In our latest conversation, Alexander Brogan, the mind behind Faster Than Normal, dives deep into the unique intersection of entrepreneurship, technology, and personal growth that defines his career.
Starting out in the fast-paced world of investment banking at just 20 years old, Alexander quickly realised his true passion lay in entrepreneurship and the endless possibilities it offered. Through a journey that took him from Goldman Sachs to launching a successful AI newsletter and beyond, he has continuously pushed the boundaries of what’s possible, all while building a personal media business around his insights and experiences.
Balancing early mornings with productivity hacks and a dedication to health, Alexander shares how he manages a demanding schedule with his personal pursuit of balance and growth.
Let’s start with your background! Can you share with us your career journey and what you’re currently up to?
I started my career relatively early, at the ripe old age of 20 in 2019, as the youngest graduate in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs. I worked there for two years with colleagues I still consider the most intelligent and competent people I’ve worked with. However, throughout my time at Goldman, it became clear that the entrepreneurial path interested me the most.
To that end, in early 2021, I left Goldman. I moved into a Growth Marketing Agency called Ammo Marketing to develop a skillset I thought would be valuable in the company-building realm—unlike the more general skillset of finance. After almost a year at Ammo, in May 2022, I joined a Series A B2B startup called Zipline in a business development role before moving to account executive and later head of go-to-market in the space of about 12 months.
Also, in early 2022, alongside what I would call my “traditional career”, I started building an audience (for the second time—after first failing a year earlier) with the knowledge that I would be making a leap into entrepreneurship full-time in the coming years, and that an audience would be a valuable asset in that endeavour.
The value of this effort has proven true (so far) and has developed into a personal media business—centred around my newsletter, “Faster Than Normal.” It’s afforded me many opportunities that wouldn’t have been possible—including meeting many of my heroes.
In May 2023, my cousin, a close friend, and I started an AI Newsletter called The Intelligence Age, which we sold to The Neuron in February 2024.
I left Zipline in August 2023 to focus full-time on my projects, including Faster Than Normal and The Intelligence Age. As of March 2024, I’m full-time on Faster Than Normal and working on other early-stage incubations/ideas. I’ll soon be participating in The AirTree Explorers program, and I plan to focus full-time on a business by the end of the year for the next five to ten years.
We’d love to know what a typical day is like for you. Could you describe a recent workday?
A typical day for me starts at ~5am with a 30-minute walk to get the juices and mind flowing. Having this space between waking and starting work has an incredible ‘centring’ effect and elevates my mood and energy throughout the day.
After my walk, I’ll typically begin work between 6-7 am and aim to complete as much unbroken/undistracted work as possible, as these are my most productive hours. I’ll typically break for lunch around 2 pm, then reserve the afternoon for meetings, email, and admin.
Recently, I’ve started a daily meditation/accountability call with a close friend. We use it to check on habits we’ve identified as critical to maintaining—”non-negotiable habits,” such as exercise.
Seeing a close friend every day is also energising (big life hack!). At about 4.30/5 pm, I’ll break for exercise before eating dinner at 6-6.30 pm. I’ll then complete another couple of hours focus work before shutting off at 8.30 pm and unwinding with Poker or reading.
Can you define work-life balance for yourself and share with us your approach in maintaining it?
The cliche is to say that work-life balance is personal. It’s a cliche because it’s entirely true, but even so, I think differently about work-life balance than most. The term doesn’t sit particularly well with me because it implies that work and life are separate things. Logically, this isn’t true.
Work is an enormous part of life. If done right, our lives will consist of meaningful work. Rather than striving for work-life balance, I’ve strived to do work I don’t need to run from because it energises me. A world of people maximally energised by what they’re working on is the best possible world to imagine—and I believe most people can achieve.
That said, for me, work-life balance means working hard and challenging myself on things I’m highly motivated to work on whilst ensuring I’m keeping my pillars of health and happiness in place—sleep, exercise, diet, and relationships. I like to play Poker and cook once per week, two activities that provide a mental break from more intellectually challenging work.
Change is constant, and it’s essential for growth. Have you made any lifestyle changes in the past year to improve your work-life balance?
I started using Rize.io a few months ago (Balance the Grind readers can get 25% off using “ALEXBROGAN”), and it’s been a game-changer. It helps with nudge notifications when you’ve had too much screen time or insufficient break periods.
We’re always on the lookout for new resources! Can you recommend any books, podcasts, or newsletters that have helped you in your journey towards balance?
No Prescriptions by Kapil Gupta. I’ve realised that a lot of feeling unbalanced is merely the perception of feeling unbalanced because we’re not meeting some prescription of what societal expectations have told us we should be doing to ‘stay balanced.’
When you let go of all prescriptions, reason from first principles, and reflect on the specific activities, people, and content sources that give you the most energy, you’ll find the most enduring way to stay balanced.
Before we wrap up, do you have any final words of wisdom or insights on work, life, or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
All change and future outcomes start with your beliefs. The most enduring way to change your future outcomes is to change your beliefs. The best way to do this is to carefully select the types of people you allow to shape your view of the world and constantly question whether your current view of reality is the one you want to determine your future outcomes. We don’t get to choose what shapes our beliefs in our early life, but this changes as we age. I dived into this further in a recent Faster Than Normal Newsletter edition.
