Rehearse your big talk while jogging: practicing at an elevated heart rate makes the nerves feel familiar the moment they spike on stage.
Meaning
Sahil Bloom's Friday Five moves through five ideas: the 'for want of a nail' parable as a reminder that small things compound and you must simply keep showing up; a Maslow quote on choosing growth over safety; his 'Zone 2 Practice Session' hack of rehearsing a talk during light cardio so an elevated heart rate feels normal when nerves hit; a profile of Dr. David Fajgenbaum using AI to repurpose existing drugs for untreatable diseases; and a note that money earned is a byproduct of the value you create by serving others. The throughline is that consistency in small things, honest preparation, and service to others build the life you want.
The author, in their own words
Today at a Glance
Question: For want of a nail
Quote: Step into growth
Framework: Public speaking hack
Article: Life-saving AI use case
Image: Create value, receive value
Question to keep showing up:
Are you allowing a missing nail to destroy your kingdom?
This is an old parable that I love:
A powerful reminder of an important truth: Small things become big things.
Your entire life will change when you realize that everything matters.
You don't get to pick and choose when to show up, because the world will ignore your best and judge you for your worst.
The tiny thing you choose to ignore—the thing you convince yourself doesn’t matter—it may be the nail that destroys your kingdom.
If you want to win, your responsibility is to show up with energy and enthusiasm for the little things just as much as you do for the big things.
You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to show up. Show up when it’s hard. Show up when it’s messy. Show up when no one’s watching. Show up when you don't feel like it. Show up when the rewards are uncertain. Just show up.
Never allow a missing nail to destroy your kingdom.
Quote on building the life you want:
Sacrifice short-term safety to build long-term freedom.
This is the cost of entry for the life you want.
Simple trick for better public speaking:
The Zone 2 Practice Session
Confession: I’m a nervous public speaker.
Every single time I’d get up to do a presentation in school or my early career years, I’d feel a familiar sensation—my heart would start racing, my breathing would quicken, and my face would get hot. I’d manage it to the best of my ability, but I never felt confident or comfortable speaking in front of a crowd.
That is, until I developed this one weird trick that changed everything:
I call it my Zone 2 Practice Session.
Before a public speaking appearance, practice your delivery while engaged in a light cardio activity—a slow jog, brisk walk, hike, stationary bike—that brings your heart rate into a Zone 2 range (60-70% of your max, or a level at which it feels elevated but you can still maintain a conversation).
When you get nervous during a talk, your heart rate starts to rise. The problem for most people (my younger self included!) is that we aren’t prepared to deliver our talk in an elevated heart rate condition.
In other words, our practice was not aligned with the conditions of the real game.
The Zone 2 Practice Session fixes that: You prepare while in the elevated heart rate state that will characterize the real game, so when the moment comes, you know what it feels like. You’re ready for it.
Next time you have a big talk or presentation to prepare for, give it a shot:
Do a few rounds of prep while out on a jog or brisk walk. It’s a weird trick, and it may feel uncomfortable at first, but it just plain works.
Article on a life-saving AI use case:
Doctors Told Him He Was Going to Die. Then A.I. Saved His Life
Last November, I had a chance to spend time with David Fajgenbaum, a remarkable doctor pioneering the use of AI to uncover new treatments for previously untreatable ailments.
The model Dr. Fajgenbaum and his team are building is able to identify potential treatments from existing medicines, meaning many of the patients they’ve helped are able to get the life-saving treatment within days (rather than after years of new treatment testing and development).
The idea for the model came from Dr. Fajgenbaum’s own life—he suffers from a very rare disorder called Castleman disease, which nearly took his life on several occasions. Told he was out of treatment options, he started scouring existing medicines that could be applied to his condition. He found one and saved his own life—and now he’s building a model and company to scale that outcome. Dr. Fajgenbaum shared the story of his journey to save his own life in his national bestselling memoir.
This profile is worth your time—a brilliant, life-saving use case for AI and machine learning.
Image on the power of serving others:
I recently came across this image in Lewis Howes’ new book, Make Money Easy.
It’s a beautiful visualization of something I’ve written about in the past:
Money earned is a direct byproduct of value created—and that value is a direct byproduct of your service of others.
And if you don't know where to start, look around you. There are customers, colleagues, bosses, shareholders, employees. Every single one of them has a problem. What problems can you solve for the people around you?
Figure them out, solve them, scale that solution.
That's how you serve others. That’s how you create value. That’s how you make money.
In Case You Missed It:
In Wednesday’s issue, I shared a unique inversion of the foundational question of how to live a great life by breaking down 20 ways to live a miserable one.
Two of the most shared items from the list:
You only show up when you feel like it. The key to life: Show up. Show up when it’s hard. Show up when it’s messy. Show up when no one’s watching. Show up when you don't feel like it. Show up when the rewards are uncertain. Just show up. You can never bet against the person who just keeps showing up.
You lack the courage to act. Your entire life will change when you realize that your fear comes from inexperience, not incapability. You're afraid because you haven't done it yet, not because you can't do it. Inexperience is the problem to be solved—and it's solved through having the courage to act.
What was your favorite from the list?
Key Passages
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost. All for the want of a horseshoe nail.
“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” - Abraham Maslow
Small things become big things.
You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to show up. Show up when it’s hard. Show up when it’s messy. Show up when no one’s watching.
Never allow a missing nail to destroy your kingdom.
Sacrifice short-term safety to build long-term freedom. This is the cost of entry for the life you want.
Before a public speaking appearance, practice your delivery while engaged in a light cardio activity that brings your heart rate into a Zone 2 range.
Our practice was not aligned with the conditions of the real game.
Money earned is a direct byproduct of value created—and that value is a direct byproduct of your service of others.
The nail parable hits hardest at home—the small promise kept, the bedtime shown up for. Those little nails are what your kids' kingdom is quietly built on.