Founders - #240 Mozart: A Life

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

What I learned from reading Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----[1:52] Churchill by Paul Johnson (Founders #225)[2:15] A life of constant hard work, lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration.[3:05] Mozart worked relentlessly.[3:56] He started earlier than anyone else and was still composing on his deathbed.[5:34] He soon came to the conclusion that he had fathered a genius— and being a highly religious man, that he was responsible for a gift of God to music.[7:05] I think the idea here is if you truly believe that what you're doing is good for the world— and you approach it with the same kind of religious zeal— you have a massive advantage over a competitor that doesn't have the same missionary mindset.[8:09] My Turn: A Life of Total Football by Johan Cruyff (Founders #218)[8:42] Leading By Design: The Ikea Story (Founders #104)[9:09] He loved humor, and laughter was never far away in Mozart's life, together with beauty—and the unrelenting industry needed to produce it.[13:36] Decoded by Jay Z (Founders #238)[15:36] Russ ON: Delusional Self-Confidence & How To Start Manifesting Your Dream Life and Steve Stoute & Russ Explain Why Every Creator Should Consider Themselves A Business[19:46] You don't tell Babe Ruth how to hold a bat.[20:43] I will take your demand and I'll use it as a constraint to increase my creativity.[21:27] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King (Founders #37)[22:37] You need to tell potential customers what work and effort goes into the product that you produce because they will have a deeper appreciation for what you do.[24:52] Inside Steve’s Brain (Founders #204)[25:06] He's made and remade Apple in his own image. Apple is Steve Jobs with 10,000 lives.[25:30] Mozart wanted to talk to A players.[26:32] The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen (Founders #50)[26:57] You should only work in industries where— for the important companies of that industry —the founders are still in charge at those companies.[31:13] As a child and teenager Mozart was the most hardworking and productive composer in musical history.[34:17] Find something that is being done on a basic level and then realize its potential by re-imagining it.[36:13] It was all hard, intense application of huge knowledge and experience, sometimes illuminated by flashes of pure genius.[36:40] Imagine being so good at what you do that the ruler of your country has to pass a law to get people to stop clapping.[40:15] It is no use asking what if Mozart had had an ordinary, normal father. Mozart without his father is inconceivable, and there is no point in considering it. Just as Mozart himself was a unique phenomenon, so Leopold was a unique father, and the two created each other.[41:00] There's a sense in which Mozart's entire life is a gigantic improvisation.[41:21] From the age of twenty Mozart never went a month without producing something immortal-something not merely good, but which the musical repertoire would be really impoverished without.[43:03] Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain, and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. —Steve Jobs[43:39] Mozart's beauty prevents one from grasping his power.[43:39] Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man (Founders #150) and Sam Walton: Made In America (Founders #234)[45:31] Never despair!----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast ----Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Mozart often discussed with his father the way some of his pieces appealed to the many, some to the really knowledgeable, and a few to both. Some would make you sweat, as he put it, and others were childishly easy. He did not judge, either by difficulty or popularity. Mozart was enormously broad-minded, tolerant, and omnivorous. The one thing he demanded, though he never said so directly, was good taste. It is an extraordinary fact that Mozart, despite his enormous output and the speed at which so much of it was composed, is never guilty of a serious lapse of taste. He is the

only great composer of whom this may be truthfully said. Mozart continually delights. He often moves us. He makes us think. He excites. He intrigues and mystifies. He brings sadness as often as comfort. He produces melancholy and introspection. He gives us endless moments of joy and laughter.

But he never once disgusts. The world got him cheap in his day. He knew it. He had many misfortunes and many disappointments in a life of constant hard work, lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration, but his warm spirit always bubbled. He loved his God, his family, his friends, and above all, his work, which he equated with God's service. And that was all a reasonable man, or an unreasonable one for that matter, could wish for. God bless him. That is an excerpt that comes at the end of the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Mozart, A Life, and is written by Paul Johnson. This is the third book by Paul Johnson that I've read for the podcast. If you haven't listened to it yet, I'd highly recommend going back to listening to episode number 225, which is on Winston Churchill.

Paul writes these really short, no-fluff, crisp biographies. He's done a bunch. I think he's written, I don't know, like 10 or 20 of them. I'm going to go back and read a ton of them, like the ones on Socrates, Napoleon, Eisenhower, really any on his list that look interesting. I want to go back to this line, though, because I think that's a great description, having reached the end of the book, of like a great synopsis of Mozart. And he said, a life of constant hard work lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration. A life of constant hard work lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration. That is a great summary of what I learned about Mozart

from reading this book. And so let's go to the beginning of the book. Before I picked up the book, I obviously knew the name, didn't know a lot about Mozart the person. And I'm going to give you a brief overview here because like I said, Paul writes really to the point it says mozart died on december 5th 1791 a few weeks short of his 36th birthday so a very short but intense life mozart was the last of seven children only two of the seven survived infancy mozart was healthy and active some would say hyperactive he traveled endlessly was a fanatic and vigorous dancer and worked relentlessly often late into the night. And then these next few sentences are just absolutely incredible. It's one of the things I most admire about him now that having read this biography of him.

