Stephen and Ayesha Curry talk about the habit that separates good business leaders from great ones

Good morning. I’m taking a detour from hard finance today to talk about how NBA great Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry, are building a business empire and what these two superstars have learned about leadership along the way. I recently interviewed them about their latest venture as co-founders and brand ambassadors for Plezi Hydration, a sports drink line from Plezi Nutrition, a public benefit company co-founded by former First Lady Michelle Obama. We talked about the relaunch of the brand and the business case behind the nutritious sports drink. You can read more here.

The Currys bring serious entrepreneurial credentials to the partnership. Stephen, a four-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors, is the founder and CEO of Thirty Ink, a business conglomerate. Ayesha, an actress, cookbook author, and restaurateur, is the founder and CEO of lifestyle company Sweet July. Together, they also co-founded Eat. Learn. Play., a nonprofit launched in 2019 to support children in Oakland.

So I asked them how they’ve managed to find success in both business and philanthropy. “You want to be as authentic to your core beliefs and mission values as you can,” Stephen told me. It may look different for everyone based on their interests, he said, but Eat. Learn. Play. was “built off of a heart of service, but then realizing how we can leverage the resources and the platform that we both have for a meaningful impact in a community.” Understanding the value you can bring to opportunities matters too, he said—and “sticking to it, because there isn’t a straight line to success.”

Ayesha points to a different but equally essential skill—listening. “I think the success comes in how much you’re willing to listen rather than to speak,” she told me. Many people are quick to give their opinions and lend their ideas without taking enough time to hear what people actually want, she said. “I think for us, it’s really important to ask the questions: What do you enjoy? What do you like? What do you want to hear? What do you need to see change within your environment? I think we do a pretty good job of just being quiet and listening to what people have to say.”

Research backs her up. A 2025 peer-reviewed study on supervisor listening found that leaders’ active empathetic listening, processing, responding, and sensing, improves how employees relate to the organization and reduces disconnect between them and leadership. And “The State of Employee Listening 2026” by Perceptyx finds that organizations that connect listening to business strategy and act on feedback at every level continue to outperform their peers in engagement, retention, innovation, and financial outcomes.

I also asked the Currys for the best piece of business advice they’ve ever received. “I would say understanding that in leadership or managing a business and people, you never stop learning,” Stephen said. To hear what else they pointed to as solid business advice, watch the video here.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

John Martin was appointed CFO of Goosehead Insurance, Inc. (Nasdaq: GSHD). Martin most recently served as CFO at a private equity-backed e-commerce platform. He has held public and private equity investment roles at Highbridge Capital Management and Providence Equity Partners after beginning his career in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley. Martin succeeds Mark Jones, Jr., who has been promoted to president and chief operating officer.

Simon Ming Yeung Tang was promoted to CFO of Cango Inc. (NYSE: CANG), a Bitcoin mining company, effective as of April 22. He most recently served as the chief investment officer of the company and succeeds Yongyi Zhang, who resigned for personal reasons.

Big Deal

Rapid shifts in AI, geopolitics and workforce dynamics call for CFOs to invest time cultivating future behaviors, a Gartner Inc. analysis finds.

The research and advisory firm identifies seven behaviors that define future-ready CFOs:

— Lead boldly on data and AI governance
— Question business model foundations
— Discourage unconstrained AI experimentation
— Build personal understanding of AI
— Spend political capital with the board
— Lead with proactive empathy
— Develop a new generation of finance leaders

"Only finance leaders who evolve now will equip their organizations to outperform competitors, navigate rising volatility and meet escalating expectations from CEOs and boards," according to Emily Riley, a vice president analyst in the Gartner Finance practice. Read more here.

Going deeper

"More Money Makes People Happier, But Not at Work" is an article in Wharton's business journal. Wharton senior fellow Matthew Killingsworth's latest paper is based on his study of nearly 30,000 employed adults in the U.S. It found that people who make more money are indeed happier in their lives—just not while they are at work.

"When I break down the relationship between money and happiness, there's a big situational difference," according to Killingsworth. "The more people earn, the happier they tend to be. But when they are actually at work, more money is not associated with greater happiness."