Good Morning! Happy Hump Day! Your work week could get even shorter in the near future with Ray Dalio predicting a 3-day work week thanks to AI. But all hands are on deck at Amazon with the company planning on hiring 250,000 more employees for the holiday rush - for context, Goldman has under 50,000 employees.

Even SBF’s parents are landing in some hot water and got sued by FTX. Disney wants to invest $60 billion in building theme parks and cruises over the next decade - but its investors aren’t thrilled about that. And Instacart’s shares closed up 12% in its Nasdaq debut.

_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

Goldman’s Grand Slam

We all know, just like David Solomon’s midlife crisis - Goldman is trying to find itself. They’re pivoting once again - the bank wants to build the home of the best sports financing capabilities on Wall Street.

Goldman just launched its "sports franchise" unit. The goal? Help wealthy clients buy and sell sports teams. Goldman can step in and bring its entire firm’s capabilities to its clients. They can find private equity and institutional investors and help secure financing.

But it’s more than just pitching its wealthy clients on the chance to invest in sports teams. At a time when commercial banks are pulling back from financing sports stadiums, Goldman sees a void to add value. They want to line up financing deals.

Goldman Sachs has a track record of dabbling in some high-profile deals. Chelsea Football Club, Formula One, and a minority stake in the Tennessee Titans football team are just a few examples. They even lined up the financing to build Yankee Stadium, Levi’s Stadium (home of the San Francisco 49ers), and the Los Angeles Clippers’ arena.

Owning a sports team is one of the ultimate billionaire ego trips. But they’re not too shabby of investments, either. Valuations have skyrocketed over the past several decades, and being an NFL or NBA owner is the ultimate status symbol. And it’s a game of supply and demand - there are such few clubs available, yet many wealthy Americans dream of owning one.

Takeaway: Wall Street tycoons love buying professional sports teams. Take billionaire hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen, who bought the New York Mets. Or even recently, Apollo’s co-founder Josh Harris who bought the NFL's Washington Commanders. And even hedge funds and private equity firms want to get in on the action. Goldman might be finding a niche financing in one of the most lucrative investments in America today.

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed lower as investors brace for the Fed.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Rackspace Technology ($RXT) +36% after Raymond James upgraded the cloud computing company.

• (+) Royal Caribbean ($RCL) +2% after Truist upgraded the cruise line.

• (–) Rocket Lab ($RKLB) -8% after its first rocket launch failure in more than 2 years.

Private Dealmaking

• KKR invested $800 million in Singtel’s regional data center business

• Cato Networks, a cloud security platform, raised $238 million 

• Litmus Music, a Carlyle-backed music rights company, bought five Katy Perry album master recordings for $225 million

• Mapbox, a location data platform, raised $164 million

• Pryon, an AI for enterprises startup, raised $100 million

• Levelpath, a procurement startup, raised $30 million

Get access to private deal flow here.

_{WHAT ELSE TO READ}

Use AI to Make $1m+ Year

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_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• China VC deals plunge, on track for worst pace in more than seven years (CNBC)

• Why some economists still think a recession is coming (Axios)

• Airbnb’s new party preventer reduced parties by 55% (CNBC)

• IRS to cut back on audits of lower-income Americans (YF)

• Stanford will return all gifts from bankrupt FTX (CNN)

• Wall Street coming to grips with how wrong it’s been in 2023 (BB)

• SoftBank plans to ramp up AI activity (Axios)

• Why the Fed’s economic forecasts aren’t always for the Fed (YF)

• Elon Musk says he could charge all Twitter users a subscription fee (BBC)

• Why Wells Fargo is the only bank where employees want to unionize (Axios)

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

Thursday Is The New Friday

In Thursday is the New Friday, author Joe Sanok offers the exercises, tools, and training that have helped thousands of professionals—from authors and scholars to business leaders and innovators—create the schedule they want, resulting in less work, greater income, and more time for what they most desire.

Outlining the exact same strategies Joe used to go from working 60-hour weeks in the beginning of his career to now working 4 or less days a week, Thursday is the New Friday will help you:

Understand how you too can apply these principles and customize them for your own situation to be more productive at work while enjoying more leisure time.

Discard unnecessary tasks and learn efficiencies that would not have been discovered otherwise.

Find inspiration in the stories and testimonials from Joe’s clients and colleagues who have implemented his methodology into their own work lives with incredible results.

Understand the psychological research behind the principles of the four-day workweek and why we are actually more productive with one less workday.

Most importantly, Thursday is the New Friday empowers you with a practical, evidence-based methodology to create your own work schedule and dedicate more of your precious personal time to pursuing your hobbies and spending time with your family and friends.

“Create your own schedule, maximize your leisure time, and work less while making more by following the revolutionary—yet realistic—four-day work week.”

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• How to become a skilled listener with the Samaritan framework

• Apple’s oddly effective strategy to beat burnout

• 5 tips for end-of-summer slump to beef up your productivity

• The 8 stages of life that make or break you

• How to have a successful meeting with your boss’s boss

_{DAILY VISUAL}

Disney to Double Investment in Theme Parks & Cruises Over Next Decade

Disney net earnings by sector

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Less Is More

If you thought that doing more gave you more—more money, joy, or those elusive 'likes'—then, welcome to the 'Oops, I did it wrong' club! Forget about being an overachiever; it turns out 'underachieving' is where it’s at.

Yup, according to David Rock, you're only actually productive for six hours a week.

So, want more by doing less? Grab a paper, make a list of your tasks on one side and your 'Oh yeah, I nailed it!' moments on the other. Connect the dots like a toddler's scribble and voila—you'll see that half of what you're doing is as useful as a screen door on a submarine. Cut. It. Out.

Struggling with the 'should dos'? Stop should-ing all over yourself! Delegate, minimize, or just ditch those time-suckers. Your 'wins' tell you what's essential. Everything else is just adulting fluff, like kale in a donut—interesting but why?

Happiness isn't about the rat race; it's about the cheese at the finish line. Life's too short for stuff that doesn't bring joy or results. So, go ahead, live a little by doing a little less. Trust me, it's subtraction that really adds up!

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day