3 Wild Stories to Get You Hyped This Week

TL;DR

Three “lore” stories are presented: (1) Amadeo Giannini founded Bank of Italy (later Bank of America), took no equity, never paid himself more than $50k/year, lent on handshakes after the 1906 earthquake with zero defaults, funded Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Key insights

• Giannini’s bank lent to “the little man” on no collateral after the 1906 earthquake, and every single loan was repaid.
• He pioneered the bank branch model, syncing ledgers centrally while keeping local branches.
• He never owned a single share of Bank of America and capped his salary at $50k/year; his philosophy: “serving the needs of others is the only legitimate business.”