Good morning, friends!

It's been four years of The Profile. That means that since February of 2017, you've received 208 Sunday emails, 50 Profile Dossiers, and thousands of longform profiles.

Through the years, I've kept my promise to you, which is that The Profile will improve your content diet. Every Sunday, we come together to study the most curious, innovative, and successful people in the world.

On Wednesdays, we publish The Profile Dossier, a deep-dive on a prominent individual that takes you on a journey from their greatest triumphs to their most gut-wrenching failures. We've learned important lessons from Spanx CEO Sara Blakely, chef Grant Achatz, TV powerhouse Shonda Rhimes, and of course, the one & only Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (who is a Profile reader).

A lot has changed in the last four years, but there's one thing that hasn't budged in 208 weeks: the quality of the content. You, the reader, have always received a selection of great longform profile recommendations on people & companies you could learn from. Like Ira Glass says, it takes years to close the creative gap between your taste and your skill, but what matters is that you don't quit.

If you or I had quit somewhere along the way, we would've never gotten to hear from Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton on what it means to be human or learned about the immigrant journey from Atoms co-founder Sidra Qasim, or understood what it truly means to be mentally resilient from veteran and athlete Noah Galloway.

But what I'm most thankful for is that we've carved out this little corner of the internet that's allowed curious, like-minded people to meet and share ideas. Remember in 2019 when the readers of this newsletter met up all over the world? I'm talking from San Francisco to New York to London to Nairobi, Kenya. As one reader put it, “We met up as readers, and ended up as friends.” In 2020, we held 14 virtual meetups, and I got to meet so many of you once again. You are the lifeblood of what makes The Profile community so very special.

Your feedback over the last four years has been invaluable. You spoke, and I listened. So I'm excited to share that The Profile podcast is here, and you can listen to all of your favorite conversations in one place!

LISTEN TO THE PROFILE PODCAST 👇

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts here
🎧  Listen on Spotify here

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It would mean the world to me if you helped me celebrate The Profile’s four-year anniversary by asking your friends and family to sign up using http://theprofile.substack.com

If you tweet the link, use the hashtag #ILoveTheProfile so I can see them all!

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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 Stephen Hawking, the explorer of the universe. Become a premium member, and check it out here.

A WORD FROM OUR PARTNER: Here's a mind-boggling stat: 84% of ultra-high-net worth individuals collect art, according to a 2019 Deloitte survey. It makes sense—contemporary art returned 13.6% per year over the last 25 years vs. 8.9 % for the S&P 500. With the total art market expected to balloon to $2.6 trillion by 2026, it’s no wonder that the price of paintings have skyrocketed. The startup at the center of it all? Masterworks. They’ve fractionalized multimillion-dollar masterpieces by KAWS, Basquiat, Banksy, and more—and you can be a part of it.They’ve allowed our Profile subscribers to skip the 25,000 waitlist, so do yourself a favor and sign up today.* *(See important information)

PROFILES.

— The beach bum who beat Wall Street [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— TikTok's hottest star
— The man selling luxury apartments in a pandemic
— The billionaire who wants to save the planet
— The 93-year-old who waged war on J.P. Morgan
— The actress playing the long game
— The singer who escaped an abusive relationship
— The feminist profiteers
— The rich soccer club crippled by success

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The beach bum who beat Wall Street: Mike McCaskill, a 45-year-old self-described “beach bum," had spent years scouring the stock market and betting on long shots. Then he found the opportunity that changed his life—and helped spark the mother of all short squeezes. (The Ringer)

“It’s a Cinderella story. Mike truly is Cinderella."

TikTok's hottest star: Addison Rae is TikTok's top earner. Rae, 19, has amassed 4.9 billion likes and 76 million followers through her array of dance routines, lip syncs and beauty videos on the platform. Oh, and she did it in 18 months. She is considered to be TikTok’s highest earner with an estimated fortune of $5 million. Her skyrocketing success, however, has also brought out the worst of the internet. Here's how she's dealt with it all. (Glamour Magazine)

"I've dealt a lot with online hate and social media drama, with people that are very opinionated and don't want people to be happy."

The man selling luxury apartments in a pandemic: Reality TV real estate broker Ryan Serhant is just as good at selling luxury apartments as he is at selling himself. He gained prominence through the show Million Dollar Listing, and now Serhart is launching his own brokerage. "Am I starting a real-estate company in the middle of a pandemic in New York, when a million people just left the city?” Yes. Yes, he is, and here's why it makes sense. (New York Magazine)

“It’s definitely performance art, but there’s a seriousness underpinning it.”

