From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Silence is, by definition, an absence—an absence of voice, opinion, and life. It begins so subtly that it often goes unnoticed. We start by withdrawing or withholding our genuine thoughts from conversations, replacing them with what we presume others want to hear. As it continues, silence essentially means we cannot fully be ourselves. We find ourselves editing parts of who we are, censoring our thoughts and feelings—and we do this to each other, often without realizing it.
Politics is not about management – it's about creating a narrative that can inspire and can bring people along in a certain direction.
Too often, organizations become like frogs in boiling water—gradually losing their competitiveness because everyone is afraid to take risks. The short-term pain of taking a risk seems more daunting than the long-term consequences, even though the long-term pain could be the loss of competitive advantage and, ultimately, the entire value of the enterprise.
I am also here to send a message to the world: these unprecedented floods demand unprecedented assistance
We've had a collective gap of imagination around economic bridges. We know how to build bridges; we just don't build them.
I had this burning passion in me to prove to myself, and on behalf of other women, that if my voice was being stifled... and if I was being treated a certain way... that I had to stand up. What type of example would I set to other women and girls? I had to show that if you get knocked off the horse, you get right back up.
Serendipity is about active luck, it's about the luck we create for ourselves and how we imbue meaning into the unexpected. Our reaction to unexpected moments can determine what happens in the future; that's a big component of what we perceive as 'luck.'
There are two different types of founders. A wartime founder – when things are tough, they act and a poor peacetime founder – it is really fun or nice to work for.
It's so important to be curious, and to have young people around you. These sources of inspiration can help you modify your vision, take different approaches, and make better business decisions.
I never, ever, thought – even remotely – that I would make this festival my life. It was never seen as something that would run forever – and was something which was very much done 'by the seat of our pants'.
If you love solving problems, that's kind of where entrepreneurship comes from, and you hone your skills by bringing people and resources together around your vision and ideas to solve problems.
So many of our systems of power are reliant on people putting themselves forward and guess what- people who are power-hungry will put themselves forward for positions of power. We need to seek out people not just rely on self-selection. We need to headhunt people who have demonstrated leadership capability and integrity rather than just relying on those who speak well or who are members of the right 'club.'