William Stern - Invidious

William Stern

Follow William Stern, Founder and CEO of Cardiff as he shares short clips of his hit entrepreneur podcast, A Stern Talk. $10BN funded in biz loans.

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William Stern

They were the kings of the toy industry.

Toys R Us had it all—brand dominance, massive inventory, loyal customers, and retail locations in every city.

When the dot-com wave hit, they saw the future coming.
They knew e-commerce would change everything.

So what did they do? They took the easy path.
They struck a deal with Amazon.

I break down this entire story & lessons YOU can learn from it in this video: https://youtu.be/2s7z_qfnJoc

They Let Amazon handle the online stuff.
Let them manage the website.
Let them deal with the logistics.

Convenient? Absolutely.
Strategic? Not even close.

Because Amazon wasn’t just fulfilling orders.
They were learning.

They were studying buyer behavior, understanding the market, and building internal infrastructure while Toys R Us slept.

By the time the contract ended…
Amazon didn’t need Toys R Us anymore.

They kept the data.
They kept the relationships.
They kept the entire market.

And Toys R Us?
They lost the most valuable thing a business can own:
Control of their future.

Here's the punchline:
What’s convenient now will cost you later.

It’ll cost you control.
It’ll cost you leverage.
It might even cost you the company.

Speed is good.
But not when it shortcuts sovereignty.

Founders love the fast path.
The done-for-you platform.
The white-labeled backend.

But if you're not careful, you're building on someone else’s land.

And when the time comes, they’ll pull the rug—just like Amazon did.

The real move?
Build your own rails.
Control your pipeline.
Don’t outsource the one thing you can't afford to lose: your customer.

That’s how you scale with power.
That’s how you protect the mission.
That’s how you win long term.

5 months ago | [YT] | 1

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William Stern

There was a season in my life where I was “busy” from morning to midnight… but the business wasn’t actually moving.

Then I realized: it wasn’t a talent problem. It wasn’t a team problem.
It was a calendar problem. I was filling my days instead of owning them.

Saying “yes” to noise… and “later” to what really mattered.

If that’s where you are right now, this carousel is for you.

✅️ 5 principles that helped me buy back my mornings, simplify my business, and scale with less chaos.

Don’t just save this. Live it.

And when you're ready for the room where $10M is the starting point...
We're building that over at The Fraternity with @therealbradlea (LINK IN BIO)

Let’s go.

— William Stern