Notes - How to Make a Few Billion Dollars

July 2, 2025

Chapter 1: How to Rearrange Your Brain

This chapter emphasizes that successful people think differently and consciously rearrange their brains to achieve big goals in turbulent environments. It involves retraining one's mental processes.

Thought Experiments

A core concept is the use of thought experiments, which are mind exercises that stimulate imagination and encourage expansive thinking. Brad's techniques are a work in progress but are critical to his success.

Business Lessons from a Destination Wedding

An unconventional technique shared is "throwing love vibes," which helps get the brain in the right place for good decisions. Brad illustrates this with an example from his daughter Yasmina's wedding, where he, as the officiant, asked guests to imagine all love from past, present, and future and "toss" it at the couple. The insight is that love is an expansive emotional state that neutralizes conflict and makes it easier to achieve success with a team, even in stressful business interactions. This idea can be applied by willing one's mind back to a moment of intense love.

Gratitude Conversations

Brad modifies Martin Seligman's "gratitude letters" into "gratitude conversations". This involves thinking of a colleague deserving gratitude, writing notes detailing why, and then verbalizing that gratitude directly. This simple act can produce an overwhelming sense of happiness for weeks or months for both parties.

Expect Positive Outcomes

Brad advises stopping mental self-abuse. He explains that negative thoughts are automatic, especially for dynamic personalities, but they are often overblown and represent only one perspective. Drawing from cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) by Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, he emphasizes that individuals can choose their mental lens. As an example, he notes that asking children "What was the happiest moment of your day?" instead of "How was your day?" dramatically shifted their mindset to an optimistic one. His process involves acknowledging negativity as a natural, self-critical psychology, then challenging its validity, recognizing it as a genetic survival trait that can be reframed.

Give Yourself a Break

After stepping down from United Rentals in 2007 and experiencing depression, Brad immersed himself in psychology, leading to an interest in CBT. He learned about cognitive distortions like catastrophizing (small problems as enormous impediments), perfectionism, and dichotomous (all-or-nothing) thinking. Recognizing and correcting these patterns saves trouble. He notes that a healthy fear of failure keeps him sharp, but biases toward hope or fear should be kept at arm's length from decision-making. When anxious, he asks CBT questions like, "What’s the worst that can happen, and how would I cope with that?" or "If a friend had a similar worry, how would I advise them?" to gain objectivity. A key lesson: accept imperfection and inevitable "goof-ups" in business to maintain mental equilibrium. He became happier in middle age by stopping unrealistic expectations of perfection from himself and others.

Expand the Possible

Brad uses thought experiments to think in large arcs of time and space, visualizing millions/billions of years or light-years, aiming to feel like a "bodiless mind floating in space" (Milton Erickson). He sometimes visualizes space contracting to an atom. His art piece "Cluster," which superimposes video from different time periods, helps train his brain to move nimbly among variables, shedding "nitty-gritty" details to identify what matters most. He emphasizes that intentional daydreaming (gedankenexperiments), used by figures like Albert Einstein, is a powerful tool for creative work and problem-solving. Brad meditates daily, using these experiments to achieve profound calmness, leading to his best decisions and a feeling of awe. He also invented a "feeling-the-brain" technique, where he closes his eyes and allows his mind to merge with his physical brain, triggering rich experiences like synesthesia and instant energy.

Embrace the Problem

Brad's mentor, Ludwig Jesselson, taught him that "problems are an asset"; instead of avoiding them, one should run toward them, as each problem is an opportunity to remove an obstacle and get closer to success. This requires courage, as problems are a byproduct of risk. He advises honesty, recognizing mistakes, and course-correcting without ego. Big, "gunky" problems (existential threats that are not yet terminal) can hold the best opportunities. In M&A, the "bingo quadrant" is big, hairy deals with solvable problems, requiring a rearranged brain to be flexible, fearless, and open-minded to de-risk them.

