From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
I've learned that the best ideas often come from the most unexpected conversations. That's why I've spent decades having curiosity conversations with people from completely different fields.
My training as an actor prepared me for caregiving. As actors, we show up ready to explore what might happen without a clear sense of the outcome. This requires you to be nimble, flexible, and curious, qualities I had to embrace daily as a caregiver.
Despite my anxiety and the constraints that sometimes hold us back, acting connects us to something larger. It's a business, sure, but there's a steep thrill in the moments of performance. The thrill of feeling truly alive, of connecting deeply with someone else, even in imaginary circumstances. That thrill of creation is my guiding star.
If you're an artist, you start with catharsis. You have to express your own feelings. I genuinely believe that if music comes from your heart and soul, that people will hear that and will be able to connect with the truth of it.
Business problems are idea problems because like most other problems we face, they do not have one answer. The reality is, for any of the problems we face, there are a thousand possible answers.
What I've learnt is you can only do your best work when you're at the frontier. This is the space where I'm going to do my best work. Whether I succeed or fail, I am going to be the most creative, the most engaged, the most inspired when I'm at that edge.
People often talk about life hacks, but for me, the real 'hack' is simply to remain curious and willing. It's about living in a space between willingness and curiosity, embracing discomfort as you pursue questions without clear answers.
I had a brand who said to me 'You shouldn't name your book wonderhell, nobody is going to buy a book they don't know what the word on the front cover means', and I replied, anybody who's in wonderhell will know what that word means the second they see the word.
When do we have our best ideas? When we're in the shower… when we're on a long drive with a radio off… when we're on a hike. The research supports this too.
If you want to be a great entrepreneur, you need to broaden your intellectual horizons.
I started writing fiction because I was lonely. I was an only child, a solitary child, raised by a single working mother, which was very unusual at the time in Turkey. Literature gave me a sense of continuity, coherence; it kept my pieces together. It helped me to connect even when I felt like I didn't quite belong.
Think about anything you've ever achieved in your life that you're proud of... starting a business... being a good parent... learning to play the guitar.... It will have taken a huge amount of sustained focus and attention.