Hi friends,

I end every interview with this question: “How do you define success?”

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s this: Success is personal.

I recently listened to an interview with legendary music producer Rick Rubin, in which Tim Ferriss asked him this very question. Below is an excerpt:

FERRISS: When you think of the word successful, who’s the first person who comes to mind?

RUBIN: It’s not such an easy question to answer. Because, I mean, so many things go into what makes someone successful.

FERRISS: What are some of those things?

RUBIN: I would start with somebody who’s happy. I know a great many people who are financially successful and not happy, so I would rule all of them out, to start with. Let’s see. It’s not coming as easily. I have to think about that, and we can come back to it.

Rubin adds:

“Anyway, successful is someone who enjoys their life, is great at what they do, is curious, and continually pushing forward, and wanting to be better than they were yesterday, without beating themselves up about it.”

I love this definition of success, and I hope it makes you think about your own relationship with it.

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THE PROFILE DOSSIER: On Wednesday, premium members received The Profile Dossier a comprehensive deep-dive on a prominent individual. It featured Svante Pääbo, the geneticist unlocking the secrets of our DNA. Read it below.

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The Profile Dossier: Svante Pääbo, the Geneticist Unlocking the Secrets of our DNA

“I first thought it was an elaborate prank.” This was Svante Pääbo’s reaction upon learning that he was the winner of the Nobel Prize. Pääbo’s discoveries about the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution earned him the 2022 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine…

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4 days ago · 2 likes · Polina Pompliano

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PROFILES.

— The runner who finished what she started
— Peloton’s ex-CEO selling rugs
— The Ukrainian dad who saved his kids
— The child star who’s all grown up
— The juvenile detention center under fire [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The runner who finished what she started: In 1993, Passle Helminski was on a training walk as she was preparing for the New York City Marathon when a man assaulted her, striking her in the neck with his hand. The attack caused a tear in her left carotid artery—one of the two vessels that supplies blood to a person’s neck, face and brain—and within 12 hours, a stroke. She had hoped to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials in racewalking but after the attack, she had to relearn how to walk and speak. Last weekend at the New York City Marathon, Helminski finished what she started 29 years ago. (Sports Illustrated)

“You’re embarrassed. You’re enraged. You’re all of the emotions. But I’m here and I’m doing things again.”

Peloton’s ex-CEO selling rugs: Peloton’s former CEO John Foley is launching a new startup selling custom rugs. Foley is launching Ernesta, a direct-to-consumer custom rug business, alongside two cofounders from his Peloton days, Hisao Kushi and Yony Feng. Ernesta is coming out of the gate with $25 million in venture capital funding and a founding team made up entirely of ex-Peloton managers. This is a business, he says, that he’s been thinking about for 25 years. (Forbes)

“I am hungry, I am humbled, and I have time on my hands to do this company myself.”

The Ukrainian dad who saved his kids: Yevgeny is a former Ukrainian contract soldier from Mariupol. He has three children: ages 12, 7, and 5. After Yevgeny and his wife divorced, the kids stayed with their dad. At the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Yevgeny was put in a prison camp while his children were taken to a boarding house near Moscow — and very nearly sent to live with a Russian family. Yevgeny recounted how he survived Russian captivity, saved his children, and escaped with the three of them to Latvia. (Meduza)

The child star who’s all grown up: For many of us, Lindsay Lohan played an integral role in our childhood from The Parent Trap to Freaky Friday to Mean Girls. (I had all the DVDs.) In this interview, Lohan digs into her first Netflix project, surviving early-2000s paparazzi, her friendship with Al Pacino, married life in Dubai, and what comes next. (Cosmopolitan)

“I’m the kind of person that now wants to do it again but ten times better.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The juvenile detention center under fire: After back-to-back suicides at Lousiana’s juvenile detention center, the Ware Youth Center, questions arose about the treatment of the children under its watch. This investigation — based on more than 100 interviews, thousands of pages of records, court documents, and hours of security footage — reveals how a place meant to offer children care and rehabilitation instead descended into chaos and cruelty. This is a chilling, but important, read. (The New York Times)

“We knew there would be consequences, but my kid didn’t deserve to die because he set fire to a roll of toilet paper in a school.”

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