His output was enormous, much greater than nine-tenths of other composers. He was a mature artist in most forms at the age of 12. We will see. I'll go into more detail, but he was a child prodigy. And this is just crazy. There was never a month, often scarcely a week, when he did not produce a substantial score. And I want to continue this overview. I'll go into more detail. But this overview, I think, is helpful at the very beginning. He very rarely made any kind of mistake. And when he did,

he noticed it. Though Mozart composed his works with exceptional rapidity, they were careful, deliberate, and polished. The truth is, and this is another crazy thing about his life, the truth is he started earlier than anyone else and he was still composing on his deathbed. Those 30 years were crammed with creation creation that he started so early was largely due to his father. And so what popped into my mind as I read about his father and understood like his complete obsession with Mozart's career, even when Mozart, you know, was three years old, four years old, six years old, it reminded me, I watched this documentary on HBO Max one time, it was about, it's a Tiger Woods documentary. And I found a lot of parallels between the father-son relationship between

Mozart and his father and Tiger Woods and his father. I think Tiger Woods started golfing around the same time Mozart started composing, which is just absolutely insane. And so this is about, this is a background for Mozart's father, who's the main character. So Mozart's the main character of the book. The second most important character, without a doubt, is his father. So this description I'm reading you is about Mozart's father. He was industrious, able, and ambitious. He loved music and became one of the most learned musicians of his day. He specialized in the violin, and he published the Year mozart's birth a handbook of instruction and a theoretical work that made

him well known in musical circles throughout europe he seems to have decided that his own musical future was limited and his efforts centered on his children now he did this the father did this both for mozart and his sister but his main focus was Mozart. Mozart was the younger child. He says, when the boy was four, his father decided to concentrate on bringing him out and virtually gave up composing and performing music himself. This is insane. This next sentence, he soon came to the conclusion that he had fathered a genius and being a highly religious man, that he was responsible for a gift of God to music.

This is an extremely important point. It's something we've seen before too. If you go back and like study the life of John D. Rockefeller, like he thought like he had a God-given ability to accumulate and make money. And that was what he was put on the earth to do. So I'm going to make the most money, be the richest person in the world, and then use that money for good works. And this is another example of a theme that you and I see over and over again, that the mind is a powerful place, which you feed it can affect it in a powerful way. So from the outside, we might see him say, Rockefeller, that's ridiculous. But he operated as he believed it. And that is the important point. That belief to him became real. And so if you study Mozart's father, there's no doubt that he believed that

he had fathered a genius and it was God, like God was telling him to dedicate his life to the development of his son's musical skills because it was a gift from God to the world. And so the author goes into that right now. It is important to grasp the strong religious element radiating from his father that existed in Mozart's life from his infancy. The father felt that the musical education of his son was a profound spiritual business as well as a professional one and he was confined, excuse me, he was confirmed in this belief by the child's response which was enthusiastic as though he too were guided by a divine impulse. And I think the idea here is like if you truly believe that what you're doing is good for the world

and you approach it with the same kind of religious zeal, you have a massive advantage over a competitor that doesn't have the same missionary mindset. Back to the father. He's often seen as a tyrant towards his children, but the fact is he surrendered his own future as a musician for their sake and their progress justified his sacrifice. Back to the father. his nature. He played and composed as he breathed, and the fluidity and speed and accuracy with which he wrote music and orchestrated it became a phenomenon, and they're the reason why he was able to produce so much without any sacrifice to quality. And so this idea that you start so early,

you do it for so long, it becomes almost like second nature, like your work is a part of you. We see this in Mozart, just referenced that Tiger Woods clearly had that from a young age instilled from his father. Example from the book, a book I read a few months ago was the biography of Johan Cruyff. I don't know how to pronounce his last name. It's number 218. He's one of the world's most famous soccer players. In that book, you know, he's taken his father from a very young age, takes him him to the soccer field i think he works like a groundskeeper at the soccer stadium if i remember correctly and he's sitting in kindergarten just kicking the ball you know from five six years old

so of course he's doing that for from time he's five by time he's an adult and he can play for the team of course he's going to be one of the best people to ever do it there's entrepreneurial examples as well think about the founder of ikea i think, what, back on Founders 104 or something like that? Ingvar Kamprad starts IKEA at 17 years old and works on it till the day he dies in his 80s. That kind of intense dedication and just the sheer amount of decade after decade after decade of practicing your craft, it becomes second nature to you. There is literally no separation between Mozart and his work. And something I liked about Mozart was his intense work ethic, but is also realizing, hey, life should be fun.

