Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is your Wednesday edition of Faster Than Normal, exploring one short story about a person, a company, a high-performance tool, a trend I’m watching closely, and curated media to help you build businesses, wealth, and the most important asset of all: yourself.
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Today’s edition:
> Stories: Jay Gould & Visa
> High-performance: The difference between happiness, meaning, and true psychological richness
> Insights: Value extraction
> Tactical: Feelings of inadequacy in your work
> 1 Question: Peak anticipation
Cheers,
Alex
P.S. Send me feedback on how we can improve. I respond to every email.
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Stories of Excellence
Person: Jay Gould
"Jay Gould, the infamous railroad tycoon of the 19th century, was a man of contradictions. Born in 1836 to a poor farming family in New York, he rose to become one of America's wealthiest and most reviled businessmen. Gould's ruthless tactics in the railroad industry earned him the nickname ""Mephistopheles of Wall Street."" He once boasted, ""I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."" His most notorious scheme was the 1869 attempt to corner the gold market, which led to ""Black Friday"" and a financial panic. Despite his reputation, Gould amassed a fortune estimated at $71 million by his death in 1892. His legacy remains controversial, with some viewing him as a brilliant strategist and others as a symbol of Gilded Age excess.
Key Lessons from Jay Gould:
On resilience: ""I have always been contented, no matter how things went.""
On resourcefulness: Starting with little, Gould leveraged every advantage he could find. He once said, ""I never lost an opportunity in my life.""
On work: ""Work never hurt anybody."""
Company: Merck
"Merck, founded in 1891 by George Merck, traces its roots to a small pharmacy in Darmstadt, Germany. The company's U.S. operations began when George's son, George W. Merck, established Merck & Co. in New York in 1917. Initially focused on chemicals, Merck shifted towards pharmaceuticals in the 1930s. A pivotal moment came in 1944 when Merck scientists discovered streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis. This breakthrough catapulted Merck into the forefront of pharmaceutical research. Today, Merck is a global healthcare leader with $59.3 billion in revenue for 2022, known for innovations in vaccines, oncology, and animal health.
Key Lessons from Merck:
On research persistence: Keep at it. Merck's success with streptomycin came after years of painstaking work. ""We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits,"" said George W. Merck. This ethos drove researchers to persist even when results weren't immediate.
On focus: Pick your battles. Merck could've spread itself thin. Instead, they zeroed in on what they do best: pharmaceuticals. They sold off their consumer health business in 2014. Risky? Maybe. But it allowed them to pour resources into their strengths. Former CEO Roy Vagelos put it bluntly: ""We're not in the business of making me-too drugs."" Clarity. Purpose. Focus."
Something New
You read the newsletter. Now search the library. Faster Than Normal has 350+ founder playbooks and 380+ company breakdowns — every one structured, searchable, and cited to the source.
Try asking: "How did Steve Jobs think about product focus differently than his peers?"
Try it free for 7 days →Accelerants
High-performance tool
⎯
The Difference Between Happiness, Meaning, And True Psychological Richness
Insights
John Bogle's address to MBA graduates of the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University in May 2007:
"One, if you do enter this field, do so with your eyes wide open, recognizing that any endeavor that extracts value from its clients may, in times more troubled than these, find that it has been hoist by its own petard. It is said on Wall Street, correctly, that “money has no conscience,” but don’t allow that truism to let you ignore your own conscience, nor to alter your own conduct and character.
Two, when you begin to invest so that you will have enough for your own retirement many decades hence, do so in a way that minimizes the extraction by the financial community of the returns generated by business. This is, yes, a sort of self serving recommendation to invest in low-cost all-U.S.—and global—stock market index funds, the only way to guarantee your fair share of whatever returns our financial markets are generous enough to provide.
Three, no matter what career you choose, do your best to hold high its traditional professional values, now swiftly eroding, in which serving the client is always the highest priority. And don’t ignore the greater good of your community, your nation, and your world. After William Penn, “we pass through this world but once, so do now any good you can do, and show now any kindness you can show, for we shall not pass this way again."
Tactical reads
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> When dealing with feelings of inadequacy in your work
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome (Read it here)
> When aligning personal goals with meaning and virtue
Personal goals, life meaning, and virtue: Wellsprings of a positive life (Read it here)
1 question
What are you getting most excited about right now?
That’s all for today, folks. As always, please give me your feedback. Which section is your favourite? What do you want to see more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.
Have a wonderful rest of week, all.
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