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: Winston Churchill & The North Face
> High-performance: Richard Hamming on learning to sell
> Insights: The benefits of failure
> Tactical: Social dynamics and status
> 1 Question: Commitment check
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: Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill, born in 1874, was a British statesman who led the United Kingdom through World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940-1945 and again from 1951-1955. Churchill's leadership during the war was marked by his defiant speeches and refusal to surrender to Nazi Germany. "We shall fight on the beaches," he famously declared in 1940. Beyond politics, Churchill was a prolific writer and orator. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his historical works and speeches. Churchill's life wasn't without controversy. His role in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of 1915 nearly ended his career. But he rebounded. Resilient. Determined. Churchill's legacy as a wartime leader and his impact on 20th-century history remain significant, though modern scrutiny has highlighted problematic aspects of his views and policies.
Key Lessons from Winston Churchill:
On resilience: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
On vision: "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."
On perseverance: "Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about."
On courage: "Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision."
Company: The North Face
The North Face was founded in 1966 by Douglas Tompkins and his wife Susie Tompkins in San Francisco. Initially a small mountaineering retail store, it quickly gained popularity among outdoor enthusiasts. In 1968, they moved to Berkeley and began designing and manufacturing their own brand of technical mountaineering apparel and equipment. The company's innovative designs, like the geodesic dome tent introduced in 1975, set new industry standards. Despite financial struggles in the 1980s, The North Face expanded its product line and global presence. In 2000, VF Corporation acquired the company for $25.4 million. Today, The North Face is a global leader in outdoor apparel and gear.
Key Lessons from The North Face:
On expansion: Grow, but don't dilute. While expanding their product line, The North Face never strayed from their outdoor focus. They added new categories like footwear and bags, but always with the outdoors in mind. This focused expansion allowed them to grow without losing their core identity.
On retail strategy: Experience matters. The North Face's retail stores are designed to immerse customers in the outdoor experience. From rock climbing walls to virtual reality experiences, they've turned shopping into an adventure. "We don't just want to sell you a jacket. We want to inspire you to use it."
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Try asking: "How did Steve Jobs think about product focus differently than his peers?"
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High-performance tool
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Richard Hamming On Learning To Sell
"I have now come down to a topic which is very distasteful; it is not sufficient to do a job, you have to sell it. “Selling” to a scientist is an awkward thing to do. It’s very ugly; you shouldn’t have to do it. The world is supposed to be waiting, and when you do something great, they should rush out and welcome it. But the fact is everyone is busy with their own work. You must present it so well that they will set aside what they are doing, look at what you’ve done, read it, and come back and say, “Yes, that was good.” I suggest that when you open a journal, as you turn the pages, you ask why you read some articles and not others. You had better write your report so when it is published in the Physical Review, or wherever else you want it, as the readers are turning the pages they won’t just turn your pages but they will stop and read yours. If they don’t stop and read it, you won’t get credit.
There are three things you have to do in selling. You have to learn to write clearly and well so that people will read it, you must learn to give reasonably formal talks, and you also must learn to give informal talks. We had a lot of so-called “back room scientists.” In a conference, they would keep quiet. Three weeks later after a decision was made they filed a report saying why you should do so and so. Well, it was too late. They would not stand up right in the middle of a hot conference, in the middle of activity, and say, “We should do this for these reasons.” You need to master that form of communication as well as prepared speeches."
—Richard Hamming, American Mathematician
Insights
JK Rowling on the benefits of failure:
"So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?
Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned."
Tactical reads
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> When navigating social dynamics and status
Status, Vulnerability, and Status Vulnerability (Navigating the status games of today) (Read it here)
> When adopting evidence-based personal development practices
19 habits and principles, all based on years of research, writing, and coaching: (Read it here)
1 question
What do you want? What's the price? Are you willing to pay that price?
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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