Hi everyone,

Welcome back to the weekly GENESIS newsletter👋

To kick off today’s edition, here’s a quote from Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi (great read by the way):

“Human ambitions are like Japanese carp; they grow proportional to the size of their environment.”

And don’t forget, your environment is defined by the people you’re around. Surround yourself with people aiming high and it will definitely rub off.

Last week I was talking with a friend, Serenah Quiroga, and she had an interesting phrase for this: “a peer-to-peer inspiration network.” It touches on the fact that your peers (or those close to you in age, proximity, or circumstance) motivate and impact you much more than role models in distant walks of life.

These peers aren’t just your inspiration. They become your friends. Your closest collaborators. Your education. Your connection to the world at large. Crafting such a friend group is what GENESIS is all about.

Thoughts to think about…

What happened last week?

By the way - the Lakefront Lū’au was a surreal experience. As we were hanging out, flipping patties on the BBQ, we saw the spirals start to form on the lake on the horizon… and the Bob Marley coming from our speakers mixed surprisingly with the alarms in the city behind us… #tornadorave #stillalive

Upcoming events📅

What else is cooking?👨‍🍳

• planning a private dinner series at a venue (not a restaurant), with reception & 3-course experience, lead by a chef who works at the Langham. $30 pp. These are very intimate & strategic, as we’ll have journalists, execs, nonprofit folks, and other Chicago leaders coming. Reply to this email if interested.

• we’re working to build partnerships with Chicago organizations that will ultimately expand opportunities for people involved in GENESIS.

• working on some co-hosted events… no spoilers :)

• Thank you to everyone who applied for membership! We’ll be notifying y’all and rolling things out soon.

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of the GENESIS newsletter! See you next week, and in the meantime - keep hustlin’🏃‍♂️