So he said, Mozart liked jokes of all kinds and made them constantly. He loved humor and laughter, was never far away in Mozart's life. Together with beauty and the unrelenting industry needed to produce it. That is just fantastic writing. Together with beauty and the unrelenting industry needed to produce it. And the crazy thing that Paul explains to the reader is the fact that Mozart was just born at the wrong time. Like if he was born today, he'd be like the most streamed artist in the world.

If he had access to our technology and the world we live in, at the time that he lived, musicians were seen essentially as like household help. So this is a little bit about that. Musicians were exactly in the same position as other servants. Cooks, chambermaids, musicians existed for the comfort and well-being of their masters and mistresses. The idea that you took on a composer or performer simply because he was outstanding, when you already had a full complement of household musicians, was absurd. The trade was overcrowded, and there was almost no money in it.

He's going to learn to make money later on. I think most of the money he makes comes after the age of 25. But when he's a kid, the family's traveling all over Europe and he's giving concerts. He's doing all these other things, but he's badly mistreated for the amount of talent that he has, even at a young age. And then we get a description that he was most likely, his father was right. He was most likely born just a universal genius in general. So you have a combination of intense work ethic, you have a father who's almost like a tyrant and starts having you work from the age of three years old, and then you also have these natural gifts that you're born with. We see a description of that here. He seems to have had a strong propensity to learn subjects with complex and difficult rules. It is likely he learned how to read musical notes before he learned how to read, like read actual words.

He learned both so quickly. He learned math easily too. His father taught him Latin without difficulty. English he taught himself. And then this is just another example that human beings are bizarre creatures and you read history and you just do not understand. You fail to understand how they could possibly do these things. So a lot of the music that he composed and other people were composing at the time, they were performed by male sopranos who had been castrated as children. And the reason that these people, this was done against their will, right? Because as adults, the male Sopranos that are castrated are able to produce high, clear notes that no other male or female is able to do. So Mozart's not the one obviously castrating these people. He doesn't have any control. He has no power. He's operating under

almost like a feudal system. And I just want to tell you this because it just kind of blew my mind i just i just could not believe this this happened and it says the castration was performed without anesthesia on boys between six and eight mozart knew all they call him the castrati no mozart knew all the great castrati of his day remember they're doing this they're forcing this on children for their entertainment later like how sick is this mozart knew all the great castrati of his day about 4 000 of them were created in the 18th century so moving on he learned something that his father mozart's father taught him that was really important was the ability to write detailed letters he we have a constant stream most of the book is just made up of letters between the family, Mozart's own writing. He documented a large part of his life.

That's the record we're able to work from now, and that's what preserved all these lessons. So it said, Mozart's father was a prolific letter writer and taught his wife and children to write detailed letters too. They kept their letters carefully. Once Mozart's own letters begin to appear, we have a personal record unique among the great composers. Now, the description of why they're unique, the first part, then I left myself, part one, makes perfect sense. Part two is bizarre. And I have to bring up the bizarre part because it's mentioned over and over again in the book

and in the letters. It is odd and disgusting at the same time. So it says the letters have two characteristics. First, Mozart played with words in exactly the same way as he improvised on the clavier, treating words as though they were notes. So I had to look up what that was. A clavier is a keyboard instrument, usually with strings. And so the author gives us some examples how he plays with words. It really sounds a lot like if he was making music, he'd probably rap. It's very similar to how like he'd have wordplay and rhyme different words. Very similar to a few podcasts ago with

when I when I broke down Jay-Z's autobiography. Then we get to the odd and gross part. And he says second in the letters, there is much scatological nonsense. I didn't know what that meant. So I looked it up. It says it's relating to or characterized by an interest in extramen. Mozart was obsessed with shit. I have no way to describe this. There's nothing like, and I almost omitted it, but it comes up so many times in the book because it's in his letters. And it's not just Mozart. Like his whole family is writing letters. And I think they're most likely jokes,

but they were just obsessed with shit jokes. His mom is writing shit jokes in letters. And that's the word they use. So I think the author was very intentional in using that word scatological. Like they have an interest in extrament for some weird reason. They go into the fact that he, that Mozart had to provide for the family, very, like he had to bring money to the family very, very young. So he says the letters also deal at length with his father's always precarious financial affairs. Young Mozart was able to contribute to family

funds by performing at ticket only concerts and by selling his works to publishers so if you study the music industry something mozart did made the same mistake that i think a lot of independent artists that musicians are really realizing they're not artists and musicians first they're entrepreneurs first and so when you sell back in his day he would sell his work to the publisher right so it's like you get a small amount so the publisher buys it but then as they go resell it or uh there's no there's no royalties it's here's your advance that's the last dollar you're ever going to see good luck and again to reference jay-z because he was one of the people that realized this back in 1996 he's

like no no i have videos saved on my phone of him when he's he's 26 at the time in the early in the mid 90s and he's like no no we we the music. I came into this business as an entrepreneur. I'm not signed to a record label. I am my own record label. And I've mentioned this guy on the podcast a few times. I think entrepreneurs should study. He's an independent artist. His name's Russ.

