No. 701 – October 4th, 2026
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Tiny Thoughts
You don’t control everything, but you control how prepared you are and how hard you work.
Someone who only works when they’re getting paid will always lose to someone who keeps working when they’re not.
Options can be more dangerous to a competent person than failure.
The more competence you have, the more opportunity you have. And the more opportunity you have, the harder it is to focus on one thing.
Insights
Strauss Zelnick on the difference between getting rich and staying rich:
“I believe that fortunes are built by focus and preserved through diversification.”
Sherlock Holmes on seeing and observing:
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
J. Paul Getty on success:
“The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit- and must understand that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him— and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.”
The Knowledge Project
My guest this week is Bill Ackman. He is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, one of the most closely watched investment firms in the world.
In this conversation, he explains why he thinks a reset is coming, breaks down the difference between innovation and hype, and shares his plan to build a modern-day Berkshire Hathaway.
But more important than all of that, Bill opens up about something far more serious and personal: his daughter Lucy’s sudden brain hemorrhage, the hours before her emergency surgery, and her ongoing recovery. He describes how he ran his business from a hospital room beside hers and the institute he and his wife are building to help other families facing similar challenges.
This is a side of Bill Ackman you’ve never seen before.
Listen and Learn: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | X
* Members get extended cuts of the podcast and early access. They already have access to a previously unreleased conversation by Charlie Munger, coming out Tuesday.
Etcetera
This was good.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week.
— Shane Parrish
P.S. The evolution of the faucet.