From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
You can have athletes that are at their physical peak but without the right mental resilience and approach, their performance will not be where it needs to. I've focused on that a lot through my career- learning through experiences and trying to keep a perspective on what I'd achieved previously.
Emotions are perception, but perception of the body itself. You see something scary like a bear, that triggers all kinds of physiological changes in your body. Your heart rate increases, your breath quickens, and the perception of those changes is the emotion. Emotion is another kind of controlled hallucination but geared to the interior of the body rather than the outside world.
Hedge funds give less transparency than almost anything that people invest money in... Since investors have accepted much less transparency and much less attractive terms in liquidity and information rights, they have not been able to pick apart the sources of return.
If you always make one thing your excuse or let other people drag you down because of something like your gender, it will become your prophecy. You just have to keep fighting.
The world of business is scared without realising that it, itself, is the cure.
Starting a business is an exciting venture, often filled with enthusiasm, borrowed money, and a fair share of ignorance. In fact, a certain level of ignorance can be beneficial for an entrepreneur. If you were fully aware of the potential obstacles ahead, you might hesitate to start.
We always have this mix in each area, but people tend to categorise creativity by discipline rather than by the individuals within those disciplines.
You will never find opportunities in your comfort zone, you have to push yourself. You have to be hungry and willing to go into the unknown. The unknown is where you will always find opportunity.
I have this feeling that everyone should run a marathon once in their life- like a rite-of-passage. Most people think, 'that's not me, I could never run a marathon!' That's precisely why you should do it – a marathon is a way of proving to yourself that you're better than you think- that you can go further- and endure more.
Self-awareness, to me, is about discerning the elements of life we can control from those we should release. This recognition doesn't hinder growth or improvement but provides a necessary clarity that aids in managing stress.
Most people do not realise what will happen when they cross the divide- they've already accepted a story about who's on the other side, and have already decided that the other is frightening, delusional and dangerous. In truth, we are all confused. This era is nothing if not confusing. We all see some things with clarity, we all see some things upside down, and we all have blind-spots.
On the night of my 30th birthday, I was at a bar in San Francisco... I walked out of that bar at midnight, drunk. I didn't even own running gear, I had some comfortable silk boxer shorts on – took off my pants – and took off down an alleyway stumbling south without knowing that a town called Half Moon Bay was nearly 30 miles away. When the alcohol wore off, I had this epiphany. I looked up and saw heaven – I saw the stars – it was the first moment of clarity I had since I'd given up running. It made me realise that perhaps I was on this earth to be a runner – I wasn't happy being a business guy, it was making me miserable. I was comfortable, but miserable.