No. 284 June 7, 2025
Welcome to this week’s Friday Five: insights, inspiration, and a few personal favorites to kick off your weekend.
Music of the Week
Lake Street Dive was formed in the mid-2000s in Boston. Founding band members include Rachael Price, Mike Olson, Bridget Kearney, and Mike Calabrese. Keyboardist Akie Bermiss joined the band later, while guitarist James Cornelison joined after Olson left the band. A few of my favorite tracks include Hypotheticals, Rich Girl, and Mistakes.
Quotes of the Week
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. – Mark Twain
There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, ‘Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,’ and an optimist who says, ‘Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine any way.’ Either way, nothing happens. – Yvon Chouinard
Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: Is this the condition that I feared? – Seneca
Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive. – Andy Grove
Articles of the Week
“Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored.” Productivity
“The dumber the disagreements, the better the world actually is.” Minimum Levels of Stress
“You rarely, if ever, change the world by doing the same thing as everybody else.” CEO Andy Jassy’s 2024 Letter to Shareholders
“So what is the secret to Swift’s long-term success? In my view, it can be attributed to four behaviors: targeting untapped markets, finding opportunities to create stickiness, maintaining productive paranoia, and adapting to radical shifts in platforms.” The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift
Book of the Week
Poor Richard’s Almanack by Benjamin Franklin offers timeless insights arguably more valuable today than when the book was published more than 200 years ago. Franklin shares rules to live by through the use of proverbs. Topics he covers include money, friendship, marriage, ethics, and human nature. The book is full of Franklin’s wit and wisdom. Other American Revolution books to check out include The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown | and Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution.
Podcasts of the Week
Acquired with Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal is a podcast that tells the stories of historic companies. Both share the playbook that the greatest companies of all time used to create enduring enterprises. Acquired also helps you find ways to implement these playbooks for your business. A recent episode I enjoyed was Charlie Munger.
Enjoyed this? Hit reply and let me know what resonated — or forward to a friend who might like it too.
Until next week,
Michael
