The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 158: On the Pursuit of Satisfaction

Episode Date: May 12, 2020

The kid had a head for numbers.

This is the way I heard it. Mike had a big mouth, no doubt about it, a big, smart mouth that landed him in trouble more than once. On the positive side, he also had good grades, a government scholarship, and a letter of recommendation from his former headmaster, which the provost of the London School of Economics now considered. Although he has been rather slow to mature, the letter read, Mike is a lad of good general character. The pleasing quality, which is now emerging, is that of persistence when he makes up his mind to tackle something. The provost considered the words of the headmaster and spoke candidly to Mike. Graduates of the London School of Economics include the most brilliant minds in finance.

Their success, however, is not the result of their intellect, but rather their persistence. Your headmaster seems to believe that you possess that very quality, do you? Or shall you drop out when the going gets tough, as so many here so often do? Mike could have assured the provost that he understood the importance of work ethic. He could have reiterated his gratitude for a government scholarship and promised to make good on Great Britain's investment in his future. But he didn't. Instead, Mike opened his big, smart mouth and said precisely what he believed. I'm not a quitter, sir, but nor am I here to purchase one of your diplomas.

I am here to learn precisely what I need to know, and then apply that knowledge to the long-term growth of a going concern. The provost frowned. I do not know that I am satisfied with your response, young man, a diploma. from the London School of Economics is a mark of prestige and accomplishment. A diploma is the reason you're here. I mean no offense, said Mike, but if I am to satisfy anyone, including you, I must first satisfy myself.

And while a degree earned from this fine school might be satisfying to possess, would you not agree that the actual knowledge gained in its pursuit is of far greater value? The lad had a lot of brass, no doubt about it, maybe too much. But the provost couldn't help but admire his candor. I suppose we shall see. Welcome to the London School of Economics. May your quest for satisfaction end happily. And just like that, a working-class kid with a big mouth got into the most prestigious economic school in England.

In his first semester, Mike took courses in finance, accounting, management, and economics. By the second semester, he moved out of his parents' home and took a flat near the university with two roommates who shared his entrepreneurial spirit, a skinny kid with long hair and big ears who looked like a pirate and a moody teenager named Brian. During this pivotal time, Mike studied law, behavioral finance, derivatives, capital, markets and investment management. He also took some courses on how to market a brand, filling his head with all the knowledge he suspected a successful entrepreneur might one day require. Then one evening, Brian pitched him an idea, an idea for a product that he believed would make them all rich. It'll be like anything else on the market, said Brian. The kid with

long hair and big ears who looked like a pirate agreed. With a proper launch, he said, We could disrupt the entire industry, but you're the economist. What do you think, Mike? Mike considered the cost of manufacturing such a unique product, along with some initial projections, rollout strategies, and profit margins. Then he opened his big, smart mouth. And when he closed it, it was clear to everyone in the room that Brian's idea was sound. And that was that. After just three semesters at the London School of Economics, Mike dropped out, armed with what he believed was enough practical knowledge to run a new corporation.

A corporation that would, under his careful guidance, go on to generate billions of dollars and turn a profit every year for the next six decades. A stunning display of longevity that no one imagined possible. No one, perhaps, but the headmaster, who once recognized in young Michael the emerging quality of persistence, and the provost, who understood that Mike's quest for satisfaction would very likely trump his quest for a diploma. Indeed, it was this pursuit of satisfaction that allowed everyone in Mike's corporation to grow rich with him. everyone, but Brian. Like so many young entrepreneurs with great ideas, Brian lacked the stamina to go the distance.

So, like the hard-nosed executive he was destined to become, Mike replaced him shortly after the corporation became profitable. And a few weeks later, poor Brian turned up dead in his own swimming pool, a most unsatisfying end for the founder of the corporation, that Mike continues to run to this day. As for the skinny kid with the long hair and the big ears who look like a pirate, well, he's still skinny, and like Mike, still working his butt off. Today, his long hair covers his enormous ears

and is often held in place with a bandana, reinforcing the look of a latter-day swashbuckler. And Mike, well, his pursuit of satisfaction has left him with a personal net worth of nearly four years, million dollars. Not bad for the college dropout, who opened his big mouth over five decades ago and shared a few words that went all the way to number one. Words made famous by a dead guitar player named Brian Jones, and a would-be pirate named Keith Richards, and the CEO who has said more times than he can count, and I'm quoting, I can't get no. Satisfaction.

