Good morning, friends!

Spanx founder Sara Blakely is a billionaire (again) after she sold a majority stake of her shapewear company to Blackstone in a deal that values it at $1.2 billion.

Armed with only $5,000 in savings, Blakely founded the brand at 27 years old with no business background, no connections, and no outside funding. By 2012, she was named the youngest self-made female billionaire. “Five grand,” she says. “Good investment.”

I've long admired Blakely for her relentless persistence, self-belief, and most of all, kindness. People start businesses for various reasons, but to me, the point of entrepreneurship is to create something valuable and pay it back in a big way. Otherwise, what's the point of it all?

When she told her staff about the Blackstone acquisition, she surprised every employee with two first-class plane tickets to anywhere in the world and $10,000 in cash to spend on their trip. "My life motto is the more you experience in life, the more you have to offer others," she said.

Blakely has a long history of elevating others and allowing them to share in her success. In 2006, she created the Sara Blakely Foundation, which has an emphasis on educating and helping female entrepreneurs. During the pandemic, she gave away $5 million in grants to female small business owners. Blakely has also signed the Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half of her wealth.

Although "success" is a loaded word these days, it doesn't have to be. The purpose of this newsletter is to learn from the world's most successful people, but the definition of success is deeply personal. To someone like Matthew McConaughey, it is the measurement of five things: fatherhood, friendships, career, being a good husband, and the state of his mind, body, and spirit. For me, it means you’ve gone through the ups and downs of life and made it out on the other side with lessons to share. I look for stories of failure, persistence, and redemption.

For Blakely, it's about the freedom to do things on your own terms. "Success, to me," she says, "is finding the courage to live your fullest and biggest life."

And no, success isn't synonymous with financial achievement. Sometimes, it looks like Tyler Perry's principle of "helping someone cross" — making a helpful introduction, giving people jobs, or inspiring a young person. Other times, success looks like Esther Wojcicki’s ideas for effective parenting, which teaches the next generation of kids how to become confident and secure adults.

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson: "To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

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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 Alexey Molchanov, the world's most daring freediver. Become a premium member and read it below.

The Profile

The Profile Dossier: Alexey Molchanov, The World's Most Daring Freediver

During a regular dive in the sea, Alexey Molchanov can go 131 meters deep (or about 43 stories) while holding a single breath for nearly five minutes. In that period, his body experiences more gravitational stress than an astronaut during a launch into space. Molchanov is considered the best freediver on the planet. He often overrides his body's automati……

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4 days ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Polina Pompliano

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PROFILES.

— The adoption agency founder faking adoptions
— The actor navigating the chaos
— The woman who invented a serial killer
— The musician finding his purpose
— The company that wants to teach you everything [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**] — The secretive hedge fund gutting newsrooms
— The rum maker employing criminals

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The adoption agency founder faking adoptions: Tara Lee was the founder of the adoption agency Always Hope, who, in just a few years, took in millions of dollars—and defrauded 160 families and 70 birth mothers. This story features a predatory adoption broker and explores the thorny issues involved with America's adoption system as a whole. (The New Yorker)

“Big money and a veil of secrecy attracts bad actors.”

The actor navigating the chaos: Idris Elba may just be the coolest man on the planet. But after a bruising 18 months, the multitalented Englishman, who acts, deejays, and podcasts, wants to clear up a few things. "I’ve got a thick skin, man," he says. "I’m old and ugly enough to know that they love you, then they hate you, then they love you again.” (Esquire)

"You’re looking at a man that doesn’t really have time to waste on pretending to be anything but what I am."

The woman who invented a serial killer: Sera Gamble is the showrunner and co-creator of the hit Netflix series You. It features the twisted, obsessive, and egocentric Joe — played by Penn Badgley. Writing in Joe’s voice and looking at the world through his eyes has afforded Gamble the power of insight and the chance to show the world just how bad fairy-tale heroism can be. Here's why she thinks viewers are obsessed with watching a show about obsession. (New York Magazine)

there’s something enjoyable about watching problematic people on TV do problematic things.

