Jimmy Pattison: Building a $16B Empire Without Connections, Capital, or Credentials [Outliers]

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

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Jimmy Pattison still runs his $16 billion empire personally at 96 years old.

He’s built The Pattison Group over the last 63 years without outside capital or a college degree. He owns 100% of car dealerships, grocery stores, billboards, radio stations and even Ripley’s Believe It or Not—with a philosophy of: "No partners, no shareholders, no relatives."

This episode reveals the principles behind one of North America’s great private empires

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Get a summary of the 11 key lessons you can learn from Jimmy here: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/outliers-jimmy-pattison/

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Approximate timestamps:

(01:10) Jimmy Pattison’s Billion-Dollar Playbook
(03:24) The Debt That Built Character
(05:41) Part 1: Foundations - The Boy Who Sold Seeds Door-To-Door
(06:52) When Victory Becomes a Liability
(08:46) The University of Used Cars
(10:02) The Art of the Close
(13:30) When Business Becomes Theater
(15:22) The Price of Independence
(16:36) The Pattern
(17:44) Part 2: Starting to Build - Back to Zero
(18:09) The Price of Independence
(20:08) Bleeding Money
(21:11) The Secret Weapon
(22:11) The Main Street Disaster
(23:09) Dead Air to Hot Air
(24:33) The Ghost Station
(25:40) The Conglomerate Dream
(27:03) The Target
(28:24) Cold Calling Wall Street
(29:35) The Silent Hunt
(30:49) The Takeover
(31:36) Part 3: Neonex International
(32:09) The Magic Money Machine
(34:17) The Toast Order
(35:06) The Forbidden Target
(36:15) The Christmas Surprise
(37:27) The Bluff
(38:07) The Unraveling
(39:07) The Education
(40:27) Part 4: The Jim Pattison Group of Companies
(40:49) The Corporate Confession

(42:08) The New Operating System
(44:01) The Dinner That Changed Everything
(46:23) The Great Escape
(47:31) The Boy and the Bicycle
(49:07) The Quality Revolution
(51:14) Part 5: The Empire Builder - Still at the Wheel
(51:47) The New Playbook
(54:17) The Grocery Gambit
(55:13) The Media Monopoly
(55:52) The Numbers Game
(57:20) The Ultimate Lesson
(59:15) Reflections and Lessons

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This episode is for informational purposes only and is based on Jimmy: An Autobiography by Jim Pattison and Paul Grescoe.

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