Acknowledge You’re Not Perfect

Brad identifies three impediments to effective leadership: believing you're always right, expecting others to share your opinions, and over-analyzing before acting. He champions dialectical thinking (interpreting issues from multiple valid perspectives), quoting Richard Feynman: "We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress". He stresses that waiting for perfect conditions causes "corporate constipation". Imperfections are inherent in cosmic history and entropy means problems will naturally grow. The lesson: accept imperfection, learn from it, and be ready to change beliefs based on new information.

Practice Radical Acceptance

This means accepting the world as it is, not as one wishes it to be, letting go of the illusion of control. For oil traders, it meant focusing on the best action "right now" rather than dwelling on past wins or losses. It quiets mental "noise" and enables logical, forward-looking decisions based on probabilities and risk management. Brad gives an example of United Rentals taking a $500 million loss by selling road-rental companies when anticipated federal funding (TEA-21) didn't materialize as expected, because it was the "best way forward under the circumstances".

Leave Judgment at the Door

A path to radical acceptance is non-judgmental concentration, a form of mindfulness where one focuses fully on one thing without projecting bias. This keeps the mind in a good space, lowers stress, and allows for more objective thinking, as concepts of "good" or "bad" are often self-centered tools.

Think Huge

Brad advocates for setting goals bigger than what one currently thinks possible. This involves visualizing specific success, like a ballroom stacked with $100 bills, and identifying the goods and services that would bring that vision to fruition. It means narrowing focus to the most important dreams.

The Why Behind the What

This section ties mental preparation to real-world wealth creation. Brad uses the XPO Logistics short-seller attack in 2018 as an example. A "smear report" caused the stock to drop 26% in one day. Instead of reacting defensively, XPO "radically accepted the circumstances", analyzed the distortions in the report, and saw the lowered stock price as "manna from heaven". Despite bankers' caution, Brad's team decided to buy back $2 billion worth of stock, a large percentage of market cap. The board approved, and a couple of years later, those shares were worth $6 billion, a $4 billion profit. This demonstrates the benefits of rearranging the brain to act decisively and think big.

Stay Humble

Brad concludes the chapter by emphasizing the importance of humility to avoid the feeling of being invincible, which can derail decision-making. He recounts how his former music teacher, Bill Dixon, was unimpressed by his early success as an oil broker, telling him he was "wasting his life". This served as a touchstone to keep his life in balance, reminding him that value is relative, and money is not the only important thing. He also highlights that personal knowledge is a "rounding error" compared to universal knowledge, and humans are "rounding errors" in the cosmos. Embracing this expansive idea, inspired by Carl Sagan's "star stuff" concept, allows one's brain to be less tethered to rote thinking, fostering a wider perspective, greater calm, and ultimately, business success.

Chapter 2: How to Get the Major Trend Right

This chapter highlights Brad Jacobs's mentor Ludwig Jesselson's advice: "You can mess up a lot of things in business and still do well as long as you get the big trend right". Brad emphasizes obsessively learning about industries and trendspotting, particularly regarding technology.

Learn from the Two-Million-Year Technology Trend

Brad pegs the start of technology development to the first stone tools over two million years ago, noting the accelerating frequency of innovation. He highlights rapid advancements in the last 2,000 years, including gunpowder, the printing press, and computers. He aims to be the first to capitalize on impactful trends in his industry. He looks for scalability (envisioning growth to tens of billions) and industries growing faster than GDP. He also considers the potential to increase profit margins, advantages of size, M&A opportunities, and the arbitrage between his cost of capital and acquisition multiples. He advises planning to invest heavily in tech to make a lot of money in almost any industry.

Take Your Questions to the Experts

Brad employs a three-part methodology: thorough self-education, compiling questions, and interviewing knowledgeable experts. He reads everything from journals to employee reviews, uses paid services like Bloomberg and SEC databases, and attends industry conferences. He seeks out CEOs, investment bankers, venture capital firms, buy-side institutions, and even skeptical journalists, creating detailed pros/cons lists and word clouds to identify macro themes and potential for investor profit.

