No. 299 | September 19, 2025
Welcome to this week’s Friday Five — a quick hit of insights, inspiration, and personal favorites to kick off your weekend with clarity and intention.
Music of the Week
Flamingosis is the stage name of Aaron Velasquez, a New Jersey-based producer and DJ.
He blends electronic beats with live instrumentation — pairing digital sounds with music from real musicians playing in real-time. The result is glorious.
His music channels old school soul, funk, and electronic sounds all mashed into one.
If you’re new, start with tracks from his latest album: Komodo, Sunlight Daydream, and Artificial Love.
Quotes of the Week
Lately, I’ve been thinking about getting just a little better every day. It’s a discipline of steady progress. Don’t chase perfection — chase progress. Tiny steps, applied consistently, lead to outsized outcomes. These quotes have helped anchor me in that mindset.
“Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become.” – Seneca
“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts.” – John Wooden (legendary basketball coach)
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” – Bill Gates
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Getting 1% better every day counts for a lot in the long run.” – James Clear (Atomic Habits)
“The work is doing the work. Day in and day out. Little by little, we go far.” – Ryan Holiday
Article of the Week
“Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” – Coco Chanel
Steve Jobs was relentlessly focused on simplicity: do fewer things, and do them exceptionally well.
Focusing on fewer products let his team move faster and build higher-quality work.
When Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990s, he admitted Apple had way too many products.
The lineup was so bloated that even the team couldn’t explain it.
So, Jobs made everyone go back to the basics and question every assumption.
Going back to the basics made the team realize they only needed four products.
With so few products, Apple could put its A team on every one. It could cut the production process timeline in half.
Apple could also start working on the next generation while launching the current product.
Make Something Wonderful is full of stories like this — showing how Jobs’s obsession with simplicity reshaped Apple.
For more on his focus and simplicity, check out my blog post below:
📝 How Steve Jobs’ Focus and Simplicity Rescued Apple
Book of the Week
Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company by Andy Grove shares his strategy for success.
The book takes you deep inside of Grove’s company, Intel.
Under his leadership, Intel became the world’s largest chip maker—and one of its most admired companies.
Grove shares the nightmare moment every leader dreads—when massive change occurs.
He argues that companies must adapt—often overnight—or risk dying. And when they do adapt, it has to be in a completely new way.
Strategic inflection points can be set off by nearly anything—competition, regulations, technology.
When one of these points hits, the rules of business engagement go out the window.
However, if one of these points is managed correctly, it can be an opportunity to win in the market.
For more on this fascinating book, you can buy the book below:
📚 Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company
Podcast of the Week
Alex Honnold is a professional rock climber. He’s considered to be one of the greatest athletes of all time.
If you’ve seen the documentary Free Solo (my palms sweat just thinking about watching it), you know he’s a one-in-a-generation athlete.
Honnold’s interview with Dr. Andrew Huberman walks through how to think about goals in any part of your life.
The podcast breaks down goals into actionable, small steps you can achieve.
I appreciate how Honnold embraces his uniqueness. He argues, and I agree, that mortality is the best way to live a fuller life.
For more on setting and achieving goals, listen to the podcast below:
🎧 Listen to the episode on Spotify
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