Good morning, friends!

I recently texted a friend to share my thoughts on an interview with a founder. She replied a few weeks later.

Her text message is very simple but very important. Here’s what she said:

“I probably read and didn’t reply.”

Now, think about it: there are so many ways she could’ve responded.

She could’ve been unnecessarily apologetic, writing, “I am so sorry! I can’t believe I missed this.” Or she could’ve offered an excuse: “I meant to respond but I got really busy, lost track of time, etc.” Or she could’ve even lied a little bit: “I had a response typed up here, but it looks like it never sent!”

But instead, she said what actually happened: “I probably read and didn’t reply.”

This is an example of a very small interaction that’s actually very meaningful. I respect this friend immensely, and she is someone I genuinely look to for advice in my personal and professional life. The reason I respect her so much is because she’s always honest and lives her life (and runs her company) in alignment with being a person of high integrity.

She’s a friend who will patiently hear you out and say, “Let me offer you a different perspective…”

And this text message came at the perfect time because I had just listened to a Tim Ferriss podcast episode with Oprah’s life coach Martha Beck.

Beck has been called “the best-known life coach in America.” She holds three Harvard degrees in social science and has published nine non-fiction books, one novel, and more than 200 magazine articles.

In the podcast episode, Beck shares the shocking results of what happened when she went an entire year without lying. As she realized her whole life was built on a lie, she lost her family of origin, her religion, her job, and her marriage.

“Don’t tell a single lie, not to anyone for any reason, and pretty soon every relationship you have, professional or personal where there’s any level of secrecy or untruth begins to fall apart and then it starts to explode,” she says. “And that’s what happened to me. I just kept seeing what I believed until I realized I’m not Mormon. I don’t believe in it at all.”

Beck’s entire worldview shifted on what she calls, “The Day of the Ceiling Fan.” It was a tiny yet monumental experience. She was out at dinner with her friend and author Byron Katie when the hostess seated them at a table directly under a fan that was aggressively blowing at them.

In her free Integrity Cleanse workbook, Beck writes:

“As I grimly adjusted to loving this, Katie shocked me by saying she wasn’t comfortable and requesting that we be moved to a different table.

“Because you are a normal person, this may not shock you. But as a timid people-pleaser, I could barely believe my eyes.

“It was as if someone had just disproved the theory of gravity. I’d assumed that Katie would sit under a freezing fan and question her thoughts until she felt great with gale-force winds blowing through the linguine.”

And then Katie told Beck something she has never forgotten: “When people don’t like what’s in your integrity, you know where you both stand. Clear and simple. Then you have a real relationship, one based on the truth.”

As a result, Beck formulated an “integrity cleanse,” a process of practicing honesty in thoughts, words, and actions. She realized that she wasn’t lying about big things — she was lying about the small, everyday things. “I didn’t tell lies about my taxes or anything in my personal life even,” she says. “I was telling lies about how I felt.”

Here’s how you can conduct an integrity cleanse: For the next three days, try to be aware every time you say something you don’t believe. “Most lies are told to smooth social interactions,” she says.

And every time you tell a small fib or you say something you don’t actually mean, write it down in a journal.

Beck offers the following example: Imagine someone says, “We’d love you to come out and visit us.” And to be polite, you respond with something you don’t mean: “Sure, sometime.”

But then in your journal, you write: “Okay, that was a lie. I would rather die a thousand times than go to stay with these people.”

By writing down the truth, you start noticing the situations in which you lie. And then you start lying less and becoming more in alignment with who you really are. Truth breeds integrity and integrity breeds respect.

Why is this important? Because many of us choose conformity instead of integrity until we look in the mirror and no longer recognize ourselves.

Beck writes, “We lie our way through our lives to get people to like us, and then we find out they didn’t like us because we were lying.”

We all know that living in alignment with our truth is what we ultimately want. But it’s so hard to do — especially if you’re a person who seeks external validation.