AI Is the Mothership of the Future

Brad identifies artificial intelligence (AI) as the central determining factor for business success or collapse, noting its rapid and unpredictable development. He uses ChatGPT and Bard for synthesizing information. He compiles questions about AI's disruptive potential, risks, and opportunities for any industry he considers. He provides examples of industries facing AI "headwinds" (accounting, for-profit education, some financial services, journalism, advertising, even coding) and those with AI "tailwinds" (healthcare, retailing, manufacturing, homebuilding). He even believes CEOs will eventually be replaced by AI, as any human function reducible to rules and systematic processes can be done more effectively by technology.

Step Outside the Noise

Brad highlights a human tendency to discount technological and social change. He gives famous examples of failed trend-spotting, like Thomas Watson (IBM) predicting a world market for "maybe five computers" in 1943, and Clifford Stoll (digital forensics pioneer) claiming the internet lacked salespeople in 1995 (pre-Amazon). He has been profoundly influenced by Ray Kurzweil's "Singularity" concept—the merging of machines and humans—which he believes might be closer than people think. He discusses the potential for human extinction, noting that 99.9% of all species no longer exist, and that technology is now evolving faster than humans.

Watch These Other Spaces Too

Brad focuses on being an early adopter of technology with a larger, wisely spent tech budget than competitors. He advises asking customers for their "dream tech" (assuming no cost/feasibility limits) to generate ideas, then evaluating them for impact, cost, and return. He also pays attention to emerging disruptive trends like 3D printing (industrial additive manufacturing), which he believes will drive seismic change in supply chains, leading to local autonomous manufacturing and weakening China's cheap labor model. Another trend is electric vehicles (EVs), which face cost hurdles and environmental questions (electricity sources, battery disposal). He notes China's control of rare earth minerals for EV batteries creates geopolitical dependency. He also considers the challenges of global climate change efforts if major polluters like China, India, and Russia don't commit. Brad believes autonomous vehicle tech will eventually be more common due to safety and lower operating costs, and that the logistics industry will become increasingly automated.

Amerex and Hamilton Resources

Brad's first company, Amerex Oil Associates (1979), capitalized on the trend of needing to capture and share information more quickly. In a pre-internet era where oil prices were shared via slow newsletters and telex, Amerex built a rudimentary global IT system to share buyer/seller activity and pricing data within hours, giving them a significant competitive edge over siloed brokers. This pioneering data sharing was central to Amerex's profitability. Brad then started Hamilton Resources (1984) in London, leveraging this same data advantage to build a $1 billion annual revenue oil trading company. Wall Street banks and Japanese trading houses only entered this space later, playing catch-up.

United Waste Systems

Brad's next venture, United Waste Systems (1989), was inspired by a Merrill Lynch report on waste companies' "obscene profits". He identified two major trends: precious landfill capacity due to regulations, and the integration of hauling and disposal, creating an opportunity for end-to-end consolidation. United Waste capitalized on these by implementing tech-based truck routing. While mom-and-pop operations were inefficient, United Waste used early software and physical maps to optimize routes, maximize waste pickup, and minimize costs, significantly growing profit margins. They further improved efficiency by making routes adaptable to real-time changes like weather or traffic, a competitive advantage over companies still using "pencil and paper".

United Rentals

In 1997, Brad started United Rentals after identifying that the construction equipment rental market had only 15% penetration, with 85% of equipment sitting idle. He saw a "big, juicy opportunity" in its organic growth, lack of national competitors (beyond a Hertz subsidiary), and absence of widespread computerization. He focused on using data science for efficient pricing and asset utilization across hundreds of locations. He bought Wynne Systems, the software used by larger regional players, which provided an industry-best platform and access to anonymized macro-trend data. This allowed United Rentals to proactively adjust pricing and asset management based on emerging gluts or shortages, unlike reactive competitors.

XPO

For XPO Logistics (2011), Brad chose the truck brokerage sector, seeing a major trend towards increased broker penetration of road freight and the demand for digital service. Most brokers were still phone-based. He capitalized on this by prioritizing heavy investment in scale, data science, and automation. He hired Mario Harik (MIT, machine learning/AI) to automate freight brokerage processes to the point of "pure machine-to-machine transactions," generating valuable data. This led to the development of RXO Connect® and XPO Connect®, and today, 96% of RXO's loads have a digital component, many being touchless. This transformation positioned XPO (and its spin-offs GXO, RXO) as a leading innovator in logistics technology, propelled by the automation trend.

