#123 Albert Champion (Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon)

What I learned from reading The Fast Times of Albert Champion: From Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon, An Untold Story of Speed, Success, and Betrayal by Peter Joffre Nye. ---- [0:01] A brief summary of the life of Albert Champion: Champion had been born in Paris April 2, 1878. By age twelve he was an errand and office boy for a Paris bicycle manufacturer. He became interested in bicycle racing, won the middle-distance championship in France, and went to the United States in 1899 for a series of races. He won the American and world championships, returned to France to study automobile manufacturing, and returned to the United States in 1900. He tried auto racing, almost lost a leg in a racing accident, and then organized the Champion company. His original backers kept the name and moved the company to Toledo at about the same time Champion joined Durant. In Flint, Champion became known as one of the most colorful and flamboyant figures in a town full of them. He lived to see both his new company, later named the AC Spark Plug Division (using his initials), and the company he had left, the Champion Spark Plug Company, become giants in their field. He was a multimillionaire when he died. [2:55] His father dies at 47 years old: One of the turning points in Albert’s life is the early death of his father. He had to become the breadwinner of the family at 12 years old. The experience formed Albert’s character. For the rest of his life, he threw himself into work, forever escaping into the task at hand, keeping busy, always planning new projects, in time building up a business with factories in three countries and offices of his own. [6:19] Albert Champion was a showman who was addicted to self-improvement: He was willing to put in the work necessary for self improvement. Champion practiced rising a unicycle everyday. He learned how to draw onlookers and hold their attention. Champion had discovered the value of self—improvement. He would apply that principle again and again. [9:15] Adolphe Clement is a blueprint for Albert Champion: Clement goes from poor orphan to building a successful bicycle and automobile manufacturing company. [13:46] How do you introduce a brand new product to a society that is resistant to change? You sell to those who would be willing to pay for improvement: Dunlop pneumatics faced a tough sell with a public forever wary about buying a new product —only persuasive evidence would sway the public to accept change. Clément could count on the rabid racing crowd to try anything they thought could give a competitive edge. [15:53] What Albert Champion learns from watching a 750 mile bicycle race—tenacity is more important than talent: A chord struck with Champion that Terront came from nothing, a nobody. Yet through the force of willpower, keeping his wits under extreme physical demands that made Lavel give in, and drawing on the strength of his body, Terront turned into a grand winner. Perhaps Laval had more talent, which he showed as the first to reach Brest. Nevertheless, Terront had greater tenacity — and that difference made him the victor. [22:17] Attaining glory motivated Albert Champion: Racing was about making money for the dual compelling needs that invigorated him. He gained financial support for his family and the ego endorsement enjoyed by entertainers and politicians. As his ego grew, he needed to impose himself on crowds of strangers and win their love. Each race he won was greeted immediately with audience approval followed by a bouquet of flowers, a victory lap, then a cash award. [23:49] Lessons Albert Champion learned from his trainer Choppy Warburton: Warburton offered two axioms from his experience about competition that impressed Champion. No lead is too great to overcome, and you can’t win unless you think you can. [25:01] Albert Champion on the benefits from the strenuous training regiment Choppy made him endure: But Choppy was doing something — he was educating me to take punishment, and whenever I began to tire in a race, the grueling training I had would permit me to overcome the fatigue and come out victorious time and time again. No matter what game a man is in, he is only as big as the amount of punishment he is able to take. He educated me on the importance of physical training, for as the old saying goes, you cannot be mentally fit unless you are physically fit. [34:12] Albert Champion’s personality: Champion, quick—tempered as usual , grew disgusted with colleagues he saw riding with caution rather than daring. [36:31] Albert Champion’s plan to raise money so he could start his own company: Champion felt the onus to create his own business to serve America’s mushrooming auto production. He considered forming a company , taking advantage of his name recognition, to import French auto parts, especially spark plugs. To get in the business, he needed capital. To acquire the needed capital, he would have to win frequently in his final season as a pro cyclist. He determined to go all out for one last campaign — not in America, but in France. The purses were much bigger there, and he could win the money he’d need in order to establish his own business. Albert staked his ambitious future on capturing the title en route to raising the money to create his place in the nascent US auto industry. [43:40] Albert Champion on the importance of continuous learning: He told an interviewer that one of his constant efforts was to manage his time for more and better work. He explained that he always sought to improve everything he did. I remember a salesman one time telling me that he knew the game from A to Z. He stated that nobody could tell him anything about selling. That was to me the best proof possible that he knew nothing about selling because those who really understand merchandising, manufacturing, or anything else that is important in life are those who realize how little they really know about it and how much there is to learn every day. [47:25] Billy Durant prioritized speed. Durant recruits Albert Champion to move to Flint the same day they meet: Durant sounded out Champion before nudging the focus toward recruiting him to Flint. Durant later recalled: If he were quite sure that he could make a plug that would answer our purpose, I suggested that we go to Flint, and if he liked the place and the layout, I would start an experimental plant, and if he could make good, I would give him an interest in the business. (this later makes Albert very, very rich) He had never been to Flint, knew nothing of the Buick, or the plans I had for the future. [55:10] Albert Champion invested heavily in research and development. This is why: I spent a fortune on spark plug experiments at the start. My friends thought I was crazy. I knew I was right. He put prototypes through long and rigorous tests before submitting patent applications. More durable spark plugs would benefit passenger cars. He said: “Keep ahead of the race. That is what brings success. It makes the great racer. It makes the successful businessman. No champion ever arrived resting on the oars.” [56:33] Albert Champion on the similarities of athletic competition and building a business: I have always felt that the education and training I received as a bicycle racer was a great help in business because it is a game in which you train to fight and win. He emphasized that experimenting and learning leads to progress: I always remember what a friend of mine once told me. He was a well—known chemist, an authority in the automobile world. He said that four times during his life he has had to scrap his knowledge of chemistry and begin again at the start. He was not only happy about it. He is ready to do the same thing over and over when he finds it necessary. [1:03:20] The legacy of Albert Champion: His death closed a career as brilliant as that of any Horatio Alger hero, from errand boy in Paris, France, to millionaire automobile accessories manufacturer in America. The spark plug designs, dashboard speedometers, and companies Champion started have stood the test of time. Today the Champion Spark Plug and ACDelco brand names are recognized around the world. More than 200,0000 people a year attend performances at the Boston Center for the Arts, all passing the brass plate celebrating his Albert Champion Company, where he had made his first Champion spark plugs. Approximately 50 million vehicles operating in the United States are currently on the road with ACDelco spark plugs, filters, brakes, and other components. And every April at the Paris Classics bicycle race, another winner’s name is added to Albert Champion’s on the roster of legends. ---- Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here. ---- “I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00David Senra?

