4 Pisces

4 Pisces

It was not long ago that I didn’t know a thing about horoscopes. In fact, I thought that my zodiac sign, Pisces, was pronounced with a long e. When asked about my horoscope, I would respond that I was a “Pieces”, like a Reese’s Pieces (a bad joke, I know).

Then I started dating my now wife, which engrained my Pisces identity into me. I not only learned how to properly pronounce it, I became familiar with the Pisces birthday range. It started yesterday and runs through March 20th.

Since we are kicking off Pisces season, I thought this week’s newsletter would be a good opportunity to honor 4 Pisces - Simone, Steph, Daniel and Phil.

All 4 Pisces have accomplished incredible things. There is plenty of content (books, shows, blogs, podcasts, etc.) detailing their lives and successes, so instead of poorly summarizing it here, I’m going to acknowledge their impact and highlight a story showcasing their resilience. Maybe it will inspire others.

Simone Biles (born March 14th)

Simone’s Impact: The greatest gymnast of all time. Simone has won 11 Olympic medals (7 gold) and 30 world championship (23 gold). Twice she’s won Olympic gold in the women’s all around. Simone has pushed the sport of gymnastics forward by completing moves that nobody had done before. They are named Biles in her honor. Outside of gymnastics, Simone has advocated for mental health and prioritized her wellbeing.

A Story about Simone’s Resilience: Entering the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Simone had high expectations. She was coming off a terrific performance at the 2016 Olympics and was the unofficial poster child for team USA in Tokyo. Mid-competition, Simone withdrew from the games to prioritize her mental health. Dubbed a “quitter” by the media, 23 year-old Simone was at an age when many gymnasts would retire. Instead of quitting, Simone stayed true to herself and gradually restarted her intense training regiment. She returned to the Olympics last summer in Paris where she won 4 more gold medals, including the women’s all around to reclaim her crown as the world’s best gymnast.

Steph Curry (born March 14)

Steph’s Impact: The greatest shooter of all time, Steph transformed the game of basketball. A 4 time NBA champion, 2 time MVP, 11 time all star and Olympic gold medalist, Steph has made 3,948 NBA 3 pointers, the most ever. Not only has Steph been the best basketball player in the world, he changed the way the game is played. When Steph was drafted in 2009, the average NBA team took 18 3-pointers per game. During the current NBA season, the average team takes 37.5 3-pointers per game (more than double the amount when Steph entered the league).

A Story about Steph’s Resilience: An undersized and under the radar high school basketball player, Steph was recruited by few colleges. He ended up at Davidson where he started his college career in the fall of 2006. In his first game, Steph turned the ball over 13 times. For non-basketball fans, 3-4 turnovers in a game is high, 5-6 is a bad game and 7 or more turnovers is atrocious. Steph had 13. Instead of wallowing in his poor performance, Steph came back and scored 32 points the next day. From there, he went on to have a legendary career.

Daniel Ek (born February 21)

Daniel’s Impact: Transformed the music industry. Daniel founded Spotify in 2006 when the music industry was comprised of free but illegal pirated solutions (LimeWire/Napster) and legal but expensive CDs. Daniel and Spotify created a new model, streaming, that has achieved tremendous success. Selfishly, I love Spotify. Last year I listened to Spotify for 39,489 minutes.

A Story about Daniel’s Resilience: After selling his first company and becoming a millionaire at the age of 23, Daniel retired. He soon found retirement unfulfilling, so he started Spotify with the goal of creating a legal streaming music service. Initially, Daniel was repeatedly rejected by the big record labels who refused to license their music to a new platform. Daniel stayed committed, eventually broke through and almost 20 years later, Spotify has grown to 675 million monthly users. Last year the Company recorded $17 billion in revenue and $1.1 billion in profit.

Phil Knight (born February 24th)

Phil’s Impact: Phil has inspired athletes and business leaders across the world. Through Nike, Phil built a Company that incentivizes healthy lives and inspires athletic achievements. During a time when businesses were widely believed to be about maximizing profits for shareholders, Phil believed that business should be about more than money. He shared that “business is about making money no more than being human is about making blood.”

A Story about Phil’s Resilience: Phil started Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 by selling Japanese running shoes from the back of his car. It took Blue Ribbon Sports (later renamed Nike) 7 years to reach $1 million in revenue. Even after reaching $1 million in revenue, Phil had his bank account frozen, so needed to fly to Japan to discuss how they could keep the business going with his Japanese business partner. Phil did not stop. More than 50 years later, Nike is an iconic brand with billions of swooshes littered around the world. The Company annually generates over $50 billion of revenue and close to $6 billion in profits.

— Ian

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