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No. 305 | October 31, 2025
Welcome to this week’s Friday Five—a quick dose of insights, inspiration, and favorites to start your weekend with clarity and purpose.
Music of the Week
Metsa, also known as Metsa Nihue, is known worldwide for his work in Amazonian plant medicine. I first heard about him in Tim Ferriss’s 5-Bullet Friday newsletter.
He’s also known in the music world—initially traveling the world, immersing himself in Rastafarian beats, Indian mystical music, Indonesian gamelan, and Latin-Brazilian rhythms.
His music centers on reconnection—a reminder that we’re all part of something larger.
For more on Metsa, check out: Mariri, Irapaya, and Muraray:
Quotes of the Week
“Accepting what is”—something I’ve been reflecting on lately. Meeting reality on its own terms, letting go of resistance, and finding peace with what’s beyond our control. These quotes capture that mindset.
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.” – Lao Tzu
“Peace is happiness at rest; happiness is peace in motion. You can’t have peace without acceptance.” – Naval Ravikant
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.” – Eckhart Tolle
“The more we try to control the future, the less control we have. Letting go is the only path to sanity.” – Alan Watts
“Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgment of the facts of a situation, then deciding what you will do about it.” – Kathleen Casey Theisen
Article of the Week
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Creative wandering—it’s a concept Jeff Bezos popularized at Amazon that’s also covered in detail in Amazon Unbound.
The idea only thrives inside a culture of experimentation—one that starts at the top.
When a culture of experimentation is established, creative wandering leads to novel ideas. Some of these ideas lead to outsized returns.
When Amazon found a promising idea, Bezos encouraged them to swing for the fences—because, unlike baseball, home runs can happen endlessly.
For more on creative wandering, a culture of experimentation, novel ideas, and how to swing for the fences, check out my post below:
📝 Creative Wandering: Jeff Bezos’s Innovation Playbook
Book of the Week
Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc profiles a man who reshaped how the world eats.
He revolutionized fast food through automation, franchising, national training, and advertising.
What’s fascinating about Kroc, the man, not the businessman, is that he started franchising McDonald’s at the ripe old age of 52.
That’s right—he was an “overnight success” more than 30 years in the making, as he recounts in Grinding It Out.
For more on Ray Kroc, his contributions to the fast food industry, and business building, check out the book below:
📚 Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s
Podcast of the Week
David Senra is the host of the Founders podcast—he’s been at it for the past nine years.
He has studied the life and work of hundreds of history’s greatest entrepreneurs.
The show distills the wisdom of history’s greatest entrepreneurs into practical, actionable lessons.
For more on Senra, his Founders show, and his new David Senra podcast, listen below:
Enjoyed the read? Hit reply and let me know what stood out—or forward this to a friend who might appreciate it too.
