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Lucio Buffalmano is a sociologist and a world expert on power dynamics, strategies, and men's self-development.
In 2016, Lucio founded ThePowerMoves.com to help good men empower themselves, achieve their goals, and win at life.
Today, it’s the world's most popular website on power and strategies.
https://thepowermoves.com/
Lucio Buffalmano is a sociologist and a world expert on power dynamics, strategies, and men's self-development.
In 2016, Lucio founded ThePowerMoves.com to help good men empower themselves, achieve their goals, and win at life.
Today, it’s the world's most popular website on power and strategies.
https://thepowermoves.com/
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LearningTranscript
00:00Built from Scratch, an interesting book on business and growing a business.
00:04I heard it the first time on the Founder Podcast by David Sandra.
00:08It was a good review. I love the book.
00:11We have a very different attitude in reviewing books.
00:13He focuses more on the positives. I focus more on the criticism
00:18and on what we can read between the lines, manipulation, relationships,
00:23Machiavellianism, social dynamics, etc., etc.
00:26And we had very different conclusions from it.
00:28So let's start this review. Home Depot values.
00:32I think it's very interesting. The company obviously was very successful.
00:36So maybe there is much to learn.
00:37However, I don't fully trust these values also
00:42because we will review now the red flags that I've seen about the authors.
00:47It sounds like a great company. If you read the values, I will totally agree.
00:50I would love to have a company of that size with these values.
00:54I love it. If it's true,
00:55this is the type of leaders that I embrace and we encourage.
00:59But again, I'm not too sure it's true.
01:03Now, let's start with the more realistic review. Learn how to sell a vision.
01:07The author says we had to be psychologists,
01:11lovers, romancers and con artists. I agree in the beginning.
01:16You don't have much to show. So it's important to be,
01:19you know, romancers and lovers and dreamers able to sell a vision,
01:24but also con artists in part. I agree.
01:27However, it does tell you something about the authors already. Be calculative in everything I do.
01:32This is my summary, by the way. They didn't say these words,
01:35of course, but here he describes an event where he called the guy the biggest schmuck I have ever met.
01:43But the reason he said that is because he wanted to get under his skin.
01:47He wanted to jolt him. He wanted to get an emotional reaction.
01:52That's why he said it. And indeed, he got what he wanted.
01:55And then he says, if I had said, Mr. Upschman,
01:59I could do a better job, such as if he said it in a more sanitized way,
02:03he would have not gotten the reaction and probably would have not achieved his goal.
02:08So this tells you something about the psychology of a founder.
02:11Sometimes you have to do what needs to be done,
02:14which can be aggressive, ruthless, negative, aggressive towards others.
02:19This was also very telling. So he had the boss. The boss wanted to be called Ming the Merciless.
02:25It wasn't a nickname. He was proud of it.
02:28And Ming the Merciless was a villain in a comics.
02:31It tells you something about the boss. And now listen what this boss used to say.
02:36He could just fire an underling. He once told me in a coffee shop.
02:41It was very important that the effect them,
02:43the people he fired economically, emotionally and physically.
02:47Imagine what the guy this was. And then he adds,
02:50so that people think twice before they ever turn on him.
02:54This was psychopathy, the type of successful psychopathy.
02:57But now see the difference between people who can read characters and those who don't.
03:02So the authors, up until this point, they had a friend who owned the shares in the company.
03:07So this terrible boss here, Ming the Merciless, could not get rid of the authors.
03:16And this other guy who owned the shares, he was good at reading people.
03:20On the first meeting he already said, this is a real bad guy.
03:24You can't trust a guy like that and he will kill you in a second.
03:28Look what happens after that. The authors want to sell the shares
03:33because they believe it's going to make things simpler.
03:37And the guy who understood the character told them,
03:41you don't really want to sell him the stocks
03:43because if I do I am signing your death warrant.
03:46You are a dead man talking about getting fired in this case.
03:49If it was a mafia organization, it would be dead for real.
03:53The dynamic is exactly the same. It just changes the level at which you play.
03:58The author replied, you don't know what you're talking about.
04:02He doesn't know the business. He needs me to run it.
04:05Look what the guy who could read characters replied.
04:08As long as you are there, he's never going to be able to take credit for its success.
04:15I am telling you, I can read this guy like a book.
04:17He cannot stand to see you succeed. The more you succeed, the more pain he feels.
04:23It was right on point. This is the type of narcissistic characters
04:29where he fodder people when he's not happy.
04:32As a matter of fact, he's unhappy because it comparatively pushes him down.
