Jerry Seinfeld was was wandering around New York thinking about what his career would be, and he had an inkling that he wanted to be a stand up comedian, but he didn't know that it was a real thing. He didn't know that you could actually go be successful and have a career.”
Gurley observes Silicon Valley has unusually high willingness to give advice to strangers, similar to Nashville songwriters.
“In Silicon Valley, if you walk up to somebody that you don't know and ask them for advice, the probability that they say yes and spend time is higher than you would ever expect.”
Gurley says Danny Meyer studied the 10 most impressive restaurateurs by keeping journals on each of them.
“And anyone can do that in any field. Not many people do that in any field.”
Gurley describes Danny Meyer creating a list of ten impressive people in his field and keeping journals studying them.
“Danny created a list right when he decided to go do it of the 10 most impressive people in the restaurant industry at that moment in time, from his perspective, and started keeping a journal on each one of them and studying them from afar.”
Gurley advises seeking mentors two steps above you rather than shooting too high like CEOs.
“the person that's two steps above you on the ladder has never been asked to be a mentor, and that's probably your best place to start, and they'll be flattered that you ask.”