  Champion had been born in Paris in 1878. By age 12, he was an errand and office boy for a Paris bicycle manufacturer. He became interested in bicycle racing, won the middle distance championship in France, and went to the United States in 1899 for a series of races. He won the American and world championships, returned to France to study automobile manufacturing, and returned to the United States in 1900. He tried auto racing, almost lost a leg in a racing accident, and then organized the Champion Company. His original backers kept the name and moved the company to Toledo at about the same time Champion joined Billy Durant. In Flint, Champion became known as one of the most colorful and flamboyant figures

• 0:44David Senra?

  in a town full of them. He lived to see both his new company, later named AC Spark Plug Division, and the company he had left, the Champion Spark Plug Company, become giants in their field. He was a multimillionaire when he died. Okay, so that's an excerpt not from the book that I'm about to talk to you about today. It's actually an excerpt from the book that I covered a few weeks ago, which was the biography of Billy Durant, but it is how I was introduced to the life of Albert Champion. It's another example of this idea that you and I talk about all the time, that books are the original links. And so that excerpt from Billy Durant led me to the biography of Albert Champion, and

• 1:25David Senra?

  that book is called "The Fast Times of Albert Champion: From Record-Setting Racer to Dashing Tycoon, An Untold Story of Speed, Success, and Betrayal," and it's written by Peter Nye. So let's go ahead and jump right into it. I think that was a good overview of his life, but I want to start at the very beginning. And like a lot of the people that we cover on the podcast, Champion came from extremely humble beginnings. So it says, "His father rose six mornings a week to tramp out the door so early that the gaslights still illuminated the streets. Alexander trudged back late at night smelling of leather and straw and manure. He was a working-class native of central Paris."

• 2:07David Senra?

  Albert's mother was a washerwoman, and this paragraph tells us a little bit about what her life was like. "Before the advent of electricity, washing clothes was outdoor labor as strenuous as tilling farm soil. Marie Champion's morning began by pulling off the heavy wooden lid that was set at the end of the previous workday over the top of the well to keep out rats." She lugged water buckets some 50 yards from the well to pour into a big vat. Before putting clothes and bedding into the vat, washerwomen bent over a washboard and scrubbed out dirt and stains, often grunting from the effort. This one sentence gives you an idea of how poor they were.

• 2:49David Senra?

  "His family indulged in the fare of the Paris poor: horsemeat." One of the earliest turning points in Albert's life is the early death of his father. And it says, "His father lived to see the Eiffel Tower completed, but he died of pneumonia three days after Christmas." He was only 47. And this is the effect that his father's premature death had on not only Albert, but his entire family. Albert's the oldest one. He has become the breadwinner of the family at 12 years old. So it says, "The father Albert had was no longer going to offer guidance. He struggled with the gloom of the uncompromising reality of death, unaware that he had lost his childhood innocence. His extended family provided whatever emotional support they could, but they were also poor."

• 3:34David Senra?

  So it says, "But they were hard-pressed to do much for Alexander's widow and sons." The experience formed Albert's character. Now, this is probably one of the most important sentences in the book and something that is really important to understand who Albert was to his core. "For the rest of his life, he threw himself into work, forever escaping into the task at hand, keeping busy, always planning new projects. In time, he built up a business with factories in three countries and offices of his own." And so he has a quote in the book from Albert describing this time period of his life. He says, "I was earning my own living and part of my mother's and brother's when I was 12 years old." He actually, in a few years from this point, he's able to make enough money as a professional

• 4:17David Senra?

  racer that he actually retired, permanently retires his mother. Okay, so a little bit more about what it was like to have to become the breadwinner of an extremely poor family at such an early age. So he says, "He was 12 when he ended formal schooling, common among kids from impoverished families." What did these kids do when they weren't in school anymore? So the author states, "City boys flock to factories. Rural youths toiled on farms or in mines. Girls and some boys found household domestic service, wearing servant uniforms." Not only are they extremely young, doing extremely hard labor, but it's the way they were treated.

• 4:58David Senra?

  They talk about the parish at the time was extremely segregated by classes. So it says, "they," meaning the poor, "were required to acknowledge their place below the upper ranks of the social order. They lived under the protocol of being seen but not heard, but not heard from unless spoken to directly by someone of higher authority." So when you're reading this section, it goes into way more detail than I just shared with you. But you can imagine how an experience such as this would motivate him to work unbelievably hard, and that's something he does for the rest of his life. Now, right before his father dies, when he's 11, Champion sees somebody in a park riding a unicycle, and he's like, "This is really interesting.

• 5:40David Senra?

  I wanted to, I want to learn how to ride a unicycle." So he gets taught how to ride a unicycle, and this leads to an early job, which in turn leads to bicycle racing. So it says, "Fortune smiled upon young Champion. He caught the eye of Henry, a civil engineer in his late 30s who owned a bike shop. He was struck by Champion's agility and vigor. He offered Champion employment to perform acrobatics outside his bike shop, hoping to lure in customers. Champion could not afford to buy a unicycle, but Henry, sensing a business opportunity, offered to provide one. Champion quickly accepted." And there's a lot of things to know about the personality of Champion.

• 6:22David Senra?

  He's a showman, and he's also addicted to self-improvement and willing to put in the work for self-improvement. So let me read this to you. It says, "Champion practiced every day. He became adept performing on the sidewalk and the streets in front of his boss's bike shop. He learned how to draw onlookers and hold their attention. They encouraged his flair for showmanship. He experimented and added more stunts to his repertoire. Removing a foot from the pedal to push the top of the tire to propel him was always a crowd pleaser."

• 6:54David Senra?

  So something to know about unicycle on almost any scale. Mastering a unicycle takes hours and hours and hours of practice. He puts in that time and effort and he's so good that other businesses start hiring him to perform in front of their stores as well. And so this is the summary of the lesson that he's learning from this experience. He says, "Champion had discovered the value of self-improvement. He would apply that principle again and again." This is a really resourceful idea that he had. So he says, "Self-reliant and a natural showman, he created an ambitious publicity stunt. Henry publicized the event and charged admission. Champion would pedal his unicycle for 10 hours around a running track and cover 100 miles.

• 7:37David Senra?

  The audacity of the self-propelled one-wheel venture filled the stands. He pedaled round and round the track from 7 o'clock in the morning to 5 o'clock in the evening, crank arms spinning, hands waving to the crowd. He went 101 miles." For the event, he earned more than 500 francs. And to give you an idea of how much money that was at the time, about as much as a schoolteacher was paid in three months. So two things to know about about Albert Champion is, one, through his association with several bicycle manufacturers, he realizes that his greatest financial opportunity is becoming a professional bicycle racer. Okay. And the second thing is, he's really good at it and he starts winning races right away.

• 8:21David Senra?

  And this turns him into an extremely young celebrity. He's kind of like a child star. So it says, "What little is known of Champion's childhood can be gleaned from a lifetime of journal articles and an outpouring of hundreds of French and English obituaries, with recollections from friends, fellow athletes, and auto executives on both sides of the Atlantic." So the, I want you to pick up on that word, "obituaries" there. His life has a tragic ending, unfortunately. "He grew up in public as a celebrity, like today's young rock stars. A bicycle racer competing on the pro circuit, he enjoyed immense popularity and money by the fistful." The press flocked around him, keen to capture quotes or describe his actions. So we're not there yet, but I'm just telling you where the story is going.

• 9:04David Senra?

  Before we get to his successful career as a bicycle racer and all the opportunities that opens up in his life, later on in his life, I need to tell you about the blueprint, the person. There's a series of people that are extremely influential in his life, Billy Durant being one of them. But his first mentor, and what I would say is the blueprint for Albert Champion, is this guy named Adolph Clement. So Adolph Clement is another poor French person. He was an orphan, left on his own until by the time he was, I think, 14, 15, 16 years old, somewhere in that range. And eventually, he's going to go from poor orphan to building an extremely successful bicycle and automobile manufacturing company.

• 9:47David Senra?

  He also is an early investor in Dunlop tires, does all these things that inspires Albert. Right? So let me just give you a little bit of background. I looked for a book on Adolph Clement. I couldn't find it, but his story is really fascinating. So at 16, he goes to this tradition where you travel, it's like a walking tour across areas of France to learn your new trade. And he's training to be a locksmith. And it says, "Provincials like him thought nothing about walking 50 miles in a day." And so you'd spend maybe a few weeks to a few months, learning under the tutelage of somebody that already has perfected the craft that you want, or the trade that you want to engage in.