Chapter 3: How to Do Lots of High-Quality M&A without Imploding

This chapter asserts that acquisitions are the best way to scale up fast and gain advantages like market share, allowing for professionalization of operations, spreading costs, and attracting talent.

"Obscene Profits"

Brad's M&A philosophy was influenced by hearing "obscene profits" on the news in 1979 regarding Exxon's $1 billion earnings. This phrase came to mind again when he read about waste management companies making $500 million profit annually, leading him to found United Waste Systems in 1989. His strategy was to avoid competition with major players by focusing on tertiary markets (e.g., rural Mississippi) and acquiring landfills, then collection companies for geographic density and economies of scale. The goal was to buy businesses at profit multiples lower than his company's stock trades at, then significantly improve them. United Waste was sold for $2.5 billion.

Make Sure Your Rationale Holds True on the Downside

M&A involves risk, which must be offset by high rewards, driving stockholder appreciation over 5-10 years. Brad's team calculates potential returns using 10 years of earnings at zero growth as a baseline, then projects organic revenue, margin, and cash flow. These projections must be substantially higher due to synergies or superior operations. They stress-test all assumptions, only pursuing deals where the downside scenario is still good, the base case is excellent, and the upside is "off the charts," with no significant chance of missing the base-case. Most companies fail at M&A due to lack of experience. Brad only hires consultants if their expected value-add is at least ten times their fee, for high-impact areas like salesforce effectiveness or data analysis. The rationale for any acquisition must be clear: how it contributes to pleasing customers and propelling financial results ("How will doing this deal convince more customers to wire money from their bank account to ours?"). He consults salespeople on customer reactions to potential acquisitions. He avoids deals that don't create high ROI, thrill customers, differentiate, or fill a strategic gap; they'd just make the company "bigger, not better". He emphasizes "going forward" value over "today," citing Time Warner's failed AOL acquisition. Brad's team develops an integration playbook combining "math and music" (prescribed actions with creative flexibility) before closing. He also stresses covering one's flank against unexpected issues, citing the Cerberus default on the United Rentals acquisition during the 2007 Great Financial Crisis, which resulted in a $100 million breakup fee and United Rentals eventually thriving despite the initial stock plunge.

Keep Up the Pace, Not the Pressure

Speed is a competitive edge in M&A; Brad's team can cut due diligence/negotiation to weeks by doing extensive upfront research and making prepared offers to sellers ("sign in two weeks"). He is selective, passing on "abysmal" or "okay" deals; the deals he avoided contributed more to his success than the deals he did. He seeks acquisitions where the primary risk is operational execution, confident in his team's ability to fix them. Their systematic evaluation process involves meticulous bottom-up analysis to understand the target's strengths and weaknesses, answering detailed questions about growth drivers, synergies, organizational health, and external factors. To avoid pressure, he talks to multiple acquisition targets simultaneously.

Control Your Outcomes

Success in M&A requires aligning the acquisition process with the business plan and high-level strategy for value creation. For United Rentals, Brad envisioned managing hundreds of branches on a single tech platform, consolidating shared services, rationalizing costs, improving utilization, professionalizing pricing, and serving customers better. He emphasizes removing "vanity" from the process and has never knowingly done a deal dilutive to earnings (99% were accretive with synergies). He stresses that "going forward" is more important than "today" for value creation.

Respect the Seller

Brad learned that sellers are often under stress. He initially made the mistake of playing "hard to get," causing mistrust. He now advocates for genuine communication and expressing eagerness to buy, explaining the process, and being 100% honest. His wife's "3 Ps"—patient, pleasant, and polite—guide his interactions. He advises identifying "must-haves" and saying yes to everything else the seller requests (if legal). He never renegotiates price after a handshake unless there's major misrepresentation. He quickly reaches out to high-caliber "A-players" in the acquired company to ensure retention, sometimes using an investigator for screening (e.g., Dick Houston, who saved them from a deal with criminal accounting irregularities).

