The Friday Five: How to Beat Amazon, the Richest Man in the World, & More
Episode XIII
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Today at a Glance:
Quote: Will Smith on talent vs. skill.
Tweet: Trung Phan on the richest man in the world.
Article: Greg Isenberg on how to beat Amazon.
Podcast: Alex Lieberman on how to avoid burnout.
Bonus: Orangutan 😎 vibes.
One Quote:
“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours of beating on your craft.” - Will Smith
Talent is your starting position; skill is what you make of it.
One Tweet:
Assuming you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve heard of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. But what about Bernard Arnault? Stumped? It’s ok, you’re forgiven. The Chairman and CEO of LVMH has a quieter style than his flashy counterparts, but just passed them all to become the richest man in the world.
Trung Phan breaks down the life and rise of the luxury retail mogul in this great thread!
One Article:
How to Beat Amazon with your E-Commerce Company
Greg Isenberg is the best there is on the topic of building physical and digital communities. In his recent newsletter piece (which I had been waiting on for months!), he dropped some fascinating insights on how modern consumer businesses can create experiences to compete against Amazon.
If you are interested in the consumer economy, it’s a must read.
TL;DR - It all comes down to creating Experiential-Commerce (the new “E-Commerce”) that is spatial, live, and fun.
One Podcast:
How to Unplug from Work - Founder’s Journal
This was a great, short podcast episode from my friend Alex Lieberman - the co-founder and executive chairman of Morning Brew - on the dangers of burnout and how to unplug to avoid it.
I used to think burnout was a myth - “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” was my mantra. But ironically, once I started taking it more seriously, and started finding real ways to recharge and unplug, my performance improved.
If you want to learn to sprint, first learn to rest.
Listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
One Bonus:
I’m not a big zoo guy, but this orangutan is an absolute vibe. Let’s all pray we someday attain this level of confidence and swagger!
Sahil’s Job Board - Featured Opportunities
Launch House - Community Lead (New & Exciting!)
Free Agency - Chief of Staff (New & Exciting!)
Commonstock - Community Manager, Marketing Designer
Panther - Customer Delight Manager
Beyond Protocol - Director of Ops, Director of Business Development
Avicado - Marketing Manager
Pallet - Full Stack Software Engineer
Atreides Management - Data Analyst
The full board can be found here!
We have had a bunch of hires through the board and the results for featured roles have been insane! If you are a high-growth company in finance or tech, you can use the “Post a Job” button to get your roles up on the board and featured in future Twitter and newsletter distributions.
That does it for Episode XIII of The Friday Five. Join the 28,000+ others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week! Until next time, stay curious, friends!
On talent and skill, see the documentary "Woody Allen" (2012) about the comedian, filmmaker, and writer who made a movie every year for over 40 years, including Annie Hall (1977), which won four Academy Awards; Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Midnight in Paris (2011), both of which won for Best Original Screenplay; and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture.
Life Lesson: Nurture whatever talent or skill you have; in the future someone might pay you for it.
Movie Scene: https://moviewise.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/woody-allen/
Twitter overview of LVMH very informative... American style capitalism always inspiring