On June 11, 1997, Michael Jordan stepped onto the court for Game 5 of the NBA Finals between his Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz.
Jordan was reportedly very sick, but chose to play given the critical importance of the game to the series, which was tied 2-2 at the time.
Throughout the game, he looked visibly unwell, with a fever over 100 degrees, he experienced extreme fatigue, dehydration, and body aches.
But despite his condition, he played 44 of the 48 total minutes, scored 38 points, and had 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. With under one minute left, he hit a 3-pointer to seal the win for the Bulls.
The game—now commonly known as Michael Jordan’s “Flu Game”—has gone down in NBA lore as one of the most impressive, clutch performances in history.
While I do vividly recall watching this game with my dad (I was 6-years-old at the time!), I’m not just sharing this as a fun trip down memory lane…
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Mel Robbins called my first book "a powerful wake-up call that will push you to rethink everything about how you’re spending your time."
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Last week, I had a pinch me experience:
I spent five days co-hosting a retreat with Richard Branson, Adam Grant, and a group of incredible entrepreneurs and thinkers on Necker Island, Richard’s private island in the Caribbean.
The opportunity came about in the most unlikely way...
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Mel Robbins called my first book "a powerful wake-up call that will push you to rethink everything about how you’re spending your time."
Join 300,000+ other readers and get it today on a big sale!
Last week, I posted a short thought:
The worst mistakes in life are made when you try to do fast what’s meant to be done slow. Real, durable things take a long time to build. Careers. Businesses. Relationships. Health. There are no hacks or shortcuts. The long way is the right way.The idea clearly struck a chord, reaching millions of impressions in a few days.
It reminded me of one of my favorite Zen parables...
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Apple CEO Tim Cook called my first book "a powerful call to action to think deeply about what lights you up."
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If you read (or listen) to this newsletter, you know that I’m obsessed with interesting ideas.
Here are 5 ideas I can’t stop thinking about this month…
(P.S. This may become a regular monthly segment if people are interested!)
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Mel Robbins called my first book "a powerful wake-up call that will push you to rethink everything about how you’re spending your time."
Join 300,000+ other readers and get it today on a big sale!
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, there’s a scene in which Alice reaches a fork in the road and has a simple exchange with the Cheshire Cat:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
It’s a clever exchange, but holds a deep truth...
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Apple CEO Tim Cook called my first book "a powerful call to action to think deeply about what lights you up."
Join 300,000+ other readers and get it now on a big sale!
There’s a story I come back to when I’m feeling stressed or frustrated...
A monk is meditating alone on a lake when another boat crashes into his. Anger rises—until he opens his eyes and realizes the boat is empty, drifting freely after coming untied.
In that moment, the anger vanishes...
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Andrew Huberman called my first book "An important clarifying force in anyone’s search to make the best possible choices for their life."
Join 300,000+ other readers and get it now on a big sale!
Last week, the world's top-ranked golfer, Scottie Scheffler, went viral for something completely unrelated to golf.
During his pre-tournament interview at The Open Championship, one of four annual major golf championships, a reporter asked Scheffler a simple question about his incredible streak of success...
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Mel Robbins called my first book "a powerful wake-up call that will push you to rethink everything about how you’re spending your time."
Join 300,000+ other readers and get it today on a big sale!
Last week, a reader sent me a poem that stopped me in my tracks.
To live content with small means.- William Ellery Channing
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better distillation of a good life captured in so few words...
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Andrew Huberman called my first book "An important clarifying force in anyone’s search to make the best possible choices for their life."
Join 300,000+ other readers and get it now on a big sale!
Here's an old Buddhist story I think about often:
Imagine someone is struck by a poisoned arrow. A doctor is called to remove the arrow, but the man stops him. 'Not so fast! Before you remove it, I want to know who shot me. What town or village does he come from? What kind of wood was his bow made from? Was it a crossbow or a longbow?' While he asks the questions, the poison takes hold and he dies.Like the man in the story, we occasionally get shot with the poisoned arrows of life. But ruminating too much on the nature of those arrows is unlikely to help.
This is a trap we all fall into...
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Apple CEO Tim Cook called my first book “a powerful call to action to think deeply about what lights you up.”
Get it now on sale and join the movement to live a wealthy life!
I get a lot of messages asking for career advice.
The following is my attempt to synthesize my responses from the last few years into a series of short, valuable lessons.
Behind each of these is a much longer story—probably a painful one—but I'll spare you that detail (for now!).
No matter where you are on your career journey, my hope is that this list has something of value for you.
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Mel Robbins called my first book "a compelling call to action that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page."
You can join 300,000+ others and get it now on a big 50% sale.
Last week, I was speaking to a group of entrepreneurs when one of them admitted he'd been struggling.
He's dealing with a challenging family health situation and feeling like he isn't doing enough to grow his business.
A few hours later, I got a text from a friend, who said she was trying to slow down, but struggling with negative self talk that she wasn't doing enough.
The two nearly identical interactions just hours apart sparked a realization...
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I'm thrilled to finally share The 5 Types of Wealth Life Planner—an interactive companion to my bestselling book designed to help you start taking action to build the life you want.
In the pages of this beautiful planner, you'll...
...and much, much more.
With specific prompts and tactical exercises designed to turn dreams into reality, this is a planner you’ll come back to over and over again as your life evolves.
In the 4th century B.C., the Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, wrote in his Aphorisms (translated into Latin here):
Vita brevis, ars longa, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment dangerous, judgment difficult.