Such is the endless refrain of the serial entrepreneur who's been singing the same tune since 1965, the legendary businessman who'd be pleased to meet you and hopes you'll guess his name, the stage name of the erstwhile economist who still keeps a close eye on the bottom line of a little corporation called the Rolling Stones, a CEO named Mick Jagger. Anyway, that's why I heard it. How cool would it have been to replace that little guitar sting at the end of each podcast with the opening riff from satisfaction? How cool would it have been right there to have heard Keith Richards playing?

Yeah, it would have been cool. It also would have got me sued. This is the way I talked about the way I heard it, the only spontaneous analysis of the only podcast for the curious mind with a short attention span, wherein I attempt to explain. the circumstances that led to the writing of the story you just heard. This one was actually pretty simple. It concerns a bromide, a platitude that I am particularly opposed to. A quick sidebar, many of you, after last week's episode, went to my Facebook page

to discuss the theme of last week's episode, which was risk and safety and the dangers and the unintended consequences of a safety first mentality taken too far. Thank you for participating in that conversation, but at its heart was the bromide safety first, the platitude, the trope, if you will. Those things are almost always dangerous because they become conventional wisdom. And conventional wisdom becomes the thing that passes for safe advice. and so when we start telling people, large groups of people, to all do a particular thing, then we often get into trouble.

That's why I said in the introduction when I was talking about policy genius, I can't recommend them because I don't know if you need life insurance. I don't know you. And I am stingy with advice. So I don't tell people to vote unless I know who they are and have an understanding of whether or not they're a serious person or an informed voter. I don't tell people to buy a gun simply because they have the right to do so. I like to know the people I'm advising if people are going to ask me for advice.

So the story you just heard I wrote because the MicroWorks Foundation is particularly concerned with a bromide, a platitude, a bit of conventional wisdom that has, in my own personal view, led to very serious and unintended consequences. I'm referring to this pernicious belief that the best path for the most people is a four-year degree. Now, I have a four-year degree. I don't have anything against a liberal arts education

or what we call higher education. I really don't. What I object to is debt and a cookie-cutter approach to education. So I don't like to tell people that a college degree is good for them. them because I don't know them. I don't know if they're cut out for college. I don't know if they can afford the debt. And if they can't, I'm very uncomfortable encouraging them to assume it.

So I wrote this story because when I learned that Mick Jagger was an aspiring economist with a great head for numbers, I was fascinated by that because he dropped out of a school that was very difficult to get into in order to pursue not his dream or not really even his happiness, but his satisfaction, which I think you'll agree is a terribly clever way to lay out a story. I hope you do anyway. It was fun to write. And look, I write these things because they're fun. But I also find myself more and more drawn to stories that have themes that in some way elevate or confirm my own underlying belief of this or that. And in this particular case,

I welcome the opportunity to use Mick Jagger as an example of somebody who should not have gone to a four-year school. He went right up until it served his purposes, and then he dropped out, and then he went on to succeed. Now, am I suggesting you drop out of college if you're in it? No, of course not. Most people aren't Mick Jagger.

but I do like stories like this because on a personal level, they resonate with my foundation's mission and my personal belief that the best path for the most people is not necessarily the most expensive path. So just like that, in less than five minutes, I've bent this spontaneous analysis of the only podcast for The Curious Mind with a short attention span into a shameless plug from my own nonprofit foundation, where I would be happy to take your tax deductible donation over at microworks.org. Or I'd be happy to invite you to apply for a work ethic scholarship. Now, we just finished up our current round, but we'll be at it again before long in our own attempts to help provide you with a new level of, dare I say, vocational satisfaction.

Anyhow, that's how that story came to be. A little bit of rock and roll, a little bit of philanthropy, a little bit of me trying to be terribly clever. Hope you liked it. I'll be back again next week with another one. COVID permitting, we are as always in a fluid situation, and I'm doing my best to write on some kind of a schedule. If I can keep to it, I'll be back with another way I heard before you know it.

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