Good morning, friends!

In the last edition of The Profile, I wrote about wake-up calls. You know the type: the ones that shake you awake from the monotony of life and typically show up in the form of something unpleasant — an unexpected death, a breakup, a sickness, or some sort of loss.

Dozens of Profile readers weighed in with their own stories about events that shook them up and changed their outlook on life.

Below is an excerpt of the stories that touched me, and I hope they act as a wake-up to all of you as well. (Read the full article here.)

1. Understand that life is impossibly fragile

One of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is that time is abundant.

We take time for granted, we wait until we're "ready," and as a result, we end up delaying dreams that may never solidify into reality. We're not intentional about spending time with loved ones because, well, we assume they'll be here next week, next month, and next year.

Reader C.B. learned that time is a luxury not all of us can enjoy when he was moving from Denver to North Carolina. He was in the car driving through West Virginia when he got a call from his boss.

He writes:

Jumping right into the conversation, thinking it was about work, I wasn't anticipating the somber reply I received.

"Our friend is no longer with us."

Huh? I thought.

"He was killed in a bicycle incident. While crossing an intersection during a green light, he was hit by a car."

I choked upon hearing this. I was right there just a week earlier with him. During this time, my late friend was pedantic about safety. Helmet on, look not two, but three times before crossing, travel at a safe speed. While he did everything in his will to reduce every possible risk of an injury, he could not escape death.

That could've been me, I thought.

This was a friend who lived adventurously. Traveled to 6 continents. Always pushed colleagues to become better. Gone in an instant.

Before that phone call, C.B. had heard the cliché of "life is short," but this time he felt the reality of it in his bones. It was a wake-up call to become more intentional with how he spends his time.

"I spend more time with family now," he says. "I call my grandmother more. I understand how precious life is and do not take it for granted. There is no greater time to do something than the present — for an opportunity may no longer exist afterward."

2. Create a snowball effect of positive change

Reader Charlie Bleecker has thought a lot about the type of "wake-up calls" that leave you desperately defeated on your bathroom floor. Five years ago, she went through a brutal and messy breakup.

"It did shake me to my core, but it wasn't that one thing that changed my approach to life," she says. "It created a snowball effect of positive changes because I was finally able to think about the big picture. When something horrible happens, we're finally able to go off autopilot for just a second and question what the hell we're doing with our lives."

Getting herself off of autopilot is exactly what she needed to create meaningful change in her life after hearing the blaring alarm of a wake-up call. She calls it "the snowball effect of positive change."

Here's how it works:

“In my darkest moment, a friend suggested I read The Untethered Soul to help me get out of my head. It led to a new realization that had nothing to do with the breakup and everything to do with my relationship to food and body image. Which led me to read a book about intuitive eating. Which led to yoga and cooking real food. Which led to meditation and solitude. I quit my job and moved away from LA and my partying friends.”

She says: "Once you’ve created momentum and positive feedback loops in your life, serendipity pokes its head up and takes you by the hand." She turned her entire life around thanks to one event that forced her to look inward. (Read more about her story here.)

3. Never lose sight of what actually matters

Wake-up calls are simply reminders of values we've always held but have been ignoring. It's not that you actually care about the minor inconvenience that the barista messed up your coffee order, it's that you've lost sight of what really matters.

S.M. was 20 years old, working as an intern at Morgan Stanley in New York City ("and hating it"). By societal standards, she was considered successful in the most ruthless city on the planet, but she was left wondering if this was all there was to life.

That summer, there was a terrorist attack in her home country of Bangladesh. "It was an ISIS hostage situation at a local restaurant a few blocks from where my cousin lived, and one I had just visited a couple of months earlier before coming to New York to start my internship," she says. "At first, I thought it was sad but didn’t think too much of it."

As more information came out, she found out that three of her high school friends were some of the hostages. They were ultimately killed in the attack, and they were only 19 and 20 years old.

"That was Friday night at 3 a.m. when we all found out our friends didn’t make it.

"I went to work Monday, basically crying every hour. I told my manager what happened. And he told me to go home, that none of the work mattered. To take care of myself.

"And I remember heading back to my apartment in the city thinking he was right. None of the work I did mattered. I wanted my work to matter. For my life to matter.

"So I make a lot of choices today with that day in mind. My friends didn’t get the opportunity to do all the things they should’ve. So I try to lead my life knowing it’s short and I was given the opportunity to make the most of life."

