To make this episode I got to spend about seven hours with John Mackie over two days and I read his great

autobiography twice and it was during one of our conversations that John told me one of the craziest things anyone has ever said about the

podcast he had listened to over a hundred episodes before we met and he told me that

if founders existed when he was younger, Whole Foods would still be an

independent company. That since the podcast and all of history's greatest

entrepreneurs constantly emphasize the importance of controlling expenses, he would have put more of a priority

on it, especially during good times, during boom times.

It's very natural for a company, and I think for humans in general, I think this is part of our

nature, to not watch our

costs as closely because everything is going so well. In fact this is something that

Andrew Carnegie talked about a lot in one of his biographies it says

Andrew Carnegie would repeat

the mantra time and time again profits and prices were cyclical subject to any

number of transient forces of the marketplace costs however to any

savings achieved in cost could be strictly controlled and in Carnegie's view any savings achieved in costs were permanent.

Andrew Carnegie's idea it was something that was talking about

with my friend Eric who's the co-founder and CEO of RAMP. RAMP is now a partner of this

podcast and a sponsor of this episode. I've gotten to know all the co-founders of RAMP and have spent

a ton of time with them over the last year or two. They all listen to the bycast and they've

all picked up on the fact that the main theme from the history of entrepreneurship is on the importance of watching your

costs and controlling your spend and how doing so gives you a massive competitive

advantage. That is the main theme for RAMP. That is the reason that RAMP exists. The reason that ramp exists the reason ramp exists is to give you everything

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