Aaron Fossas

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

I had a singular dream my entire life.

To play Major League Baseball.

In 2019, I retired from professional baseball while in Triple A with the Cincinnati Reds.

One step away from reaching a 20+ year dream.

What did I learn while giving up a lifelong dream?

(A thread…)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

you need three things to create a successful company: to gather great people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible (Graham)

[David Senra @davidsenra]

This was one of my favorite conversations that I've had in my entire life.

Todd's intensity had me absolutely wired.

A few valuable insights from our conversation:

-How Todd’s operating principle — “I've always believed in doing one thing and do it better than anybody else” — drives everything.

-The wild story of how he raised money for the first location.

-The financing of his first 28 restaurants and how he almost lost everything.

-How owning your business without investors or partners increases speed.

-What he learned from entrepreneurs that came before him like the multibillionaire shipping tycoon that focuses on every little detail of his business — down to how much they spend on bottled water.

-Why it’s important for leaders to retain a singular focus: “I would encourage anybody in business to find your one love.”

-His response to critics who said his idea won’t work because it’s too different from the current trends of the industry.

-Why you should never sacrifice quality for speed.

-Why we need more founder led businesses. Businesses that aren’t for sale.

-How he turned tragedy into opportunity: Hurricane Katrina and the pandemic.

-Why he doesn’t believe in negative reinforcement.

-The idea for the Canes love department.

-Why he doesn’t like the word delegate. And why you must work with great people but stay in the details.

-The importance of fanaticism: “Nothing ever happens unless someone pursues a vision fanatically.”

-How Todd stays in the details even as the business grows.

-How he maintains excitement for the same business after almost 30 years.

-Why it was the right move for Todd to ignore the “experts” in his industry who said he needed to diversify and expand his menu.

-Why giving back to the community is a central pillar to Raising Canes.

-The competition Todd fears most and why he’s ready for a fight.

-Why he was never tempted to sell the business — even for billions.

I am very proud of this episode.

I’ve watched it 3 times.

I hope you find it useful!

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

wisdom is understanding the long-term consequences of your actions (Naval)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

big companies tend to be managed indifferently (Valentine)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

keeping attention is harder than getting attention (Meservey)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (Munger)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

most people try to be smart, it’s better to focus on not being an idiot (Munger)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant (Munger)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

in communication, always work backward from the fact that the other person doesn’t care

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

companies fracture internally long before they do externally

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

perfection is obtained not when there is nothing left to add - but when there is nothing left to take away

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

keep a list of things you’re not trying to optimize for

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

be long-term greedy (Levy)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

every person in a company is a vector. progress is determined by the sum of all vectors. (Elon)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

the abc’s of business decay: arrogance, bureaucracy, and complacency (Buffet)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

success breeds complacency - complacency breeds failure - only the paranoid survive (Grove)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

hire people bigger than yourself (Ogilvy)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

you cannot bore people into buying your product - you can only interest them (Ogilvy)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

unless your campaign contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night (Ogilvy)

[Aaron Fossas @aaronfossas]

the consumer is not a moron - she is your wife - treat her accordingly (Ogilvy)