Don’t Expect to Force-Fit a Culture

Brad's early mistake was not prioritizing understanding a prospective acquisition's culture. He learned that wholesale cultural changes are difficult, if not impossible. The goal is to buy companies with compatible cultures, even if dissimilar, so change can happen naturally. Incompatible cultures (e.g., fast company buying sleepy one, or dishonest culture) lead to lost energy and push-back. He conducts face-to-face talks with the top 15 people in target companies to understand internal dynamics and trustworthiness.

Buckle Up for the Integration

Brad emphasizes that M&A integrations are often unpredictable, like Mike Tyson's quote: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face". He advises setting priorities upfront and not stretching the team too thin to avoid service deterioration and vulnerability to poaching. The process for United Rentals, which acquired 250 businesses, required "hard work and loads of humility". His advice: celebrate quickly, then get back to work.

First, Cultural Integration

This is the single most important thing to get right after the deal is signed. It involves leveraging cultural intelligence from due diligence to communicate credibly and approaching new team members with respect and a "mindset of feeling grateful". They don't upend practices wholesale, but will let go of employees who don't meet numbers, ensuring change is fair. They also seek cross-fertilization, accepting their own culture isn't perfect and being open to learning from the acquired company.

Another First, Operational Integration

Operational integration is close in importance and depends on speed and standardization. The goal is to bring the acquired business into one technology ecosystem (enterprise platform, HR system, CRM, etc.) as soon as possible, ensuring clean books, standardized financial statements, and a uniform brand image. They lead with "big, mission-critical parts" to avoid operating two different businesses.

Overorganize

Brad believes M&A integrations are quantifiable and prefers assigning tasks to individuals for accountability, rather than groups. He establishes regular monitoring cadences (daily/weekly) and continuously updates their playbook for greater efficiency, aiming for a "wash, rinse, repeat" process.

Set Up Early Feedback Loops

Many acquired employees have never been asked for improvement ideas. Brad's companies use multiple feedback loops (surveys, town halls, one-on-one interviews) to show respect, dispel insecurity, and foster a results-focused culture where everyone is accountable. They ask specific questions like, "What's the business doing well/not so well?" or "What's your best idea to improve?". This generates an "avalanche of responses" and reveals the talent pool.

Don’t Promise What You Can’t Deliver

Employees become nervous during acquisitions, making trust critical. Brad's promise to new team members is simple yet meaningful: "Despite trying my best, I’m going to mess up some things. So, give me a break...feel free to tell me when I’m messing stuff up, and I’ll listen to you". He clarifies he won't promise to take every piece of advice, as competing opinions can lead to "quicksand".

Forget Sleep

Brad emphasizes the intense personal sacrifice required for high-level M&A. He recalls averaging 14-hour workdays for 13 months during XPO's three largest foundational acquisitions (Norbert Dentressangle, New Breed, Con-way), managing them simultaneously. These deals delivered stellar results, leading to the successful spin-offs of GXO and RXO amidst COVID-19 instability. He concludes that if one plans to make billions, sleep is "overrated"—and it's "more fun to be awake".

My Lunch with Hertz

Brad recounts a cautionary tale about ego intruding into M&A. After United Rentals surpassed Hertz Equipment Rental, Hertz's CEO invited Brad to lunch, expressing anger at losing market leadership and trying to make Brad "slow down". Brad refused to slow down, encouraging Hertz to "beat me. Win your tagline back". The Hertz CEO's ego prevented him from pursuing necessary acquisitions, while United Rentals continued to build, leading to significantly higher EBITDA for United Rentals decades later.

Chapter 4: How to Build an Outrageously Talented Team

Brad states that the most important thing a CEO does is recruit superlative people who combine impressive talent with the ability for constructive interactions. While "good is usually good enough" in business, he breaks this rule for people, aiming for "perfect" hiring choices.

Use Multiple Sources for Assessment

Hiring the wrong person is expensive. His companies use rigorous interview processes (7-8+ interviews) and will leave a position open rather than hiring someone they're unsure about. Brad personally interviewed every HQ employee at XPO, vetting for their ability to connect with him and the team, monitoring his own feelings for relaxation and inspiration in their presence. Candidates complete 45 pre-interview questions to provide basic info, allowing interviews to focus on getting to know the person. He relies on trusted colleagues for honest assessments and encourages respectful disagreement in hiring discussions.

