Never Fully Read #3

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye hard." - Winnie The Pooh 🍯

July 25, 2021

🧠 Quotes that make you think:

  • “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that created them” - Albert Einstein

  • “The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.” - William Hazlitt

  • "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game" - Babe Ruth

  • "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye hard." - Winnie The Pooh

  • "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." - Chinese Proverb

📈 Trends I found Interesting:

  • 🏎 The top 5 fastest growing industries in Europe: (Source) 

    • (Compound Annual Growth Rate)

    • Batteries AVG. CAGR 153%

    • Fintech AVG. CAGR 133%

    • Energy AVG CAGR 116%

    • Fashion AVG. CAGR 85%

    • Insurance AVG. CAGR 84%

  • 📰 The 2nd Golden Age of Print Media:

    • H1 print sales in 2021 are up 18.5% YOY from 2020 (Source)

    • Adult fiction category, graphic novels are exploding, with H1 2021 sales growing 178% YoY to 16.2m copies (Source)

  • 📚 #BookTok:

    • "BookTok Marketing: Adam Silvera’s 2018 book They Both Die at the End suddenly sold 331k copies this year after sparking interest on #BookTok, a corner of TikTok devoted to bookworms, where videos have racked up a combined 9.6B+ views. Help solo authors or full-on publishers harness this new medium." (Source)

  • 💲Global in-app revenue:

    • Worldwide consumer spending in mobile apps reached $64.9 billion across the App Store and Google Play in the first half of 2021. Up 28.4% on same period in 2020 (Source)

Tech news:

👀 Elevate Brands banks $250M to roll up third-party merchants selling on Amazon’s marketplace.

  • "Elevate Brands, a New York- and Austin-based startup that acquires and runs third-party Amazon merchants, has picked up $250 million in funding, money that it will be using both to continue investing in its technology, as well as to buy up more small businesses."

🏀 LeBron James’s SpringHill Media Company in talks to sell equity stakes, including with Nike, valuing it at up to $750m.

  • "SpringHill Co., led by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, is in early discussions with a range of potential investors to sell a piece of the media and entertainment firm that would value it at upwards of $750 million, Variety confirmed."

🏷 Unybrands brings in $300M to acquire more eCommerce businesses

  • "Unybrands is the latest e-commerce aggregator to pick up a significant investment, this time closing $300 million in growth capital from Crayhill Capital Management. Which created a platform for e-commerce businesses looking to scale their operations on and off Amazon"

  • "The well-known U.S. consumer fintech giant intends to sell shares in its public market debut at a price between $38 and $42 per share. Robinhood is selling 52,375,000 in its IPO, worth $2.0 billion to $2.2 billion. Another 2,625,000 are being offered by existing shareholders, while its underwriting banks have the option to purchase a further 5,500,000 shares in the transaction."

👩‍🏫 World leading GTM learning platform Sales Impact Academy raises $4million

  • "Sales Impact Academy Ltd., which started in 2019, has seen 900% growth in subscription revenue over the past 12 months by creating a live curriculum for sales teams taught by leading experts in the field. The company’s co-founder and chief executive officer believes that SIA is filling a significant unmet need."

🔋 Rivian raises another $2.5B, pushing its EV war chest up to $10.5B

  • "Rivian is an American electric vehicle automaker and automotive technology company founded in 2009.”

  • “Rivian announced Friday that it has closed a $2.5 billion private funding round led by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Partners, Ford Motor and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc."

👂 Podcasts I listened to:

  • Secrets of Taoism, and the rebel monk w/ Daniele Bolelli

    • "I brought him in to talk about a profound piece of literature that reveals deeper insights every time I pick it up–the Tao Te Ching. We go through numerous passages and explore their implications together. Along the way we make a slight detour, discussing one of my great heroes, Ikkyu Sojun. The rebellious, lascivious zen monk famous for the words “Throw me into hell, and I’ll find a way to enjoy it.” This podcast is one of the best operating manuals for any situation life presents us with."

  • The Greatest Motivational Sales Keynote by Ryan Serhant

    • “The Serhant Team has been named by WSJ Real Trends as the #1 real estate team in New York for two years in a row, and the #2 team in the country, selling close to $1 billion in real estate last year. Ryan is consistently the youngest broker to make the Journal’s top ten list each year.”

👓 Book I'm reading:

  • "This fascinating exploration of the surprising power of questioning, innovation expert Warren Berger reveals that powerhouse businesses like Google, Nike, and Netflix, as well as hot Silicon Valley start-ups like Pandora and Airbnb, are fueled by the ability to ask fundamental, game-changing questions. But Berger also shares human stories of people using questioning to solve everyday problems - from "How can I adapt my career in a time of constant change?" to "How can I step back from the daily rush and figure out what really makes me happy?""

  • "The most creative, successful people tend to be expert questioners. They’ve mastered the art of inquiry, raising questions no one else is asking—and finding the answers everyone else is seeking."

  • “My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, “So? Did you learn anything today?” But not my mother. “Izzy,” she would say, “did you ask a good question today?” That difference—asking good questions—made me become a scientist.” Nobel laureate scientist Isidor Isaac Rabi.

  • Ask these 6 questions when starting a creative project:

    • Am I chasing butterflies?

    • Who will hold me accountable?

    • Am I re arranging a bookshelf?

    • How can I lower the bar?

    • What if I begin anywhere?

    • Can I make a prototype?

    • What if I allow myself to start anywhere?

  • Links to the Authors blog on the book:

  • Click here for the 500 question index

⌛️ Timeless Insight:

“The last of the human freedoms: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you become the plaything to circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity...”

Happy existing…