Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

This week we’re talking about Louis L’Amour’s leadership lesson, wisdom, and excellent writing. Let's get into it.

No Hasty Moves

Sometime in 1933, long before he was a best selling author, Louis L'Amour made his money digging holes.

Four feet by four feet, down to hardpan. Sounds brutal to me.

But L'Amour made the best of everything he did, and this job was no different. He found another laborer—a guy he described as a husky German—and started competing with him. While most of the men were digging two and a half holes per day, L'Amour and the German were each digging four.

Then one day, the company hired a different boss to run the crew. New to the site, the boss arrived and found L'Amour and the German leaning on their shovels. Little did he know, they had just finished digging their second holes while everyone else was still working on their first.

But what did the boss do?

He fired them both for loafing. And for good measure he fired another guy who had been digging three holes per day.

"In his first day on the job," L'Amour writes, "he fired his three best men."

Reflecting on the experience decades later, L'Amour wrote, "That, too, was education. I learned that when I was in charge I should keep my eyes open and understand the situation before I moved."

Wise words for anyone leading a team.

Wisdom

I've been digging into Ryan Holiday's newest book, Wisdom Takes Work, and it's very good. It's the fourth in his Stoic virtue series, and I think it's the most important and widely applicable. Wisdom is something everyone should be trying to acquire.

As the title says, it takes work. It's a deliberate process. It doesn't just happen as a result of time on the earth. Reading this book won't make you wise—reading any single book won't make you wise—but it will give you a map and point you in the right direction.

I also enjoyed this conversation between Holiday and his research assistant, Billy Oppenheimer, where they discuss the ideas in the book and the process of turning it from an idea into a reality.

How to Write Something Memorable

This was also a great interview with David Grann, the author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager.

I haven't read either of these books, but I want to after listening to the conversation. It's about the books, but it's also about Grann's writing process. His research process. His storytelling process. If you do any writing, you don't want to miss this.

Workout of the Week

This was a quick—but not easy—workout I enjoyed this week.

"Seasick"

Two rounds for time:

• 30 burpees

• 600m row

Like I said, simple, not easy. My goal was sub ten minutes, and I came in at 9:31. Let me know how you do.

Quote of the Week

"Books are the best provisions a man can take with him on life's journey." - Montaigne

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Talk soon,

Joe