Beck offers a warning: “Depart from your truth in any way — offer a fake smile, flatter your awful boss, marry for money — and you become two people: the truth knower and the lie actor. That’s duplicity. And duplicity, not social noncompliance, is the real enemy of joy.”

With that said, I will try doing an integrity cleanse for the next week and I’ll report my findings here. Feel free to join me in this experiment.

— Polina

PROFILES.

— The crypto investor who wants to overhaul the industry
— The actress in an ‘aggressive’ fight against cancer
— The New York art dealer who was murdered in Brazil
— The DNA testing company facing an existential threat [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— Wall Street’s favorite podcast

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The crypto investor who wants to overhaul the industry: Chris Dixon, Andreessen Horowitz’s lead crypto investor, argues for the virtues of blockchain in his new book. The book is an attempt by one of the industry’s biggest boosters—he’s pumped billions of dollars into startups including Coinbase Global Inc. and Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs—to rehab crypto’s image. “I want the book to inform people and, hopefully, shift the narrative,” he says. “Our primary goal with the launch was not to get the New York Times and all that.” (Bloomberg; if you can’t access the article, try this link.)

“Based on the nature of the technology, you don’t have to trust people like me, it’s just sort of baked into the code that way.”

The actress in an ‘aggressive’ fight against cancer: A lot has happened to Olivia Munn in the past year. In April of 2023, she received an incredibly unexpected diagnosis: she was diagnosed with luminal B breast cancer in both breasts. Masses were detected, and once a biopsy was done, her doctor, Thaïs Aliabadi, MD, called with her professional opinion. “I couldn't take any risks with Olivia's life,” she says. “To minimize the chance of any abnormal cells remaining, I suggested a double mastecto my, giving Olivia the best opportunity to beat her cancer.” Here’s what she went through in the last year. (Vogue)

“Aggressive cancers need aggressive treatments.”

The New York art dealer who was murdered in Brazil: The legendary New York art dealer Brent Sikkema was tangled up in an ugly divorce when he got on a plane to Rio de Janeiro before Christmas last year, looking for a fresh start. On Saturday, January 13, Brent stepped out of his house, white-haired and pale and dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. He likely didn’t notice the silver Fiat Palio parked across the street—or the man within, watching him intently. At 4:36 p.m., Brent returned. Two days after that, he was found lying naked on his bed, stabbed 18 times. Many of the wounds were to his chest and face. This is an investigation into what happened. (WSJ; try this link if you can’t access the article)

“I think he knew this was the way to create a bad image of me.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The DNA testing company facing an existential threat: Genetic testing company 23andMe has become a household name. The problem, for its CEO Anne Wojcicki and the rest of the DNA testing industry, is that all these years and millions of spit kits later, the doctors still don’t care. Mass-market genetic screenings remain well apart from the medical mainstream, and 23andMe has never made a profit. And unfortunately for Wojcicki and her peers, the reasons for that seem to be less about the stuffiness of the doctors than about the limits of genetic testing. (Bloomberg; if you can’t access the article, try this link.)

“Everyone now is getting their genetic reports back and realizing that it’s not actually making a damn bit of difference when it comes to their health.”

Wall Street’s favorite podcast: It’s a wonky podcast about business history and strategy with four-hour episodes that drop once a month. And people from Silicon Valley to Wall Street are completely obsessed with it. ‘Acquired’ is the unlikely hit show hosted by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, whose ability to understand companies deeply enough to describe them simply makes listeners want to spend time with them. Lots and lots of time. Their first show lasted 37 minutes and got a few hundred downloads over the next six months. Today’s episodes average more than 500,000. Here’s how it turned into big business. (WSJ; if you can’t access the article, try this link.)

“For us to do an episode, it must be timely, but it must also be timeless.”

✨ The rest of this newsletter is only available for premium members of The Profile, whose support makes this work possible. If you’re not already a premium member, consider upgrading your subscription below for access to an additional section of weekly audio + video recommendations. ✨...