• 10:30David Senra?

  And then, at the end of that time period, the entire town would gather around, and as you're leaving to go to the next town, they'd have like a small parade for you. It was really, actually fascinating. But we see that, right from the beginning, Adolph is a misfit. He's supposed to go back to his little tiny village, but again, he doesn't have a family. He really has no reason to, other than, that's what he's told he should do. Right? So his apprentices, as a rule, went back when they finished their tour. But Clement, a rebel to his core, chose to stay in Paris. The man had a habit of rebelling against traditions. So he's staying in Paris, he opens a locksmith's shop.

• 11:14David Senra?

  But at this time, he sees this huge trend for bicycles. And he starts, he takes a ride and realizes, oh, my life has changed. And so he's really, even though he lacks a formal education, he's really intelligent. He realizes, wait, I have a way greater opportunity in bicycles than I do in locksmithing. So it says, "When the wind rushed across his face and the sense of balance and fluid movement, he felt exhilarated. Always a businessman, he sold his machine to buy parts to make two more." The machine they're talking about is the bicycle. "He bought a drill press, a lathe, and tools. He sold the next two he made, and then four, and then another eight, and orders kept coming and coming." So he realizes this unserved pent-up demand.

• 11:56David Senra?

  So it says, "More than anyone else in France, Clement took a feverish interest in modern bicycles. He saw that they would transform how everyone went places on public roads. Men and women were at liberty to hop on a bicycle and off they went, whenever and wherever they chose." So with Adolf and later Champion, we'll see that they just seize whatever opportunity is right in front of them. We've talked about this several times, where you have to get to the first opportunity before you can see the next one. And so he starts manufacturing bicycles. And then he sees, he's at a trade show one day and they're doing innovations. I think at the time, bicycle tires were like solid rubber.

• 12:33David Senra?

  And there's this small company called Dunlop that is making pneumatic tires. And he starts talking to the people running the company. He immediately leaves with them. I think they go back to Ireland. And he makes an investment out of the company. So it says, "Clement grew up with a peasant's frugality and spent only when unquestionably necessary. Investing in the Dunlop Pneumatic Tire Company was risky. The product was untried. It was just a prototype. It had no demand. The former locksmith wrote a cheque for 500 francs to buy 100 shares in the company. Always seeking to leverage every deal for maximum possible payback, Clement secured

• 13:17David Senra?

  a licence for exclusive manufacturing of Dunlop tires in France." And it winds up being an extremely profitable move for him. "If the tires did as well as he thought, his investment would turn into gold." So what did I mean about he has to, he just sees the opportunity that's in front of him and then builds upon that. Because he had so much experience manufacturing bicycles, he realized the...

• 13:37David Senra?

  The innovation that the Dunlop pneumatic tire was doing for, he's like, oh, this is clearly better, even if people were resistant to change. And so he picks up on, here's the problem, like, how do you introduce a brand new tire to a society that is resistant to change? And he does, he does a really smart move here to get initial traction. He's going to sell, initially sell the tire to those who would benefit and therefore pay most for a small improvement. Dunlop pneumatics faced a tough sale with the public forever wary about buying a new product. Only persuasive evidence could sway the public to accept change. Clement could count on the rabid racing crowd to try anything they thought

• 14:18David Senra?

  could give a competitive edge. And so they wind up buying the tire. They realize, hey, I can go a lot faster on it. Now, he also does something smart. At this time, a lot of events were put on by bicycle and tire manufacturers as a way to promote their products, right? So they, they come up with some, some unprecedented, uh, physical challenge. So in this case, they say, hey, let's do a 750 mile bike race. So it's 375 miles to one location from Paris to this, this, this town called Brest, and then back. Now, Champion is seeing this race, and this is, he's, pretty soon, his life is going to intersect with,

• 15:00David Senra?

  with Clement. But I want to stop here and tell you the, the lesson that Champion learned from this bike race that they put on. So there's two racers that, that are vying for first and second place. The first guy's name is Lavelle, and the second is Turan. So Lavelle arrives at the halfway point, the first 375 miles from Paris, right? And Lavelle heard a rumor that the person that was in second, this guy named Turan, was furious that he didn't, that he didn't arrive at the halfway point first. And so he decided, hey, I'm not going to win the race, so I'm going to rest for a night at the hotel. Because it's up to you if you wanted to, like, it's whoever can get there and back first. You can take a rest if you want to.

• 15:43David Senra?

  But so Lavelle slowed down and rested and got some sleep because he thought it was true, but the rumor was a ruse. And so Tarant never stopped. And this is what Champion learned from that. So it says, Champion learned that Tarant had grown up in the cramped congested slums of central Paris, just like, just like Champion did. Accord struck that with Champion that Tarant came from nothing. He was a nobody, just like Champion. Yet through the force of willpower, keeping his wits under extreme physical demands that made Laval give in and drawing on the strength of his body, Tarant turned into a grand winner. Perhaps Lavelle had more talent, which he showed as the first to reach breast. Nevertheless,

• 16:22David Senra?

  Tarant had greater tenacity, and that difference made him the victor. Parisians cried out Tarant's name with unreserved adulation. Such glory. Champion could see he could do that too. Tarant's feat of going on his, by his own means from Paris to breast and back in less than three days, he finished in 71 hours and 22 minutes, without any sleep whatsoever, evoked collective fascination. So this idea about the adulation of Parisians, seeking glory, collective fascination, these are huge motivators for a young, still poor Champion. He wanted the adulation of other people. He wanted, they call it la glory. He wanted

• 17:07David Senra?

  glory. And so he sees this person that came from very similar circumstances as he did. And he's like, well, he can do it. I can do it too. So at this point, Champion decides, hey, he's teaching other people. He's still working for bicycle shops and bicycle manufacturers. But he's, he decides to go and approach Adolf Clement and try to get a job. And this is something that, again, an inflection point in his life. 17 year old Champion gave up the job of instructing clients how to ride. He left to present himself to Clement. He entered the factory intent on securing a job oblivious to how it would become his school. That's such an important sentence in the book because he learned so many things. Again, Clement serves as Champion's blueprint. So Clement hires him, says, okay, you're going

• 17:52David Senra?

  to race for me. And then when you're not racing, this is very interesting. I didn't know this either because he also does a similar arrangement with a bicycle manufacturer in America when he immigrates to America. So they, they'll hire you to race, but when you're not racing, like if the season's off or in between your training sessions, you have to work in the factory. This is one thing that Champion learns while working for Clement. He has to run errands and fulfill any requests that Clement might have. So he sends him to this print shop and he learns something about how to make sure you're getting good value for your dollar. But also Clement is an evangelist for advertising. So he's printing these posters that advertise his bicycles, his manufacturing, right?

• 18:35David Senra?

  And he constantly preached about how important advertising was. When Champion has his own company, he will do the same. So it says Clement ordered couriers to expedite the posters to printers. Clement was shrewd about how he spent money. He took care not to rely on just one printer. He used several so he could get the best deal and the quickest turnaround. And so this is when the mentorship between Clement and Champion begin. Not only does Champion hold him in high regard, but Clement, as he gets to know Champion, realizes, oh, okay, like I need to help this kid out as much as possible because this is just a younger version of me. He says while Champion picked up information about his boss, he shared some of his background. Clement understood what it was like as a child to lose a parent, having lost his mother when he was just seven years old.

• 19:20David Senra?

