This family runs one of the world's most successful empires—but no one knows them.

With $50 billion in annual revenue in 2024, Hershey, Ferrero, and Nestlé envy their success.

Here's the fascinating story behind Mars Inc.—the most powerful family-owned empire in the world:🧵
It all started in 1911.

Frank Mars began selling hand-dipped chocolates from his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington.

By 1923, he created the Milky Way bar.

It made over $800,000 in its first year—a blockbuster hit for its time.

But the real game-changer came next:

In 1991, Warren Buffett gifted Bill Gates his favorite book.

Bill Gates read it and said:

"This is the best business book I've ever read."

5 timeless lessons from Business Adventures that built Microsoft into a $3 trillion empire:🧵
Business Adventures was written in 1969 by John Brooks & originally published in The New Yorker.

It’s a collection of 12 stories about ambition, failure, greed, and resilience.

Warren Buffett read Business Adventures in the 1960s, and it stuck with him for decades.

In 5 years, my little business has made $15,000,000.

It runs on just $8,215/month.

Here are the 7 most powerful no-code tools in my tech stack: 🧵
In 2020, I was making $180k at BlackRock.

But I had no freedom, flexibility, or growth potential.

I took a chance and built a writing education business that is today doing 8-figs a year.

Here are the top 7 no-code tools that made it all possible:

13 proven methods to expand an idea in your writing:

1. Tips
2. Stats
3. Steps
4. Stories
5. Quotes
6. Benefits
7. Lessons
8. Reasons
9. Mistakes
10. Examples
11. Questions
12. Resources
13. Frameworks

Here's a breakdown of each one—so you never stare at a blank page again:🧵 Think of this list as a toolkit.

1. Take your core idea
2. Run through this list to look for ways to support it

Depending on the idea, you can mix & match dozens of combinations.

With this, you can effortlessly go from short-form to long-form content. Let's dive in:

In 2020, I was stuck in a corporate job on Wall Street.

But today I run a digital writing business doing 7 figures in revenue.

Here's the playbook that made me $5,000,000 from a single digital product: 🧵 In this thread, I'll cover:

• How I created my first digital product (which made me $400)
• Why I abandoned that product to build Ship 30
• And the frameworks I used to make $5,000,000 from Ship 30

Let's dive in:

This woman was the "Da Vinci" of luxury.

Her designs influenced Dior, Saint Laurent, and every major fashion house for the next century.

Over 100 years later, Chanel is a $38 billion empire with $17.2 billion in revenue in 2023.

Here's the story of Coco Chanel:🧵 Born in 1883 in Saumur, France, Gabrielle Chanel’s childhood was marked by hardship.

Her mother died when she was 11.

Chanel later claimed she was younger—perhaps to make the tragedy seem even more devastating.

Soon after, her father abandoned the family.

The most powerful reflection you can do:

The Monthly Review.

Most people go their *entire* life without reflecting. Years go by and they never change.

Don't let this happen—grab a pen, crack open a notebook, and answer these 5 questions to reflect on March:🧵 Your monthly reflection:

1. What were my biggest wins?
2. What were my biggest realizations?
3. What areas am I most satisfied? Least satisfied?
4. What am I going to do more of this month? Less of?
5. What am I thinking about for the upcoming month?

Let's explore these:

Everyone should have a digital business that makes at least $10k/month.

Sadly, most overthink, never act, and waste years.

Here's the playbook that got me from $0 to $40k/month while working full-time at BlackRock:🧵 1. Start a Side Hustle While Working Full-Time

Don't quit your job right away. Instead, trade time for money until you can trade knowledge for money.

Here's my thought process for choosing high-leverage jobs (so you don’t waste time in your 9 to 5):

This was me in 2013.

I ran for Class President in my senior year of high school.

What followed was 2 landslide victories, an impeachment trial, and 3 angry suburban moms with pitchforks.

Here's what happened and the 3 powerful marketing frameworks that I never forgot:🧵 High school politics is brutal.

I discovered this when I decided to run against the three most popular girls in school for Class President—just 24 hours before the deadline.

It wasn't about ambition or ego.

It was an experiment that I remember to this day:

One of my favorite podcasts from the last 2 years:

Tim Ferriss <> James Clear

Here are my 5 big takeaways (on journaling, breaking bad habits, & writing a best-selling book):🧵 1. 5 helpful reflection questions:

• What am I optimizing for?
• What’s bringing me energy?
• What’s draining my energy?
• Will my current habits carry me to my desired future?
• How can I create an environment that naturally brings about my desired change?

Terrible advice I almost fell for:

“Quit your job and follow your passion.”