He was the first person in history to write, produce, perform, and mix and master an album that got a billion streams. So literally the credits on his album is just his name. That's it. No one else worked on anything at all. And it got a billion streams. And he's given a bunch of great interviews breaking down how he thinks about music as a business.

And the crazy thing is he's turned down, I think, at least two offers from other... He owns his own music. He signed independently to his own record label. Like he owns everything himself. I think at least two major record labels have offered him over $100 million to sell his back catalog to them. And he said no. And the reason I think that knowing these things is important, because think about that.

Like essentially like a one-person business had the opportunity to make over $100 million. And it is my fundamental belief that we're just at the very very beginning of the age of infinite leverage and we're going to see more and more things like this in a bunch of different domains anyways going back to Mozart this is very interesting kind of relates to what I was just saying Mozart was then 16 and no longer an infant prodigy but for all practical practical purposes, an adult performer and composer, and a very experienced one. So that last sentence jumped out, the last few words of that sentence jumped out to me. I was like, wait a minute, to be very inexperienced at 16. I'm reading my note that I left myself when I got to this page. To be very experienced, excuse me, at 16, this is going

to be more common in today's age. So the person that popped to my mind is one of my, if I, anytime I want to buy a new device, I watch these YouTube videos made by this video producer named MKBHD. And the reason this popped to my mind, because it's very similar to Mozart, by the time MKBHD, his name is Marquez, I think. I'll refer to him as his YouTube name, MKBHD, had almost a decade of experience. By the time he graduated college, he started making videos at 13 on the same channel that he owns to this day, which is now a multi, multi-million dollar media empire this guy's building. And so by the time he was 21, instead of going to look for a job or doing an internship or all the stuff that would have happened or recommended to like people like my age when i graduated college he immediately jumped out of college into a

multi-million dollar media empire he was extremely experienced think about how crazy it is right because usually the opposite is like you have an education but no experience so that's why you have to go do things for low pay this this guy is extremely experienced like i don't need to go get a job i created my own job my own business. And since then, he's now a few years has passed since he graduated, and his empire is insane. He's got multiple channels. He's got podcasts. He's got merchandise. He's building physical goods.

But this idea that you can now, in today's age, be very experienced, very experienced at a very young age, that is extremely rare. And Mozart's a great example of that. So the author's going to give us the historical background in which Mozart had to operate in and this is what I mean like he's kind of at the will he's just born at the wrong time unfortunately like he would he'd be unbelievably wealthy and free today and so he's now under like the tutelage or essentially this guy kind of owns him in one sense. So his name is Archbishop. I'm going to call him Archbishop Colorado because I don't know how to pronounce his last name. And it looks like Colorado, but it's definitely not Colorado.

Archbishop Colorado, who took over the diocese and petty state of Salzburg early in 1772. This is where Mozart's living. He's eventually going to escape to Vienna. And then he's going to he's to, essentially like travels his whole life. But he says, so Archbishop Colorado is now in charge of this petty state of Salzburg. He was a difficult man who played an important and destructive role in Mozart's life. He was the, he was a typical authority figure. And this is what Paul Johnson is going to describe the age of this history in Europe at the time. He says this is the age of the enlightened despot.

What does that mean? Archbishop Colorado was all for reform, provided it was imposed from above. And so there's several examples in the book where you have these essentially dictators dictating to other people, no, this is how you have to play music. Like they have rules for everything.

It's like a complete top-down centralized authority. And the note I left myself on this is like, you don't tell Babe Ruth how to hold a bat. Like, what is this guy doing? This is to be sure rather on the long side. Mozart did not know then of his predilection for brevity, but the hostility with which his grace received it was uncalled for. So he's playing for his grace, quote unquote. And he's like, this is too long. Mozart, who could turn anything into an advantage rather like the the economy of means so i need to do a better job describing what just happened there mozart's performing him performing for him remember child prodigy musical genius one of the best ever do it right and this guy's like nope too long and that's why i said like you don't

tell babe ruth to hold hold a bat but what mozart did he's just like all right well you know this is all he knows at this point he doesn't know it possible. Like you don't have like this is the environment he was built in or born in rather. Right. And so he's like, OK, that's fine. Like you have a set of constraints. I love constraints. And so I love that this is like a version of like relentless resourcefulness that we've seen the greatest entrepreneurs. Right. Mozart turned anything into advantage. So he's like, OK, I like the economy of means. I will take your demand and I'll use it as a constraint to increase my creativity. And so this guy doesn't even know what he has like in court. He doesn't realize that he's like the, he's got this gifted prodigy, more description on this guy. He was domineering and surrounded himself with subordinates