The musician finding his purpose: Ahmir Thompson, who you might know better as Questlove, is a drummer, D.J. and producer. He's everywhere and loved by everyone. But few understand what drives him: an obsession with spreading the joys of Black music. “At some level, music is like one gigantic organism, flowing through people at different times, in different places," he says. (The New York Times Magazine)

“He’s on this mission to tell these stories as sort of a larger restoration project of Black history, and to show that Black history is American history.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The company that wants to teach you everything: MasterClass promises to disclose the secrets of everything from photography to comedy to wilderness survival. When the site launched in 2015, it offered only three courses: Dustin Hoffman on acting, James Patterson on writing, and Serena Williams on tennis. Today, there are 130 classes in categories ranging from business to wellness. This is a fascinating look inside the company and its visionary founder David Rogier. (The New Yorker)

“My ultimate dream is that somebody who’d never have access to these masters takes one of the classes and becomes a master."

The secretive hedge fund gutting newsrooms: In May, The Chicago Tribune was acquired by Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund that has quickly become one of the largest newspaper operators in the country. The new owners did not fly to Chicago to address the staff — instead, they gutted the place. Two days after the deal was finalized, Alden announced an aggressive round of buyouts. When it was over, a quarter of the newsroom was gone. Here's why the paper may be on the verge of extinction. (The Atlantic)

“They call Alden a vulture hedge fund, and I think that’s honestly a misnomer. A vulture doesn’t hold a wounded animal’s head underwater. This is predatory.”

The rum maker employing criminals: Instead of joining the scores of businessmen fleeing Venezuela to escape kidnappings, arrest or financial ruin, the aristocratic Vollmer family that runs the company Santa Teresa chose to stay and engage with criminal gangs and the socialist government that had once promised to destroy the country’s elite. In the process, the Vollmers have gone from declaring bankruptcy to becoming exporters of an award-winning vintage rum. What a story. (The New York Times)

“We want to use this business opportunity to show that another way is possible."

✨ 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.

Chris Sacca on the true meaning of success: Chris Sacca is the founder of Lowercase Capital, one of the best-performing funds in the history of venture capital. When he and his wife Crystal found themselves with more money than they could fathom, they decided to interview the wealthiest people they knew. "We didn't just sit down with the successful people," he says. "We intentionally sat down with people whose marriages had completely dissolved, whose lived looked like they had imploded, and whose kids were a**holes." Here are the lessons Sacca learned about power, money, success, and true happiness. (Link available to premium members.)

Bari Weiss on the weaponization of free speech: Bari Weiss resigned from her job at The New York Times and pursued the independent path by writing her popular Substack, Common Sense. "Inside the institutions, you are no longer able to pursue the journalism that you started off your career doing in the first place," she says. "Curiosity has become not a benefit, but a liability." Here's why Weiss says we are living through an epidemic of cowardice, for which the only antidote is the courage to speak up. (Link available to premium members.)

Stacy Madison on building a pita chip empire: In this podcast, Stacy's Pita Chips co-founder Stacy Madison tells her story from beginning to end, but the part I found the most interesting is how she mastered the art of the pivot. The key to her entrepreneurial success was that she never had a fixed idea of what her business would look like, and she wasn't afraid to pivot when an interesting and worthwhile opportunity presented itself. (Link available to premium members.)

VIDEOS TO SEE.

Jeni Britton Bauer on turning crisis into triumph: In 2015, Fast Company named Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream one of the most creative companies in the world. A few months later, one pint of ice cream tested positive for listeria, and Bauer made the decision to recall all of her frozen food products. In this interview, she explains the steps her team took to overcome a crisis that threatened to kill her entire business. (Link available to premium members.)

Gabor Maté on the power of childhood trauma: Gabor Maté is a physician who specializes in childhood development and trauma. "Trauma has multiple manifestations, of which addiction is only one," he says. In this conversation, he explains how we can overcome the unconscious traumas of our childhoods that affect our lives today. (Link available to premium members.)