flâneur

Founders: #147 Sam Colt

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What I learned from reading Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America by Jim Rasenberger. ---- [0:01] Sam Colt embodied the America of his time. He was big brash, voracious, imaginative, and possessed extraordinary drive and energy. He was a classic disruptor who not only invented a world-changing product but produced it and sold it in world-changing ways. [1:59] He had solved one of the great technological challenges of the early 19th century. [2:36] He was rich at 21. Poor at 31. Then rich again at 41. [7:10] Sam Colt solved a 400-year-old problem. The guns of 1830 were essentially what they had been in 1430. [7:53] There's a financial panic in 1819. This is a very important part in the life of Sam Colt. It may explain why he was such a hard worker, ruthless, and determined. The panic of 1819 bankrupts his family. [10:48] What kind of person would do this voluntarily? He was set to embark on a 17,000-mile voyage across the Atlantic, around the horn of Africa, through the Indian ocean and to the city of Calcutta. Honeymoon was not quite the word to describe a 17,000-mile voyage to Calcutta in 1830. [13:57] He bridled at being under any authority other than his ow

[00:00:00] Sam Colt embodied the America of his time. He was big, brash, voracious, imaginative, and possessed extraordinary drive and energy. He was a classic disruptor, who not only invented a world-changing product, but produced it and sold it in world-changing ways. He became the prototype for hundreds of such disruptors to come, from Thomas Edison to Henry Ford to Thomas Watson to Steve Jobs. Friends admired him for his generosity, his warmth, and his boldness. Adversaries reviled him for his dishonesty and his rapaciousness. [00:00:40] He possessed all of these qualities, but above…

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