FS | BRAIN FOOD

June 29, 2025 - #635 - read online - Free Version

Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless wisdom in an accelerating world.

Tiny Thoughts

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Success has a way of attracting people who disappear in storms.

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The gift with the highest return: believing in someone before they believe in themselves.

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Everyone wants the summary. But the summary is what's left after someone else decided what matters. Their priorities aren't yours. Their filters aren't yours. When you operate on summaries, you're thinking with someone else's brain.

Insights

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Legendary Coach Bill Belichick on competing:

“Helping the team win doesn't look warm and fuzzy. It looks like work—usually hard work—if you want to outcompete your opponent.”

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Tolstoy on shortening the distance between where you are and where you want to go:

“A man on a thousand-mile walk has to forget his ultimate goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I’m going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.’”

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Singer Jewel shares her formula for happiness:

“Do things that lend themselves to the happiness you desire. Exercise. Eat well. Do something that makes you feel joy, even when you don’t feel like it. Surround yourself with people you admire and who add substance to your life.”

The Knowledge Project

I loved this conversation with Pepsi's former Chairman and CEO, Indra Nooyi.

You'll learn exactly how to rise to the top. You'll also learn why you might not want to.

Here's a story that I've been thinking about ever since:

One night after a big promotion, she rushed home full of excitement to share the big news. But her mother barely looked up before saying, "the news can wait, I need you to go out and get milk." When Indra returned with the milk, she was furious, saying loudly, "I've just become president of PepsiCo, and you couldn't just stop and listen to my news?"

"Listen to me," her mother replied. "You may be the president or whatever, but when you come home, you are a wife and a mother and a daughter. Nobody can take your place. So you leave that crown in the garage."

As she put it, “You don’t get to be CEO by being the perfect Mom, the perfect wife. You don’t. You do the best you can. It’s hard to make those sacrifices.”

This episode contains both the playbook for success and the clarity to decide if it's worth it.

+ Listen now on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Web

+ Members can read all 47 of my highlights from her autobiography here.

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Thanks for reading,

— Shane Parrish

P.S. Two people or one?

P.P.S. I've heard good things. Has anyone tried it?

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