04:37Plus, remember what he said. The author of the book was standing in his way of taking credit
04:43for the success of the company. Of course, he would want to get rid of him.
04:47Even if the author is better at what he does, still, by firing him,
04:52he doesn't lose all that value. He loses a bit more because maybe he's not that good.
04:57But still, if he can take credit for 90% rather than not taking credit,
05:05but get 100% of the money, he's going to get 90% of the money and 100% of the credit.
05:10That's how narcissists think.
05:13And indeed, what happens when the friend of the author sold the shares
05:17and the author had no more leverage anymore, he got fired.
05:21What I liked is that he used that toxicity to start a company that was different in the values.
05:27At least that's what he says. Now, let's see some other more wisdom and red flags.
05:32So this is a technique that Ming the Merciless had.
05:36He wanted to provide as much data as possible to the bankers so that they would get overwhelmed
05:43and they didn't know what to do with it.
05:44This was his modem operandi. Feed them crap like mushrooms.
05:50Sigolov's approach was to hit the banks with so many facts,
05:53so many charts, that no human being could ever go through it all.
05:58And before that, confuse them. Then when you confuse them,
06:02he said, you will end up with somebody who you can do anything you want with.
06:07Interesting technique. If you are a relatively healthy company and you send so much material,
06:13people are going maybe to expect that the reason you send all that material is
06:17because you have nothing to hide or maybe you want to show off.
06:20Plus, they don't want or they cannot or they don't have time to go through the material
06:25and they just go along with the flow. Ensure you're properly rewarded.
06:29So these guys, the authors, had big titles. They had okay salaries.
06:32They had Cadillacs and good cars as a bonus, but they didn't have shares.
06:36Plus, with the big family, he was also divorced, so he had a lot of money to pay.
06:41He wasn't saving anything. So by the time he got fired,
06:43he walked away without shares, without equity, and he was penniless in the end.
06:48Another big tip. There was just two lines.
06:51And that's why I say sometimes you need to read not just between the lines,
06:55but be able to pick the wisdom that just one line.
06:58They write like super long paragraphs about all these big values that they had,
07:03helping customers, making people grow, making others rich.
07:06Yeah, sure. But then sometimes the golden nugget is just one line.
07:11Sales did begin moving upward, but we kept it a deep, dark secret.
07:17If we didn't, we might have encouraged competitors.
07:21What does that tell you? It tells you that there are probably a lot of companies out there
07:26that you never heard about it.
07:28And there is a reason why. It's because they are successful and they don't want competitors.
07:32By the way, Deep Power Moves is not successful. So don't start anything similar.
07:38Criticism. These authors add such a grandiose, narcissistic red flags.
07:45For example, in the beginning they say this book is the story of the virtually unparalleled growth.
07:51This is a small red flag. There will be worse.
07:53However, it does already tell you something. Is it unparalleled? I don't think so.
07:58I think there are way bigger companies and probably many more companies that grew much faster.
08:05Even if there are not, the fact that somebody says it versus somebody who doesn't,
08:10it tells you something about the person. And then he says, talking about his career,
08:16why have I been successful my whole life?
08:21Which it's interesting because now you read between the lines.
08:24He was talking about him advancing in his previous job,
08:27but he told us that he wasn't making enough money to save up.
08:32So where is all that success? But now when he wants to brag,
08:36he tells you, why have I been successful my whole life?
08:39Listen to me because I am so successful. And now, oh man, this was big.
08:45So he met Sam Walton. Sam Walton.
08:48Okay, the guy who founded Walmart. And he was a much bigger guy, much more successful.
08:53They are walking and now look what he tells Sam Walton.
08:58I said, you think this superstore of yours is a great invention, right?
09:03And Walmart guy replied, oh, yes, he said proudly.
09:07Now listen what the other says. Well, we did this at two guys back in the early 50s,
09:13I said. Motherfucker. First he lays the trap.
09:17He makes him brag and then he says, no, no, no, no, no, you didn't invent it.
09:21We did it. What kind of an asshole talks like that?
09:25Imagine you are meeting a guy you think is a friend. He lets you brag.
09:29I don't know whatever you're proud of. Let's say you are proud of gym training
09:35and he says, oh, you invented that type of training.
09:37Maybe you say, oh, yeah, I think I did. It's a super helpful.
09:40It was great for me. And he replies, no, no, no, no, no.
09:42Actually, I did it 20 years ago. What a fucking asshole, man.
09:48He says the other dealer was right.
09:50I could trust Langone, but I knew that for myself.
09:55He does not want to give credit to Diller.
