The Simplest Edge you can Give Yourself in 2026
Two reminders that have stuck with me — and should stick with you too.
Back in 1998, Jimmy Rogers was asked in a Fortune magazine interview for the best advice he'd ever received. His answer has stayed with me ever since.
"Some guy on an airplane told me to just read everything — because 90% of people don't read anything. So if you're in the 10% who read as much as you can, you're going to be better than 90% of the people out there, even if you're not particularly great at it."
That's it. That's the whole secret. Not a hack, not a framework — just a quiet, consistent habit that compounds over time. Read more than the person next to you and you will, almost by default, think more clearly, ask better questions, and bring more to every conversation you're in.
This is even more important in the AI age. Running a prompt and getting the answer isn’t the same as doing the research and reading the book. It's not even close. The dedication of doing a deep dive into a subject and seeking to really understand what the author is saying and how she is presenting the information can give you incredible insight that can be more important than just the answer.
This is a disciplined mindset that takes active participation to lead to critical thinking. One of our community members read 100 books in 2021! Two per week~. Oh baby, don’t you want to play scrabble with her?
This community gets that. At last count, TMP members had more than a dozen books published last year alone. We have avid readers, published authors, and devoted substackers in our midst. The learn-it-all mindset is alive and well here — and it shows.
So if you're looking for one thing to commit to in 2026, make it this: read everything. Books, newsletters, long-form articles, things outside your industry, things that challenge your assumptions. Carve out the time. It's the cheapest competitive advantage available to anyone.
And then there's this, shared with me recently by my friend Yoav Shapiro, from Edith Wharton:
"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
I've been thinking about that one a lot. You don't always have to be the one generating the energy, the ideas, or the inspiration. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is reflect someone else's light back at them — amplify a great idea, champion someone who deserves it, share something that made you think.
Read. Reflect. Pass it on.
Want more like this? Sign up for the monthly newsletter and get insights, lessons, and community updates delivered straight to your inbox — before they hit anywhere else.
