Feldman's Faves: September 19, 2022

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE It was another glorious weekend. I hope people were able to take advantage of the great summer weather while at the same time enjoying the bounty of Ontario autumn (including PSL related products).

I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone in our section for getting your dockets in on a daily basis. I am told that we are by far the best section in the firm when it comes to this matter and JC and I really appreciate your diligence. It really makes a huge difference on so many levels.

Also, please join me in wishing our good friend Brian all the best who celebrated his birthday this weekend.

Finally, I am super excited to welcome our new first year associates, Em and Aryan. We are so pleased to have you and look forward to working with you and getting to know you even better. I strongly encourage everyone to join us for lunch on Thursday at 12:15 pm so that we can welcome the newest members of TEAM BL5 together and in person.

This week’s theme could be categorized as stories from the world of business.

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life By: Arthur C. Brooks – I am generally not a reader of “self help” books and was not planning to read any of them ever, but I kept hearing about Arthur Brooks being one of Harvard’s most popular professors and that he had written a number one NYT Best Seller, so I figured why not be open minded. Well, I don’t anticipate gravitating to this genre any time soon but I did find some of Brooks’ insights and thoughts in From Strength to Strength to be thought provoking and worth considering. Brooks is a classic “Type A” striver who had been extremely successful as a musician and then in business but then decided he was unsatisfied and chose to “take it easy” by becoming a professor at Harvard. His main thesis is that addiction to achievement is bound to yield disappointment and to find true joy in the “second half of life” people should focus on relationships instead of material possessions and social status. As one reviewer notes, “Many of us assume that the more successful we are, the less susceptible we become to the sense of professional and social irrelevance that often accompanies aging. But the truth is, the greater our achievements and our attachment to them, the more we notice our decline, and the more painful it is when it occurs. What can we do, starting now, to make our older years a time of happiness, purpose, and yes, success? At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life. Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach. By refocusing on certain priorities and habits that anyone can learn, such as deep wisdom, detachment from empty rewards, connection and service to others, and spiritual progress, we can set ourselves up for increased happiness.” While I might not agree with everything he writes, I do think Brooks brings an interesting perspective for Type A types to think about different ways to strive for an measure success. Here’s a good review from The Business Insider- https://www.businessinsider.com/book-review-strength-to-strength-by-arthur-brooks-2022-2

The McKinsey Podcast - The two-wheeled commute: Micromobility and your future – Toronto is trying really hard to become a more sustainable city and one way it is doing so is by encouraging more climate friendly transportation. At the same time, we seem to be light years behind other cities that use bike lanes, e-scooters and mini-cars. This PODCAST discusses the trend of micromobility not only as a tool in the fight against climate change but also as a massive potential market for those looking for business opportunities. It will be interesting to see what Toronto will do to enter this market given our massive limitations (e.g., Canadian winters) in this space. Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself: “Scooters. Bikes. E-mopeds. If you’re an urban dweller, you’ve probably seen a variety of these vehicles whizzing by—and you’re likely to see more in the future. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey partner Kersten Heineke speaks with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about micromobility: who’s using it, why it’s becoming more popular, and how cities can adapt to a future of tiny transportation.”: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-mckinsey-podcast/id285260960?i=1000578825343

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon