This edition is brought to you by Athyna

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: Charles De Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle was a towering figure in French history. Born in 1890, he rose from soldier to statesman, leading the Free French Forces during World War II and later serving as President of France. De Gaulle's unwavering vision for French greatness often put him at odds with allies. "How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?" he once quipped about France. His leadership during the war and founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958 cemented his legacy. De Gaulle's presidency saw economic growth but also student protests in 1968. He resigned in 1969 after losing a referendum. "I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French," he remarked near the end of his life.

Key Lessons from Charles de Gaulle:

• On surprises: "A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless."

• On going against the grain: "Silence is the ultimate weapon of power."

• On character: "In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate."

Read More.

Company: Unilever PLC

Unilever PLC, a British multinational consumer goods company, was born from the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British soap maker Lever Brothers on September 2, 1929. The company's roots trace back to the 1870s when the Jurgens and Van den Bergh families began producing margarine in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, in England, William Lever launched Sunlight soap in 1884, revolutionizing personal hygiene. The merger created a powerhouse in the consumer goods industry, combining expertise in food and personal care products. Unilever quickly expanded globally, acquiring businesses in Africa and Latin America in the 1930s. Today, Unilever's products reach 2.5 billion people daily, making it one of the world's largest consumer brand conglomerates.

Key Lessons from Unilever:

• On branding: Hide the parent. Most people don't know Dove, Axe, and Ben & Jerry's are Unilever brands. And that's by design. Let each brand have its own identity. The parent company can stay in the background.

• On leadership: Rotate perspectives. Unilever regularly moves executives between functions and geographies. It creates leaders with broad views.

Read More.

Hire remote employees with confidence

Two years ago, I hired an offshore assistant , and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made. From marketing to customer support, it’s helped streamline work and boost productivity.

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Accelerants

High-performance tool

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Theory of Constraints

Theory of Constraints is a management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It focuses on identifying and improving the primary factor limiting a system's performance. As Wrike puts it, "The theory of constraints is a method for identifying what's holding your project back and improving it, so it's no longer a limiting factor."

This approach is valuable because it directs efforts towards the most impactful improvements. Instead of trying to optimize every aspect of a system, it focuses on the bottleneck. The theory outlines five steps: identify the constraint, exploit it, subordinate everything else to it, elevate it, and then repeat the process. This systematic approach can lead to significant improvements in efficiency and output.

Think about your current projects. What's the one thing holding you back from achieving your goals? How might focusing on that constraint transform your results?

Insights

Tactical reads

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> When analyzing everyday habits and behaviors
Habits in everyday life: Thought, Emotion, and Action (Read it here)

> When exploring self-identity and future planning
Future self-continuity: how conceptions of the future self transform intertemporal choice (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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Hire remote employees with confidence

Two years ago, I hired an offshore assistant for the first time. Since then, I’ve recommended many people do the same. It’s been one of the highest leverage things I’ve done, helping with everything marketing and customer support (for The Intelligence Age) and personal matters and email management.

Athyna is a service that quickly (<5 days!) finds remote employees across 150+ countries for you or your team. They cover roles from sales and marketing to creative and product, and have worked with companies like Facebook, Zoom, Uber, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon.

I’ve personally used Athyna and recommended them to my Brother, Will, who runs a fashion label, and several close friends running their own businesses. To date, they’ve all had very positive experiences.

If you’re in the market for talent, visit their website to explore options and cover all your hiring needs.

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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