Rituals are basically conventional forms of behaviour – the stuff that fashions and traditions are made of. They're not just important in our own society—they're important in every human society, as far as we can tell, going back into deep history and prehistory. And so they are part of our collective inheritance. They vary a lot, but the thing is rituals are universal, and at the same time, they're the building blocks of cultural diversity, of traditions that make us distinct from one another.
— Harvey Whitehouse Cognitive scientist studying ritual, religion, and social bonding mechanismsThere is a biological force within your body that wants you to live to old age… you could call it your immune system, or your biological soul!
The essence of the evolving global economic system is that all countries are dependent on one another in some way, and this includes finance. Emerging and developing countries are dependent on capital inflows from developed regions. But developed regions are also dependent on funds from the developing world!
I'm always searching for that black-swan, what is that project, or who is that artist that feels specials, and feels counter-culture. Who is that artist that feels interesting and has a bold, unapologetic point of view? That's what pulls me in- and you know what, if you find that and put the right strategy around it? You can disrupt culture.
In some ways, emulating birds would have held us back – yes it would have given us the drive and motivation, but we had to forget about flapping to develop the combustion engine driven plane!
The vision for Zappos was for it to be about the very best customer service and for the Zappos brand to be synonymous with the very best customer service. In order to do that, we had to build a culture where employees genuinely wanted to provide great customer service — where it wasn't a department, but a way of being.
Society feels broken because society is broken. When the most powerful nations in the world are spending billions of dollars on ways to kill each-other, and a fraction of those resources on ways to heal each other, we're broken.
There is something about the female psyche which is intensely social, and the most trivial conversations become part of the process of bonding. This perhaps is what causes the difference in message in sms, facebook, etc. They may appear trivial (e.g. I'm here, doing this) but there will be a lot more un-stated below the surface (i.e. I'm here talking to YOU and I'm happy to be talking to you rather than someone else) A form of commitment.
If a company doesn't have a purpose, I think they are wasting their life. Making money should be the result of helping people to build businesses.
The past 10 days have been 'the most dramatic in Wall Street's 216-year history' seeing Lehman Brothers collapse, AIG fall into critical distress, and the US Federal Reserve creating a c. US$1 Trillion rescue plan to 'save the world'.
We cannot use the existing models of development, because those existing models have brought us pollution, disparity of income, and significant challenge. Consumption-led economic development has been the narrative of the 20th century.
By using the Straight Line System, you can get yourself to a level where you're certainly good enough at sales, where your skill in that area is not going to be what holds you back in life.
The reason why I fight is that I'm fighting against the pain of seeing my family get sick and fighting against not being able to help them. That's more painful than anything. To see my kids, get sick tomorrow and not being able to help them? That's more painful than anything I would experience in a fight.