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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: Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman is a business titan who's left her mark on Silicon Valley and beyond. Born in 1956, she climbed the corporate ladder at Procter & Gamble and Bain before taking the helm at eBay in 1998. There, she transformed a 30-employee startup into an e-commerce giant with 15,000 employees and $8 billion in revenue. Whitman's leadership style? Collaborative and customer-focused. "Treat other people the way you would like to be treated because if you do, good things will come your way," she once wrote. After a stint in politics and leading Hewlett-Packard, Whitman faced criticism for her role in the failed streaming platform Quibi. Now, she's serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya. Resilient. Adaptable.

Key Lessons from Meg Whitman:

• On core values: "Treat other people the way you would like to be treated because if you do, good things will come your way."

• On relationship-building: She is "a pro at building relationships, learning, listening, and using her influence to validate both employee and customer experiences".

Read More.

Company: Honda

Honda was founded in 1946 by Soichiro Honda, a mechanic and racing enthusiast. The company began by producing motorized bicycles using surplus generator engines. In 1948, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. was officially incorporated with 34 employees and 1 million yen in capital. Soichiro partnered with Takeo Fujisawa in 1949, who brought business acumen to complement Honda's engineering skills. The company's breakthrough came with the 1958 launch of the Super Cub motorcycle, which became a global success. Honda expanded into automobile production in 1963 with the T360 mini-truck and S500 sports car. Today, Honda is a multinational corporation with $140.9 billion in revenue (2024) and a diverse product line including motorcycles, automobiles, power equipment, and even aircraft.

Key Lessons from Honda:

• On branding: Create an emotional connection with customers. Honda's "The Power of Dreams" slogan taps into aspirations, not just features. People don't just buy a product. They buy into an idea.

• On innovation culture: Honda encourages employees to spend time on personal projects. They call it "waigaya" - informal, unstructured brainstorming. Give your people freedom to create. You never know what might come out of it.

Read More.

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Accelerants

High-performance tool

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Vulnerability

Vulnerability is the currency of human connection.

The more vulnerable you allow yourself to be, the more connected to others you will feel.

Insights

Tactical reads

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> When identifying key intervention points in complex systems
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System (Read it here)

> When studying systems thinking and constraint theory
Theory of Constraints 101 (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.

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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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