On social media, people want to connect with people — not companies. Likewise, people increasingly want to connect with stars — not teams.

Let’s go back to the future.

To a time when LeBron James transformed sports right before our eyes. Without knowing it, we were all witnesses.

It was 2010. LeBron James, a two-time NBA MVP had played seven years in Cleveland. As he entered his prime, LeBron was up for free agency. The season was over, and yet, all eyes were on the NBA. It was uncanny.

Where would LeBron play next? Would he stay in Cleveland? …

Sam Walton changed retail forever.

The founder of Wal-Mart, created more wealth in the 20th century than almost anybody else.

At one point, Sam Walton was the richest man in America.

Today, Wal-Mart is a company of astounding size. It’s an essential element of rural life in America — a one stop shop for all our essential goods.

Some statistics about Wal-Mart, taken from Sam Walton: Made in America, an autobiography of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart.

“Every week, nearly 40 million people shop in Wal-Mart. Last year, we sold enough men’s and women’s underwear and socks to put…

Writing is its own reward. – Henry Miller

The Writing Habit

Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates new ones.

Writing forces you to think. It’s nature’s way of telling you how sloppy your thinking is. The ultimate test of how well you understand something is how clearly you can explain it in writing — clear writers are clear thinkers. As a wise” man once said: “everything is vague to a degree you do not realize until you have tried to make it precise.”

When you sit down to write, your mind will rebel. Expect this to happen. That way, it won’t bother…

Originally published on my website, Perell.com

The future of music is a return to Mozart.

In 1781, Mozart moved from Salzburg to Vienna, the cultural capital of Austria, to advance his music career. At the time, music was scarce. There was no way to record it, so if you wanted to listen to Mozart’s music, you had to be there in person.¹ It was expensive to attend a Mozart performance. Wealthy aristocrats and the political leadership of small city-states financed Mozart’s travels and his performances. They had personal relationships him and supported him physically, emotionally, and financially.

That began to…

Written by: David Perell and Conor Witt

Money managers are a commodity. The rise of quantitative investment strategies (computers), more equal access to information (the internet) and other factors have leveled the playing field. The threats posed by low cost investment vehicles and the abundance of talented managers are challenging the ability for the traditional asset and wealth managers to deliver value.

On average, active managers don’t deliver the value they claim to provide. In 1990, Bill Sharpe, a Nobel Prize winner for economics argued that after fees, passive investing strategies outperform active ones. This is even more true today…

Fashion speaks louder than words. Our relationship with clothing is a staple of our identity and an extension of our skin. Clothes mold the shape, texture and contour of our bodies. To that end, fashion represents fundamental human tensions — form vs. function; invention vs. tradition; nature vs. culture; rebellion vs. conformity.

Historically, fashion has communicated power, affluence, class, gender, culture, descent, and more. It has also appeared within our most popular stories. Shakespeare had an intimate understanding of fashion. In his dramas of power politics among Medieval and Renaissance kings, Shakespeare used clothing to signal the personality and social…

10 months ago, I left the corporate world after a long and arduous… seven month stint 😁

Unsure about what to do next, I started experimenting. Podcasts, videos, writing and more. I’ve succeeded a bit, but failed a lot more. But I’ve gathered important lessons from each adventure, stuck with what’s worked and given up on projects that didn’t gain traction.

What a journey it’s been! And it’s still the beginning — the very beginning.

Some quick highlights from the past 10 months:

• Traveled to Chile, Canada, and Washington D.C.
• Produced a vlog 114 days in a row. I improved…