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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:

Cheers,
Alex

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

Stories of Excellence

Person: Henry Ford

Henry Ford, born in 1863 on a Michigan farm, revolutionized the automotive industry and American manufacturing. He founded Ford Motor Company in 1903, introducing the Model T in 1908. This affordable car changed transportation forever. Ford's assembly line innovation in 1913 cut production time dramatically. "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black," he famously quipped. His $5-a-day wage in 1914 doubled worker pay, shocking competitors. Ford's influence extended beyond cars. He supported pacifism, sometimes controversially. By his death in 1947, Ford had transformed industry, labor, and American life.

Key Lessons from Henry Ford:

• On vision: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

• On perseverance: "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

• On innovation: "I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work."

Read More.

Company: Google

Google was founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their initial search algorithm, PageRank, ranked web pages based on importance and relevance. With $100,000 in seed funding from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, they set up shop in Susan Wojcicki's garage. In 1999, they secured $25 million from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. Google's IPO in 2004 raised $1.67 billion. The company expanded rapidly, acquiring YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion and launching Android in 2007. As of 2024, Alphabet (Google's parent company) reported annual revenue of $290+ billion.

Key Lessons from Google:

• On simplicity: Keep it clean. Google's homepage was a stark contrast to the cluttered portals of the late 90s. They bet on users valuing speed over flashiness. They were right.

• On innovation: 20% time pays off. Allowing engineers to spend one day a week on pet projects led to Gmail, AdSense, and Google News. Sometimes, the best ideas come when you're not trying too hard.

• On data: Measure everything. Google's data-driven culture extends beyond their products. They even tested 41 shades of blue for their toolbar to find the most clickable one. Obsessive? Sure. But it works.

Read More.

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Accelerants

High-performance tool

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The Gatekeepers

There are points along communication channels where decisions are made about what’s included and what gets left out.

The people who have the power to operate these gates heavily influence the flow of information.

Where possible, seek information first-hand.

Insights

Tactical reads

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> When creating simple, robust systems and processes
Simple Systems Have Less Downtime (Read it here)

> When cultivating a non-attached mindset
How to Develop a Mind That Clings to Nothing (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

⎯

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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.

Faster Than Normal is a ‘state' of being’ rather than an outcome. Outlier performance requires continuous, compounded improvement. We’re your partner on this journey.

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