Ben Gilbert: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yes, it no longer existed. The second reason why this was a completely crazy idea was they were going to make electronic consumer products. The GDP per capita in Japan in 1946 was $17. Not $17,000, it was $17. There was no market. There was no technology. I think after the war, 48% of Tokyo was homeless. Half the population's homes had been destroyed. Yeah, unbelievable. Yet, despite all that, I can't even imagine bigger headwinds against them, they built one of the most iconic companies in the world. It's not an understatement to say that these two men and Sony changed the course of Japanese history, changed the course of world history. Again, we talked about this in the episode, but Steve Jobs was mentioned earlier tonight. Akio Morita was the inspiration for Steve Jobs and he actually did this great talk. It was not a WWDC. It was an Apple keynote after Morita passed away, where he did a tribute to him. I think, no Morita, no Sony, no iPhone. The lesson that we take away from this is even if things are at their bleakest, it's rational to be an optimist. Because if you're not an optimist, it's the optimist who drives the world forward. Then if you're an investor, investing in optimism is the only way that you're actually going to make outsized returns and build great companies. It is genuinely the rational thing to do.…

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