This edition is brought to you by Rize

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: Sheryl Sandberg

At a Harvard Business School classroom, Sheryl Sandberg's voice cut through the debate on market strategies with a clarity that belied her years. Now, years after those formative days, Sandberg has not only shaped her path but has also carved deep imprints on the technological landscape as a titan of Silicon Valley. From her strategic steering at Google to her transformative leadership as Facebook’s COO, Sandberg’s mantra, "Lean in," has become less of a statement and more of a movement among women seeking corporate leadership roles. “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders,” she asserts, encapsulating her vision for gender equality in the workplace. Her legacy? A reshaped corporate culture that champions diversity and mentorship, making the tech world take note - and take action.

What we can learn from Sheryl:

• On authenticity: "We are who we are. When you try to have this division between your personal self and your professional self, what you really are is stiff."

• On finding out the truth: "The upside of painful knowledge is so much greater than the downside of blissful ignorance."

• On taking risks: "Fortune does favour the bold and you'll never know what you're capable of if you don't try."

Read More.

Company: Porsche

In 1931, Ferdinand Porsche founded his eponymous engineering firm in Stuttgart, Germany. The visionary engineer had already designed the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, but now sought to create his own line of sports cars. After World War II, Ferdinand's son Ferry took the reins, unveiling the sleek Porsche 356 in 1948 - the first car to bear the family name. Over the next decades, Porsche would become synonymous with luxury, performance and racing success, from the legendary 911 launched in 1964 to a historic win at Le Mans in 1970. As Porsche marks its 75th anniversary in 2023, the brand remains a symbol of automotive excellence and innovation.

What we can learn from Porsche:

• On branding: Porsche has cultivated an iconic, instantly recognizable brand identity centered around performance, luxury and timeless design. The 911's silhouette has endured for over 50 years.

• On product innovation: "In the beginning, I looked around and could not find quite the car I dreamed of, so I decided to build it myself," said Ferry Porsche about creating the 356, exemplifying Porsche's ethos of engineering excellence.

• On racing heritage: Motorsport success, from its first Le Mans win in 1970 to countless victories since, has been integral to building Porsche's reputation and validating its performance credentials.

Read More.

Take care of your most valuable asset: Time

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Most people drastically underestimate distractions during the day—Rize gives you nowhere to hide. Reality is confronting. I challenge you to give Rize.io a try and see how your time-use stacks up.

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Accelerants

High-performance tool

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BCG Growth Share Matrix

The BCG Growth Share Matrix is a strategic planning tool developed by the Boston Consulting Group. It helps companies analyze their product portfolio — deciding where to invest, divest or hold. "The growth share matrix is, put simply, a portfolio management framework that helps companies decide how to prioritize their different businesses."

The matrix plots products on two dimensions: relative market share (x-axis) and industry growth rate (y-axis). High market share signals competitive strength — low costs from economies of scale. High growth signals industry attractiveness and future profit potential. Products are classified into four categories based on these factors: Cash Cows (high share, low growth), Stars (high share, high growth), Question Marks (low share, high growth), and Dogs (low share, low growth). The prescriptive advice: invest in Stars, milk Cash Cows to fund Stars/Question Marks, divest Dogs.

Why does this make sense? "Market leadership results in sustainable superior returns...the market leader obtains a self-reinforcing cost advantage that competitors find difficult to replicate." High growth markets are attractive — but you need high share to profit from them. As Bruce Henderson said: "All products will eventually become either cash cows or pets [dogs]. Pets are unnecessary; they are evidence of failure."

Are you systematically analyzing your product portfolio using frameworks like this? If not, you may be misallocating resources — overinvesting in cash-burning Dogs while starving potential Stars.

A trend I’m watching

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As work flexibility increases, we're seeing a blurring of boundaries between business and leisure travel. The terms "workcation" and "bleisure" describe extending business trips for personal vacation days or working remotely from holiday destinations.

With many employees now untethered from offices, there's an opportunity to combine work and travel more seamlessly. Companies like Airbnb are capitalizing on this trend by offering long-term rental discounts for remote workers looking to live and work in new locations.

Potential Business Opportunities:

• Luxury workcation resorts that provide co-working spaces, high-speed internet, and vacation amenities.

• Travel platforms and tools to help remote workers discover ideal destinations and plan extended workcations.

• Corporate workcation packages for companies looking to offer this as an employee perk.

• Consulting to help companies develop bleisure travel policies and best practices.

If you’re interested in more trends and business ideas, check out Capital Ideas—Faster Than Normal’s paid sister publication (Subscribe with one click).

Tactical reads

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> When you need to make faster decisions
A Tactical Guide on How to Make Decisions Faster (Read it here)

> When waiting for a 10 bagger
How Long Does it Take For a 10 Bagger in the Stock Market? (Read it here)

> When you need to prioritise better
Buffett focus by James Clear (Read it here)

> When understanding quantum computing
Quantum computing: The time to act is now (Read it here)

> When getting to cashflow
21 Ways to Cashflow No One Talks About (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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If you’re considering building your own personal brand, starting a Newsletter, or saving time by delegating to offshore assistants, I documented my journey doing each of these as a part-time Creator. Check them out if you’re interested:

1. Newsletter Mastery: How you can build a newsletter like Faster Than Normal.

2. The Sovereign Creator: How you can build your personal brand on Twitter, LinkedIn, & more.

3. The Master Delegator: How to hire, onboard, and ramp a virtual assistant as a founder, executive, or investor.

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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