The 5 am club

—Oscar Wilde
The billionaire was seated alone on the spacious terrace of the private cottage
he had rented on a wine estate in Franschhoek, South Africa. As he wrote his
Daily Diaries, Mr. Riley reflected on the marvelous happiness, uncommon
exuberance and striking beauty that was present at the wedding of the
entrepreneur and the artist in São Paulo. They were clearly meant for each
other.
“The universe works in interesting and absolutely intelligent ways,” he
thought. “And if there was a union that would go the distance, it would be this
one.”
As the magnate made notes in his journal, birds sang their carefree songs
and gardeners in blue work uniforms dug into the soil of the vineyard with
shiny shovels while speaking energetically in thick South African accents.
The tangled yet lovingly arranged vines on wooden stakes spoke of an
enchantment that nature alone affords while a mystical wisp of fog slowly
migrated from Franschhoek Valley up toward the surrounding mountains.
A little earlier, at 5 
AM
, the billionaire had taken the entrepreneur and the
artist on a mountain bike ride that began on the wine farm, then meandered
down Daniel Hugo Street and into the village—past well-used horse stables,
lazy dogs that moved as slow as snails on Prozac and rose bushes that had
twisted along the white picket fences that had been erected along both sides of
the rough dirt road. It really was a near-perfect little place the billionaire had
selected as the setting for his second-to-last mentoring session.
The lesson that the billionaire had presented as the three of them rode
together centered on the vital importance of balancing elite personal
performance with deep self-renewal for sustained masterful achievement. The
titan explained the value of alternating time in the world pursuing success at
the highest level with time in the wilderness recovering—a symmetry needed

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to ensure a strong harmony between winning at work and richness in life. And
to guarantee that his students played the long game around their assets of
genius, the billionaire also explained that massive productivity in society
without an abundant heart, an authentic sense of joyfulness and enduring
inner peace was no different from the game a hamster plays on a running
wheel. It thinks it’s moving, yet it remains in a cage.
As the early morning rays melted into the lush greenery, the mogul
pedaled his shiny red bicycle, talked excitedly and laughed festive, optimistic,
truthful laughs. The kind of laughs we all long to experience more of in our
lives. He also continued to cough a lot. One time he even spat up some blood.
Yet, because the billionaire seemed vibrant and unusually healthy, the
entrepreneur and the artist remained only somewhat concerned for their
generous mentor’s well-being. Perhaps this was their mistake. But the
newlyweds were so in the moment that they didn’t spend much time trying to
figure out what was going on. In retrospect, they would wish they had.
When the three companions took a break from riding, Stone Riley
presented the husband and wife with another learning model, which he pulled
out of a blue backpack. It looked like this:
The billionaire taught that “exceedingly excellent creative production
without calibrated human asset protection leads to a noticeable performance

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reduction.” What he meant by that was this: 
Becoming
legendary in your
industry is all about sustainability
. And making sure you show up at world-
class not just for a month or even for an entire year. The real sport of the
captains of commerce, the great masters of the arts, the visionaries of the
sciences, the heroes of the humanities and the giants of athletics is preserving
your A-game