Intelligence, Hunger, Integrity, and Collegiality

Brad identifies four key qualities he seeks in every hire: intelligence, hunger, integrity, and collegiality. He won't risk hiring someone deficient in any of these. His successor CEOs at XPO, GXO, and RXO (Mario Harik, Malcolm Wilson, Drew Wilkerson) exemplify these traits despite diverse backgrounds.

Intelligence

Superior intelligence is a "must-have" and the first thing Brad screens for, eliminating 90% of candidates. Intelligent people see problems as puzzles and opportunities. He cites a Spencer Stuart study showing high IQ is most correlated with organizational success, leading him to "double down" on hiring the brightest people. He believes the "smartest thing I do as a CEO is to make sure that most of the people I hire are smarter than I am". While objective measures like GPA are useful, he warns against confusing pedigree with ability, noting that brilliant people like Drew Wilkerson (RXO CEO) didn't attend Ivy League schools. Truly smart people are humble, not arrogant, and open to learning. He screens for dialectical thinking (reconciling conflicting info) and the ability to change opinions, as rigid thinkers are less valuable.

Hunger

Hungry people have tenacity, work hard (nights, weekends), are motivated by big projects, resilient, and don't give up. Brad only hires people motivated by money, viewing compensation as a key motivator. His companies attract those who actively enjoy an intense, results-oriented workplace. He aims for slightly understaffed, lean teams, which he finds more focused and productive. He also acknowledges the risk of burnout and sometimes tells his "heaviest hitters" to rest and recharge.

Integrity

Company success depends on people fulfilling obligations and doing what they say. Brad learned three lessons: 1) small lies indicate willingness to lie about big things, hindering communication and blinding management; 2) liars get caught, making honest people more successful long-term; and 3) honest people show integrity through actions, not just words. Filtering out integrity-impaired people in hiring is more efficient than dealing with workplace disruption later.

Collegiality

Brad believes collegiality is essential for achieving big goals and makes work more productive. He values positive, healthy influences, not wanting to spend his limited "good days" with unkind people. His XPO HQ was a "creative nerve center" with "quiet intensity" and "emotional warmth," scoring high on job satisfaction. He notes that "jerks don't last long" as they disrupt harmony.

A, B, and C Players

Brad uses a "thought experiment" to evaluate employees: imagining them quitting. An "A player" elicits panic ("We're so screwed!"), leading him to check their compensation and promotion timeline. A "B player" is replaceable. A "C player" is someone he was going to fire anyway. His goal is to have all "A players" and no "C players" (a "C-free zone"). His HR team uses an objective coding system for managers based on performance and potential. He also conducts "relationship appraisals" with direct reports, rating their professional relationship (1-10) and asking how to make it a 10.

Fire C Players, but Be Nice

If an employee consistently has performance issues (C player), Brad advises to "graciously, immediately exit that person". Drawing from Wayland Hicks (Xerox COO), he stresses acting decisively but compassionately, showing kindness, not being cheap on severance, and letting them go with their head held high. Management has a responsibility to identify and address "quiet, chronic underperformance".

"Overpay" Your Employees

Brad acknowledges employees work for themselves and their families, not for him. He has "overpaid" almost every direct report to ensure top-tier talent, aligning their incentives with company goals. This resulted in tens of billions of dollars of value for shareholders and millions (or hundreds of millions) for employees. He advises prospective CEOs to build an "amazingly talented management team" and be prepared to pay them well, as skimping on salary can cost millions in lost profit. He agrees with Dick Colburn that success is largely about compensating people through profit-sharing formulas. XPO recruits from top-paying enterprises like Alphabet and Goldman Sachs to compete for talent. He emphasizes CEO involvement in designing customized incentive plans, ensuring they motivate (e.g., sales commissions based partly on profit). He generally does not cap incentive compensation, encouraging employees to "run as far and fast as they can". His companies offer above-market equity incentives to create "true believers" aligned with the vision, extending equity deeper into the organizational chart than typical. This compensation structure aligns interests, makes employees happier, motivates managers, and positions the company for operational excellence and profitability.

