No. 297 | September 5, 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
Troy Andrews, better known as Trombone Shorty, is a trombone player from New Orleans who blends rock, pop, jazz, funk, and hip-hop. He started playing trombone at age 4, performed at the New Orleans Jazz Fest that same year, and formed his first band by age 6—remarkable milestones. If you’re new to Trombone Shorty, start with Line Em Up, Backatown, and Shortyville.
Quotes of the Week
This week, I focused on preparing for challenges and controlling what’s within my power. Both ideas are powerful—training in the offseason strengthens performance, and letting go of what’s beyond your control brings peace of mind.
“Sweat more in practice, bleed less in war.” — Leonidas of Sparta
“Hard training, easy fighting. Easy training, hard fighting.” — Alexander Suvorov (Russian general)
“Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine. Most people die tomorrow night.” — Jack Ma (Alibaba)
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” — Epictetus
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.” — Marcus Aurelius
Article of the Week
He (his father) was an original investor in Whole Foods Market, a long-time board member, and my greatest mentor. There is no doubt in my mind that Whole Foods would have failed in its earliest days if not for his mentorship. — John Mackey
We all have mentors who shape our path. For Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey, that person was his dad—there through the toughest early days of building the brand.
Mackey shares in The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism how he drove to Houston to see his dad—eager to learn about business.
John’s dad, Bill, knows just what to do. He leads Mackey into his office, one filled with books. He hands John two classics: Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices by Peter F. Drucker and My Years with General Motors by Alfred Sloan.
He pairs these books with others from a local Austin library. By night, he reads; By day, he applies the lessons in his natural foods store.
Every few days, John would call his dad to share progress, then repeat the cycle, steadily building the brand that became Whole Foods.
The biggest lesson: be a lifelong learner. Keep growing, stay persistent, and put one foot in front of the other.
For more about how John Mackey built Whole Foods, read my blog post below.
📝 Read my blog post on John Mackey
Book of the Week
Make Something Wonderful collects Steve Jobs’ speeches, interviews, and emails revealing who he was, how he thought, and why he remains one of the most creative people of all time. Available as a free PDF, the book covers his childhood, being ousted from Apple, leading Pixar and NeXT, and his eventual return to Apple.
📚 Buy the book on Amazon or read for free at the Steve Jobs Archive
Podcast of the Week
The media has sensationalized the ups and downs of AI, and I follow it closely every day.
AI is undoubtedly promising, but is the progress companies claim real—or is it stalling?
Cal Newport, in his Deep Questions podcast, examines what’s going on with AI. He draws from one of his recent New Yorker articles to go deep into all things AI.
I’m no AI expert, but I use AI daily. My main takeaway: AI is profoundly changing work, but not in the ways companies often claim.
