By: Lillian Jundi~
4.3.18
How I Built This
If you have a long drive home and are tired of listening to the same old pop songs on the radio, you should consider listening to a podcast. There are thousands to choose from on basically any topic you can think of. One podcast that I really enjoy listening to on those long drives home is How I Built This, with Guy Raz. Established in 2016, this podcast has risen to popularity in a relatively short time; it is featured frequently on the ‘popular’ page in many podcast apps - and for good reason. How I Built This is a National Public Radio (NPR) podcast, presented by Guy Raz, that shares the stories of how successful businesses came to be. Within the podcasts’ 30 minute run time, Raz is able to dissect the stories of how entrepreneurs built businesses that are now worth millions. He takes the listener on a journey, giving them insight into the work put into developing the things that we see or use every day.
Raz has spoken to many notable business owners, including Steve Ells of Chipotle, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger of Instagram, among many others. One episode that I really enjoyed was the one in which he interviewed Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s. Considering the status of Ben & Jerry’s now as a globally recognized ice cream brand, it’s hard to believe that the business was started in 1978 by Cohen and Greenfield, in Burlington, Vermont when the two had decided to establish a business after Cohen gave up on getting into medical school and got back in touch with his childhood best friend, Greenfield. The two entrepreneurs took a five dollar correspondence course - the Seventies’ equivalent of an internet search - on ice-cream, and decided that’s what their business would sell. With just a $12,000 investment, Cohen and Greenfield opened their first ice-cream shop, and over the next few years they grew their business into the world renowned brand that it is today. Cohen and Greenfield’s story - as well as those of many other founders featured on How I Built This - imbue a sense of hope in the people who hear them, proving that the greatest things often start out small.
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