The phrase has been further tightened and adapted, including by the Roman statesman and Stoic philosopher Seneca, into the following:
Art is long, life is short.
In a strict interpretation, this might simply be about your art: The creative craft or endeavor you choose to pursue.
But allow me to offer a more liberal interpretation...
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SPECIAL OFFER: Grab your copy of my NYT bestselling book during the Amazon Prime Day sale—it’s the perfect time to get it at a huge discount!
On a windy pier in the ancient city of Joppa, a young man buys a one-way ticket to sail in the opposite direction of his destiny...
The young man, Jonah, had been called upon by God to travel to the city of Nineveh to preach his word.
But, in the heat of the moment, he runs from this calling, boarding a ship and sailing off in the opposite direction.
When a divine storm threatens the ship during its sail, Jonah asks the crew to throw him overboard as he continues his flight from his true destiny.
He's swallowed whole by a whale, living in the belly of the creature for several days, during which he repents for running from his duties and is eventually spared.
This Biblical story (Jonah 1-3) has deeply relevant lessons for all of our lives (that have nothing to do with religion)...
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Bestselling author Susan Cain had this to say about my book: "On almost every page, you’ll find yourself smiling, tearing up, or discovering ideas that you can’t wait to share with the people in your life."
Join 300,000+ readers and order it today on a big sale!
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We've all been there...
That familiar sensation of feeling behind.
And it's no wonder it's so familiar. From the time you wake up in the morning until the time you go to sleep at night, you're being hit by a constant drip highlight reel from everyone around you.
Their promotions. Their bonuses. Their new homes. Their fancy cars. Their beautiful lives.
Every single piece of information a snapshot of their position that you can't help but compare yourself to.
Teddy Roosevelt once called comparison "the thief of joy."
But in my view, it's not the act of comparison itself that's the problem...
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Andrew Huberman called my first book "An important clarifying force in anyone’s search to make the best possible choices for their life."
Join 300,000+ other readers and get it now on a big sale!
There’s an old fable about Christopher Columbus that I like…
In 1493, upon return from his first voyage to the Americas (which he mistakenly identified as the East Indies), a group of Spanish nobles gathered for a celebratory dinner with Christopher Columbus.
The nobles diminished his accomplishment, saying, “Anyone could have sailed west and found land. You just happened to get there first.”
Columbus smiled, reached for a boiled egg, and issued a wager...
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Bestselling author Mel Robbins said my book "will push you to rethink everything about how you’re spending your time."
Join 300,000+ readers and order it today on a big sale!
Robert Caro is widely considered to be one of the greatest biographers of our time. His list of accolades is long and includes two Pulitzer Prizes for Biography, two National Book Awards (one for Lifetime Achievement), and many more.
But the critical acclaim is no accident.
His work is revered for its meticulous research and intense dedication to its subjects.
Robert Caro didn't set out to write "good enough" biographies. He set out to produce definitive, world-changing ones—the kind that shape our understanding of human nature, power, and the people who wield it.
The origin of that ethos was a simple conversation with his boss, Alan Hathaway, when he began a role as an investigative reporter at Newsday...
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My first book was named an Editor's Pick for one of the Best Books of 2025 by Amazon.
You can order it now on a huge sale!
In 1789, philosopher Jeremy Bentham mused on the two forces that control our lives:
"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure."His argument, in simple terms, is that human behavior is driven by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
This general idea is the basis for the most useful productivity framework you've probably never heard of:
It's called Skinner's Law..
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My first book has reached over 300,000 people around the world.
Get it now on sale and join the movement to live a wealthy life!
I have a close friend—we'll call him Ben.
Ben is very successful. He's in his 30s, sold a company for $100 million, and earns over $10 million per year in his current role.
I was recently out on a walk with Ben when he admitted something interesting:
He hates his current job. He finds no fulfillment in the work and dreams of leaving to start something new. Something that would bring him alive again.
So, naturally, I told him to quit. I mean, he has enough money for many, many lifetimes, and that affords him the freedom to do so.
My logic was basically this classic from Bobby Axelrod on Billions:
Well, as it turns out, he can't quit. He's trapped. Perhaps not in a literal sense, but in an even more damning psychological one.
Today, I want to talk about this fascinating trap, how success and freedom can find themselves at odds, and how to design your life to avoid that fate...
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Andrew Huberman called my book "An important clarifying force in anyone’s search to make the best possible choices for their life."
You can get it now on a big 50% sale.
I recently came across a quote that hit me hard:
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." — Henry FordEvery meaningful path in life is lined with obstacles.
If you've ever pursued something grand or ambitious...
...you know the path is never smooth.
Roadblocks, bumps, thorns. They are the norm.
But here's a question worth asking yourself...
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Apple CEO Tim Cook called my book "a guide for how to build a life of meaning and purpose."
You can get it now on a big 50% sale.
Want the key to success? As crazy as it sounds, I might actually be able to give it to you in the next 3 minutes...
You see, I spend a lot of time thinking about common threads across the lives of the people I admire. These are all people who are winning in their chosen worlds, whether that be a CEO in the boardroom, an artist in the symphony hall, an athlete on the field, a mom or dad in the home, or anything in between.
It's difficult to identify a common set of specific tactics.
As it turns out, there are a million different ways to achieve success. There's no magic routine. No perfect productivity system. No success equation.
But if you zoom out, there is one mindset that I have observed across every single one of these people...
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Mel Robbins called my book "a compelling call to action that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page."
You can get it now on a special 50% sale.
