Sunday Snapshots (29th December, 2019)
My Annual Review, LBJ as VP, PayPal’s acquisitions, Lucasfilm’s gesture, and Drake’s wisdom
Hey everyone,
Greetings from Lucknow, India!
I just published my 2019 Annual Review. It’s incredibly personal and in addition to synthesizing what I learned this year, I’ve listed my goals for 2020:
Write and publish 12 long form posts (each more than 2000 words) on the blog.
Grow Sunday Snapshots to 1000+ subscribers by the end of June 2020.
Write and publish Lessons from LBJ book by the end of July 2020.
My Annual Review has more details on exactly how I plan on accomplishing these and much more. It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever written. If you like the more reflective parts of the newsletter or just want some inspiration on how to look back on the year, I’m sure you’ll like it.
With that out of the way, let’s get into this issue of Snapshots, where I want to talk about:
Lyndon Johnson and the Vice Presidency
How PayPal is approaching acquisitions
Lucasfilm’s incredible gesture
A rare Drake interview
And more!
Book of the week
This week, I read the second third of Robert Caro’s The Passage of Power. The first third, as I wrote last week, dealt with how Lyndon Johnson lost the Presidential nomination to JFK and how he made the decision to join JFK’s ticket as Vice President. Beneath both these decision were shaky foundations of incorrect assumptions. He had said that “Power is where power goes.” As he aimed to change the Vice Presidency to get more power, he found that he needed JFK’s approval to change it. As he depended on Sam Rayburn (the speaker of the House and Johnson’s mentor) for influence in the House, Sam Rayburn died less than two years into his Vice Presidency. The overwhelming theme of this part of the book is summed up by Caro like this:
Lyndon Johnson, who had devoted all his life to the accumulation of power, possessed now no power at all, and as Vice President the only power he would ever posses was what the President might choose to give him.
There were some key moments that particularly stood out to me:
Humiliation: In a note to JFK, he wrote ““Where you lead, I will follow.” Just a few years ago, as Majority Leader of the Senate, LBJ had led JFK. Now he had to follow. Follow him not only on policy, but on everything. Every speech that LBJ gave was cleared (and frequently changed) by JFK and his brother and Attorney General, Robert Kennedy. He had to ask JFK when he wanted to fly – and Kennedy would never take him on Air Force One. His gifts (he showered gifts on men he needed, and he needed Jack Kennedy then) were returned. For a man who cared so much about having power and to be seen to have power, this was humiliating.
Not in the room: Perhaps what is more striking is not how Lyndon Johnson was treated, but that he was often forgotten about or deliberately cut off from the flow of information. During the most critical moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Johnson was not even in the room when key decisions were being made. When JFK had to organize a political fundraiser in Texas, Johnson’s home state, Kennedy ignored Johnson and asked the Texas Governor for help – implying that Johnson had no sway in Texas now. Perhaps where he could have been most helpful (and something which the Kennedy administration struggled with) was how to pass the administration’s proposed legislation through Congress. Lyndon Johnson was a master of the Senate. But he was not asked for help.
Why was he treated this way?
It’s not surprising to me. Lyndon Johnson was one of the best politicians of the 20th century. If Jack Kennedy had given him an inch of power, LBJ would have been like a shark with blood in the water. He would have wanted more. So better to not even give him a taste.
I’ve read a lot about Lyndon Johnson, but I’ve never felt sorry for him. Not even when he was a nobody and was working as day laborer in Texas. But while I was reading these ~200 pages, I felt sorry for him.
The last part of the book deals with that fateful day in Dallas when Lyndon Johnson turned from someone who, in his own words, was “finished” to the most powerful person in the world. The day when one of Lyndon Johnson’s assumptions – “one heartbeat away” – came true. It also deals with how he passed more significant legislation through Congress in the year after Kennedy’s death than the Kennedy administration had passed in three years.
I’m excited to tell you all about it next week.
Business move of the week
PayPal Continues to Scout for Potential Takeover Targets
PayPal is looking to acquire privately-held companies in the $1-$3 billion range having already spent more than $7 billion in the last two years on acquisitions. A quick look at their proposed transactions reveals a single overarching goal – increase overall transaction volume:
The acquisition of Honey captures customers earlier in the purchase journey. Future product development can (and probably will) make PayPal the most frictionless method. This increases transaction volume.
The acquisition of GoPay (PayPal owns 70%) allows the company to enter the most lucrative market of all – China. This increases transaction volume.
When you’re an infrastructure company like PayPal, this strategy makes sense. You have one goal and everything in your business should be aligned towards it.
While I’m sure there will be a play for acquiring companies serving other use cases (for example, bill payments), I think its most fascinating (and tricky) acquisitions will be ones where they are trying to own a different part of the customer experience. One such potential target might be Narvar, the company that handles the post-purchase customer experience for small and large companies. Another such potential target might be Fast, which is looking to replace one of the core features of PayPal – the ability to login in once and use it across the web.
I’m excited to see where the company goes next. Their core business is so strong that these are exactly the type of aggressive moves they should be making. They can certainly afford to.
Gesture of the week
It’s the season of giving and there has certainly been a lot of it recently. But there is a clear winner this week. Riley Howell was a UNC student who died saving others during the shooting in Charlotte earlier this year. Riley loved Star Wars. Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars, added him as a Jedi Master in the official Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – The Visual Dictionary that accompanied the launch of the movie.
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Random corner of the week
If you want a glimpse into the mind of one of the best artists ever, check out this interview with Drake.
Meal of the week
This week, I went to my favorite restaurant in Lucknow, Royal Cafe. The restaurant was a run-of-the-mill food spot until Prince Charles visited it on his trip to the city. The owners capitalized on the opportunity and renamed the place. They now have a few locations in the city. The Chicken Dum Biryani is easily the best thing on the menu.
That wraps up this week’s Sunday Snapshots. If you want to discuss any of the ideas mentioned above or have any books/papers/links you think would be interesting to share on a future edition of Sunday Snapshots, please reach out to me by replying to this email or sending me a direct message on Twitter at @sidharthajha.
Until next Sunday,
Sid