  He assessed the youngster as deserving a chance to develop his talents. In Clement, Champion gained a tutor, albeit a rather driven man who put his work before family. Again, I pulled that out because that's an important lesson that he's learning and something that he copies again, which Champion came to assess as a consequence of constantly pushing his business ahead of the competition. So Champion, from the time he was a very, very young boy to the day he dies, is a complete and utter workaholic. He really doesn't have any other interests. When he was racing, he applies it to racing. When he's in business, he applies it to business. I don't think he ever has kids, gets married and divorced a few times, or actually gets

• 20:01David Senra?

  married twice, and largely both wives complain about the same thing, that he ignores them. When I was going back through my notes and thinking about all the lessons in the book, It's just not really surprising. When you give a boy who's extremely poor, dad's dead, he's 12 years old, he has to take care, he sees the labor that his mother has to go through, he's hell bent on like rescuing her from that kind of lifestyle. And if you tell that kid, hey, you know, if you, all you have to do is ride a bike really fast around a track and you can be wealthy beyond your means, he's gonna,

• 20:38David Senra?

  it's natural, maybe natural is not the right, the word, but it completely, I completely understood how he arrived at this conclusion and then never deviated from that, probably because he had a fear of, you know, going back into those circumstances. And again, he admired Clement and he's learning that from him. Now, I want to tell you more about Clement because again, he just does a lot of, the reason I want to read a book about him is because he's a large character in The Life Story of Albert Champion. This author goes through extensive detail about Clement and the way he builds his business. And I'm reading about him like, wow, that's a smart move. Wow, smart move, smart move. Just over and over again, he just does extremely smart and practical

• 21:20David Senra?

  things. And this is one of them. Just like he realized, hey, there's more opportunity for me in bicycles than locksmithing. He's now realizing, hey, the bicycle is soon going to be superseded by the automobile. And so he has the rights to manufacture Dunlop tires in France. So he starts investing in automobile manufacturers and making sure that they're using his tires. So it says Clement invested heavily in the company and made sure that his autos were equipped with Dunlops. He was appointed director of the corporate board. Clement felt sure the future of individual transportation was in autos. That's a very similar sentence when after his first bike ride, he's just like, okay, this is clearly better than feet or horse drawn transportation. And so now he goes all in on this.

• 22:05David Senra?

  Now, I want to talk to you before we get to Clement builds a successful automobile manufacturing company. But Albert Champion's 18 years old and Clement is sponsoring him as a racer. And so, these are the motivations of an 18-year-old Albert Champion. And I think this describes his personality throughout his entire life. And it gives us a good understanding of why he makes the decisions that he makes. He becomes addicted to this public adulation that he is showered in. So it says, "Racing was about making money for the dual compelling needs that invigorated him. He gained financial support for his family and the ego endorsement enjoyed by the entertainers and politicians. As his ego grew, he needed to impose himself on crowds of strangers and win their love.

• 22:49David Senra?

  Each race he won was greeted immediately with audience approval, followed by a bouquet of flowers, a victory lap, then a cash award." So this gives you a description of how he raced, but I would also say it's also later in his life, how he conducted his business. "Champion charged to the front early. He had a fierce drive to take supreme power like Napoleon." More about his personality. "Champion's nature was to plunge with formidable energy headlong into life and work without pausing for introspection." It's a trade publication at the time. Gives us a good description and indication of the kind of person he was. "He's perpetually afire with new ideas and ever-reaching for further achievements.

• 23:34David Senra?

  If he was without patience, hot-tempered, erratic at times, he was also versatile, amusing, brilliant, and delightfully companionable." Now, while he's racing for Clement, he wins a lot, gets a lot of press. And so, there's a trainer of other past champions that meets with Champion. And he wants to train him. He's like, "Listen, you're a young kid. You have a lot of potential. I can help you continue winning." This was really interesting. This is Champion's initial reaction. So this guy's nickname is Choppy Warburton. Okay? So it says, "Champion didn't see the need for the services of the Englishman." This is Champion talking now.

• 24:15David Senra?

  "I thought I had accomplished all anybody ought to be expected to do. Then along came Choppy Warburton, who said he wanted to train me. I asked him, 'What for? I thought I was pretty good, just as I was.' I remember Walburton smiled, and then he said, 'Well, you can never tell what for.'" Warburton offered two axioms from his experience about competition that impressed Champion. "No lead is too great to overcome, and you can't win unless you think you can." So that's also something he applies not only to racing, but to when he's building his company as well. Now, bringing up Choppy, because Choppy, again, outside of Clement and Durant, might

• 24:56David Senra?

  be the most important person that influenced Champion's thinking. And there's a lot of lessons that he learned from Choppy that he takes with him for the rest of his life. So Choppy was really, really big on exposing yourself to extremely strenuous training. Okay? So this is Champion reflecting on this training regimen that Choppy made him go through. It says, "But Choppy was doing something. He was educating me to take punishment. And whenever I began to tire in a race, the grueling training I had would permit me to overcome the fatigue and come out victorious time and time again."

• 25:39David Senra?

  And this is now Champion applying that lesson to other endeavors. He says, "No matter what game a man is in, he is only as big as the amount of punishment he is able to take. So I feel today that Choppy did a lot for me, not only in that respect, but in educating me on the importance of physical training. For as the old saying goes, 'You cannot be mentally fit unless you are physically fit.'" And not only that, think about it, he's 18 years old at the time when he meets Choppy. He needs a father figure. He's getting that somewhat from Adolf Clement, but Clement's also extremely busy. Choppy can give him the undivided attention, almost like you would receive from your dad. So they only spent a few years together before Choppy actually dies.

• 26:23David Senra?

  He dies of a heart attack at a rather young age. But this is how Champion remembers him, speaking about Choppy many years later. It says, "For the rest of his life, Champion described his manager as crucial to taking him out of Paris and expanding his outlook." So I want to go back to another idea that Champion learned from Clement. Clement decides, "Hey, you know what? The Center for Bicycle Manufacturers is in the United States. I need to go over there and see what I can learn from them." And at the time, he's building everything in his factories. It's like... Like artisans, like handmade. And the Americans have a completely different approach. So he says Clement visits some of the 300 other US bicycle companies. He came upon the innovation of machine stamping sheets of steel.

• 27:06David Senra?

  Stamping turned out parts faster and of higher quality than parts made by hand. Under the influence of Americans and their creative methods, Clement returned to Paris and reorganized his factory with production lines. So now he's sharing that, what he learned from the bicycle manufacturing in America, with Champion. He impressed upon Champion the need to keep abreast of the competition and never hesitate to innovate. This is extremely important. Remember this when Champion is determined to keep racking up patents on his innovations with spark plugs, about, I would say, almost two decades into the future from where we are now. But when I read that section, I thought about a quote by one of the co-founders of Intel that's been on my mind a lot lately. Bob Noyce was also, not only did he found Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor, but he

• 27:50David Senra?

  was an early mentor for young Steve Jobs. And he says, he has this great quote, he says, "Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied." And what I love about what Clement's doing to a young Champion is like, listen, I'm going and spending all this time, learning all this stuff, and I'm going to come back and I'm going to tell you some key lessons because you need as much help as you can get. And hopefully you could take these lessons with you in the future. And I just think, again, Champion's life was improved by a large degree because Clement had this mentorship for him. And so this one sentence gives you an impact, the idea of the impact that Clement had on Champion.

• 28:30David Senra?

