The Weekly Rapport #29: High Performance Habits, Freestyle Rap and the A-Rod Transformation

Hi All,

Here is your weekly guide of things I’m reading, doing, and experimenting with. Enjoy.

What I’m Reading

High Performance Habits – Brendon Burchard

Honestly I had no intention of reading this but I was at my parent’s house last weekend and grabbed it off the shelf before I left since it looked interesting and I once heard Brendon Burchard on Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness podcast.

It’s not what you think. Burchard doesn’t go into diets, workouts, morning routines, and daily rituals of the world’s most successfull people. Instead he gives actionable requests based off the 6 characteristics he has found the world’s highest performers have. And when he says high performers he means people who have demonstrated consistent success over a long period of time.

To become a high performer, Burchard says you must seek clarity, generate energy, raise necessity, increase productivity, develop influence, and demonstrate courage.

Great Article I’m Reading

What’s a Scarlet Letter? The Improbable Reinvention of A-Rod: It really is remarkable how A-Rod has transformed his image since retiring from baseball. Even as a Yankees fan, I never liked A-Rod since he seemed so phony and fake – a prima donna at times, while his teammate Derek Jeter was the epitome of class. But now it’s almost as if A-Rod and Jeter switched places post-career. A-Rod has become one of the most beloved people in New York and baseball. His goofy, awkward, on-air image for Fox, ESPN, Barstool and CNBC is of a confident expert business man. He is engaged to one of the most famous and gorgeous people on the planet, creating a power couple of Jay-Z/Beyonce proportions. Safe to say he is crushing it.

Obviously Jeter is still the king of New York when he comes back, but he definitely has not done a good job on his image since leaving the Yankees. He made a firesale of his team of All-Stars in Miami, has answered questions all the wrong ways, and hasn’t appeard at a Yankees function in at least three years. A-Rod on the other hand, is dominating the social media game, podcast game, business game, image game, and analyst game. Amazing transformation.

Wild Stat

Apple has a lot of spare change. So much so, that they could theoretically buy Nike, Twitter, Ferrari, and Manchester United and still have $25 BILLION in cash left over. Woah.

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Apple has a lot of cash saved up and sitting around, but yesterday it dipped into its piggy bank to buy a self-driving car company. That got us thinking, what else could Apple afford to buy? – To put into context just how much spare change Apple has, here are 4 companies that Apple could theoretically buy and still have cash left over. – In reality, they'd probably have to pay a premium to the market values listed here, as is typical in an acquisition. Not to mention the fact that Apple shareholders wouldn't be very happy if they splurged on acquisitions in industries that they really have no expertise in. – For now Apple isn't doing anything that silly. Apple's management seem content to make smaller acquisitions and keep the cash horde intact, while returning some money to shareholders via dividends and share buybacks. – Note: Apple Cash Reserves includes: Cash & Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities. As of 2Q19.

A post shared by Chartr | Data Storytelling (@chartrdaily) on Jun 27, 2019 at 7:08am PDT

Video I Can’t Stop Watching

Lil Dicky is such a unique rapper. He’s part comedian, and full rapper. You may know him for his funny songs like $ave Dat Money or Freaky Friday but this video proves he has the chops to be considered a full on musician. As you can tell by his name, he is self-depricating and almost makes a mockery of rap but is able to do so in such a creative and funny way that no one is offended. I fell down a rabbit hole of Lil Dicky YouTube videos yesterday.

Podcast You Should Check Out

My uncle Dick is an anchor for CBS NY and WLNY. As a fellow reader and self-help fanatic I appreciated his appearance on The Life Mastery podcast with Steven D’Arecco. They talk about success, technology, sports and some of Dick’s funniest moments in front of the camera.

Music of the Week

As you may know, The Black Keys are my favorite band. They just came out with a new album TODAY. It’s called “Let’s Rock”. The first song should do the trick for you.

Have a great weeked!

-KB

P.S. – Regarding my post on Allbirds last week. My pair of Whitecap tree liners came and they were super comfortable. I just couldn’t get over the fact that I looked like a dork in them so I made the return. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to rock sneakers with jeans. I hope that’s a good thing.