Chapter 5: How to Run Electric Meetings

This chapter addresses the pervasive issue of "boring meetings" caused by "big company-itis" (bureaucracy stifling communication). Brad aims for productive, unpredictable, high-impact meetings where everyone contributes to dialogue, not corporate pageantry.

Three Essential Ingredients

Brad identifies three core ingredients for powerhouse meetings: the right people, a crowdsourced agenda, and an atmosphere where everyone feels safe to respectfully disagree.

Bennington College

Brad's meeting philosophy was shaped by his experience at Bennington College, where small classes (average 9 students) facilitated 90-minute, fast-paced, challenging discussions where engagement was mandatory. He couldn't find this dynamic at Brown University's large lecture halls and eventually dropped out. This taught him that learning style matters, and he sought to recreate Bennington's lively discussion atmosphere in his business meetings.

Keep It Small, but Large Enough

He found that 45-50 attendees were too many for meetings; the optimal size is 15-20, leading to less posturing and more sincere discussions. He invites a mix of senior leaders, subject matter experts, and rising stars to provide broader context across the company and foster a collaborative mindset.

MOR for Your Money (Monthly/Quarterly Operating Reviews)

Monthly and Quarterly Operating Reviews (MORs/QORs) are the most important meetings. Each unit's performance is reviewed. Brad's teams create concise slide decks with KPIs, scores, comparisons, and projections, emphasizing "less content per page". Attendees are required to read the deck in advance, then send Brad their top 1-2 takeaways and questions, effectively crowdsourcing the agenda. Questions are incisive, focusing on problems or leveraging successes. These submissions are then ranked by attendees to prioritize discussion.

Avoid the Spin

Meetings start by discussing the highest-ranked takeaways and questions. A moderator (sometimes a "surprise moderator" from outside the unit) manages the tempo. Brad aims to avoid scripted narratives, wanting the "real deal" on unit performance. He particularly wants to hear "the bad stuff" as it often presents money-making opportunities. Operating reviews also serve as part of succession planning, exposing executives to all parts of the company and identifying rising stars. He likes to end meetings on an uplifting note, asking "Whose star went up in your eyes... and why?".

Explore Conflicting Opinions

Brad believes conflicting opinions are the purpose of the meeting. He gets nervous when everyone is in unanimous agreement. He encourages participants to speak up, as only listening is "taking without giving". Moderators ensure everyone participates, often by asking the same question to each person multiple times. Board meetings are run with the same emphasis on collaboration and open communication, giving directors full access to operating reviews and organizational information, fostering trust.

Leverage Crowdsourcing in External Meetings

Brad applies his crowdsourcing approach to external meetings, letting the audience set the agenda to show respect. For fireside chats, he introduces himself briefly, then goes straight into spontaneous Q&A, demonstrating he's "the 'ask me anything and I’ll answer' guy". He finds scripted panels boring and believes unscripted Q&A makes him "up my game" and creates a stronger connection.

Set Few Rules, but Cast Them in Stone

To foster free but considerate communication, Brad sets four simple, cast-in-stone rules for meetings: 1) Turn off all devices. 2) Only one person talks at a time. No side conversations. 3) Give the speaker your full attention and keep an open, receptive mind. 4) Disagree, but disagree respectfully. He enforced these strictly, even banning a C-suite member for a year for engaging in side conversations, to ensure the team got the message.

Validate, Don’t Denigrate

Brad views each meeting as a "unique moment in time with endless possibilities". He advises against embarrassing colleagues or playing "gotcha" games, even when someone says something wrong. For productive discussions, the option to be wrong and to disagree must be fair game. His solution is to pair correction with validation (e.g., "I see your point, but...") to lower temperature and reduce defensiveness. When overruling group consensus, he lists their points to show he listened, then explains his different conclusion and asks for support, unapologetically pulling rank as CEO due to his wider view and access to information. He is creating an external meeting series for Fortune 200 CEOs using this crowdsourced, unscripted approach.

