Yesterday I shared (see here) that I conducted a condensed onboarding session for new members joining the accountability group I put together for entrepreneurs. I wasn’t sure how effective that session was, and I hoped that the meeting with the full group would provide clues concerning whether I missed the mark.

Today we had the full group meeting. It was the first time the new people and existing members had met. I adjusted the agenda to include member intros so everyone would have context on the new members and their businesses. Otherwise, it was a normal meeting.

During the meeting, I tried to gauge whether the new members were prepared, engaged, in sync with the flow of the meeting, and net value additive to the group. To my surprise, they met all those criteria. For the most part, I couldn’t tell a difference in those areas between new and existing members.

My takeaway is that the condensed onboarding of new members worked. Of course a few things could be tweaked, but overall, it went smoothly. I think I’ll keep this in my toolkit.

One of the things I’m working on for the new accountability group I put together for entrepreneurs is the process for onboarding new members. I’m adding a few new members to an existing group, and I need them to come to the next meeting ready to contribute and knowing what to expect.

I set up a mini onboarding and workshop meeting with the new members. I went through what makes the group work, what tools we all use, and what’s expected of them as group members. We then did a hands-on workshop where I explained the prework they need to do before each meeting and how to use certain tools to complete the prework. We then completed part of it as a group. I gave feedback and helped them understand how to complete the prework to the standard of the existing group members.

That meeting went well. They said they have a better understanding of what they need to do and how they should go about doing it. But the real test will be the next meeting with the full group. If I did a good job, it won’t be noticeable that we have new members. If I didn’t, I’ll need to refine the onboarding process a bit.

A few days ago, I shared that I was testing Brave as my web browser. I’ve been a Google Chrome user for years, but I liked the idea of blocking ads and trackers for all web pages, so I gave Brave a try.

I’ve been using it exclusively for the last few days on my laptop and cellphone. It’s noticeably faster on both devices. It blocks annoying ads. And it’s free. Given my good experience, today I decided to make the switch official. I’ve set Brave as the default browser on both devices. The product is solid, and I hope the open-source nature of it means the community will continue to make it better.

A few weeks ago, I shared my thoughts on Trump accounts and their potential to reshape the stock market. In that post, I gave a hypothetical example using Michael Dell’s $6.25 billion donation to kids via Trump accounts. I said that Dell could gift shares of his company and instantly make tens of millions of children shareholders in a single company. The ability to give ownership in a single public company to a huge percentage of the population (and restrict their ability to sell) has never existed before in history (as far as I know).

Dell followed through on his pledge and donated $6.25 billion shortly after I wrote that post. But my hypothetical example was proved incorrect. It appears that Dell made his donation with cash. See more about this and his social media posts announcing the donation in this post.

Today, Elon Musk made an announcement. He’s giving shares of SpaceX to every child in America. Here’s his post:

If other wealthy individuals follow this example, we could see an unheard-of transfer of wealth. The ramifications of this aren’t totally clear to me right now, but I do believe this could impact and potentially transform the U.S. stock exchange.

I’ll continue thinking about this and following developments. But my gut tells me that Trump Accounts have created a new mechanism in the stock market, and that’s a big deal.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and investors and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 137
• Total blog posts published: 1,014

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed in the week ending 10/18/26 (link to the previous week’s commitments):

• Read The Art of Scientific Investigation by W. I. B. Beveridge, a framework book that explains how to investigate solutions to problems in a scientific manner and why discovering solutions requires the right mindset and discipline

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book

Week three hundred forty-two was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Every week, I share content that I consumed and learned from during the previous week.

I did consume content this week, but none of it was relevant to this blog. I’m aiming to consume relevant content next week, and I hope I’ll have insights worth sharing.

I’ve been wanting to try Grok Bot for a few weeks. Grok Bot is xAI’s version of a persistent AI agent. You give it a task and it goes off and executes it for you. Grok Bot works autonomously on a cloud computer, so you’re not required to have your computer open.

The subjects of some of the biographies I read are alive and well. When that’s the case, I like to find them online (X, their personal blog, etc.). My goal is to read their latest thinking, since books are a snapshot in time and people’s views evolve with their experiences. I learn a lot from their recent thinking, but it’s hard to keep up. It’s even harder when I learn about someone and then try to go back and read all their old posts.

This weekend I’m going to see if Grok Bot can help with this. I want to give it a list of people and have it look for their most recent thinking, summarize it, and point me to the sources. So it will know where to focus, I’ll give it instructions on what kind of information I’m interested in for each person. Hopefully it will be able to give me a daily report or something similar that I can easily consume.

I’ve been a Google Chrome user for a long time. Recently, I’ve noticed that it runs slower on certain websites and sometimes becomes totally unresponsive. I’m sure this isn’t 100% Chrome’s fault. No doubt it’s partly the websites and my computer too. I’m not changing computers, and I can’t control other people’s websites.

Recently, an entrepreneur I know told me about Brave, an open-source browser that focuses on privacy. It’s advertised as loading web pages faster, partly because it blocks third-party ads and trackers embedded on websites. It’s free, so I gave it a try this week.

The first thing I noticed was that it allowed me to import everything I had in Google Chrome. Bookmarks, extensions, etc.: two clicks, and it was done. I appreciate this because my list of bookmarks is extensive and I’m accustomed to certain extensions.

The second thing I noticed was Brave’s speed. It’s noticeably faster than Google Chrome. Pages load lightning fast. And Brave blocks ads, trackers, and other things and tells you how many items it blocked when you visit a site. I tested it by going to espn.com, where it blocked 19 items while loading the homepage incredibly fast.

So far, I like Brave. I’ll keep using it this week, and if it continues to impress, it’ll become my default browser.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out Brave’s site here.

When I was part of an EO forum, one of the hardest things for our group to do was coordinate calendars. We had several busy CEOs with packed schedules. Finding an open time for a four-hour meeting was a challenge. With the accountability group for entrepreneurs I’m spinning up, I’m booking six months of meetings during our first meeting. Everyone opens their laptop at the end of the meeting, and we confirm dates then and there. I send calendar invites that day, and the meetings are locked in.

This worked well until this month, when several group members had conflicts. We needed to reschedule. One of the group members owned coordinating the change, but it dragged on without everyone settling on a date. I jumped in and will pick a date. Likely everyone won’t make the meeting, but a decision needs to be made soon; otherwise, we won’t meet in October.

Coordinating with several CEOs is hard. My biggest takeaway is that inside of 30 days, it becomes many times harder. If a meeting date must be changed, it’s best to do it 45–60+ days out and have everyone agree to the date in person during an accountability meeting.

I read this quote today:

You don’t look like your goals; you look like your habits. Effort doesn’t lie.

– Unknown

I totally agree. Your habits, not your goals, shape you and your outcomes.