Audible founder Don Katz recalls his 2001 conversation with Steve Jobs regarding Apple's marketing budget for the new iPod.
Insight
Katz: High entrepreneurship often correlates with patterns of fatherlessness
“I, I've heard, and you probably have heard this too, that, ah, there's a lot of patterns of fatherlessness in highly entrepreneurial people.”
Insight
Katz: Single patents are worthless without an entire patent portfolio
“Now I know, of course, you know, without a portfolio patents are worthless, but, you know, at that point I didn't.”
Opinion
Katz: In the 1990s, Microsoft targeted any startup building a platform
“If anyone said they were building a platform, Microsoft would make it their business to destroy your company.”
Insight
Katz: The book publishing industry inherently resists technological change
“Book publishing is a, is, is people who love books, meaning that they're willing to get paid less, or they have the wherewithal to not get paid a lot, and you know, and they go into a world, and usually, they stand for the status quo and they usually resist, y…”
Insight
Katz: Entrepreneurial success is roughly 51% grit and 49% luck
“I think it's something on the order of 50.5 to 51% purposeful good calls and brave moments, and times when you just didn't give up, the rest of it is definitely luck, because otherwise, how could I have made so many stupid, boneheaded decisions along the way t…”
Insight
Katz: Building Sears Tower shattered company's friendly image and sparked decline
“They made this genius conception of every customer thought Sears was the friendly guy down the street, the member of the Kiwanis Club, and that Sears was this localized reality. And once they built that tower and said that they're one of the most powerful comp…”