Shortly after graduating from college, R.C’s father was unexpectedly diagnosed with a rare form of terminal cancer. This prompted her to resign from her new job and take a year off and move back in with her parents.

She spent that year taking her dad to all of his appointments and often staying with him in the hospital where they would pass the time by watching their favorite TV shows and ordering takeout.

“These were long and hard days, but incredibly meaningful. I actually spent my birthday that year with him in the hospital,” R.C. says. “Someone called to wish me a happy birthday and they said to me, ‘Oh, I’m sorry that this certainly isn’t your best birthday.’ I remember smiling and saying, ‘Actually, it is.’”

Although she faced a lot of criticism for veering from the path she had planned for herself, she says she would “make the same decision 1,000 times over again.”

R.C. writes:

“Think about what really matters and what you will really remember. Try and let the suffering in your life make you softer, more compassionate, and not bitter.  You might be surprised by how your perspective changes, and what makes a birthday the best kind.”

When she was in her 20s, S.B. found herself inches away from death after a bacterial infection nearly took her life. Some people would describe it as the worst day of her life, but she describes it as one of the best. "The wake-up call comes for all," she says. "I was lucky mine happened when I was so young."

After she got a second chance at life, she had the profound realization that the things that ultimately matter the most are the ones decided by us and no one else.

She writes:

“I realized that in the end, you really are alone. I let go of others’ expectations of who I should be. I realized what mattered to me. I let the rest fall away. This changed the trajectory of my life.

“I worried less what others thought and lived more the way I wanted. I listened to myself. I did things others thought were unwise. I married a man much younger than me. I moved across the country several times. I started a business in the middle of an economic downturn. I became an executive coach when no one even knew what it was.

"Though many considered those decisions hard things, my life became easier."

As S.B. accurately notes: "The wake-up call comes for all." It doesn't spare anyone, and it doesn't care about your plans, hopes, or dreams.

But perhaps the most important thing about wake-up calls is that it's what you do after them that matters. Will you let them defeat you or will you create meaningful change within yourself?

As Thoreau said, "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

Read the Full Article Here

LABOR DAY DISCOUNT: Craving more high-quality content to feed your brain? If you've been wanting to become a premium Profile member, use this link to get 20% off an annual subscription!

THE PROFILE COURSE: I'm going to try a new experiment in 2022. The idea is to create a cohort-based course with live lectures & speakers catered to anyone who is interested in people-focused learning. We'll start small, gather feedback, iterate, and see how it goes. I'm looking for your input! Fill out the survey here.

—

THE PROFILE DOSSIER: On Wednesday, premium members received The Profile Dossier, a comprehensive deep-dive on a prominent individual. It featured Julia Galef, the rational thinker helping us update our beliefs. Get 20% off a membership & read it below.

The Profile

The Profile Dossier: Julia Galef, the Rational Thinker Helping Us Update Our Beliefs

Julia Galef wants you to imagine for a moment that you're a soldier in the midst of battle. You attack, you defend, you protect, but mostly you want to win. Now, imagine playing a different role: a scout. Unlike the soldier, your goal as a scout isn't to defend one side over the other. Instead, you're there to understand, survey the terrain, identify thr……

Read more

4 days ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Polina Pompliano

—

PROFILES.

— The formerly homeless entrepreneur building a sneaker empire [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The cannabis entrepreneur whose business went up in smoke
— The social media stars who move markets
— The investor betting on the online creators
— The investor who turned $250,000 into $400 million
— The global icon preparing for her next act
— The mascot whisperer

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The formerly homeless entrepreneur building a sneaker empire: Jaysse Lopez has lived what feels like a movie — a tragedy, love, and redemption arc all in one lifetime. The 41-year-old Puerto Rican entrepreneur is the co-owner of Urban Necessities, a Las Vegas-based sneaker consignment store. And in late May, 6.5 years after first opening, the shop moved to its biggest location yet at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Here's how Lopez went from homelessness to forging one of the most renowned and lucrative, retail operations in the world of sneakers. (The Undefeated)

“I figured I could sell shoes until I found another job. I just never found another job.”

