0.   Every year since 2000, Walmart and Exxon have shared the top two spots on the Fortune 500 list, alternating (mostly) with the price of oil.

0.   Subway has the most outlets—but with lower sales per store.

0.   In school, that’s called cheating and gets you into trouble. In the real world, it’s called market research.

0.   As of 2013, Tesco was planning to exit the American and Japanese markets: http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=544.

0.   It seems Trujillo’s lasting influence was more in Europe than in the United States. Google Bernardo Trujillo and you’ll find that he has a Wikipedia page … in French, but none in English.

0.   Financial year ending 31 May 1967.

0.   For an example, see my post “Warren Buffett’s ‘Split Personality’: How His Business and Political Philosophies Just Don’t Get Along with Each Other.” marktier.com/split

0.   The American Airlines incident is an example of the effect of unions on a company culture at that time (in the 1980s), not the American culture as a whole. A similar example: when management and unions at United Airlines were at loggerheads, many cabin staff wore badges saying I JUST WORK HERE.

0.   http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html.

0.   Yes, that’s how long ago it was. Pan Am went bankrupt in 1991.

0.   For example, see this Quora discussion: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-perfect-startup-team.

0.   And quite possibly will never take off. The concept—using travelers to carry packages for third parties—falls afoul of the question every airline passenger is asked nowadays: “Are you carrying anything for someone else?”

0.   But see www.smallbusinessideasblog.com/passion-business.

0.   Turns out this is not an original idea after all: see bikini-baristas.com. So it goes.

0.   For more on names and slogans for your business, see Mark Tier, “How I Saved Singapore Airlines (from Making a Big Mistake),” marktier.com/sq.

0.   See https://opendata.socrata.com/Business/Franchise-Failureby-Brand2011/5qh7-7usu, and sort by failure rate.

0.   http://business.inquirer.net/106789/in-the-restaurant-business-wisdom-is-the-dividend.

0.   All population figures for 2014.

0.   Whether they agree about anything else I have no idea. But quite possibly not.

0.   Which does not prevent Thiel from investing in copycat start-ups. For example, Thiel’s Founders Fund is an investor in Lyft, an Uber copycat.

0.   It’s only an analogy: a business is neither perpetual nor a machine.

0.   Note that all of these sources of cash can be negative if the company buys back shares (1), repays debt (2), has a low credit rating so it has to buy everything for cash while giving credit to customers (3), or purchases an asset (4).

0.   GAAP is short for “generally accepted accounting principles.”

0.   The formula used by oldschoolvalue.com (see appendix 4, “Resources,”): IV = EPS x (7 + g) x 4.4 / Y.

0.   For more on exit strategies, see chapter 14 of my book The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros.

0.   These steps, their crucial importance, and how they fit into an investor’s overall approach, are covered in detail in The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros. Since building a successful investment strategy is a book-length topic, I refer you to the one I have already written rather than repeat myself here.

0.   And when was the last time you sent a fax—or a telegram!?

0.   For example, I can still feel the pride I felt when, in primary school, I was taken from first grade directly into third grade.

0.   The world’s number one tea chain turns out to be Chatime, a Taiwanese bubble tea “teahouse.” It’s called a teahouse even though it has no resemblance whatsoever to a traditional Chinese teahouse. The other Taiwanese chains listed above are also bubble tea outlets. Sources: company Websites, yelp.com, and elsewhere.

0.   Between them, these four chains have eighty-four locations in France. At one per 1.25 million people, their penetration is similar to TWG’s presence in its home market.

0.   If you want to run a credit check on a UK company, Henry will be happy to help you out. See appendix 4, “Resources,”.

0.   One possible reason for the failure of Teavana’s tea bars: unlike most other tea cafés, no coffee.

0.   For example, see this company-produced video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLr68UBhw0o.

0.   www.qsrmagazine.com/competition/great-spin.

0.   For more, see this video from Bloomberg: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uERmpNGgaJA; and this interview with Steve Ells: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmH73Diqf5Q.

0.   See this article from the Washington Post: “E. coli? The Chipotle Cult Scoffs: ‘We’re Totally Willing to Throw up a Little.’”

0.   For example, see this article from Bloomberg Business: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-02-26/why-chipotle-sales-are-low-in-london.

0.   Full disclosure: this book, in case you haven’t noticed, is full of stories.

0.   To anyone acquainted with psychology, this is a familiar concept, termed subpersonalities. Each of us carries mental replicas of the most important people in our lives. Almost always that includes one’s mother and father—who time and again rule someone’s behavior long after they have passed away. Often, other significant people, too: a grandparent, aunt, or uncle, and/or someone who was a major inspiration, a “guru figure” of some kind. Such as those people, children or employees, who grew up following an inspirational leader like Howard Schultz, John Mackey, Sam Walton, or Ray Kroc.

0.   This topic is the subject of chapter 2 of The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros.

0.   For more on these two books see “Running (or Starting) a Business? Here Are Two Must-Have ‘Guide Books.’” http://marktier.com/running-or-starting-a-business-here-are-two-must-have-guide-books.