We go to war not because we ignore the costs, but because we know there are costs, but we are willing to pay those costs because we get something from the war which we wouldn't get otherwise.
— Christopher BlattmanSongs are like a cleanse for the nervous system. I put on She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel and I just suddenly felt psychologically lifted. There's something in the essence of this song… it's not just beats and energy. It felt this song was filled with beauty, mystery, and love.
Culture is not aspirational, it's observational. It's not something you and your co-founders sit down, dream-up, put into PowerPoint, and create some posters from. Culture, simply, is how you behave and how you treat your co-founders, employees, and customers.
The blend of high-level academic learning with top-tier sports training and competition is extraordinary. While theoretical discussions about values are important, sports provide a unique, practical arena for kids to live and learn these values daily.
Running a business is a challenging job, but until relatively recently, that job was simplified to the extent that you had one target – make as much money as you can for the shareholders. Now, you have to balance a multitude of targets which makes it much more challenging.
We believe that entrepreneurship is indispensable for the emergence of innovative companies that allow for the diversification and renewal of our economy, ensuring sustainable economic growth and the creation of qualified employment.
To me, a great leader should be empathetic, authentic, entrepreneurial, creative, ethical and lead from the front.
We are facing the mother of all debt crises. When you look at the data on private and public debt, the debt to GDP ratio was near 200% of global GDP in 1999, today it's more like 350% and rising. In advanced economies, it's over 420% and in China, 330% and rising.
I told them, 'My mom is visiting from Ohio today. If you can look her in the eye and tell her it's impossible to build a place for me to stay on the space station during my mission, then we're done here. If not, we have more to discuss.' They suggested my mom come to dinner instead, and we ended up going to Home Depot together.
We need to shift our thinking about what government does, and what civil servants do, away from this relentless focus on policy and ideology and onto project management and problem solving.
Alibaba convinced me that it's possible to do good for society, and to do good in business. Traditionally, people thought of social impact as a nice to have, something on the side as part of your 'CSR.' Increasingly, there is a belief that it should be core to a business.
The idea that education can reduce resistance to innovation is often informed by the misguided view that people oppose new technologies because of ignorance. This is not the case.
It's hard for people to defend democracy when it cannot defend them against social injustice.