No. 349 | September 18, 2026
Welcome to Friday Five, a short collection of ideas to take into your weekend.
This week’s themes: originality, inner calm, focused work, enduring companies, and decisive leadership.
If this resonates, forward it to a friend. Most readers discover Friday Five because someone they trust shared it with them.
Music of the Week
“I never wanted to sound clean and pretty.” — Cécile McLorin Salvant
Cécile McLorin Salvant is a jazz singer, songwriter, and composer. The three-time Grammy winner performs in French and English.
Start with “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” “Monday,” and “One Step Ahead.”
Quotes of the Week
“There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.” — Marcus Aurelius
“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
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms, to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” — Viktor Frankl
Article of the Week
“It does matter what you do. You should focus relentlessly on something you’re good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future.” — Peter Thiel
A bad plan is better than no plan. Fred Smith developed the idea for an interconnected air-to-ground system for shipments in a Yale economics paper and later turned that idea into FedEx.
A career is not a portfolio. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he cut distractions and focused the company on a small number of essential products.
Great companies also require great teams. Steve Jobs financed Pixar, while Ed Catmull helped build its creative culture that allowed talented teams to do their best work.
Peter Thiel examines each of these ideas in Zero to One: plan for the future, focus on what matters, and build an exceptional team. He learned many of these lessons firsthand while co-founding PayPal.
For more on Thiel, Zero to One, and how entrepreneurs focus, read my article:
📝 How Great Entrepreneurs Focus on What Matters: Peter Thiel’s Best Business Strategy from Zero to One
Podcast of the Week
“I think AI will probably, most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world. But in the meantime, there will be great companies created with serious machine learning.” — Sam Altman, speaking in 2015
Sam Altman’s career has spanned startups, investing, and artificial intelligence. After serving as president of Y Combinator, he co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and became one of the central figures in the development and commercialization of generative AI.
Altman joined David Senra to discuss artificial intelligence, Y Combinator’s influence on OpenAI, contrarian bets, putting the right people in charge, launching early, and improving through iteration.
For more on Altman, OpenAI, and how he thinks about the future, listen:
🎙️ Sam Altman on Building OpenAI and Betting on the Impossible
Book of the Week
“Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.” — Bob Iger
The Ride of a Lifetime is Bob Iger’s memoir about leadership, risk, and decision-making. He reflects on his years leading one of the world’s most influential entertainment companies and the lessons he learned.
Timeless lessons stand out:
- Pursue quality relentlessly.
- Embrace change and technology instead of fearing them.
- Take thoughtful risks and make consequential bets.
- Make timely decisions.
- Treat people fairly and lead with integrity.
For more on Disney, Iger, and leadership, read:
📚 The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
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