Hey folks!

We’re back with a fresh edition of Sunny Side Up, and we’re kicking things off with the hottest topic right now — the Ola Electric IPO! We know many of you are curious about the ins and outs of investing in this one and whether it’s worth your cash. So, we put together a video to break it all down for you. Click here to see our take on whether you should jump in!

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the rest of the edition.

Ever felt completely burnt out at work?

You’re not alone.

It turns out that over 60% of Indian employees are experiencing burnout. That’s three times higher than the global average of 20%! The main culprits being work stress, remote work challenges and a lousy work-life balance.

Now, Zoom seems to have noticed this global burnout trend, and it’s stepping up with a cool solution. It has recently filed a patent for something called “remote management of work-life balance scheduling”.

The idea is to introduce a nifty tool that uses machine learning to figure out your schedule and then nudge you to take breaks, go for a walk, grab a snack or just step away from the screen. The best part? It learns what works best for you over time, offering more personalised recommendations and schedules.

Sounds pretty neat, right?

But with more folks heading back to the office in India, it’s unclear how this Zoom feature will help everyone here. Maybe Indian employers should take a hint from Zoom and start doing more to prevent burnout in the workplace. What do you think?

Here's a soundtrack to put you in the mood 🎵

Ocean Tide by When Chai Met Toast

Now, let’s get cracking!

What caught our eye this week 👀

Why do Olympic athletes struggle to pay bills?

A couple of days ago, Veronica Fraley, a 24-year-old American discus thrower, took to social media with a heartfelt vent. She revealed that while she was gearing up to compete in the Olympic Games the very next day, she didn’t even have enough money to pay her rent.

And that got us thinking — why are Olympic athletes, who we assume are sponsored and supported, struggling to pay basic bills?

Now, you’d think that companies or national Olympic associations would cover their expenses, right?

Well, the reality is quite different. And it may have a lot to do with Olympic history.

Back in the day, the Greeks believed that the Games were created by the gods. It was an endeavour, requiring a lot of hard work and investment. And this meant that only the wealthy could afford the time and money to participate in it. This idea stuck around even when the modern Olympics kicked off at Athens in 1896. The rules were clear. Athletes had to be dedicated amateurs, which meant no sponsorships allowed.

You could look at James Thorpe, for example. In the 1912 Stockholm Games, he won gold in both the decathlon and pentathlon, becoming the first native American to secure an Olympic gold medal for the US. But later, IOC (International Olympic Committee) officials found out that he had been paid $25 a week to play minor-league baseball, violating the strict amateurism rules. In 1913, they stripped him of his medals, and his victories were erased from the Olympic records. These records were only reinstated in 2022.

So yeah, money was a strict no-no for Olympic athletes until the 1970s and 1980s when brands like Adidas and Puma had already begun secretly paying athletes to wear their shoes during competitions. Eventually, even the IOC realised that they couldn’t keep hosting the Olympics without allowing brand sponsorships. And so, sponsorships were finally allowed.

Cut to today, even though things have gotten better, there’s still a huge gap in how Olympic athletes are financially supported. Sure, some get scholarships or stipends, but the amount often hinges on how popular their sport is, their social media buzz or their medal prospects.

And believe it or not, over 90% of Olympians shell out more than $20,000 just in competition fees and membership dues leading up to the Games. To cover these costs, many athletes juggle multiple jobs just to scrape by. Many rely on GoFundMe (a global online fundraiser) campaigns and private sponsors to keep their dreams alive.

Even in the US, which sends the most athletes to the Games (over 590 this year), the government doesn’t fund them directly. Instead, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and governing bodies that manage Olympic teams dole out stipends, sometimes as low as a few hundred dollars a month. Take American rower Meghan Musnicki, a two-time gold medalist, who got just $2,000 a month. Or Monica Aksamit, a bronze medalist in fencing from 2016, who received a mere $300 a month.

About half of all Olympic hopefuls have never received any compensation for their sport, with many earning less than $15,000 a year. And while that might sound like a lot when converted to Indian Rupees, it’s actually right at the US federal poverty line for 2024.

So, yeah, being an Olympic athlete isn’t all glitz and glam. Despite their dedication and hard work, many struggle financially due to the deeply ingrained history of amateurism in the Games. Isn’t it time we rethought how we support these incredible athletes?

Jargon of the day ✏️

This Day in Financial History 📜

30th of July, 1932 ― Walt Disney’s Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon to use Technicolor premiers in theatres

In 1932, life was tough in America with the Great Depression hitting hard. Jobs and food were scarce. But while most folks were struggling, Walt Disney, the pioneer of animated cartoon films and of course the Walt Disney Company itself, wanted to pour in boatloads of money into adding a splash of colour to his films. Even though sound had already shaken up the movie world, most films were still in black-and-white.

And Disney believed that colour was the next big thing for animation. He had tried colour before, but earlier technologies had a blurry, less impressive quality. But when he stumbled upon a groundbreaking technology called three-strip Technicolor, he was all in.

Disney went all out to transform Flowers and Trees, a cartoon already made in black and white, into a vibrant, full colour masterpiece. And this was no small feat since the studio’s Ink & Paint team had to repaint every single frame in Technicolor. It turned out to be a pricey endeavour too. United Artists, Disney’s new financial backer, started to get nervous about the costs. Even Roy O Disney, Disney’s brother and co-founder of the Walt Disney Company, wasn’t entirely convinced it would be a hit or whether it would even impress audiences.

And you could say that they were definitely proven wrong when the colour version of Flowers and Trees premiered in theatres on the 30th of July, 1932 and kept playing across the country in the months that followed. By November, it even made history as the first cartoon to win an Academy Award for animated short subjects. What Disney called “the greatest campaign of persuasion in my life” finally seemed to pay off in a big way.

Over 90 years later, it’s crazy to imagine what audiences felt seeing colour for the first time. And it’s hard to picture movies without it! Thanks to Disney’s bold leap into Technicolor, we learned that a splash of colour could truly transform everything!

Readers Recommend 🗒️

This week our reader Anish D’Souza recommends reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

Now, chances are that many of you have already read it. But if you haven’t, you’re in for a treat. This book is a game-changer, diving into how biology and history have shaped us and deepened our understanding of what it means to be human.

Anish also goes on to say that this book completely shifted his perspective on many things in society. So if you haven’t picked it up yet, now might be the perfect time to dive in.

Thanks for the rec, Anish!

Finshots Weekly Quiz 🧩

It’s time to announce the winner of our previous weekly quiz. And the winner is…🥁

Aman Garg! Congratulations. Keep an eye on your inbox and we’ll get in touch with you soon to send over your Finshots merch. And for the rest of you, we’ve moved the quiz to our weekly wrapup. So make sure you answer all the questions correctly by 12 noon on August 10, 2024 (Saturday) and tune in here next week to check if you got lucky.

Anyway, that’s it from us this week. But before we wrap up, we hope you have a blast celebrating Friendship Day with your buddies! We’ll see you next Sunday!

Until then, don't forget to tell us what you thought of today’s newsletter. And send us your book, music, business movies, documentaries or podcast recommendations. We’ll feature them in the newsletter! Just hit reply to this email (or if you’re reading this on the web, drop us a message: morning@finshots.in).

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