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: Napolean Bonaparte & Pepsi
> High-performance: People who took an indirect path to success
> Insights: Personal renewal
> Tactical: A CEO's time allocation
> 1 Question: Money vs impact
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: Napolean Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military leader and emperor who rose to power during the French Revolution. Born in Corsica in 1769, he quickly climbed the ranks of the French army. His tactical genius led to stunning victories across Europe. In 1804, he crowned himself Emperor of France. "Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools," he famously said. Napoleon implemented wide-ranging reforms, including the Napoleonic Code. His ambition ultimately led to his downfall. After defeat at Waterloo in 1815, he was exiled to Saint Helena. There, he reflected: "Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily." Napoleon died in 1821, leaving a complex legacy of military brilliance and authoritarian rule.
Key Lessons from Napoleon Bonaparte:
On perseverance: "Victory belongs to the most persevering."
On leadership: "A leader is a dealer in hope."
On courage: "Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength."
On action: "Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in."
On ambition: "Great ambition is the passion of a great character."
Company: Pepsi
Pepsi was founded in 1893 by Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist in New Bern, North Carolina. Originally called "Brad's Drink," it was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898. Bradham's background in pharmacy influenced the drink's early marketing as a digestive aid and energy booster. The company faced bankruptcy twice, in 1923 and 1931, before being acquired by Loft, Inc. in 1931. Under Charles Guth's leadership, Pepsi gained market share during the Great Depression by offering 12-ounce bottles for 5 cents. In 1965, Pepsi merged with Frito-Lay to form PepsiCo. Today, PepsiCo is a global beverage and snack giant, with 2025 net revenues of ~$95 billion.
Key Lessons from Pepsi:
On marketing: Speak to the next generation. Pepsi has consistently targeted youth in its advertising, positioning itself as the choice of a new generation. They've used music, celebrities, and cultural trends to stay relevant. Always look ahead to capture the next wave of consumers.
On competition: Turn rivals into motivation. The "Cola Wars" with Coca-Cola pushed Pepsi to innovate and expand. Instead of being discouraged by a dominant competitor, use them as a benchmark to surpass. As Roger Enrico said, "Without Coca-Cola, Pepsi would have a tough time being an original and lively competitor."
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
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People Who Took An Indirect Path To Success
Insights
John Gardner, on personal renewal:
"I’ve watched a lot of mid-career people, and Yogi Berra says you can observe a lot just by watching. I’ve concluded that most people enjoy learning and growing. And many are dearly troubled by the self-assessments of mid-career.
Such self-assessments are no great problem at your age. You’re young and moving up. The drama of your own rise is enough. But when you reach middle age, when your energies aren’t what they used to be, then you’ll begin to wonder what it all added up to; you’ll begin to look for the figure in the carpet of your life. I have some simple advice for you when you begin that process. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Look ahead. Someone said that “Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” And above all don’t imagine that the story is over. Life has a lot of chapters.
If we are conscious of the danger of going to seed, we can resort to countervailing measures. At almost any age. You don’t need to run down like an unwound clock. And if your clock is unwound, you can wind it up again. You can stay alive in every sense of the word until you fail physically. I know some pretty successful people who feel that that just isn’t possible for them, that life has trapped them. But they don’t really know that. Life takes unexpected turns.
I said in my book, “Self-Renewal,” that we build our own prisons and serve as our own jail-keepers. I no longer completely agree with that. I still think we’re our own jailkeepers, but I’ve concluded that our parents and the society at large have a hand in building our prisons. They create roles for us — and self images — that hold us captive for a long time. The individual intent on self-renewal will have to deal with ghosts of the past — the memory of earlier failures, the remnants of childhood dramas and rebellions, accumulated grievances and resentments that have long outlived their cause. Sometimes people cling to the ghosts with something almost approaching pleasure — but the hampering effect on growth is inescapable. As Jim Whitaker, who climbed Mount Everest, said “You never conquer the mountain, You only conquer yourself.”
Tactical reads
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> When studying a CEO's time allocation
An Exact Breakdown of How One CEO Spent His First Two Years of Company-Building (Read it here)
> When developing a personalized reading strategy
How I Read — Rob Henderson (Read it here)
1 question
What career would you realistically pursue if you wanted the most money? What career would you realistically pursue if you wanted the biggest impact? What career would you realistically pursue if you wanted to have the most fun? What career offers the best mix?
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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