Good morning, friends!

I recently met democracy activist Evan Mawarire at a Human Rights Foundation event. His story resonated so deeply with me that I invited him for an interview on The Profile. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly encourage you to do so—his insights on leadership, freedom, and the power of raising your voice are truly invaluable.

One quote from his book has stayed with me:

“Start where you are with what you have, and the world will respond to your passion.”

This simple yet profound idea applies to everything—launching a business, starting a movement, or simply bringing an idea to life.

During our conversation, Mawarire shared a powerful lesson:

“We cannot wait until we we feel like we are enough according to the standards that are set around us.

“We live in a world that gives us a picture of what the ideal change-maker looks like, or what the ideal entrepreneur looks like, or whatever it is that you want to be. A lot of people are striving to be that so that they feel like they can be the person that they see themselves as.

“But that’s not how it works.

“You start where you are with what you have. If it’s nothing, you start with nothing. You take the first step.

“I learned when we were building the movement that if I only knew what to do now, that was enough. People were asking us as we were building the movement, ‘So Evan, what’s next? What’s next?’ And eventually, I said to them, ‘I don’t know what’s next.’ And some people said, ‘Ah, so you’re not serious,’ or ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.’

“But it was knowing what I needed to do now and doing it that opened the door to what I needed to do next. So start where you are. You cannot wait until you know everything. You cannot wait until everyone knows you.

“You cannot wait until you have all the resources, because that day will probably not come. The resources come as you do. Networks come as you go, as you start. Ideas come when you put that first idea that seems impossible or weird or stupid into motion, you get the next idea of what to do.”

Read the full Q&A below:

Meet Evan Mawarire, the Pastor Who Stood Up to a Dictator

Polina Pompliano · Feb 12

On April 19, 2016, Pastor Evan Mawarire sat in his church office, overwhelmed with a crushing sense of failure. He couldn’t afford his daughters’ kindergarten fees—just one of many personal consequences of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse after nearly a decade of hyperinflation.

Read full story

PROFILES.

— The billionaire heirs getting rid of their wealth [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The CEO making smart rings go mainstream
— The MeToo leader caught in a school board firestorm
— The internet pioneer facing prison
— Nepal’s sex mushroom hunters

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The billionaire heirs getting rid of their wealth: At a Nashville conference called, Making Money Make Change, the children of millionaires and billionaires are there to give away their family’s wealth. The conference is designed to help wealthy young heirs and other high-net-worth people redistribute their money to causes like housing and climate justice. The host, Resource Generation, is helping a new generation of trust-fund babies get rid of their wealth, rather than accumulating more. The group now boasts 1,000 members seeking to divest themselves of $100 million this year alone. What a bizarre story. (Business Insider; alternate link)

“Will we really care for each other when we don’t have money to take care of us?”

The CEO making smart rings go mainstream: Tom Hale, CEO of Oura, has helped turn the Finnish smart-ring maker into a $5.2 billion wellness powerhouse with over 2.5 million users, doubling sales last year to $500 million. Under his leadership, Oura has expanded into retail, partnered with brands like Gucci, and grown its female customer base with menstrual tracking features. A self-proclaimed wearable tech enthusiast, Hale embodies the brand’s mission, despite juggling multiple devices that sometimes disagree. As competition heats up from Samsung and potential Apple entries, he remains confident, backed by strong patents and an American-sized enthusiasm. (Bloomberg; alternate link)

“We’ve always seen that the best salespeople for Oura are the users.”

The MeToo leader caught in a school board firestorm: Rowena Chiu makes for an unlikely villain. In 2017, Chiu helped expose Harvey Weinstein, playing a pivotal role in the dawning of a survivors-led campaign against sexual violence. In a groundbreaking New York Times piece that included the stories of several women, Chiu said Weinstein, the former CEO of Hollywood studio Miramax, attempted to rape her when she worked as his assistant in 1998. More recently, though, Chiu has found herself at the center of another kind of struggle: a clash over a controversial ethnic studies course in the heart of Silicon Valley. Only this time, she’s being cast as the bad guy. (San Francisco Standard)

“The personal element of this — I find it really terrifying.”

The internet pioneer facing prison: Once a Silicon Valley wunderkind, Joseph Firmage built a tech empire—then threw it all away chasing UFOs and antigravity dreams. His obsession with aliens led to a wild descent involving failed startups, bizarre prototypes, and desperate investors, some of whom lost their life savings. Now facing lawsuits and a stint in jail for elder abuse, he claims he’s the victim of a Jamaican wire-fraud gang—one that allegedly included a fake Steven Mnuchin. From dot-com darling to delusional downfall, Firmage’s story is a cautionary tale of ambition, belief, and the high price of chasing the impossible. (Bloomberg; alternate link)

“There’s a strong argument that Joe is possessed by demonic energies.”

Nepal’s sex mushroom hunters: Throughout the Himalayas a fungus species called cordyceps sinensis, which grows from the corpses of ghost moth larvae that inhale its spores, is worth four times its weight in gold. Traditional medicine says it cures almost anything. Recently people have taken to calling it Himalayan Viagra. While scientists explore its potential medical benefits, black markets thrive, and ecological damage mounts, threatening both the land and the people who rely on it. What a story. (Bloomberg; alternate link)

“Good for joints, sex, heart, liver. This is what rich Chinese come for. This is our mountain medicine.”

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