  Albert Champion intended to grow up and become the next Adolf Clement. So I found this one paragraph really interesting. Champion befriends a journalist, this guy named Briar. And Briar is writing about and covering all, like, the professional cyclists, right? And he gives this insight into Champion's personality and the way he approached his craft, which I thought was really interesting. So it said Briar had heard reports about him, meaning Champion, pressing money unsolicited into the hands of neighbors so they could buy food and firewood to get them through the winter. He supported three younger brothers and provided enough that his widow mother retired from working as a washerwoman.

• 29:13David Senra?

  Briar assessed Champion as a gifted cyclist who was well-intended but had a complex personality. That's for sure, and I'll get to more of that later. How he can be so intelligent in one area of his life and so non-intelligent in another. This is the point about how he approaches his craft, though, and much different from other cyclists. Cycling was a pastime for Briar and multitudes of others, but Champion treated it as a profession. He had to. He was the family breadwinner. So right around this time, he's having huge success in this new career as a professional racer. There's a war breaking out in France, and you had to do a mandatory stint in the military.

• 29:56David Senra?

  And Albert wants to dodge the draft because he doesn't want to interrupt his career. He's got to take care of all these people. And so he gets a letter from this guy named Charles Herman Metz, who's a manufacturer of Orient Cycles. He's based in Boston, so he's one of the American bicycle manufacturers. And he offers Champion a contract. He's like, "Come over here for a year. I'll give you a salary of $25 a week, to give you an idea of how much money that was." At the time, the average American earned $9 a week. "So I'm going to pay you to race for me, and any winning, all your winnings, like any prize winnings, you keep all of that. And you can make $250 a race."

• 30:37David Senra?

  So a good amount of money, especially for an 18, 19-year-old Albert Champion. "So such a sparkling opportunity tempted Champion, yet it forced him into a dilemma. Ignoring his draft summons meant arrest and imprisonment." So Champion sneaks through England, gets on a ship, goes to America. Now, Metz is picking up on the same things that Clement is picking up. He's like, "You know what? Bicycles seem to be on their way out. I need to transition from bicycle manufacturing to automobile manufacturing." But he also has an idea that's very similar to Henry Ford, so I'll get there in one second. Let me give you an idea of how difficult making this decision at this time could have been.

• 31:19David Senra?

  So at the time, the population of America was 75 million people, right? They had already purchased 10 million bicycles. There was less than a few thousand cars in existence in America at the time. So a completely different scale. So it says Metz had hired Champion to race for him and to aid in his plan to shift from manufacturing bicycles to manufacturing automobiles. So it says, "One of their first conversations revolved around crafting a gas combustion engine small enough to fit on a bicycle." This is what I mean about he has almost a Henry Fordian idea. So if you put an engine on a bicycle, what do you have? You have a motorcycle, which was still awaiting development in America. Metz saw potential for an Orient motorcycle that the working class could afford.

• 32:04David Senra?

  This is Henry Ford's one idea, but applied to motorcycles, right? So he put Champion in charge of designing a single-seat, gas-combustion Orient motorcycle. And as fate would have it, the motorcycle, rather than cycling, would thrust him fully, meaning Champion, into the auto industry and his place in its nascent history. So they're selling, they want to sell this motorcycle for about $250. This is before, eventually with Henry Ford's innovations in manufacturing, I think the lowest price of the Model T gets down to like $275, maybe $250, right in there. But at this point, you're spending thousands of dollars for an American car. So the idea that you can make, hey, I can give you a bike with a motor on it, and it's

• 32:47David Senra?

  $250, like that'd be a revolutionary idea. This prototype motorcycle weighed only 105 pounds. It was a stunning achievement, and it marked an enormous advancement in motor-powered individual transportation. Now, at this time in America, the highest-paid athletes were bicycle racers. So let me give you, let me put some context. This is 1901 America, okay? A rough estimate of the winnings and salary for Champion came to $9,000. That's the equivalent in today's money of a quarter million dollars. Compared with Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Cy Young, who was earning a salary of $3,500, which would be the equivalent of $99,000 that year. Champion was one of the best-paid American athletes. Now, how are they making so much money?

• 33:32David Senra?

  Because the manufacturers are putting on all these events, right? These are the economics behind these events. Promoters offered marquee cyclists to a portion of the receipts, usually up to 40%, so 40% of ticket sales, to ensure that they would compete in their programs, encourage audiences to watch, and induce the press to write previews and then cover the events. Now, let me give you the idea of the scale that these events got to, which was shocking to me. At the time, Major League Baseball teams considered 5,000 fans seated in their ballpark a profitable day. Cyclists were selling tickets of 10,000 or more.

• 34:13David Senra?

  Right around this time, we still see his personality. Champion, quick-tempered as usual, grew disgusted with colleagues he saw riding with caution rather than daring.

• 34:25David Senra?

  Now, he's also, at this time, he's also racing early automobiles. And that decision to race early automobiles changes his life forever. And we see another aspect of his personality, who's, you know, he has a giant ego, obviously. And he has hubris. And right before a car race, so one other driver was racing this car, called like the Grey Wolf. In one day, you'd have different drivers racing the same car. So he's giving the car over to Albert, who's about to race it. And he's warning him, he's like, "This thing is dangerous." He says he cautioned, "If you take it, Albert, be careful. It has no brakes, and you must not forget how to shut off the engine before making that ugly turn."

• 35:07David Senra?

  "He answered me, 'I won't shut off the engine for any turns.'"

• 35:13David Senra?

  That's a bad idea. So he gets into a crash going around a turn. He was thrown out of the car at 20 feet, 20 feet into there and lands on the ground. "He was still conscious when he landed on the infield grass, but had no time to tuck into a ball to evade the onrushing car." This is how he remembers it. "She rolled over me, and my legs went numb." Champion's right arm was lacerated and almost torn from its socket. Blood poured from his head. His left femur, the heaviest and strongest bone in the human skeleton, was snapped in a jagged-edged compound fracture. White bone shoved through his bleeding flesh. Blood soaked his hip and both his legs."

• 35:56David Senra?

  This changes, he has, from now on, he has a shorter leg. One leg shorter than the other. If you ever see a picture of Albert Champion after this, he's always like cross-legged. It was his way when taking pictures to hide the fact that one leg was shorter than the other. Now, I bring this up because he spends months in the hospital. He has to learn how to walk again. He's got one shorter leg. But the most remarkable thing is, he's like, "Okay, I'm not gonna let this stop me from returning to be a professional bicycle racer."

• 36:25David Senra?

  And the reason he does this is because he's like, hey, I wanna, I want, I feel compelled to join in on the automobile revolution, right? But he doesn't have any money. So it's like, I don't know how to work my way into this. So he comes up with the idea. He's like, okay, what if I go back to France? Because they offer an amnesty for draft dodgers. So he can go back without getting arrested. And he says, if I go back to and race bicycles in France, I can make enough money in one year and get enough attention that I could then use that as a way to to get into the automobile, the American automobile industry. So he says, Champion felt the onus to create his own business to serve America's mushrooming auto production. He considered forming a company, taking advantage of his name recognition,

• 37:09David Senra?

  to import French automobile parts, especially spark plugs. To acquire the needed capital, he would have to win frequently in his final season as a pro cyclist. He determined to go all out for one last campaign, but not in America, in France. The purses were much bigger there, and he could win, and he could win the money he needed to in order to establish his own business. Albert staked his ambitious future on capturing a title and route to raising money to create his place in the nascent US auto industry. Now, he goes back to France, and he's telling his friends his plans. And this is, you know, he has to overcome a bunch of obstacles in his life. And one of them is the opinions of people around him. I'm back in France to get the dough, to get the dough I need to go back there, meaning America,

• 37:54David Senra?

  he told his friends. Not a chance, Albert. Banks aren't being very generous right now. Who's talking about banks? I'm going to earn cash on the track. With your leg? Yes, with my leg. I'll just use one crank, one crank shorter than the other. That's all. And what's even crazier is he winds up succeeding, and he wins the France, the national title in France. So he has a lot of press, stacks up a lot of money, and then uses his fame to become the exclusive importer on, there's this company called Newport, which is making some of the best spark plugs in the world. So he's like, okay, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna use my contacts that I have that they made back in America. I'm gonna sell your products. We're gonna import them from France, and I'm gonna sell them in Boston and Detroit.

