#231 Outliers: Harvey Firestone – Men and Rubber

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Farnam Street

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most people fear a $43 million debt. Harvey Firestone called it “invigorating.” When his company faced collapse in 1920 and his executives panicked, Firestone seized control. He fired the sales manager, slashed prices 25%, and personally ran the sales department. It worked—not because he managed through fear, but through clarity. Firestone was the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company—an outsider who built one of America’s iconic industrial empires by doing the opposite of what everyone else did. This episode isn’t about tires. It’s about how Firestone quietly built one of the great businesses of the 20th century by asking two deceptively simple questions: Is it necessary? Can it be simplified? This episode breaks down the invisible principles behind Firestone’s success: positioning over talent, inputs over outcomes, discipline over drama. If you lead a team or simply want to lead yourself better, this story is a masterclass in building enduring advantages. This episode is for informational purposes only and is based on Men and Rubber: The Story of Business by Harvey Firestone. Check out highlights from these books in our repository, and find key lessons from Firestone here—⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/outliers-harvey-firestone/ (03:00) PART 1: The Best Businessman I Ever Knew(06:50) The Vanilla Extract Lesson(10:23) When Premium Doesn’t Matter (12:05) PART 2: Right Beneath the Wheels(14:21) The Back of an Envelope(16:36) If Two of Us Stay, Neither Makes Money(18:39) Betting on what Doesn’t Change(20:55) The Accidental Breakfast(24:53) The Third Option (28:19) PART 3: The Innovators Dilemma: Pneumatic Tires(32:24) The Ford Connection: A Partnership of Outsiders(35:23) Navigating the Crisis(37:17) The Underdog’s Advantage(39:24) The Million Dollar Milestone(43:10) Weathering the Panic of 1907(45:55) The Simplicity Imperative (51:25) PART 4: The Ship-by-Truck Revolution(54:31) The Boom That Hid Everything(56:11) The 25% Solution(01:01:42) Cutting to the Bone (01:04:25) PART 5: Why He Never Stopped(01:06:54) The Human Element(01:08:09) The Legacy (01:10:05) Reflections, afterthoughts, and lessons Upgrade—If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of all episodes, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Newsletter—The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter Follow Shane on X at: x.com/ShaneAParrish Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The most difficult thing in business is first getting yourself to thinking and then getting
0:06.3	others to thinking. A person may keep very busy indeed without doing any thinking at all.
0:12.9	And the easy course is to keep so busy there will be no time left over for thought.
0:18.0	We try to substitute discussion for thought by organizing committees, but a committee
0:22.6	is just an elaborate means of fooling oneself into believing that talking is the same as thinking.
0:29.4	These words are from Harvey S. Firestone's autobiography, Men and Rubber. One of the books that I give
0:36.5	away the most frequently as a gift. While it was written in
0:39.8	1926, everyone I give it to is surprised not only by the density of wisdom, but by how relevant it remains today.
1:02.9	Music Welcome to the Knowledge Project.
1:05.1	I'm your host, Shane Parrish.
1:07.0	In a world where knowledge is power,
1:10.1	this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best what other people have already figured out.
1:13.4	In 1920, Harvey Firestone returned from vacation to find his company drowning in 43 million
1:20.0	of debt. His executives were paralyzed. The banks had cut him off. Competitors were circling.
1:26.1	Yet, instead of panicking, Firestone did something that
1:29.0	shocked everyone. He slashed prices by 25% and personally took control of sales. The situation did not
1:35.7	frighten me, he later wrote. It put new life into me. That crisis revealed the principles that
1:40.9	separated Firestone from every other businessman of his era. And they're the same
1:45.6	principles that separate outliers from everyone else today. While others built elaborate organizations,
1:52.0	Firestone asked two simple questions that cut through every problem. Is it necessary? And can it be
1:58.3	simplified? While others chased trends, he focused relentlessly on what
2:02.6	wouldn't change. While others avoided hard decisions, he had the courage to close doors and
	...

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