09:58So instead of saying, yeah, Diller was right. It was a good call.
10:02And indeed, I agreed. Instead, he wants to deny the dealer added any value.
10:08And that's why he says, but I knew that for myself.
10:11Now, a guy who wanted to keep this win-win and still tell the truth would have said,
10:16for example, Diller was right. I had the same feeling.
10:20But no, he had to invalidate the value that Diller brought.
10:24But I knew that for myself. What a fucking asshole.
10:27And a lot of red flags of aggression, violence and bias.
10:31Some example, in the childhood, he took pride.
10:35He bragged that there was a lot of black people in his neighborhood.
10:38They beat him up, but then he gained their trust, their respect.
10:42And then he brags that he joined the gang with all the other black kids and he became the second in command.
10:49He was young. People can change. Most of them don't.
10:51But threatening customers. This was when he was 20 something.
10:56He tells the guy, pick a window. I was listening. I didn't understand.
10:59What does it mean? Pick a window. And then he goes on.
11:03Pick a window because you are going through one of them.
11:07I want you to have the choice in which one. And believe me, he knew I wasn't kidding.
11:12What a fucking guy. He talks to a customer.
11:14He has a little bit of an issue and he tells him, pick a window.
11:17And I remember also the reason why that to me seemed like so inconsequential.
11:21Another red flag. Complaining about Sigolov, Ming the Merciless.
11:27Listen to the story. Sigolov and I nearly came to blows during a board of director meeting.
11:32When we went into another room to a shattered disagreement privately,
11:36what does that tell you? To me, it says that the author probably was disrespectful in front of everybody.
11:43And now Sigolov, keep reading. I keep reading.
11:46Sigolov told me that he was the boss.
11:48He controlled my career and I needed to understand that.
11:52Then he demanded that I literally repeat that back to him.
11:56I told him, go fuck yourself. Okay.
11:59Sigolov probably was an asshole,
12:01but this tells me that the author also made a big political mistake
12:05and probably a power move in that board meeting.
12:07Look, no, not even a psychopath, because this is a successful psychopath.
12:12He doesn't call you in another room if there is no reason.
12:15Imagine you power protected him well.
12:18You presented your idea without attacking Sigolov.
12:21Why would he call you in another room?
12:23The reason why he called him in another room probably is because the author had been very disempowering and pulled a power move.
12:30Now, Sigolov was also a bit psychopathic, probably.
12:33So he demanded to repeat the same back, which is way too much.
12:37But still, this tells you both about the terrible boss and about the author, in my opinion.
12:43Now, at this point, he already got fired.
12:45He's talking to an investor and the investor asked him, what kind of car are you driving?
12:50Yeah, we can pay for it, but what car are you driving?
12:53And he says a Cadillac. He didn't want them to have Cadillacs because it's a luxury car.
12:58He says, where I come from, we don't drive those types of cars.
13:01And then he wanted to cut salary.
13:03Yeah, the way the author presents it, the investor does come across as a bit of an asshole.
13:09However, always remember, it's the author writing, of course, is going to put a positive spin.
13:15Still, I completely agreed with the investor that they should not be driving Cadillac.
13:20It's not your money. The investor has a duty, has an ethical responsibility to make sure that his money goes as far as possible,
13:26because often it's also not just his money.
13:29So he must take care of other people's money.
13:33Now, look what the other reply. Get out of the car.
13:37I said, get out of the goddamn car. You're a stupid son of a bitch.
13:41Do you think I will get in bed with an imbecile like you?
13:44Get out of the fucking car. You can walk to the airport.
13:48Again, to me, this is a red flag. And on threatening employees with murder.
13:53Of course, it wasn't a real threat, but still the way people talk tells you a lot about them.
14:00They made a mistake at the shop. We told everyone if anyone ever did it again, we will kill them.
14:06We will defy them because firing was not bad enough of a punishment.
14:10It had to be killing. Of course, again, it's not to be taken literally.
14:15However, how people talk tells you a lot, even if it's not literal.
14:20I remember when I was in a previous company
14:24and one of the most aggressive managers always talked about punishing his employees with
14:29I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill her. And it was one of the biggest assholes, of course.
14:34Overall, the book runs like a freaking ad.
14:37Yeah, there is some nuggets you can take,
14:40but to me the biggest golden nuggets are when you read between the lines.
14:45And we teach how to read between the lines, by the way,
14:47the skills about reading manipulations and red flags in Power University.
14:51Subscribe, check the Power Moves. Thank you guys. Ciao, ciao, see ya.