• 38:39David Senra?

  So this is how he transitions from business after retiring from racing. He goes back to America. He says his new endeavor was to become the sole US agent importing engine parts from French manufacturers. He returned back to Boston. He brought trunks of Newport spark plugs, coils, magnetos, and storage batteries. Next, he shopped for a location to rent and set up his import business. Most cars made in America relied on imported ignition parts, and Champion sought to meet that demand.

• 39:08David Senra?

  Now, this is also another example of taking the opportunity that's in front of you first before you can move into the next one. He wants to be a manufacturer, but he can't just jump into manufacturing. He says, "Okay, I'll do the first logical step. I'll just resell other people's products, and then, once I master the sales process, I'll figure out how to manufacture my own, and now I can control both demand and supply." But he also needs another partner. He actually, and this is a really important meeting in his life. It's a short and tumultuous partnership that doesn't last very long, but it's also the way he meets Billy Durant. Adolf Clement, Choppy Warburton, and Billy Durant are probably the three most important people in Albert's life. So Albert's first partner owns a Buick dealership in Boston. Okay?

• 39:51David Senra?

  And he looks upon Champion as an unrecognized asset because he's a celebrity. He's a super famous in his time, so much so that when he has an affair later on, it makes like national headlines and stuff. Okay? So it says, "The French national cycle champion and the former hotel manager realized that although they came from different backgrounds, they now shared the same vision for automobiles." Now, this different backgrounds is actually going to cause a problem. The Stranahan family is very Victorian. They're very uptight. Champion's a wild man, and so you're not going to be able to control him. And so the Stranahans are very worried about public perception because their business is in hospitality. They own hotels. So I'll get the riff that this is going to cause in a minute.

• 40:36David Senra?

  Stranahan had run a bicycle shop before joining his father in the hotel trade. Stranahan valued celebrity star power as a commercial asset. Champion's World Records had promoted his name. In turn, Albert would have heard about the Savoy Hotel in Boston. Its classy reputation attested to Stranahan's bona fides in financial savvy and business management. The two men discussed how they could combine resources for their mutual benefits. Now, this is really fascinating. It's really hard for, as you see, professional athletes to transition from the life of an athlete to whatever they're going to do next, they need the next mission. But Champion does something really smart here, and it gives you an idea of how Champion approaches goals. And the way I would summarize this is you need to focus on what's in front of you.

• 41:18David Senra?

  Consumed by his new career, Champion left his previous accomplishments, documented in his scrapbook, locked in a trunk to be discovered decades later. Okay, so I just mentioned earlier that the partnership does not last long. This is the thing that eventually breaks the entire partnership. Champion is married. He gets caught having an affair with a woman who's also married. The affair makes national headlines, and his partners don't approve of the negative publicity. So it says, "The brazenness of his affair cracked open a rift between Champion and the Stranahan family." So I need to also tell you, it's Champion and then an entire family he's partnered

• 41:58David Senra?

  with, which is, again, not really a good situation to be in, because when you go home, the family's always going to cover their family over yours. They're going to put the family interest ahead of yours. And so it says, "The Stranahans caused a rift between Champion and the Stranahans, who were alert to a high standard of ethical behavior. The family matriarch recognized the damage his behavior could have to the family's name after their successful management of Boston's most important hotels." So the mother is not officially a part of the company. But when they go home, when they talk, she's instructing her sons. Like, you know, this is not good. You gotta get away from this guy. And you're gonna see why.

• 42:41David Senra?

  Says, "The Frenchman lived by his own rules and behaved like a pirate." When I read that, that actually, I don't know why, but it made me laugh. Behaving like a pirate part. "He and his partners now had basic differences. They were like water and oil." And before I get to the breakup of the partnership, he's gonna meet Billy Durant before they break up, or right at the end, when they're about to break up. Champion has a lot of interesting ideas on work and how he approaches it. It's, there's a bunch of paragraphs spread throughout the book on this. Here's one of them I think is interesting. "He liked to be seated at his desk every morning by 7 o'clock." He'd wake up like 5:30 in the morning and work out, and then shower, go to breakfast, and then, and then go to work. "He plowed through paperwork. He read trade journals and organized himself to make the most of his time."

• 43:24David Senra?

  He told an interviewer that one of his constant efforts was to manage his time for more and better work. Remember, this is the same, like, workaholic nature that he had even from a young, as a young, very young boy. "He explained that he always sought to improve everything he did. That goes back to his, his desire and his constant need for self-improvement." I remember, this is now a quote from Champion that's really interesting. And I think this, it gives you an insight into his mindset. "I remember a salesman one time telling me that he knew the game from A to Z. He stated that nobody could tell him anything about selling. That was to me the best proof possible that he knew nothing about selling. Because those who really understand merchandising, manufacturing, or anything else that is important in life,

• 44:08David Senra?

  are those who realize how little they really know about it, and how much there is to learn every day." I think that's a great mindset to have. Alfred P. Sloan, who I covered last week. Was intimately acquainted with Champion. They had, they, they both came up in similar ways in the sense that they were in, they were taken into the General Motors company by being part manufacturers, right? So Sloan manufactured bearings, Champion manufactures spark plugs. So this is what Sloan said about Champion that I think fits into, to what Champion was just saying about work.

• 44:48David Senra?

  So said, this was a direct quote from Sloan, "The key to his success was that he was never satisfied with the product or the job he was doing. His mind was always open to the necessity for constant improvement." Very hard not to like people like that. With a laugh, Champion once explained his passion for work during an interview. "You know the old line, everybody who has a hobby, whether it's golf, fishing, baseball, tennis, or whatnot, always has some good arguments for indulging in it. They find those arguments because they like the game they play." He's saying they rationalize, right? "Well, I like the game of work and I can find good arguments for it too."

• 45:29David Senra?

  Now, the, one of the most fascinating things about, you know, this multi-week series that we're on studying the early days of the automobile industry in, in America is how crazy these personalities are. They, their personalities jump off the pages. They, they, they just, they're very interesting people to study and learn about. And like the Dodge brothers, Albert was prone to settle disputes with fistfights. And that he's partnered with the two older Stranahan brothers. Then their younger brother comes into the business and he just, him and Albert never get along. And so this is what happens. Albert grew impatient with Robert butting into his shop.

• 46:11David Senra?

  Champion and the two elder Stranahan brothers had created the business before Robert joined their enterprise. But Robert felt entitled to learn the business that was co-founded by his brothers. A fistfight between Albert and Robert was inevitable.

• 46:27David Senra?