who copied him. He tended to treat musicians as lackeys and any disagreement or argument as criminal insubordination. There's many examples where if you're hired at court, you're essentially playing for extremely rich people, but they treat you just like they would like a regular servant. And any kind of disagreement you might have, they'll literally just throw you in jail. Back to Mozart's approach to his work. This reminds me of Samson Murray. He said, if you know your business from A to Z, there's no problem you can't solve. It's one of my favorite quotes in any book I've ever read. If you remember Sam Zimuri's story, it's the book called The Fish That Ate the Whale. He starts selling, peddling, about to expire bananas, builds this entire

vertically integrated banana empire, and then overtakes the largest fruit company in the world. It's one of the craziest stories ever. But I that that what sam did where he just starts at the very bottom and then studies his entire industry and business and knows everything therefore you can solve any problem that pops up it's exactly mozart's approach to to music it says mozart achieved full maturity as a musician establishing a complete mastery not only of the forms of composition but of all the principal instruments. So think about like the ingredients that he's using, right? He could play them all.

He knew how the instruments worked from the inside and why they would fail to work well. And what Mozart liked, he liked to work with other people that were as dedicated to him. So he would find out how music instrument makers approach their craft. And if he found that, hey, this guy thinks like me, he's approaching the creation of musical instruments the same way I approach my compositions. And this is something that pops up if you study like the great advertisers in history, they always say like, you need to tell potential customers what work and effort goes into the product that you produce because they will have a deeper appreciation for what you do. And so he finds this guy named Stein that is completely obsessed with making the best pianos in the world.

So he says he likes Stein's best, Stein's pianos best, because he was shown exactly how Stein had worked on them. So Stein used that idea. And it says Stein later made pianos for Beethoven, but he always found Mozart the most, and this is perfect that it like kind of fits together here, because you have Mozart's appreciation for Stein's dedication and obsession. And then in return, Stein realizes, hey, I make pianos for a lot of different people and instruments for a lot of different composers. Nobody knows as much as this guy knows. So stein later made pianos for beethoven but he always found mozart the most knowing of his patrons mozart was interested this is a quote from stein mozart was interested in everything

to do with the instrument another interesting idea from mozart for you he thought of music as a tool for thought he said he liked to think profound thoughts while playing the violin, and he would encourage his listeners to do the same. And then we go back to the fact that just Mozart threw a sheer amount of insane work hours at his craft, at his profession, and the ability to put in all that practice is going to lead to talents that others lack and in his case he actually develops physical attributes that his competitors lack because he's practiced more than they did here's an example of that the viola demanded greater left hand pressure to produce a certain sound that he needed to produce okay this was no problem no problem for Mozart because of the effect of constant practice and

playing on his hand muscles. Two sentences here that spawned two separate thoughts. It says, Mozart had a highly personal approach to music. Nothing pleased him more than an intimate talk with a player about his instrument, what it could do or not do, and what it could be made to do by a masterful player. So first sentence, Mozart had a highly personal approach to music. That reminded me of this line I read in this book called Inside Steve Jobs' Brain. And it said, this is absolutely fantastic, and I think it's really important for all founders to do, like to inject your unique personality and your own business philosophy should be unique to you, right? And you should be imbibed into your company. And the line says, he made me talking about Steve Jobs, he made and

remade Apple in his own image. Apple is Steve Jobs with 10,000 lives. And then let's go back to that second sentence, nothing pleased him more than an intimate talk with a player about his instrument, what it could do or not do, and what it could be made to do. So unique knowledge, right, from a masterful player. What is that? What's really happening in that sentence? Mozart wanted to talk to A players, not C players, not B players, not B players who hire C players. I want to talk to A players because they know what their instrument can be made to do by a masterful player. More on the historical background when he lived, and I think this can apply to if you're not sure what to work on. There's some advice here.

We have to remember one important fact about Mozart. He lived at the beginning of the first explosion of world population, which meant, among countless other things, a cumulatively vast and rapid increase in the amount of music performed, the number of musicians, the amount of money spent on music, the spread of music printing, and the proliferation of instrument makers and their competitive ingenuity. the music industry in his age. What came to mind, because I was just rereading it too, is I've mentioned a couple of times that I really think, especially because it's free online, there's really no excuse not to do this, that everybody should read Mark Andreessen's blog archive.

It's like 200 pages. His venture capital firm gives it away for free. If you just Google Mark Andreessen's blog archive, you can just go to Founders Number 50, and I'm pretty sure I link it there. But Mark gives a lot of advice about like, why do a startup? Why not to do a startup?

How to think about your career and all. It's just gem after gem after gem from a genius, right? But he said something that was really interesting where he's like, I only recommend that you – I'm paraphrasing. This is not a direct quote. But he says, like, you should only work in industries where the important companies of that industry, the founders are still in charge at the companies. So let's say you're a super smart and dedicated hardworking person and living in America in 1900s. It's very, very clear what industry.

