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: George Westinghouse

George Westinghouse was a prolific inventor and industrialist who revolutionized the railroad and electrical industries in the late 19th century. Born in 1846 in New York, he served in the Civil War before patenting his first invention at age 19. His most famous creation, the air brake, transformed rail safety. "If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow man, I shall be satisfied," Westinghouse once remarked. He founded over 60 companies, including Westinghouse Electric Company, which became a major player in the AC vs DC "War of Currents." Despite losing control of his empire in the 1907 financial panic, Westinghouse's legacy as an innovator and business leader endures.

Key Lessons from George Westinghouse:

• On vision: Westinghouse saw potential where others didn't. He recognized the superiority of AC power when most were focused on DC.

• On persistence: He filed over 360 patents in his lifetime, demonstrating unwavering dedication to innovation.

• On problem-solving: Westinghouse tackled major safety issues in railroads, creating solutions that saved countless lives.

Read More.

Company: FedEx

FedEx, originally known as Federal Express, was founded by Frederick W. Smith in 1971. Smith, a Yale graduate and former Marine Corps officer, conceived the idea for an overnight delivery service in a college paper. He raised $91 million in venture capital to launch the company, which began operations on April 17, 1973, with 14 small aircraft serving 25 cities. Despite initial struggles and near-bankruptcy, Smith's perseverance and innovative hub-and-spoke distribution system led to rapid growth. By 1983, FedEx became the first American company to reach $1 billion in revenues without mergers or acquisitions. Today, FedEx is a global logistics giant with annual revenue of $95 billion and over 500,000 employees worldwide.

Key Lessons from FedEx:

• On financial brinkmanship: In the early days, FedEx was burning through cash at an alarming rate. Legend has it that Smith once took the company's last $5,000 to Las Vegas and turned it into $27,000 playing blackjack to cover payroll. While not advisable, it shows the lengths some founders will go to keep their dream alive.

• On marketing: FedEx's early ads focused on the reliability of their service, not just speed. Their famous slogan "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight" resonated because it addressed a real pain point for businesses. Find your customers' true pain points, not just the obvious ones.

• On infrastructure: Smith realized that owning their entire delivery network - from planes to trucks to sorting facilities - was crucial for reliability. This vertical integration was expensive but gave FedEx a significant competitive advantage. Sometimes, controlling the entire process is worth the extra cost.

Read More.

Hire remote employees with confidence

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Accelerants

High-performance tool

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Physics Envy

The common human craving to reduce extremely complex systems—such as Economics—to one-size-fits-all Newtonian formulas.

In complex systems, everything is interacting with everything else.

This makes it nearly impossible to predict the final outcome accurately.

Insights

Tactical reads

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> When creating an organizational system for digital information
The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information (Read it here)

> When prioritizing tasks based on urgency and importance
How to be More Productive by Using the "Eisenhower Box" (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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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.

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.

Send us your feedback and help us continuously improve our content and achieve our mission. We want to hear from you and respond to everyone.

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