From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
My life's mission is to dismantle the notion of mental illness altogether. I detest it. It only serves to shame and stigmatise those with brain health challenges, which is utterly wrong.
If you asked most people to categorise good trades and bad trades, you would find the answers to be quite simple… If it makes money it's a good trade, and if it loses money, it's a bad trade. That's not true at all… There's a very simple test to see whether something was a good or bad trade. You have to ask the question: 'If I was faced with the exact same information and circumstances again, would I still make the same trade?'. If the answer is yes, then it was not a bad trade.
In line with most highly-tuned talents, I absolutely believe that entrepreneurship is a genetic gift that you're born with. What you do with that gift depends on your upbringing, opportunities and inspirations; you either make them massively better or neglect them. That combination of genetics and sheer hard work is the 'secret' of getting to the top.
When you gaze into your dog's eyes, your oxytocin level—the so-called 'love hormone'—rises, and the same thing happens in your dog. It's a powerful pair bond. More recently, though, researchers have found the same effect with cats.
When we contemplate our desires, it's essential to recognise that our minds might already be whispering that certain dreams are unattainable. It's so potent that it prevents us from even picturing it. To manifest it in reality, we first need to visualise it in our minds.
Falling in love with your brain ignites a passion for discovering how best to nurture it. I'm particularly fond of one guiding question: 'Is this good for my brain or bad for it?' When you respond to this query armed with knowledge and driven by love, you naturally start making wiser choices.
Built into her edict, is not to feel any guilt if you find happiness or joy after her death. That is an extraordinarily generous piece of advice.
Adversity, I believe, is vital. It's the crucible where strength is forged. Without struggle, without battles to face, we remain static, unable to grow.
If you see less poor people in the streets, and abandoned children, it makes you feel better- and that helps us to build a more independent attitude in foreign policy. That, again, has feedback in Brazil- making people more confident feeling that we don't always have to say yes to whatever is presented.
He describes mental wellness as an unwavering commitment to reality, regardless of the cost. Trauma, in this light, can be a powerful teacher, though its lessons often require revisiting. These moments offer a stark glimpse of reality, a contrast to the daily bombardment of trivial concerns.
The more people that must be involved, the less likely the theory is to be true. A couple of people could pull it off, hundreds or thousands of people would have to be involved, and it's not likely because we would hear about it.
Super-specialisation at the expense of a breadth of knowledge is a modern-day fallacy. If you're super-specialised in one particular area, at the expense of that breadth, you are quite likely to make errors in other, bigger fields.