Finkel's Fast Five - Issue #5

March 2nd, 2018

I love pizza and you love pizza and world famous Chef David Chang really loves pizza and on the pilot episode of his new show, Ugly Delicious, he waxes pizza poetic on everything from Brooklyn's finest pie to the wonders of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana to the nostalgia and tech wizardry of Domino's, all while traveling the planet talking to culinary legends. There's even an animated segment about all the ways pizza can be eaten and they showed a technique called "the sleeping bag", where people roll a slice up from the bottom to the crust and then eat it. Seems like an act of lunacy...but I will most likely be trying it this weekend.

A man exists named David Goggins who went from being an obese, 300-pound restaurant night-shift exterminator living on powdered donuts and chocolate milkshakes...to becoming a Navy SEAL, ultra marathon runner and 24-hour Guinness World Record Pull-Up holder (4,021) in three years. His interview on the Joe Rogan podcast is nothing short of phenomenal and if you need a heavy dose of inspiration, listen to it right now.

Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite authors and I just ordered his new book, Conspiracy, which follows the true story of Paypal founder Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, a $140 million verdict, the FBI, the 1st and 4th amendment and the President of the United States. Yes, all of that...and by a tremendous writer tailor-made for the subject matter. Holiday's last book was on my 'best of' list for 2017. You can read about it here.

Most protein bars are wannabe Snickers bars with soy protein mixed in. My inner meathead was recently looking for one that didn't have more sugar than a Devil Dog and I came across something astonishing... A protein bar made from actual protein. EPIC Chicken Sriracha bars have 15g of protein and zero grams of sugar. To be clear, I don't like Sriracha, or the pseudo-frenzy around Sriracha, at all - but I like these bars and they're perfect for an hour after lunch when I'm starving again. Meathead corner over. As you were...

A young writer recently e-mailed me asking about how to get assignments and what to do after you get rejected, and it reminded me of a story about John D. Rockefeller Sr. from Ron Chernow's biography of him,Titan. When Rockefeller was 16, still a few decades away from being the wealthiest man in the world, he was poor and jobless with zero prospects for work. Chernow writes: "Despite incessant disappointment, he doggedly pursued a position. Each morning, he left his boardinghouse at 8am, clothed in a dark suit and high collar, to make his rounds of appointed firms. This grimly determined trek went on each day - six days a week for six weeks - until late afternoon... Because he approached his job hunt devoid of any doubt or self-pity, he could stare down all discouragement. "I was working every day at my business - the business of looking for work," Rockefeller said. In the middle of the 7th week, he was hired. I told the young writer he was in the business of becoming a writer and he can't care how many "no's" he hears on the way to his big "yes", just like Rockefeller.

Have a great weekend and hopefully you're only a few decades away from being the wealthiest person in the world!

You can read previous FF5 Issues HERE

- Jon

BONUS POST: In honor of this weekend's Academy Awards, here is my Oscar Special blog post: The All Adam Sandler Academy Awards - Find out who won the "No Freaking Way Love Interest" Award, the best performance by "Serious Sandler", the "Most Surprising Person to Star in a Sandler Movie", Best Performance by Dan Patrick and more. Enjoy!