This edition is brought to you by Masterworks

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. 

If you enjoy this, feel free to forward it along to a friend or colleague who might too. First time reading? Sign up here.

Today’s edition:

Cheers,
Alex

P.S. Send me feedback on how we can improve. I respond to every email.

Stories of Excellence

Person: Henry Clay Frick

Henry Clay Frick, born in 1849 to modest Mennonite parents, rose to become a titan of American industry. He started small, turning coal into coke for steel manufacturing. By 30, he was a millionaire. Frick's business acumen was matched by his ruthlessness. During the Homestead Strike of 1892, he hired Pinkerton detectives to break the union, resulting in deadly violence. "I do not think I will die," he said after surviving an assassination attempt, "but whether I do or not, the Company will pursue the same policy, and it will win." Frick's legacy is complex. He was a ruthless businessman but also a generous art patron. His New York mansion, now the Frick Collection, houses his extensive art collection, which he left to the public upon his death in 1919.

Key Lessons from Henry Clay Frick:

• On producing: “Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.”

• On perspective: "The man who has millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day."

Read More.

Company: General Motors

General Motors was founded on September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant. Durant, a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles, had acquired Buick Motor Company in 1904. He brought together several independent automobile manufacturers, including Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Pontiac, to form General Motors. The company raised $12 million in its initial public offering. Durant's vision was to create a company that could produce a range of vehicles for different market segments. Despite initial success, Durant was ousted in 1910 due to excessive debt but regained control in 1915. By 1920, GM had become the world's largest automaker, a position it held for 77 years until 2008. As of 2023, GM employs about 167,000 people and had annual revenue of $156.7 billion.

Key Lessons from General Motors:

• On innovation. Sometimes, follow. GM wasn't always first with new technologies, but it often improved upon others' innovations. As Alfred Sloan said, "We don't want to be first with a new invention, but we do want to be first in exploiting it commercially."

• On organizational structure. Decentralize, but coordinate. Sloan's system of decentralized operations with centralized policy control became a model for modern corporations. Autonomy breeds innovation. Control ensures efficiency.

Read More.

Here’s an un-boring way to invest that billionaires have quietly leveraged for decades

If you have enough money that you think about buckets for your capital…

Ever invest in something you know will have low returns—just for the sake of diversifying?

CDs… Bonds… REITs… :(

Sure, these “boring” investments have some merits. But you probably overlooked one historically exclusive asset class:

It’s been famously leveraged by billionaires like Bezos and Gates, but just never been widely accessible until now.

It outpaced the S&P 500 (!) overall WITH low correlation to stocks, 1995 to 2025.*

It’s not private equity or real estate. Surprisingly, it’s postwar and contemporary art.

And since 2019, over 70,000 people have started investing in SHARES of artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso through a platform called Masterworks.

• 23 exits to date

• $1,245,000,000+ invested

• Annualized net returns like 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5%

My subscribers can SKIP their waitlist and invest in blue-chip art.

Just click this link

_{Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd}

Accelerants

High-performance tool

⎯

The Chimpanzee Test

When chimpanzees have a better test score than people basing their decisions on either ‘knowledge’ or ‘educated’ guesses.

We know less than we think we do.

Think twice before making ‘educated’ statements on global issues.

Insights

Tactical reads

⎯

> When developing better morning routines and habits
How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off (Read it here)

> When maintaining rational thinking and decision-making
Rationality as System Maintenance (Read it here)

1 question

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.

Recommendation Zone

⎯

Build Global Teams, Save Smart

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I’ve used Athyna, a global talent platform that helps companies quickly hire top professionals from talent-rich regions like Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa — often delivering up to 70% cost savings. They move fast (under 5 days), and cover roles across engineering, marketing, design, and ops.

Athyna sources talent from companies like Facebook, Uber, Zoom, and Salesforce, so you’re not sacrificing quality, just unlocking global efficiency. Highly recommend giving them a look.

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Alex Brogan

Find me on X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok

Offshore Talent: Where to find the best offshore talent. Powered by Athyna.

Why Faster Than Normal? Our mission is to be a friend to the ambitious, a mentor to the becoming, and a partner to the bold. We achieve this by sharing the stories, ideas, and frameworks of the world's most prolific people and companies—and how you can apply them to build businesses, wealth, and the most important asset of all: yourself.

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