Instead, I found a different (but unconventional) path to quit my $200k/year Wall Street job.

Here's the entire roadmap (from $0 to $25k/month):🧵 In this thread, we are going to cover:

• 3 ways to earn money
• The mindset you need to quit your job
• And how you can get started today

These clips come from my interview with Ali Abdaal, which has 175k+ views (link to the full interview is at the end).

Let’s dive in:

It's March 1st:

A perfect time to start writing online.

Use these 31 templates for your next 31 days of writing (to make writing every day effortless):🧵 Before we start, a quick breakdown.

Everything you write falls into 4 buckets:

• Actionable (here's how)
• Analytical (here's what)
• Aspirational (yes, you can)
• Anthropological (here's why)

Every 1 of these 21 ideas falls into 1 of these buckets.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was the king of U.S. railroads.

He once said:

"You have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow.

I'll ruin you."

Here's the story of the most ruthless businessman in history, and the frameworks behind his $2.4B fortune:🧵
Cornelius Vanderbilt wasn’t born into wealth.

He was a farm boy who quit school at 11.

At 16, he borrowed $100 from his mother to buy a small boat—and by 17, he was running a profitable ferry business.

But this was only the beginning.

After 9 months writing online:

• I had under 100 followers
• I wrote blogs no one read
• I felt like a failure & was ready to give up

But in the last 5 years, I've added 410k followers & grew a newsletter to 140k readers.

These 6 perspective hacks changed everything:🧵 1. In the beginning, no one is watching—and that's a good thing.

At first, I thought to myself:

"No one is reading this. What's the point?"

And this bummed me out & held me back for a while.

But then, I reframed it into an advantage:

This is one of Charlie Munger's favorite books.

He first read it 20 years ago, inspiring his legendary decision-making mental models.

Here are 3 lessons from "Deep Simplicity" that helped him invest in billion-dollar companies and build his $2.6B+ fortune: 🧵 In 2004, Munger mentioned "Deep Simplicity" at Berkshire's annual meeting.

He couldn't buy it for people in the U.S. because it was only out in England.

But its ideas had already influenced his thinking.

Here's everything you need to know:

In 1999, an 18-year-old kid built Napster to save the world from expensive CDs.

It got shut down but accidentally created a 1.5 TRILLION dollar industry that everyone hates.

Today, Netflix, Amazon, and Big Tech use this trick to bleed you dry.

Here's the full story:🧵 In 1998, a teenager proposed an idea in a chatroom: What if people could share music directly from their computers?

Most thought it was impossible. But Shawn Fanning started coding at his uncle's office to prove them wrong.

This man created one of the most luxurious brands—but no one talks about him.

With a $3.1 BILLION turnover in 2024, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, and Burberry envy their success.

Here's the forgotten story of how a father's ultimatum created a billion-dollar empire: 🧵 René Lacoste was born on July 2, 1904, in Paris.

His parents were wealthy, and he could have done anything with his life.

But at 15, he fell in love with tennis—a sport he wasn’t naturally gifted at.

His father wasn’t impressed.

And then came the ultimatum.

This is one of the wealthiest men to have ever lived.

He turned $2 into a $310 billion fortune, controlled America's steel industry, then gave away ~90%.

Here's how Andrew Carnegie built the most powerful monopoly in history: 🧵 In 1848, a 13-year-old boy arrived in America with $2 in his pocket.

His first job was working 12 hours daily in a cotton factory for $1.20 per week.

This is BlackRock.

With over $11 trillion in assets, they have invested in Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and even governments.

Here's the story behind one of the wealthiest companies in the world—that no one's talking about:🧵 Let's go back to 1988.

Fresh off a devastating $90M loss at First Boston, Larry Fink started BlackRock as part of Blackstone Group.

His goal? Build a firm that would never make the same mistake he did:

This is Jeff Bezos’s favorite book.

He’s been rereading it for 25 years straight, and it inspired his most famous decision-making model.

Here are the 7 lessons from "The Remains of the Day" that helped him build his $200B+ Amazon empire: 🧵 In 1987, Bezos discovered "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The story of a butler's lifetime of regret struck him like lightning.

It would later become the foundation of Bezos's entire philosophy:

This family runs one of the world's most successful empires—but no one talks about them.

With $17.7 billion turnover in 2023, Hershey, Cadbury, and Lindt envy their success.

Here's the full story behind Ferrero Rocher—the most powerful chocolate brand in the world: 🧵
It started in a small Italian bakery in 1946.

Pietro Ferrero, a master pastry chef in Alba, Italy, had an obsession: finding the perfect balance between cocoa and hazelnuts.

This obsession would birth a dynasty worth billions: