Who else is glued to the Olympics this year? Even though it was a quiet ascent (did anyone else get much buzz about it happening? It seemed to just start all of a sudden!) it's as exciting as it always was pre pandemic.

However, it would be remiss to not acknowledge the elephant in the room i.e. COVID-19, and Japan fears the 5th wave of it hitting now that the Olympics are in full swing. Check out the spiky stats on that in 'Shaping Tomorrow'. On that note, in 'Diversions' you'll find a piece by Dead Spin on the five newest Olympic sports which are taking center stage this year – clue: dust off your surf boards...

In this summer interim period, we turn to Media Training and Investment Assessment as our key talking points this week. There's no time like now when it's a little quieter to do some internal house-keeping like mastering the art of facing the media in a professional capacity (what to wear, how to respond to curveball questions, why you should never confirm a negative) or analyzing and evaluating the security of an investment to predict its future outcome and sustainability.

Did you know on vacation, people check their phones roughly 80 times a day? Research also shows that phones insulate us into our own bubbles, causing us to talk and smile less at other people. Time to check in with ourselves. That's not a world we want to live in. Read a piece we found on Psyche about how phone-free spaces are being cultivated to re-establish true human connection.

And with that, we order you to get off your phone, laptop or tablet (whatever your poison) and face some humans.

Team E.

A Watchful Eye

In an ever changing world, 'RISK' has become a four-letter word. For investors, financial institutions and VC's it's vital that deep assessments and due diligence are done before money is put on the table. With our CAST system, we dive deep into potential investments looking at individuals, reputation, perceptions, company culture, product/service relevancy, market placement and most importantly success rates. With a 90% predictive forecasting rate and our behavioral models, we can reduce investment risk by less than 10% and tell you everything that you need to know about who and what your investing in and if it meets your criterion of RoI. Who wouldn't want that kind of knowledge?

SHAPING TOMORROW

We’re always on the look out for dynamic change makers, disruptors and new information to fuel our own dexterity and creativity. So, this section sees a few of our recent picks on how the world’s outlook is changing. We hope these little nuggets will help you land on that 'aha!' moment you were looking for!

OUR DIVERSIONS

We know everyone says it's not all work, it's about play, too – and as much as we don't want to sound like a broken record, there is truth in the truism. Like we said earlier, we are all about ingesting the complex and the trivial in equal measure. In fact, we love nothing more than thinking deeply about the more 'playful' things in life. Read ' em and ponder away.

TODAY'S QUOTE

People are expecting you to lead but it is critical that you don't to get too far ahead where you leave your base supporters behind. Mandela always said, we need to slowly and deliberately bring people with us.

THE OUTLOOK

For the ideal holiday situation, please refer to this peaceful number below...