Chapter 6: How to Kill the Competition Instead of Killing Each Other

This chapter focuses on creating a unified team culture where every employee can participate in success. XPO's people were the reason for its Fortune 500 success and its recognition as "America's Best Large Employers". The desired workplace vibe prioritizes collaboration, which Brad sees as the most effective lever for strategy and vision.

Of Superorganisms and Saxophones

Brad's thinking on winning culture is influenced by "The Superorganism," which describes how social insects like ants function as a single, coherent "superorganism". Ants display extraordinary feats through active communication and sophisticated division of labor. He also notes bacteria communicate through chemical signals to make coordinated decisions (quorum sensing). Humans, with their prefrontal cortex and advanced communication, have an extraordinary ability to collaborate, innovate, and improvise. He draws a parallel to his music teacher, Bill Dixon, who brought out the best in jazz musicians by creating a space for experimentation without fear of put-down. Brad's insight is that while a company should be unified like a superorganism, it must also make space for individualism, striking a balance between unity and human uniqueness.

Over-Communicate with the Full Team

Brad is a "big advocate of communication in all its forms," seeing it as a way to convey vision, inspire, and connect human-to-human. He's "never been an ivory tower type of CEO" and believes there's no such thing as over-communicating, as employee surveys consistently show a desire for more communication from management. He uses various channels (emails, social media, site visits, town halls, video chats with frontline employees) and maintains a consistent cadence to reinforce openness. When facing challenges, he believes leadership must be clear and share resolution plans to gain employee buy-in.

Give the Board Access

The board of directors is a key internal audience. Brad ensures information is shared freely with the board, including access to internal social media, newsletters, and performance reports. He views the board as his "boss" and speaks to directors with "100 percent unvarnished honesty". He grants directors full access to the organization (allowing them to call executives directly), which he finds mutually beneficial and fosters a forthright bond, contrasting with "rubber-stamp boards".

Become a Much Better Listener

Listening is more challenging than outbound messaging. Brad was deeply impacted by Marina Abramović's performance art "The Artist Is Present," where her complete presence created profound connections. He views the ability to truly hear another person as a "superpower" and has taken training in active and deep listening (non-judgmental concentration). He opens up listening channels (sharing his phone/email with employees), emphasizing that failure to give inbound messages attention will destroy credibility. He cites an XPO example where he acted promptly on an employee's email about a leaking roof, validating the feedback loop.

Be Sincere about Improving the Business

Listening to employees creates a connective culture that enables unobstructed information flow and realizes synergies, like cross-fertilization of best practices. For GXO's 1,000 warehouses, Brad wants to "deeply listen" to employees at top-performing facilities to identify superior practices and apply them across the network, avoiding costly consulting fees. He reinforces respectful disagreement in group settings, where dissent should be backed by evidence and reasoning to preserve the collaborative environment. He has managers practice this by having attendees call out statements they agree/disagree with and why. His companies use companywide feedback loops (surveys every 90 days, including "best idea" and "stupidest thing we're doing"). Senior management reads all responses (tens of thousands) and shares summaries (favorable and unfavorable) with all employees, viewing criticism as "gold". He acknowledges risks of this transparency but believes the merits outweigh hazards if leadership is confident and sincere. He finds value in listening to "disgruntled people" as they can be "valuable auditors" pointing out suboptimal areas.

Widen the Circle

Communication extends to external audiences: customers, investors, and competition. XPO uses feedback loops with enterprise customers to proactively meet expectations. United Rentals used customer feedback to offer free audits of their equipment inventory, advising them on whether to buy or rent, deepening relationships. For investors, scheduled interactions and proactive communication during crises are critical. Brad cites XPO's handling of its largest customer pulling 2/3 of their business ($600M annual revenue) just before earnings after XPO refused an unfavorable buyout offer. XPO practiced radical acceptance, being transparent with employees, customers, investors, and media, then rapidly replaced the lost business, leading to a stock price triple in 26 months. He notes that while he focuses on customers, important competitive information flows up to management through strong communication and monthly operating reviews. The chapter concludes by reiterating that prioritizing collaboration and open communication is the best way to build a team culture, balancing unity and individuality, making a company feel staffed by "upbeat entrepreneurs".