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No. 321 | February 27, 2026
Welcome to Friday Five, a short dose of insights and inspiration to start your weekend with clarity and focus.
Music of the Week
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in the early 1960s.
Their sound pulled from classical music, pop, folk, Indian music, and hard rock, then reshaped pop culture.
They became the best-selling band in history. They won Grammys, Brits, Academy Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Start with Here Comes the Sun, Let It Be, and Blackbird.
Quotes of the Week
Developing emotional control matters. It means that external events don’t care about your emotions. There’s no point wasting energy on what we can’t control. These quotes capture it:
- “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” — Viktor Frankl
- “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his own attitude by choosing his own thoughts.” — James Allen
- “When anger rises, think of the consequences.” — Confucius
Article of the Week
“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.” – Benjamin Graham
Customers buy trust. It’s that simple. It was that simple at Starbucks. Founder Howard Schultz felt customers don’t just buy coffee. They buy coffee from people they trust. He wanted Starbucks to be a brand customers trusted.
Then the 2008 financial crisis hit. Competitors began discounting aggressively. Starbucks refused deep discounting. Those price cuts would have eroded the pricing power built over the years. He didn’t want to put the brand on sale, but he did want to reward loyal customers.
For more on trust, discounting, and how Starbucks made it through the financial crisis, read:
📝 Starbucks Pricing Strategy: Why Howard Schultz Refused to Discount
Book of the Week
Overnight Success: Federal Express and Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator, chronicles the roller coaster founding of FedEx by Fred Smith.
The company was thought up while Smith was a student at Yale. It was a model built on reliable overnight delivery of high-priority mail. The model relied on a central U.S. hub using a hub-and-spoke system.
FedEx faced many obstacles. It nearly failed. Smith faced financial crunches. He famously used the last of the company’s funds to gamble in Vegas to keep it above water.
Key lessons from Smith include:
- A lot depends on the character of the people you employ
- Never give up when someone tells you no
- Be willing to risk your own money
- Surround yourself with people better than you
- Focus on the obstacle in front of you
- Never let anything faze you
For more on Fred Smith, FedEx, and his business lessons, read:
📚 Overnight Success: Federal Express And Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator
Podcast of the Week
Meridith Baer grew up on the grounds of the San Quentin prison, acted in TV and movies, wrote film scripts for Hollywood, and started her career over at age 50.
It changed dramatically in her late 40s when her career stalled. At the time, she focused on making the houses she was renting look better for potential buyers.
When the owner quickly sold one of the houses she made look more presentable to a buyer, she had an idea: why not stage homes full-time?
She built a business staging high-end homes that helped sellers move properties faster. She opened locations in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. The business became a success without raising outside capital.
For more on Meridith, her business, and lessons learned, listen:
🎙️ Meridith Baer Home: Meridith Baer. She Started Over at 50 and Put Home Staging on the Map
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