From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
You can't force people to change- you have to find their passion and implement based on that. The economist, Dambisa Moyo, showed that even though $2.5trillion has been invested in aid, Africa is now net-poorer than 50 years ago.
The real 'a-ha!' moment of my experience was realising that resilience is not a muscle we're born with, it's something we have to build and believe in over time. We should never ask ourselves how much resilience we have, but rather how much we can build.
This is certainly something that is not without risk. We are pursuing an audacious goal, and we very well might fail. When NASA set the Moon landing challenge, it created a whole series of capabilities and technologies that we previously could not have imagined.
The plan is the lists, milestones and responsibilities- not the document that describes them.
Changing the mood has an economic impact superior to many measures because companies and families, when they have more confidence, they act differently. Uncertainty and fear are enemies of economic growth.
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.
My actual definition to describe mental fitness is your ability to remain in a neutral to positive state for most of your day, regardless of what the day is throwing at you and that is not the state people are in nowadays.
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of hiring a table of yes-men. This is great for ego, bad for business. You need to hire people who are smarter or more experienced than you in those specific roles. They may often challenge you and re-structure your thoughts, but this is important for good governance.
We had amazing values at WeWork, they were distinct, they were cool and I'd never heard of them before, but there was no connection between those values and what all the employees saw on an everyday basis.
Making mistakes is necessary- if you don't make mistakes, you can never grow. Every failure is a little lesson in how to be a winner. Failure is an opportunity to learn, to start again, to see problems, and find solutions. Failing may be the reason you win next time!
All we can control in this life is our dedication, our self-belief, our determination. I can guarantee you, I will always have that, and that's my legacy. That's what I want to leave as a gift to my kids – the message that they should never give up, never have regrets, to give everything.
Top leadership must take an active interest in projects. They should foster a culture where bad news is welcomed, not just good news. If a leader inadvertently suppresses bad news, it results in a dysfunctional governance structure.