No. 342 | July 24, 2026
Welcome to Friday Five, a short collection of ideas to take into your weekend.
This week’s theme: taking the first step, owning your responsibilities, making better decisions, building drive, and embracing mystique.
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Music of the Week
“Kansas City style, Chicago style, New Orleans style, hell, they’re all Jelly Roll style.” — Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Rolly Morton didn’t just play jazz. He insisted he invented it. Historians dispute the claim, but few question his influence on the genre.
He later received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and The Complete Library of Congress Recordings earned two Grammy Awards.
If you’re interested in diving into his music, start with “Doctor Jazz,” “King Porter Stomp,” and “Black Bottom Stomp.”
Quotes of the Week
This week’s quotes share a common theme: doing your duty, even when it’s inconvenient.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” — Abraham Lincoln
“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.” — Molière
Article of the Week
“Sometimes the most profitable decision on a spreadsheet is the worst decision for a business.” — Ed Stack
After graduating from college, Stack noticed a recurring theme in the business books he read: rewards often come to people willing to stay on the path long after everyone else has quit.
Once Stack took the reins from his father Dick at Dick’s Sporting Goods, he viewed competitors as motivation instead of threats. Competitors helped him focus on what was most important to the business: profitability and customer service.
Stack was never satisfied with the status quo. That’s one of the reasons he kept pushing Dick’s. Competition became one of the forces pushing the company forward.
For more on Dick’s, Stack, and the significance of change, read:
📝 Adapt to Change in Business: The Hidden Advantage Behind Dick’s Sporting Goods
Podcast of the Week
“Drive, it’s about slope, not intercept. I’ll take people who got second place, who have experienced failure, who want to learn and try harder. I think that that’s what it’s about.” — Eric Glyman
Ramp exists because Eric Glyman and his cofounders noticed something unusual: credit card companies made money convincing customers that points and miles were valuable before quietly devaluing them.
After meeting Karim Atiyeh at Harvard and later selling Paribus to Capital One, the founders decided to build the opposite kind of business: one that helps businesses spend less money and waste less time.
Glyman recently joined David Senra to discuss how Ramp focuses on helping customers save dollars and hours, who their real competitors are (hint: AI labs), and why Ramp’s goal is to save people time and money.
For more on Glyman, Ramp, and its mission, give this conversation a listen.
🎙️ Eric Glyman, Co-Founder of Ramp
Book of the Week
“Mystique is ten times better than publicity; it’s much better to be thought of as the great and powerful Oz than to be revealed merely another schemer behind a curtain.” — Michael Ovitz
Michael Ovitz built one of Hollywood’s most powerful careers by mastering something that can’t be measured: mystique.
As co-founder of Creative Artists Agency, he reshaped what a Hollywood agent could be, helping guide the careers of Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, David Letterman, and countless others.
He started in the William Morris mailroom before becoming Hollywood’s most powerful dealmaker.
His success also came at an enormous personal cost.
Here are the timeless lessons I took away from the book:
- Deep curiosity helps you see where an industry is headed before everyone else.
- Relentless ambition can lead to extraordinary success, but it rarely comes without a personal cost.
- Legacy industries reward those willing to rewrite the rules.
- Mystique often builds more influence than self-promotion.
- Failure isn’t the end of the game; it’s preparation for the next one.
To learn more about Ovitz, his career, and enduring principles, read:
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