The most underrated form of personal development?
 Reading someone else’s life.

Not the polished business bios that read like PR exercises.
 But the real ones — messy, contradictory, deeply human stories of artists, writers, and athletes who fail, doubt, reinvent, and rise again.

Reading David Bowie makes you question how far you’d go to reinvent yourself.
Jane Birkin teaches you what it takes to reclaim your own narrative.
Didion and Babitz expose the eternal tension between discipline and chaos, ambition and authenticity.

Sometimes I know the subject — Bowie, Birkin.
 Sometimes I don’t — Didion, Babitz, Cohen.
 It doesn’t matter. I always end up learning — about them and about myself.

Because biographies aren’t just stories.
 They’re mirrors.
 They help us see who we are, who we were, and who we might become.

💭 Next time you reach for a self-help book, try a biography instead.
 You might discover yourself in someone else’s life.

👉 Forget Self-Help — Read a Biography Instead

Peggy Van de Plassche is a value creation strategist and senior advisor with over 20 years of experience in private equity, financial services, healthcare, and technology. She works with investment firms, boards, and C-suite leaders to accelerate portfolio company performance, drive operational transformation, and unlock long-term value. Peggy specializes in the execution of complex value creation plans—spanning capital allocation, digital enablement, transaction advisory, and leadership alignment. Her work consistently bridges strategy and implementation, helping investors and operators maximize EBITDA and enterprise value. A founding board member of Invest in Canada, she also brings deep expertise in public-private partnerships and institutional capital deployment—critical levers for competitive advantage in today’s global landscape. Her clients have included BMO, CI Financial, HOOPP, OMERS, GreenShield Canada, Nicola Wealth, and Power Financial. Learn more at peggyvandeplassche.com.

#privateequity #privatemarkets #alternativeinvestments #investing #investments #invest #venturecapital #investor #entrepreneur #digitaltransformation #ai #exit #tech #technology #finance #financialservices #healthcare