You go to Michigan and you work in the automotive industry. And if you've heard a bunch of my episodes, you already know this because I did what, like a 13 part, 12 or 13 part series on all the mad geniuses, these founders, these fanatical founders that built the automotive industry, which is, you know, one of the largest industries in the world today. But what you wouldn't do is go work at one of those companies now. I mean, I guess you have Tesla, which is the first successful American car, new car company that I think since Chrysler. So it was almost, I think Chrysler was in the 1930s.

I can't remember the exact date. I don't have it in front of me. But Mark's advice is just like, well, it's a way to not only pick the industries to work in, but also to pick the industries to avoid. And he does that through like a very simple proxy. Like who are the most important companies in the industry that you're targeting?

And are the founders still in charge of those companies? If not, try to find an area where they are, where the founders are still in charge. I think it was Napoleon. I can't remember who said the quote. I'm pretty sure it was Napoleon who said the attention to detail is a religion of success. Mozart gives a demonstration of that. Mozart made a point of inspecting the drums of any orchestra for which he was composing to make sure its drums were in top form.

If necessary, being so quick, he could rescore before performance. He also took into account the weather. On a damp night in a hall with poor heating, upper notes might be impossible. On the other hand, very dry weather might turn them sharp. Musicians themselves knew this, but very few composers did, and it was precisely Mozart's attention to such details that endeared him to his players. Attention to detail is a religion of success. This is a fantastic description of Mozart the person. Mozart never had any difficulty in making friends. He had charm. He was touchy and quick-tempered,

like Gunpowder, one friend who knew him well said. But he was also lovable. I shall never forget his little animated countenance when he lighted up with the glowing rays of genius. And what a great sentence here to describe a person. And he says, it is impossible to describe it as it would be to paint sunbeams. So we're in his 20s. This is how, this is the five ways, I think. Yeah, the five ways that Mozart made money. Mozart's income came from five main sources. The first was pupils. Mozart claimed he did not like teaching music. On the other hand, many of his pupils became friends.

Opera commissions was a second source. Mozart loved the opera because he enjoyed the stage. And it is true that nothing did more to boost a composer's fame and therefore general money-earning capability than a hit opera, but he made surprisingly little money out of his theatrical works. You could think about it, it's almost like he's getting paid in exposure more so than money for these really successful opera compositions that he makes. The third one is he would give public concerts. The fourth one is private concerts, which would usually be in noble houses.

I was just listening to this podcast called The All In Podcast. And they're holding this giant conference, I guess, summit, they call it. And I don't know if they made up the numbers, but they were talking about, like, hiring. I forgot. They said Drake, and I can't remember the other artists. But apparently they know that, you know, you can do private concerts just like in Mozart's Day. And I think Drake makes, like, $2 million if you want him to come to, like, a wedding or, like, you know, like a conference or whatever. And I think they only do $2 million. If you want him to come to like a wedding or like a conference or whatever, I think they only do – it's something short. It's like a 30-minute set or something like that for $2 million.

So there's a – obviously Mozart didn't make that much. He did have a lot more money than people – than other biographers have had written about. But we see Mozart doing the same thing. A fourth form of income was private concerts, and this would happen in rich people's houses, essentially. Then fifth, there was the sales of piano concertos, sonatos, and symphonies to a music publisher. And then we just get to just what a sentence here. I double underline this. As a child and teenager, Mozart was the most hardworking and productive composer in musical history. The chapter I'm in is called A Married Composing Machine. And so the way to think about Mozart really is he worked all the time and he

was a composing machine. Mozart led a hectic professional life and involved frequent travel. I have noted one month when he gave 22 concerts in a four-week period. That is a very heavy schedule for any musician and deadly for an artist who also requires time and solitude for his compositions. His heavy commitments meant that he composed often into the night, including through the night. So he's pulling essentially working all day at the concert, then pulling all-nighters to make compositions by himself. So another character that pops up in the book and he becomes a good friend of Mozart is Joseph Hayden. Joseph Hayden is considered like the father of the symphony, and he's about 25 years older than Mozart,

and he clearly recognizes Mozart's genius because he's having this conversation with Mozart's father, and this is what he says. Hayden said to me before God. And as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me, either in person or by name, he has taste. And what is more, he has the most profound knowledge of composition. So there's a lot of letters between Mozart and Hayden. Hayden becomes like a mentor to him. Clearly says, okay, this guy is like Neo and the matrix, like Morpheus and Neo and the matrix, like matrix like their relationship is like this guy is the one and it was interesting that he's not describing of course he's great at composing music but he's saying he has the greatest knowledge of comp the most profound knowledge of composition and so this is important because not only are they learning

