A CAPITALIST ARTIST: Recent Episodes
VK Choudhary
Hello, My name is VK Choudhary. I am a filmmaker and an entrepreneur. And I tell stories behind the rise and fall of products, companies, people and countries. I will cover business, companies, leaders, and geo-politics on this channel. why geo-politics? Because you can't know about doing business somewhere until you know the politics of the region.
If Xerox PARC executives had realized that their engineers innovated the most important product of silicon valley that would change how people use computers, Probably there would not have been Apple and Microsoft. This is the story of how Steve Jobs stole the GUI idea from Xerox parc and Apple's macintosh on the technology. And since Karma is a bitch, while developing application software for Mac, Bill Gates stole the technology from Macintosh and Microsoft build their own competitive operating system called Windows.
In January 2022, Apple's market cap hit 3 trillion dollars. Apple is a company whose customers not just trust its products but have a deep emotional connection with the products. No other consumer company has managed to bod with its consumer this way. This is the story of how this company was started by two whimsical teens. one of them wanted to change the world, while the other one just wanted to have fun. This is the story of how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built Apple-I and co-founded the world's most valuable company.
In January 2021, something crazy happened that turned into the worst nightmares of hedge fund managers. This event would show the power of social media and what a bunch of amateurs can do when united against the most powerful people on Wall street. this is the classic story of David vs Goliath. This is the timeline of the Gamestop saga that broke Wall street and changed it forever.
While the fight between Apple and Meta may seem recent, their war started a decade back. It was not a corporate war but the war of ideology: free internet vs User's right to privacy.
since then both companies have kept fighting. The fight took an ugly turn after Apple released iOS 14 and 14.5, putting the final nail in the coffin for Facebook or Meta via its App Tracking Transparency Policy. this put a massive dent in Facebook's revenue- 10 billion dollars a year and Facebook stock prices dropped 23%. since then Meta has reported a decline in the users on the Facebook platform. the war between Meta and Apple for control over users' data has turned it into the ugliest ideological war in silicon valley. This is the story of that war.
the of Uber has been a watershed event in the history of Bay area. When we talk the rise of Uber, its corporate culture becomes the centre of the story. A company's culture is mostly synonym with the personality of the CEO. this is the story of Uber. This this is the sotry of of its ex-CEO, Travis Kalanick.
This is a brief podcast on why it is YouTube, not Disney or Amazon Prime video that Netflix should be worried about. As YouTube continues to grow rapidly in developing countries and keep stealing eyeballs from Netflix, we can soon witness YouTube surpassing Netflix in terms of revenue and growth by huge margins.
During the 1970s, Gary Kildall created the CP/M operating system among other operating systems and programming tools, and subsequently founded Digital Research, Inc. (or "DRI") to market and sell his software products. Kildall was among the earliest individuals to recognize microprocessors as fully capable computers (rather than simply as equipment controllers) and to organize a company around this concept. At the same time, IBM was developing its personal computer project and was looking for someone who could develop an operating system for the PC. Gary Kildell had exactly what IBM wanted, but then due to some misunderstandings, the project went to Microsoft. Microsoft licensed the PC OS called DOS from another company Seatlle computers and charged IBM a bomb for it. This is the story of how Gary Kildell who could have been the man who build DOS and his company Digital Research could have been what Microsoft is.
Microsoft peaked at $60/share in 2000, just as Mr. Ballmer took the reins. By 2002 it had fallen into the $20s, and has only rarely made it back to its current low $30s value. On August 23, 2013, Microsoft announced that Ballmer would retire within the next 12 months. Microsoft was valued at 265 billion dollars then. On February 4, 2014, Satya Nadella succeeded Ballmer as CEO. Nadella would turn Microsoft into a 2.5 trillion dollar company within seven years of his tenure. 10 times bigger than when he took the job. So how did he do it. Steve jobs used focus and simplicity to change apple around. Nadella would use empathy to reinvent Microsoft. unlike any other leader, he applied the ethos of empathy to Microsoft and turned it into the 2nd most valued company. he showed how you can generate wealth by applying empathy to your works place, and keep wall street happy. This is a podcast about why Empathy matters to Nadella, and how he used it to lead Microsoft.
The connection between sociopaths and strong leadership has been well established. in this video, we explore if so sociopath assholes make great CEOs? what makes sociopaths tick and better or worse for powerful positions. and is it necessary to be a jerk to be a great leader or CEO? I am linking the article published in Harvard business review, which i referenced in the podcast: https://hbr.org/2004/01/narcissistic-leaders-the-incredible-pros-the-inevitable-cons
Here we explore why some find deep satisfaction in doing household chores and sometimes get obsessive about it, to the point of neglecting all-important work. the psychology of clean freaks is tricky (I am one). And sometimes they find solace in cleaning dishes, moping house and running errands because it gives them senses of immediate achievement as their goals take really long time and are ofter uncertain.
we all tend to push those things away that make us uncomfortable. over a period of time, we delude ourselves and others into thinking that we are not doing something because we have become lazy or unmotivated. but deep down the reason, we are running away from doing that particular thing is because we are scared- of failing and being judged.
here I talk about the most basic fundamentals of long-term investment in the stock market. and why investing and taking a backseat is so hard. as Chamath Palihapitiya said, investing and doing nothing is one of the hardest parts of investment.
this is a podcast about how most of us end up doing nothing while perusing too many things. focus and the ability to say no are the top elements of accomplishing your goals.
a story of how taking caring of dog prevented me from committing suicide, and saved me from my depression. he made me realised again that i have the ability to love and why i should not go away.
n support of Mediocrity-- So here is something. How many times and how many projects you have just delayed temporarily or indefinitely because u are not ready for it. What is that one project u have constantly dreamt about form month of even years n years n not started yet, because u tell u want o do it perfectly. We all have done that. And we have a favourite word and excuse for that. We don’t to be mediocre. The moment I hear someone say that, I know he is never going to star that project. The pursuit of perfection before u start anything is pure delusional. How would get perfect at something u have not even started.
we all have stopped ourselves from doing something and putting it on hold because of our our fears of what people will say if we did a poor job. that fear and self doubt holds us from doing everything we want to do. And the only way to push back on that fear is doing things immediately. and being okay with being not excellent and going wrong and learning as you go.