Wisdom in fragments

The French Revolution really is this incredible hinge in the story of Western political thought. For a long time, it was just taken for granted that the French Revolution was the starting point of political modernity.

In the 18th century, they're kind of taking stock of how, in just about 100 years, all this classical learning had been overturned. Looking back on everything that's happened, they construct this narrative of how human reason has progressed.

Revolution was, in a way, the original problem of political thought. Constitutionalism is a Greek answer to the problem of revolution. You want to avoid revolution? Then you need to design a constitution in a certain way—so that it's balanced and less likely to be overturned by revolution.

For thousands of years of human history—let alone pre-history—there was never this sense, so common to us now, of a future likely to be radically different from the present. There was really a sense that humanity had already reached its peak, and so the question wasn't what comes next that's better, but rather how to prevent decline and loss.

You can make a vision real. You can make a vision for a product real, or an experience. A place where you can get really, really good food, really quickly, made by people who really care.

Founder of Pret A Manger, British fast-food entrepreneur and businessman

Every business, in a way, is about harmony. If you don't have that sense of harmony and alignment in the pursuit of excellence and the vision, it's going to be tricky.

Founder of Pret A Manger, British fast-food entrepreneur and businessman

Let me be clear: 90% of what people like I do is about failure. I embrace failure every single day. It's not bad. In the pursuit of excellence, clearly every day is going to involve failure.

Founder of Pret A Manger, British fast-food entrepreneur and businessman

It's about the pursuit of a vision. It's about being brutally honest each day. It's about truly understanding the role of housekeeping versus the relationship with your customer.

Founder of Pret A Manger, British fast-food entrepreneur and businessman

It is vital that you never, ever, ever stop pursuing excellence. And that is elusive. It's very elusive. It calls for a lot of honesty. A lot.

Founder of Pret A Manger, British fast-food entrepreneur and businessman

Unless you learn and grow continuously, you're probably going to end up as one of the 90% who don't make it.

When these people are under stress, they make bad decisions. They get reactive. One of the key findings in our conclusions is that the unsuccessful founders were more reactive. They weren't measured. They weren't deliberate. They didn't make decisions based on facts — their emotions carried them away.

Rich, sometimes you treat a wisp of intuition as though it were a four-lane highway. It's not that you shouldn't trust intuition — it's that you need to validate it.

The skills that get them to one point won't carry them the rest of the way. We talk about the ticking time bomb. The ticking time bomb is these very characteristics — when you're trying to scale, and things are getting more complex, and you have to work through other people — they blow up.

I mean, people ask me, 'Should I do a startup?' And I say, 'Well, how important is work-life balance to you?' And if they say anything other than 'It's not important,' I say, 'You shouldn't do it.' Because it's a killing field.

A lot of entrepreneurs don't make that switch. They cling to that brand identity of 'I'm an innovator,' still tinkering with the product while everyone else is saying, 'Hey, it's good enough — let's hire our first salesperson.'

That confidence and perseverance can sometimes lead you to keep charging ahead headfirst, when what's really needed is a pause and a course adjustment. I think that's the challenge when strengths get overused.