from each other but they're pushing each other so i'll talk about this later in the book towards the end of the book there's a there's a highlight a paragraph where they're saying from each other, but they're pushing each other. So I'll talk about this later in the book, towards the end of the book, there's a there's a highlight, a paragraph where they're saying, hey, these guys were going back and forth with each other, not dueling first, but like the competition was definitely pushing both of them, where they had like created masterpieces, pieces that have that people are listening to hundreds of years later, every two weeks, for like a decade, I don't remember the exact timeframe, I'm going to read it to you when we get there. But just this, I think this is the reason I bring this up because I think it's extremely important for founders, like founding, running your own company. Not a lot of people you can really talk to. And what I noticed is like founders know other founders. And part of this

is like, not only because we all, we think similarly, but because like they can, they just understand what you're saying. Like you can, one entrepreneur can talk to another entrepreneur and if they don't know each other, it's like, yeah, I get exact, I know exactly what you're saying like you can one entrepreneur can talk to another entrepreneur and if they don't know each other it's like yeah i get exact i know exactly what you're going through and clearly like that that having the that having that relationship with hayden benefited mozart not only his personal life or should be not only his professional life but also in his personal life too and then i really like this idea because now mozart is starting to spend more more time uh creating for the opera, which is like the highest level. It's like it's like if you're building products, think about it's like you're building products that are targeted to the super rich is the way to think about it.

This in their day. Yet, if you really think like the idea behind what I'm about to read to you is you find something that's being done on a basic level. And then you realize its potential by reimagining it. And so it says, Another main point from the the life and career of Mozart that we can use it's like if you decade after decade of practice is going to make anything look easy it says the word effortless is constantly applied to Mozart's work there was nothing effortless about Figaro I So Paul, I guess I should tell you this, like there's a bunch of the books that I'm skipping over. Paul has like this upset, like he clearly loves classical music. He clearly loves Mozart's music. He's like a, the analogy I would

use is like Mozart is as big a fan for, or excuse me, Paul Johnson, the author, is as big a fan to Mozart as I like like, you could hear when I did the podcast on Jay-Z. And so Paul really goes deep into what he loves about Mozart. But anyways, I just want to pull out, for our purposes, the fact that the importance of just decade after decade of practice. If you want to make something look easy, the word effortless is constantly applied to Mozart's work. There was nothing effortless about Figaro. It was hard, intense, excuse me, it was all hard was hard intense excuse me it was all hard intense application of huge knowledge and experience sometimes illuminated by flashes of pure genius

that's just another great the reason i like reading paul johnson's work and this book was a little harder for me to read because there's so much detail about classical music and i don't know i didn't know anything about it so i had to like there's terminology he uses in the book that he hasn't used in any other book that i've read that I had to like go. I almost have to like translate it. So that made it a little more difficult. But the reason I like Paul's writing is because of this. Like he just got these great short sentences. It was all hard, intense application of huge knowledge and experience, sometimes illuminated by flashes of pure genius.

And people knew how good Figaro was at the time he created it, right? And think about this. Figaro's success led the emperor to ban excessive applause, which prolonged the evening past his bedtime. So you have the dictator that literally can pass laws. And no doubt of myself, that jumped out at me when I got to that sentence. And I go, imagine being so good at what you do that the ruler of your country has to pass a law to get people to stop clapping. And so I have a great deal of respect with the complete dedication that Mozart had to his craft, but he also did something that's smart. He enjoyed life. There's a lot of people that are completely obsessed with their craft. And then to me, the point behind life is to, like to enjoy this journey that we're on.

And part of that, I think for certain personalities, obviously you have to be good at your craft. You have to be good at what you do to get the enjoyment out of life. But also you can't make yourself miserable over it. And Mozart didn't. The last three letters of Mozart's that had survived show him at the top of his form and prove three things beyond a doubt. He loved his wife.

He enjoyed his life. And he regarded himself as a very lucky fellow. And then we get to the death of Mozart's father, and we see Mozart's reflections on death in this letter that he writes to his father that survived. So it says, The death of Leopold Mozart on May 28, 1787, age 68, opened the last phase of his son's life. It was both a relief and a shock. From the age of three, when the young boy had first begun to pick out tunes on the clavier, to well past his 29th birthday, over a quarter of a century, father and son had enjoyed the closest

relationship in musical history. The fact that they exchanged long, detailed, and factual letters for most of this time, dealing mainly with Mozart's professional career and creative life, is of immense value and fascination. And so he talks about the last letter. He says by the time that Mozart sent this last letter, he already knew that his father was stricken with what would prove his fatal illness. This letter is somber, and so this is where we get Mozart's reflections on death, which might be a little surprising.