  So think about where we're at in the story. The mother thinks you're immoral and you're causing like a, you know, bad publicity of her family name. And now you're having fistfights with your partner's little brother. This situation cannot possibly last long. Luckily, this is where Champion meets Durant. Cause Stranahan, one of the older, the older Stranahan brother owns a Buick dealership. So Durant is coming into town. While in Boston, while in the Boston Buick dealership, Durant was arranging the sales room when Champion approached him with spark plug samples. So this is a really smart move by Champion too. Champion said, "I can make spark plugs out of porcelain." Durant paused. He realized at a glance that the samples were well made. Now this next part tells you, I mean, we kind of know on the two podcasts,

• 47:12David Senra?

  two or three podcasts I've done on Durant, that he emphasized speed. So Durant recruits Champion to move from Boston to Flint the same day they meet. It says Durant sounded out Champion before nudging the focus towards recruiting him to Flint. This is Durant writing later on about the meeting with Albert Champion. "If he were quite sure that he could make a plug that would answer our purpose, I suggest that we go to Flint. And if he liked the place and the layout, I would start an experimental plan. And he could make, and if he could make good, I would give him an interest in the business." That interest in the business that he gets makes Albert unbelievably wealthy. "He had never been to Flint, knew nothing of the Buick or the plans I had for the future."

• 47:54David Senra?

  So that statement's incredible when you realize that two days later, Champion's like, "Yeah, I'm all in." "The two men had spent most of the day together discussing automobiles and with Durant talking in his rapid, easy way." So not only was speed important to Durant, but it's also important to Champion because two days later, he comes back and he sets the terms with Durant. "Buick represented the biggest opportunity of Champion's career. Durant's serene confidence and proven success would have reminded Champion of his former Paris boss and mentor, Adolph Clement, the locksmith who had started a small enterprise and developed it into one of the continent's great automobile companies. Champion had no hesitation about leaving his partners for a fresh start in Michigan,

• 48:37David Senra?

  which was becoming the heartland of automobile commerce."

• 48:42David Senra?

  So I'm going to fast forward here. I moved to Flint, get set up. Look how fast, the fast progress he made within a year. A year after Champion moved to Flint, Durant was back in his office to pore over the Champion Ignition Company balance sheet. This is now Durant writing. Champion had paid back the initial investment and had over $100,000 in the bank. I told him I had seen his statement and I was most pleased with the report. Durant organized Champion's company as a partially owned subsidiary of General Motors, which Champion is president. Durant awarded him one quarter of the stock. The Champion Ignition Company was now making spark plugs that powered Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Cadillacs.

• 49:25David Senra?

  This is how he worked while he was running his company in Flint. We see very similar, very similar approach as he had back in Boston and then when he was racing in Europe. Champion launched his 12-hour workdays by seating himself at his desk. Some days, he left his desk only for lunch in the cafeteria. Champion had a forceful personality. He was impatient and demanding. He was strict about keeping production on schedule and expected his money's worth of wages. So they're in Flint, Michigan at the time. It's kind of like a backwards town, you know? You have the automobile industry and not much else. It was, it was transitioning from lumber and other agriculture.

• 50:02David Senra?

  And who's also in the area at this time is Louis Chevrolet, who is also French and partners with Durant. And so Champion and Chevrolet wind up building a friendship and they have a lot in common. So it lists, not only they both speak French, obviously, but it says they both had an intense passion for speed. They were born the same year. They both had the same middle name. They both set a fair number of world records. They had survived high-speed crashes that put them in hospitals. Both men carried so many scars on their bodies that they could regal an audience over drinks with a catalog of outrageous stories about broken bones and mangled machines. It was inevitable they would, they would do business together.

• 50:44David Senra?

  But before they could do business together, Durant has to have his falling out with Chevrolet. Now, the reason, I've already covered this, so I'm not gonna belabor the point here. But again, this is just to show you how ahead of his time that Durant was, okay? So, this is the falling out of Durant Chevrolet. But more importantly, this is the strategy that works about 15 years into the future when it is employed by Alfred Sloan. This is the niche, I love this idea that we went over last week with Albert Sloan, the idea of widening a niche. And this is the niche that Sloan widens to overtake Ford. But again, this happens a decade and a half from where we are now. Louis Chevrolet and Billy Durant had different tastes.

• 51:27David Senra?

  Louis wanted a stylish, luxury car capable of going fast enough to get the driver arrested. That happened to both Louis and Albert multiple times. Durant was trying to figure out how to produce a cheap car to challenge Henry Ford's Model T, which is again, what Sloan is able to do. So Durant has a falling out with Louis Chevrolet. Louis leaves Durant, but goes into business on his own. And Albert finances him. Okay, remember I said Albert is, like most people who listen, we have complex personalities. We, I'm sure you do intelligent, really intelligent things from time to time and do dumb things. I'm the same way. When you read these stories though, and you can see it from like an outsider's perspective, it gets, it just becomes really frustrating because what, what Albert's gonna do here is really, really dumb.

• 52:12David Senra?

  First, what was really, really smart, hey, let me find, Chevrolet's really talented, has a, has a, like a well-known name. Let me finance his auto company, which he does. That's the smart thing. I'll get to the dumb thing in a minute. It says, so it says, Champion had deep pockets. Beyond his salary, he's chief executive of the Champion Ignition Company. His salary from the dividends that he was able to get from his interest in the company, he made about, what would be equivalent of $12 million today. So he's making that money, but he's also making money because in 1910, he was granted a patent for an insulator and conductor for electric currents, which were used in GM Autos. So this resulted in substantial annual royalty from GM. So he's making money hand over fist here.

• 52:57David Senra?

  So it says Albert's financing Louis's new, Louis's new motor car company. They operated with the same arrangement Louis had in his early stages with Durant, which means Albert had to pay the rent, utilities, material costs, other expenses, and also a small salary for Louis and his other people working with him while he was getting the car in production. But before he ever gets in the car production,

• 53:20David Senra?

  Champion does something dumb. Champion, while Louis is working at the company that he's financing, Champion goes to Louis's house to try to sleep with his wife. So it says, "One day in early 1915, Louis was at work in Detroit when Albert visited Suzanne," that's Louis's wife, "at home. He went to Suzanne with the intention of having an affair," remember, he's also married at the time, "and betraying Louis. Despite his considerable financial support and friendship with Louis," this is scumbag stuff here, "Albert risked everything. Suzanne spurned him. When Louis came home from work, she told her husband. Louis exploded in rage. The following morning, Louis had fire in his eyes as he barged with bear-like strength

• 54:05David Senra?

  through the door of his now ex-friend's private office, fuming that he had been mortally wronged. Albert stood up behind his desk and they yelled back in French. The confrontation escalated like wildfire. Louis, a head taller and 50 pounds heavier, attacked Champion's with his fists. If the fight were a boxing match, ringside reporters would have scored it in favor of Louis, who beat Champion almost to death. He warned Champion never to cross his path again, or he'd finish him off." So this is, again, extremely intelligent in competition, in business. This thing, though, resorting to fists and messing around and with all these married, having these affairs, ruins him.

• 54:50David Senra?

  Remember, he has a tragic ending. He dies extremely early. This is a preview of this. A direct result of a physical confrontation and from infidelity causes his death, which is really, really tragic because he was extremely young. He's 49 years old when he dies. All right, so that was dumb on Champion's part. This was smart. Champion invested heavily in research and development. Here's why. "I spent a fortune on spark plug experiments at the start. My friends thought I was crazy. I knew I was right. He put prototypes through long and rigorous tests before submitting patent applications." So this is why he was doing it. "More durable spark plugs would benefit passenger cars. To keep ahead of the race is what brings success," Albert Champion said.

• 55:35David Senra?

  "It makes the great racer, it makes a successful businessman. No Champion ever arrived resting on the oars."

• 55:43David Senra?

