Business Timeline Spreadsheets

A method for tracking and analyzing business success stories through detailed timeline spreadsheets, focusing on milestones and financial data.

Core Tracking Method

• Create Google sheets for each biography/company studied
• Track key milestones chronologically since 2010
• Convert historical dollar amounts to current year values
• Document years between major events to understand realistic timelines
• Focus on capturing both successes and periods of struggle

What to Track

• Birth dates/founding dates
• Key career/business milestones
• Financial transactions and valuations
• Major turning points
• Periods of difficulty or stagnation
• Time gaps between significant events

Why Track This Way

• Provides reality check on success timelines
• Shows that major success often takes decades
• Helps contextualize current struggles by seeing historical patterns
• Converts historical money into today's values for better understanding
• Creates reference material for future decision making

Example: Koch Industries Timeline

• 1900: Fred Koch born
• 1924: Finds mentor (24-year gap)
• 1927: Still financially struggling
• 1929: First signs of success
• 1931: "Big success"
• 1940: Buys company for $4M

Benefits

• Reveals realistic timeframes for success
• Shows patterns across different business leaders
• Helps maintain perspective during challenging times
• Creates database of historical business patterns
• Allows for better pattern recognition across different success stories