The billionaire who wants to save the planet: Bill Gates believes that there are really only two data points that matter when it comes to tackling humankind’s existential challenge: 51 billion and zero. The first is the number of tons of greenhouse gases that are typically added to the atmosphere every year. The second is the number we need to arrive at to avoid catastrophe. In this interview, Gates provides a roadmap to getting to zero carbon emissions by 2050. (WIRED)

"Do we have even a clue how we're going to do the hard stuff and find the craziest thinkers?"

The 93-year-old who waged war on J.P. Morgan: Beverley Schottenstein said two grandsons who managed her money at J.P. Morgan forged documents, ran up commissions with inappropriate trading, and made her miss tens of millions of dollars in gains. So she decided to teach them all a lesson. (Bloomberg)

“I don’t wish to hurt anyone, but I must express my feelings on how I am being used.”

The actress playing the long game: Michelle Pfeiffer has appeared onscreen as everything from an ingenue to an action hero, but she doesn’t feel as though she has ever been entirely understood. “Your seat is never saved in this industry. It’s very competitive,” she says. "I’m at an age when the parts are getting more interesting again for me." Here's what her next chapter holds. (Town & Country)

“It’s easier to have a French exit these days than it was many years ago."

The singer who escaped an abusive relationship: British singer FKA twigs has overcome plenty of obstacles in her career. But, she says, nothing has been more challenging than the abuse she endured during her time with actor Shia LaBeouf. In this feature, twigs details the “calculated, systematic, tricky, and mazelike” tactics she believes LaBeouf used to control her. (Elle Magazine)

"It’s pure luck that I’m not in that situation anymore.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The feminist profiteers: This profile answers the question: What happened to The Wing? The women-only co-working space promised an Instagram-friendly feminist utopia, but reality was a bit different. Last year, the company found itself in the middle of a storm in which employees spoke out about a toxic workplace masquerading as a feminist paradise. So what did The Wing ultimately do? It sold a controlling stake ... to a man. (New York Magazine)

"The complaints varied in their details but often arrived at the point that the Wing, while presenting itself as feminist, was ultimately about money."

The rich soccer club crippled by success: F.C. Barcelona is the richest soccer club in the world. It has, for much of the last decade, had the look of a sporting and commercial colossus. It is the first (and only) team to surpass $1 billion in annual revenue. But the club has been living on the edge for much of its recent history, thanks to years of impulsive management, rash decisions and imprudent contracts. Soaring revenues helped paper over its worst mistakes, but the coronavirus has now changed the math. (The New York Times)

This installment of The Profile is free for everyone. If you would like to get full access to all of the recommendations, including today’s audio and video sections, sign up below.

AUDIO TO HEAR.

Katie Haun on the future of crypto: Katie Haun has an impressive background. She served as a federal prosecutor and prosecuted RICO murders, organized crime, and money laundering — and she never lost a case. Now, she's a general partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz where she sits on the board of Coinbase, and she's really passionate about the future of cryptocurrency. "Take a moment to explore crypto," she says. "Realize that it's not all just about speculation. There's a lot of exciting things happening in the space." (Link available to premium members.)

Vlad Tenev on his controversial GameStop decision: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev had to freeze trading on his platform during the GameStop trading saga. His decision to block customers from buying shares of GameStop and a dozen of other companies drew great scrutiny and fueled accusations that Robinhood changed its trading rules to favor its big Wall Street clients that stood to lose money if GameStop shares kept rising. Here's Tenev's side of the story. (Link available to premium members.)

Naval Ravikant on finding genuine happiness: How do you achieve true contentment? Naval Ravikant says it's about making contentment your *purpose. "*To me, the only true test of intelligence is if you get what you want in life," he says. "If you're not getting what you want in life, then how smart are you?" Here's why Ravikant believes that intelligence and happiness are not mutually exclusive. (Link available to premium members.)

VIDEOS TO SEE.

Hamdi Ulukaya on the anti-CEO playbook: Hamdi Ulukaya has built his yogurt company Chobani into a multi-billion dollar empire — with a mission to give a chance to those who need it most. About 30% of his company’s 2,000 employees are immigrants and refugees from more than 15 different countries. Ulukaya fundamentally believes that everyone deserves an opportunity, and a job can transform someone’s life. This is a must-watch documentary. (Link available to premium members.)

Jackie Cruz on going from her deathbed to the red carpet: When she was a teenager, actress Jackie Cruz could feel her life coming off the rails. "I was becoming someone I wasn't," she says. After a night of partying, she got in a friend's car with no seatbelt on. As her friend was racing with another driver, she lost control of the wheel, and the car flipped three times. Here's how this moment of tragedy changed Cruz's entire life trajectory. (Link available to premium members.)

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