  This is his philosophy on work and how it relates to his days as an athlete. This is really interesting insight. He climbed aboard trains, taking him around the country to personally solicit business from the blunt-talking, hard-working, ingenious carmakers shaping the industry. So he talks about all that. He didn't relegate himself to just one aspect of the business. He learned all of it. So he's doing personal sales. Says he was also capable of talking with experts about the finest of raw materials found in America and imported from France and England. He had a craftsman's knowledge of firing clay into porcelain. He bought materials and conducted extensive experiments, assisting the chemists in the company laboratory. He adapted manufacturing techniques without precedent. He designed original machinery to save time and labor while raising the quality of his products.

• 56:28David Senra?

  He preferred to say that the people on his payroll did not so much work for Albert Champion as to work with him. He says, "I've always felt that the education and training I received as a bicycle racer was a great help in business because it is a game in which you train to fight and win." He emphasized that experimenting and learning leads to progress. "I always remember what a friend of mine once told me." He was a well-known chemist, an authority in the automobile world. "He said that four times during his life, he had to scrap his knowledge of chemistry and begin again at the start. He was not happy about it, but he said he is ready to do the same thing over and over again when it is necessary." All right, so I need to give you the state of his business and life in 1926. This is a year before he dies.

• 57:11David Senra?

  This is what makes it so hard to stomach. When he dies at the end of the book, it feels like you're the one that gets punched. By 1926, he had 25 US patents. He was broadening his product lines into air filters and oil filters. GM that year would make 1.2 million cars. Champion's career was soaring. His domestic life, however, had turned Well, violent. Even though Edna was a midwestern, midwesterner, she chafed at having to live in Flint. She preferred the bright, the bright lights and hustle of New York. So I need to tell you who this person is. Edna is his second wife. Okay. He gets caught having an affair with Edna while he was married to his first wife. And his first wife gets him, they had some really weird laws at the time.

• 57:56David Senra?

  His first wife gets him in jail, put in jail because she hires a private detective that catches him having this affair with Edna. After they divorce, he marries Edna. Okay. Now, here's the problem with Edna. She just, she, they, she originally grew up in the Midwest. Her mom moves her to New York City for the sole purpose of marrying a rich guy. That's all her mom's own words. She's a gold, she's literally a gold digger. Um, she meets Champion in New York City. That's where they have the affair. She breaks up, he decides, hey, I'm going to divorce my first wife and I'm going to marry Edna. Edna is the single biggest mistake of Albert Champion's life. She is pure evil and you'll see what I mean in a minute.

• 58:39David Senra?

  Um, now the complaints that Edna has about him is very similar to the complaints that his first wife had about him. He's a workaholic. So it says, despite of all of Champion's success, he and Edna bickered more and more often about money. She came to realize that work was more important to him than marriage. Again, if he wants to be a workaholic, people should be free to do what they want to do. Um, but why are you getting married? He, he can spend what, a couple of minutes with her a day? And this is an example of that. When Champion left the factory around five o'clock, he carried with him a leather briefcase, which he dubbed his traveling desk. He filled it with letters and memorando that crossed his desk during the day so he could read, read them as his chauffeur drove him some 40, 40 minutes home. Once there, he walked the two family dogs around the grounds.

• 59:22David Senra?

  He then died with, dined with Edna at the usual time. Then he extracted more papers from his traveling desk to prepare for the next agenda. So he essentially will have dinner with you and then I'm going to go back to work. At 49, he had no intention of slowing down his schedule. Okay. So he's about to take a trip. To from Michigan backed for the to Paris for the Paris Auto Show. And he says this right before he dies. Um, the Detroit News ran a, a, a article on him. It says, work is Albert Champion's main pastime. He says he can't quit now. People say to me, Albert, you have all the money you'll ever want. Why in the world don't you stop and have a good time? I always laugh. If they only realized it, I'm having the time of my life right now.

• 1:00:06David Senra?

  That makes his death that's coming in a few months from now even more heartbreaking. So right before he leaves the auto show in France, he doesn't have any kids, but he's supporting his brother. Uh, his brother works with them. His two of his brothers work, work with them and his nephews are gonna, are also working in the factory. So this is what he says right, but this is so crazy. This is what he says right before he leaves for the auto show in France. He's gonna die in France. Okay. He told Prosper, that's his little brother, that when he gets back, he's gonna rewrite, he's gonna rewrite his will, which at the, at this time left everything to Edna. And he wanted to make sure that at least half of his estate would go to his nephews. But first he had to attend the annual Paris Auto Salon.

• 1:00:48David Senra?

  The last time him and Edna were in Paris, he was too busy with work. So he asked his friend Barney Oldfield. Barney Oldfield was the person, was the race car driver that drove for Henry Ford's. Uh, Henry Ford designed race cars in like 1900 and he used, and they won a bunch of races. And he used that press to raise money for his first company. Okay. So that's a connection there. Now Barney and Albert were friends. Last time before this, this time he goes to, to France, he's too busy to pick up his wife from the train. So he asked Barney to go pick her up. Barney brings his friend Charlie, who's an expat from America. Charlie meets Edna and they start having an affair. Okay. And it comes from the fact that his, her husband's too busy to give her any kind of attention.

• 1:01:33David Senra?

  All right. So while the second time now, Edna is going with Albert to this auto show in France. And while he's working, she's meeting up and having an affair with Charlie. Charlie is the person. Champion's gonna find, discover this affair in person. They get into a fight, and this is how Albert dies. This is a fight that ends his life. Champion spotted Edna in the lounge. Albert approached the table. The well-mannered hush of the lounge was suddenly broken when he demanded that his wife accompany him immediately back to the hotel. A confrontation seemed imminent. Champion erupted with jealousy. He and Charlie argued over Edna, their words escalating louder and harsher. Finally, blows were struck.

• 1:02:18David Senra?

  Then Champion staggered off. A few hours after the fight, Albert dies at the age of 49. Initially, Edna and Champion are arrested, but then they can't prove it because they think he died of a heart attack, but he can't prove that the punch caused the heart attack. And they get released a few days later. I called Edna pure evil, and this is why. They get, Charlie and Edna are released, and they're released a day, I think the same day, or maybe the day before Albert's memorial service, his funeral. And I'll read this, I'll read this to you, and this is disgusting. "Edna was robed in widow's black.

• 1:03:03David Senra?

  Charlie sat next to her. Now he was gone, and she inherited his millions. She gets his entire estate. She would no longer have to live in Flint. She could now afford a luxurious life in New York. Later, it was said that she giggled and laughed into her handkerchief through the ceremony." After he died, the Associated Press stated, "His death closed a career as brilliant as that of any Horatio Al Gore hero. From airborne boy in Paris to millionaire automobile accessory manufacturer in America. The spark plug designs, dashboards, pedometers, and companies Champion started have stood the test of time. Today, the Champion spark plug and AC Delco brand names are recognized around the world.

• 1:03:46David Senra?

  More than 200,000 people a year attend performances at the Boston Center for the Arts, all passing the brass plate celebrating the Albert Champion Company, where he had made his first Champion spark plugs. Approximately 50 million vehicles operating in the United States are currently on the road with AC Delco spark plugs, filters, brakes, and other components. And every April at the Paris Classic Bicycle Racer, another winner's name is added to Albert Champion's on the roster of legends."

• 1:04:20David Senra?

  I'll leave the story there. That's 123 books done, 1,000 to go. If you buy the book using the link that's in the show notes, you'll be supporting the podcast at the same time. And I'll talk to you again soon.