Weekend Reads v. 27.4.2025
In Defense of Risk.
If this week had a title, it would be: How Elisabeth Got Knocked Down and Got Back Up Again. I was surprised to be reminded of how risky getting knocked down can feel. All is well when you are upright and winning, but being blindsided by a challenge can be permanently destabilizing if you aren’t prepared.
But that’s the point, right? Life will throw curveballs at you no matter how hard you try to exert control over your circumstances, therefore thriving requires resiliency. If today’s self-help books and Instagram health gurus are any indication, we are a society that has traded resiliency for paralyzing anxiety.
Has it always been this way?
Friday evening, I attended dinner where awards were handed out to people who’d displayed courage and resolve over the past year. The last award recipient was a man enjoying retirement after a successful career running a large construction company.
As my husband and I left the event, he remarked on how this man represented a seemingly more adventurous era. It seemed people joined the Army after a split-second decision. They fell deeply in love in days not years. They hopped on a train without a return ticket. Maybe I’m romanticizing a bit, but I think there’s some truth in my husband’s observation.
This man’s life was not the result of methodical planning by overzealous parents grooming him for a life in a white-collar job. It was more a tale of being open to chance and being armed with an unashamed understanding of who he was.
His story began with the admission that he was not a stellar student. Business internships were not lining up at his door and so, one summer between college terms he found himself in need of a job. A friend invited him to tag along to a job site, and off he went without a clue as to what lay ahead. It turned out he was really good at working on a construction site. One thing led to another, and hard work paved his path from job site to corner office.
He admitted many of the chapters of his life began without a playbook. Courage and an unwavering understanding of his values served as the propellers for his career.
A story like that seems hardly possible today when kids are overscheduled in college prep activities by age 9. Somehow today’s version of success brings an allergy to risk. We are a culture obsessed with alleviating anxiety when all too often that flurry of butterflies in the stomach is an indication that someone is on the correct path to growth.
In one of my knocked-down moments this week, I was fortunate to talk with a longtime mentor. She reminded me I’ve done my best work when I stayed focused on my talents in the face of turmoil or challenge. Watching her successfully take on the risk of starting a new business has been a powerful lesson to me about the importance of honoring yourself. This means you must be able to acknowledge the things you do well and poorly.
This was certainly true for the retired man who shared his career story at that awards dinner. Perhaps he was open to opportunity and chance precisely because he knew what he was capable of. He joked about his shaky academic experience, but owning those misses was just as important as celebrating his wins. I suspect this healthy understanding of his capabilities is likely the recipe that delivered his fruitful career.
Butterflies in your stomach may be a sign of great things to come. You’ll never know unless you take the risk.
Sheesh. Is it true that the summer’s must-have accessory is a $690 flip flop?
This essay about how friendships and the need for community evolve over time was enlightening.
I’ve seen several roundups of common behaviors or trends that are overplayed, and I am here for this type of spring cleaning. Things like Get Ready with Me Videos, encouraging others to overspend, and influencers who position themselves as policy experts when we all know they are just know-it-alls who like attention. Anyway, you see this strikes a nerve with me, and so I shall just share a list of behaviors that society should usher to the nearest exit!
Why luxury hotels smell so amazing.
Does this military trick for falling asleep in 2 minutes really work?
Will likely be watching this new Jon Hamm comedy. How is he always so good???
This Swedish summer cottage is so dreamy.
It’s interesting to note the different communication styles in the various industries I’ve been fortunate to work in over the years. As I tread into yet another new-to-me industry, I’ve made conscious decisions to stick to my own style guide and avoid the trap set by colleagues who use terse messages composed to portray a very busy life on the go – think, clipped and often incomplete answers, all lowercase (horrible trend, IMO), and far too many clichéd phrases. This story about an assistant to a high-profile fashion exec validates my decision to stick to my own personal style of communication in this new venture.
“Anyone who ever exchanged a FaceTime, DM, or WhatsApp message with Virgil Abloh knows Athi. That would be Athiththan Selvendran, Abloh’s first employee and dedicated right hand for over five years. No job title could capture just how critical Selvendran was to Abloh’s intensely prolific creative operation, which transcended time zones and spanned fashion, art, architecture, design, and music. Abloh used to call his iPhone his office, and Selvendran—first as his assistant and then as chief of staff—was the strategist who wrangled the ideas that erupted from the cloud and made them tangible.
It was an intense gig—at the peak of Abloh’s productivity, when he was the creative director of Louis Vuitton Men’s, the designer was known to receive over 400 text messages a day. ‘We were just on our phones 24/7,’ Selvendran says. Yet Selvendran, who joined Abloh in 2016 following a stint as a publicist at KCD, handled the pressure with grace, becoming something of an insider legend for his relentlessly cheerful communications that could make even the grimmest fashion busybody smile. (Instead of ‘thank you,’ Athi might say “Sending a plethora of gratitude and sincere thanks!’)” (Source)
I hope this week ahead is a good one for you!