My guest today is NYT best selling author, William Cohan. William has just released a new book titled Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon. It’s the incredible story of General Electric, which at many points over its 130 year history was the largest and most admired company in the world. We sometimes take for granted all of the many innovations that came out of GE like, for starters.. Electricity. As well as diesel locomotives, jet engines, water treatment systems, power grids, diagnostic and imaging products for health care, and media and entertainment through NBCUniversal and RCA.The book is as big as a Harry Potter sequel at nearly 800 pages and, if you’re listening to this show, probably more entertaining! With over 17 years on Wall Street and the opportunity to work at GE Capital for a few years, William's insights and research are unparalleled. 📌 A quick note that we had a couple of technical difficulties during the recording, resulting in a microphone change for William towards the back half, but the audio quality did improve. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:35 - The origin story of GE, starting with founder Thomas Edison with backing from JP Morgan 00:08:28 - Why Charlie Coffin might be the best CEO of all time 00:17:17 - The dark side of Jack Welch and his career at GE, as well as the many successes 00:27:08 - The many cycles that repeated over its 130 year history 00:37:48 - Why the company has now been deconstructed into 3 separate entities  00:46:34 - How Jeff could have saved the company by listening to Bill Gross and Jim Grant 00:50:02 - The debate on whether Jack handed his successor, Jeff Immelt, a “royal flush” or an open grenade.  00:52:59 - Warren Buffett’s bet on the company ✔️ Subscribe to the We Study Billionaires channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/WeStudyBillionaires  🎧 Listen to our episodes here: https://open.spotify.com/show/28RHOkXkuHuotUrkCdvlOP 🖊️ Access our free show notes and transcript here: https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/episodes/the-epic-collapse-of-ge-w-william-cohan/ 📖 BOOK MENTIONED: - Power Failure by William Cohan: https://amzn.to/3YI6shg Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links that we may earn commission from. This helps keep our show going! 😀 💡 OTHER RESOURCES - Visit William’s website: https://williamcohan.com/about/ - GE website: https://www.ge.com/ - Seeking Alpha is a crowd-sourced content service for financial markets. Take control of your financial future — Use our link here for a special $140 discount: https://bit.ly/3WG6WU3 ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ABOUT OUR SHOW 🎙  On We Study Billionaires, we interview and study famous financial billionaires including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Ray Dalio. We teach you what we learn and how you can apply their investment strategies in the stock market. 🌍 Website: https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/we-study-billionaires/  ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ LISTEN OR WATCH 🎧 OTHER SHOWS FROM OUR NETWORK: 🏆 Learn from high-profile guests on how to succeed in markets and life on Richer, Wiser, Happier: https://bit.ly/3p3pcHZ  💸 Get introduced to the world of investing and business on Millennial Investing: https://bit.ly/3QakOTf 🏘 Learn the ins and outs of real estate investing on Real Estate 101: https://bit.ly/3JDBXm1  ₿ Get updated on all things Bitcoin on Bitcoin Fundamentals: https://bit.ly/3JEE1di  💰 Learn everything you need to know about investing on The Investor’s Podcast Network: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheInvestorsPodcastNetwork  ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ OUR FREE INVESTING COURSES/RESOURCES: 📧Stay up-to-date on financial markets and investing strategies with our daily newsletter, We Study Markets: https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/newsletters/  📱Check out our hosts’ favorite apps and services for investing, personal finance, and education: https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/affiliates/  🔥 If that is not enough:  https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/tip-academy/ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ WHO I AM: I’m Trey Lockerbie and host of We Study Billionaires🎙. I used to study options trading but pivoted to value investing 💵 after a life-altering dinner with Warren Buffet. Back in the day I was traveling around the world as a musician, but I’ve now settled in Los Angeles with my wife and two children. Together with my wife I started Better Booch 🥃 - a nationally distributed Kombucha company. ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ GET IN TOUCH WITH ME 💬: I’d love to hear from you! Send me a tweet 🐦 directly at https://twitter.com/TreyLockerbie if you’d like to have a quick exchange of thoughts! ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ⏤ ❗ DISCLAIMER: This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any decisions consult a professional. This show is copyrighted by The Investor’s Podcast Network. Written permission must be granted before syndication or rebroadcasting.