The Profile: The CEO making Eli Lilly huge & the founder bringing robots to life
This edition of The Profile features Jalen Brunson, Jeff Cardenas, Lexi Minetree, and Dave Ricks.
Good morning, friends!
I recently went to a talk where Tom Hardin was discussing his new book, Wired on Wall Street: The Rise and Fall of Tipper X, One of the FBI’s Most Prolific Informants.
Hardin has jaw-dropping story. He went from rising Wall Street analyst to “Tipper X,” the FBI informant whose cooperation helped expose one of the largest insider trading rings in U.S. history.
In his talk, he used the phrase “character gap” to describe the space between who you appear to be (your reputation) and who you actually are (your true character). The goal, he said, should be to close that gap.
In a Substack post, he wrote: “Your reputation is who you are based on everything someone thinks they know about you. Your character is who you are even if you’re the only one who knows. And your integrity, the real measure, is how closely those two things align.”
Damn. It reminded me of Martha Beck’s idea of an “integrity cleanse,” the process of practicing honesty in thoughts, words, and actions. Beck realized that she wasn’t lying about big things — she was lying about the small, everyday things. “I didn’t tell lies about my taxes or anything in my personal life even,” she says. “I was telling lies about how I felt.”
Here’s how she suggests we can conduct an integrity cleanse: For the next three days, try to be aware every time you say something you don’t believe. “Most lies are told to smooth social interactions,” she says.
And every time you tell a small fib or you say something you don’t actually mean, write it down in a journal.
Beck offers the following example: Imagine someone says, “We’d love you to come out and visit us.” And to be polite, you respond with something you don’t mean: “Sure, sometime.”
But then in your journal, you write: “Okay, that was a lie. I would rather die a thousand times than go to stay with these people.”
By writing down the truth, you start noticing the situations in which you lie. And then you start lying less and becoming more in alignment with who you really are. Truth breeds integrity and integrity breeds respect.
Why is this important? Because many of us choose conformity instead of integrity until we look in the mirror and no longer recognize ourselves.
Beck writes, “We lie our way through our lives to get people to like us, and then we find out they didn’t like us because we were lying.”
We all know that living in alignment with our truth is what we ultimately want. But it’s so hard to do — especially if you’re a person who seeks external validation.
Beck offers a warning: “Depart from your truth in any way — offer a fake smile, flatter your awful boss, marry for money — and you become two people: the truth knower and the lie actor. That’s duplicity. And duplicity, not social noncompliance, is the real enemy of joy.”
— Polina
PROFILES.
— The CEO making Eli Lilly huge [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The founder bringing robots to life
— The king of New York
— The Elle Woods of Seattle
— The billionaire taking over the North Fork
THE PEOPLE.
The CEO making Eli Lilly huge: Dave Ricks inherited a struggling, unpopular pharmaceutical company and transformed it into the world’s most valuable healthcare business. Under his leadership, accelerated drug development, bet aggressively on GLP-1 obesity treatments, invested billions in manufacturing before approval, launched a direct-to-consumer business, embraced AI, and reshaped Lilly into a faster, more consumer-focused company. The story explores how Ricks built a trillion-dollar giant — and whether he can avoid the boom-and-bust cycle that has defined nearly every great pharmaceutical company before him. (Bloomberg; gift link)
The founder bringing robots to life: Jeff Cardenas is building one of the world’s most ambitious humanoid robotics companies, but he’s unusually honest about how far the technology still has to go. While rivals hype robot butlers and AI breakthroughs, Cardenas argues the future will arrive gradually, starting in factories before expanding into everyday life. The story explores how Apptronik is trying to balance enormous expectations with the messy reality of building robots that actually work. (Bloomberg; gift link)
The king of New York: Jalen Brunson spent two months carrying New York on his shoulders and emerged with the Knicks’ first championship in more than 50 years. Now, amid parades, television appearances, and a citywide victory lap, the Finals MVP is still trying to process what happened. The story explores how the incredibly disciplined star, shaped by his demanding father and unshakable belief in himself, became the face of New York sports. (New York Magazine; alternate link)
The Elle Woods of Seattle: A year ago, Lexi Minetree was a recent college graduate with a handful of acting credits. Today, she’s the handpicked successor to one of the most beloved characters in modern pop culture: Elle Woods. The story follows how an unknown actress from Atlanta manifested, auditioned for, and ultimately landed the role that could change her life. (Cosmopolitan)
The billionaire taking over the North Fork: Stefan Soloviev inherited one of New York’s great real-estate fortunes, then spent decades trying to escape its shadow. Now the billionaire land baron, father of 22 children, and one of America’s largest private landowners is reshaping Long Island’s North Fork — whether locals like it or not. The story explores what happens when a man with virtually no limits collides with a community determined to preserve its identity. (New York Magazine; alternate link)
