From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The only reason we are the master of anything today is because of our intelligence. We're not the strongest species on the planet. We're not the biggest, we're not the most resilient. We're quite fragile and in all honesty, without our intelligence, we're quite irrelevant. The reality is, when they are smarter than we are, it is wishful thinking that they will continue to be connected to us.
The idea of selfish philanthropy is a push against the notion of philanthropy as simply 'giving back.' That phrase implies that wealth was accumulated by taking something from society. But if you've built a successful business, you've contributed to society—you don't owe anything back.
The idea of time as something distinct from us, which we are then having to fight and struggle with all the time would simply not have existed to the mediaeval English peasant, who would have existed much more in what anthropologists call 'task orientation'.
Play is a mock version of these activities, allowing us to experiment and understand how they work and interconnect. Questions like 'What if I did it this way?' arise in play, exploring different possibilities.
Before you succeed, you must first learn to fail. If you keep repeating the same thing, you're always going to fail, you need to adjust. We have to look at failures and use them as an educational tool.
This is a great analogy as the key to successful trading really is the space between trades! It's not just a matter of making the right trades… but also not doing anything when things aren't right.
I think music is a way for God to speak to humans. We have a connection through music that we can't find anywhere else. I believe that's why music is so important for society- its connection- its healing.
Without truthfulness I would never have been able to grow anything of any significance, I would have been 'found out.' Having truthfulness and ethics within a business creates trust among employees at all levels and is critical.
Thriving as a human isn't some finish line you cross; it's an ongoing journey. You want a life where you can feel like you're thriving every single day—not just fixated on some peak you're aiming for, but actually savouring each step along the way.
Life is just receiving a rope from your parents. A rope of a certain quality, with a certain diameter and of a certain material. Your only duty is to take the rope and try to make a better one. Your only duty is to make the best rope you can for your children, for the next generation.
In comparing alternative explanations, it is not necessarily the one with the most evidence apparently in its favour that we should choose but the one with least evidence against it. One solid piece of evidence can demolish a hypothesis.
I don't really like the term entrepreneur because I think to some it implies that you start businesses for the sake of starting businesses. My view is this. If there's something you want to see in the world that doesn't exist, go build that thing. If that means you have to build a company? so be it.