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If you’ve been following my journey since starting Coffee, TV and Me, you know I love a good story where the expected path is not taken and big swings come into play. I’m talking about TV shows, movies, books as well as real life. (In case you missed what I’ve been up lately and how I ended up in Bangkok, my story is here). I’ve personally taken a few leaps in my life by shaking up my geography when I moved from my hometown of South Bend, Indiana to L.

Welcome to Episode 122 of Special Situation Investing. The book Good to Great explores why some businesses achieve greatness. Within its pages, the author, Jim Collins, popularized the concept of the Flywheel Effect. He draws a connection between turning a flywheel—a heavy disc-like structure that stores rotational energy—and successful companies in the following way: The flywheel image captures the overall feel of what it was like inside the companies as they went from good to great.

GABY DALKIN IS HERE, y’all! With her blog, spice business, and soon-to-be FIFTH published cookbook, Gaby Dalkin has a lot going on. So I was pumped that she made time to record this conversation in my hotel room on my recent visit to L.A., where she lives with her husband and 3-year-old daughter. We had so much fun that we kept hanging out for hours after this recording. Gaby is a ridiculously charming, kind, and gracious human being and I can’t wait for y’all to get to know her better on today’s episode.

For maybe fifteen years, the alarm was set for 5:04 am. Since pandemic, 6:04. Weekends, nothing, I try to sleep as late as possible, though I rarely make it past seven-thirty. I know what I find beautiful about waking early—the blue coloring, the optimism, the first coffee on the lips—but for a long time I overvalued it, I think. Not the dawn, but the recurrence. Routine is crucial, but routine also can be crutch.