No. 294 | August 15, 2025
Welcome to this week’s Friday Five — a quick dose of insights, inspiration, and personal favorites to kick off your weekend with clarity and intention.
Music of the Week
Rebirth Brass Band, a New Orleans institution, has been bringing the city’s streets and stages to life for decades. Founded in the early 1980s by Phillip “Tuba Phil” Frazier, Keith Frazier, and Kermit Ruffins, Rebirth became a cornerstone of the city’s music scene. They’ve earned multiple awards, including a Grammy, for their unique blend of brass, funk, jazz, soul, and hip-hop. If you’re new to Rebirth, start with a few of my favorites: Do Watcha Wanna, Feel Like Funkin’ It Up, and Tubaluba—they capture the energy and soul of the band perfectly.
Quotes of the Week
Lately, I’ve been leaning on quotes that help me through challenging times in my business. When I step back, I remember that someone is always facing even tougher challenges—and that perspective is a relief. These are the quotes I’ve been returning to when I need to calm my inner storm.
“The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” – Robert Jordan
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
Articles of the Week
“I never intend to retire. Work made the earth paradise for me.” – Thomas Edison
Edison exemplifies what it means to persevere as an entrepreneur. He spent years perfecting systems and inventing new products, confident they would succeed.
Another lesson from Edison: go all in when you have conviction. He wasn’t afraid to bet the farm when he believed in a product’s market fit.
A third lesson is the sheer level of effort he devoted to his work. Work wasn’t a job for Edison; it was everything.
He also offered a cautionary tale about ego, famously inviting reporters to his lab to show a time clock tracking the astonishing hours he logged.
I don’t follow every lesson from Edison, but a few have been invaluable to me. I wrote an article covering my deep dive into the book The Wizard of Menlo Park, which gives the full story of this remarkable entrepreneur.
Book of the Week
The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World’s Fastest-Growing Sport is a book I wouldn’t have picked up before I got into F1 a few years ago.
Written by two Wall Street Journal reporters, it covers F1’s breakthrough in America, the eclectic cast of characters in its history, the personalities it attracts, the engineering prodigies behind the modern F1 car, and the bitter rivalries that keep me glued to live races.
F1 had an early presence in the US, but never caught on, always trailing NASCAR and IndyCAR in popularity. Fast forward to today—F1 now leads the pack in American fan interest.
One of the many parts I enjoyed was learning how F1 saved itself from collapse and eventually conquered America. The sport kept evolving and experimenting until it found its niche in the U.S.
Bernie Ecclestone, Adrian Newey, and Dietrich Mateschitz are just a few of the characters the books center on—each leaving their mark on F1’s rise.
Whether you’re an F1 fanatic or a casual fan like me, The Formula is worth a read.
Podcast of the Week
The Acquired podcast makes the case that Google Search is the single best business ever created — and after listening to their deep dive on Google, I can’t disagree.
Google started as a Stanford research project called BackRub and eventually became the front door to the internet.
Fast forward to today — Google generates more profit than any other U.S. company, beating out Apple, Microsoft, and even Berkshire Hathaway.
Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page started BackRub in the mid-1990s, when most search companies were squeaking by as vendors for dominant portals like AOL and Yahoo.
Google pulled ahead of its competitors through its innovations in its algorithms, infrastructure, and business model. You know the rest.
🎧 Listen to the episode on Spotify — it’s one I thoroughly enjoyed.
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