Mindful Monday / Issue #509
The Beauty of Obsession
February 23, 2026 · By Ryan Hawk, host of The Learning Leader Show
Welcome to Mindful Monday!
Here are some things I found useful this week…
- I hung out with Jesse Cole in Savannah to watch his Bananas and the other teams in the league practice. And then we sat down for an hour to talk about all of it. So cool.
- One of the most useful essays ever written on the importance of leading yourself… Thinking for yourself… And the skill of being alone with your thoughts.
- Murakami’s acceptance speech on values is worth your time.
- I love learning about people who’ve put a dent in the world. Da Vinci, Walt Disney… The one thing they’ve all had in common is agency. I re-read a useful and entertaining essay about that. Shared below.
- And some wise words from Jean-Luc Godard
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#676: Jesse Cole – The Beauty of Obsession
Jesse Cole is the owner of the Savannah Bananas. He went $1.8 million in debt, slept on an air mattress, and built a business that is now valued at over a billion dollars. I spent half a day with Jesse in Savannah watching practice, and he gave me a personal tour of their entire operation. It was incredible. Some of the things we talked about… The Beauty of Obsession, Building a Fans First World, Walt Disney, Mr. Beast, Radical Transparency (Opening the Books), Do the Opposite of Normal, Turning a $6M Mistake Into a Moment, and Creating Banana World. WATCH this on YouTube (it’s worth it to see us talking inside the new Bananas locker room)
Solitude and Leadership
You can’t lead others until you can think for yourself… And that real thinking requires solitude, not the constant noise of meetings and consensus-building. If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts.
Always on the Side of the Egg
Haruki Murakami’s Jerusalem Prize acceptance speech. Delivers one of the most powerful statements of values you’ll find anywhere: “Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.”
The Most Precious Resource is Agency
Leonardo da Vinci was a studio apprentice to Verrocchio at 14. Walt Disney took on many jobs, chiefly delivering papers, by 11. Andrew Carnegie finished schooling at 12 and was 13 when he began his second job as a telegraph office boy, where he convinced his superiors to teach him the telegraph machine itself. By 16, he was the family’s mainstay of income. Learning is a consequence of doing. Developing agency… Taking ownership of your life is the thing.
Wise Words
“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.” — Jean-Luc Godard
