No. 296 | August 29, 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
311, formed in the late 80s, first hooked me with their 1995 self-titled album Blue Album—and I’ve been a fan ever since. What sets them apart is their seamless blend of rock, reggae, and funk into something unmistakably their own. If you’re new, start with Amber, Beautiful Disaster, and Love Song.
🎵 Listen to the band on Spotify
Quotes of the Week
Work stress never really disappears—but it can be managed. I’m no poster child for balance, but these quotes remind me not to waste energy on what’s beyond my control.
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” — John Wooden
“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” — Charles Spurgeon
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.” — Epictetus
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” — Bruce Lee
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees… is by no means a waste of time.” — John Lubbock
Article of the Week
I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent. – Dwight Eisenhower
The Eisenhower Matrix is one of the most useful productivity tools I’ve come across—and I use it daily.
What I love about the matrix is how it forces focus on what matters the most—everything else falls away.
Dwight created four quadrants for the matrix:
- Quadrant 1 – do these tasks now.
- Quadrant 2 – schedule these tasks.
- Quadrant 3 – delegate these tasks.
- Quadrant 4 – delete/ignore these tasks.
I try to make sure 20% of my day sits in quadrant 1. These are like finalizing a presentation due that day, responding to urgent customer concerns, and handling emergencies.
Most of my day must fit into quadrant 2—the 80% “important but not urgent” work.
Anything outside quadrants 1 or 2? I ignore it.
And that’s the Eisenhower Matrix in a nutshell. To learn more, check out a blog post I wrote outlining the key principles of this powerful tool.
📝 Read my blog post on the Eisenhower Matrix
Book of the Week
The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism tells how charismatic founder John Mackey sparked a retail revolution with Whole Foods.
John recounts his early adventures building Whole Foods Market—originally called Safer Way—in Austin.
The story of Whole Foods is full of colorful characters, conflicts, and near-disasters—I take solace knowing even great brands were built through struggle.
If you’ve heard John’s story, it’s no secret that he taps into the spiritual side of himself and psychedelics to get through challenging times.
I love John’s philosophy of Conscious Capitalism: the idea that businesses have a higher purpose than profit alone, and should care for all stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, and beyond.
John speaks to the tension he had regarding animal welfare – he resisted selling meat and seafood in his stores for years.
I also enjoyed reading about John’s escapes from stress—especially his long hikes on the Appalachian Trail.
If you’re an entrepreneur—or hope to be one—this book is worth your time.
Podcast of the Week
Mark Bertolini spent his career in the health care industry and is now CEO of Oscar Health.
After his interview on Invest Like the Best, I’m convinced he’s lived nine lives.
He survived a near-fatal skiing accident that left him in chronic pain for two decades—all while leading one of healthcare’s biggest corporate turnarounds.
As if that weren’t enough, Bertloni also watched his son battle life-threatening cancer—an experience that reshaped his view of healthcare.
After all that, Bertolini is now setting his sights on disrupting the $4 trillion healthcare industry.
Mark leads with a servant mindset—he wants to help people. He also champions individual–choice healthcare plans over employer-sponsored ones.