The cannabis entrepreneur whose business went up in smoke: Rebecca Raffle came to Indianapolis from Los Angeles with dreams of building a cannabis empire. She introduced herself as a West Coast #girlboss, SEO ninja, LGBTQ family, and avid baker. But she was altogether something different. Her story fooled a lot of people, customers, and reporters — when in reality, the truth behind it was bigger and messier. (Indianapolis Monthly)

“It was possibly one of the biggest train wrecks I’ve ever seen.”

The social media stars who move markets: Young people want a roadmap to how to make big profits, and a strong independent streak draws many of them to online influencers who dole out advice free, rather than paying a traditional investment manager to handle their money for them. Many don’t care much about the qualifications of who’s giving the advice. Here's how a crop of social media stars are educating a new generation on personal finance. (WSJ)

“Traditional finance is a black box. This generation is looking at their parents and saying, ‘The way you thought about money? That isn’t how it works anymore.’ ”

The investor betting on the online creators: When Li Jin was at Andreessen Horowitz, she wrote prolifically about the emerging passion economy. It led her to champion the influencer industry. Watching creators struggle to earn a living online felt personal, she said, while she also saw big potential in online work and creators as a business. Here's what companies and people she's betting on next. (The New York Times)

“She was talking about the creator economy years and years and years before anyone else was."

The investor who turned $250,000 into $400 million: In 2013, Chad Byers had co-founded Susa Ventures and just finished an 11-month slog to raise his debut fund. He had met Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, the founders of Robinhood, and was impressed by their vision for the future of fintech. He wrote his first check out of the fund for $250,000 to help fill out Robinhood’s seed round. Today, Byers says Susa’s stake in Robinhood is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million. (Forbes)

The global icon preparing for her next act: What do you do next when you've already achieved it all? At 51, model Naomi Campbell is asking herself that very question. “I don’t like … what’s the word? Stagnation. Yes, that’s it. I don’t like that. I don’t like being stagnant,” she says. “It’s not who I am. It’s not the energy I was born with.” Here's why Campbell has gotten more involved in global initiatives in the last few years. (New York Magazine)

“I don’t have a problem looking at myself in the mirror anymore and facing and owning who I am.”

The mascot whisperer: At 65, Dave Raymond is by far the most influential person in the mascot world: Not only does he consult with teams and agencies to create new mascots (and update old, offensive ones), he also runs a boot camp for performers out of the Mascot Hall of Fame, which he founded, in Indiana. How has this inherently ludicrous marketing gimmick endeared itself so thoroughly and lucratively to American sports culture? (The New York Times)

"Once you’ve looked through a mascot’s eyes, success means getting people to forget you’re even there."

✨ 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.

John Carreyrou on the Theranos criminal trial: John Carreyrou was the Wall Street Journal reporter who published the initial story on Theranos that sowed doubt about Theranos' valuation and its so-called proprietary technology. Since then, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes went from the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire to the woman who stands accused of leading a massive fraud. If convicted during her criminal trial, she could face up to 20 years in prison. This podcast takes you inside the courtroom and brings context to every detail. (Link available to premium members.)

Sue Johnson on enhancing your relationships: Couples therapist Sue Johnson specializes in attachment theory, which is the idea that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development. She says distressed couples have a "demand-withdraw, demand-defend dialogue" while healthy couples have "hold me tight conversations." This is a fascinating episode. (Link available to premium members.)

Tobi Lütke on building trust: Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke believes that trust is actually a much more complicated concept than people think. It's not black-and-white, he says, it's more of a gradient. For instance, he says, the so-called “trust battery” is charged at 50% when you are first hired with a fellow co-worker. And then every time you work with that person, the battery that exists between the both of you gains or loses charge based on whether each of you delivers on your promises. This one is filled with interesting thought experiments you can implement in your everyday life. (Link available to premium members.)

VIDEOS TO SEE.

Jaysse Lopez on building a multi-million-dollar sneaker empire: In this interview, you get to hear Jaysse Lopez recount his story from the very beginning — arriving in Vegas with $20, blowing it on a slot machine, and becoming homeless for six months. Lopez's trajectory of building Urban Necessities is a non-traditional story of entrepreneurship and one that will stick with you for a long time. (Link available to premium members.)

The python hunters of the Everglades: In the last decade, pythons in South Florida have eaten practically everything else in the area, including rabbits, foxes, and raccoons. In response, the state started two python elimination programs. In this documentary episode, you see how Florida's python hunters capture and remove these massive serpents. (Link available to premium members.)