And Mozart says, is the true goal of our existence. I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but it is indeed very soothing and consoling. That is a very unusual perception of death, right? He calls it the best and truest fan of mankind. It doesn't no longer terrifies me. It's soothing and consoling. I never lie down at night with that. This might be a smart thing to do. Actually, I never lied down at night without reflecting that young as I am, I may not

live to see another day. Yet no one of all my acquaintances could say that in my company, So he's essentially saying, like, I'm not guaranteed tomorrow. I'm thankful and I'm grateful that I wake up to every day and I try to treat every day as a gift. That's actually a really positive. Like, at the beginning of the letter, you know, it was kind of a bizarre morose kind of negative mind perspective but then it ends on something like his lesson from that it's actually a really positive takeaway so up until his father's death like his father is a very main character like a major part major character in this book and the note i left myself on this bottom page is paul johnson is good at providing oh shit moments where he just kind of wraps everything up

for you and like kind of really wants to make sure that almost like you're paying attention to do you understand how profound this this father-son relationship was and so he does it in just a paragraph he says it's no use asking what if mozart had an ordinary normal father mozart without his father is inconceivable and there's no point in considering it. Just as Mozart himself was a unique phenomenon, so Leopold was a unique father, and the two created each other. And so then we go back to Mozart's relationship with Haydn, and the way Mozart approached his music and his life's work. I say he has a lot in common with history's greatest entrepreneurs. They optimized for flexibility. There is like a sense of, this is a complex,

a complex adaptive system. A lot of the things we're doing are unpredictable. And so we have to be able to improvise. He says, there is a set, and then we're going to get to what I think it might be the craziest sentence in the entire book. There is a sense in which Mozart's entire life is a gigantic improvisation the rate of production was almost incredible it had been calculated from 1781 up until Mozart's death in 1791 Hayden and Mozart between them created a masterwork every fortnight and this is what I mean about this might be the craziest sentence in the entire book from the age of 20 Mozart never went a month without producing something immortal something not merely good but which the musical repertoire would be really impoverished without did he realize this did he

ever stop working laughing loving and playing long enough to think about the nature of his achievement And so some of the people that also composed music, they thought, you know, the more musicians, the more instruments, the better. But Mozart thought like Napoleon, it's more important what you can do with what you have, not just the sheer numbers. So he says Mozart, like anyone else, relished having ample forces at his disposal. But as Napoleon says, what matters is not the total size of your army, but having the right troops at the right time in exactly the right point. It is the right notes that matter and the exact combination and perfect timing together that create overwhelming power. Let me go back to this idea of what Mozart had in common with a lot of history, entrepreneurs, and the note of myself improvising is just a more fun way to work. All music was living to Mozart. It was never written in stone.

There were passages that delighted him and were not to be altered, unless, of course, something even better flashed into his mind. But he was extraordinarily ready to rewrite. One thing he loved all of his life was to improvise. And then we go back to more of Paul's passion for Mozart. He's fired up on this page. Really, this paragraph, the reason I'm going to read it to you is because this just reminds me of like the million different things that a founder has to keep in their brain at once.

I think about that great quote from Steve Jobs where he said, designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And so let's go to Mozart. Mozart had a fine musical intellect, which is always working away in his music, setting itself problems and solving them. His brain would be attacking the network of tonalities and their ever-changing relationships.

Over the different levels of a dozen instruments, his brain was as quick and efficient. But one is not aware of this intellectual activity. One is busy enjoying the sensuousness of the sound. That is what is meant by the axiom, Mozart's beauty prevents one from grasping his power. A lesson from reading two books on Sam Walton. He loved to keep people guessing. He said, always keep them guessing. Keep your competitors guessing. Keep your customers guessing. Mozart did the same. When he was in danger in lulling the listeners into complacency, he administered a short, sharp shock of some kind. a theme that also pops up over and over again

these biographies is that you should learn the rules first so then you can break them later mozart did that as well what he learned in writing symphonies was that the rules of composition must exist they must be clear and must in a sense be routinely followed but that a self-confident, experienced, and gifted composer must ignore them without hesitation. And then we get to the end of his very short but very intense life. In July, Mozart was commissioned by a mysterious stranger to write a requiem and was paid a generous advance. The man turned out to be a wealthy nobleman. By the time he was finished, he was exhausted. He would have recovered, as he had often done before, but he caught an infection, diagnosed as camp fever, which seems to have aggravated the kidney weakness that had plagued him for many years. This combination proved fatal,

and Mozart died on December 5th, 1791, eight weeks short of his 36th birthday. He seemed to know he was dying, but his mood was composed, tranquil, resigned to accept his fate, and grateful for all that life had brought him. Even on his deathbed, indeed above all on his deathbed, Mozart knew it would all come out right in the end. It is hard to imagine two works more different than Figaro and the Requiem, yet they both breathe this message, the theme, in some ways, of his life. Never despair. you'll be supporting the podcast at the same time. If you want to give a gift subscription to a friend or a coworker, there's a link in the show notes and also available at founderspodcast.com. That is 240 books down, 1,000 to go, and I'll talk to you again soon.