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 BlattmanI assumed this was just a fact of life in the UK, but because I saw the warmth of some people's welcome in the business community in particular, I overlooked it…
Those who criticise China have a case to complain about the contributory role the country's authoritarian system played in the spread of the pandemic, but that very system also allowed authorities to get a quick grip on it and bring it under control with impressive efficiency.
If you are able to share the things you're scared people will find out? That's real transparency, and that's how you earn the trust that transparency can bring, but if it doesn't feel uncomfortable, it's just marketing.
The heart is a fascinating machine. It beats 3 billion times in a typical human lifetime, consumes so much energy, and does so much work that if you attached a heart to a typical swimming pool – the heart would empty the pool in about a week.
Israel is not called 'the start-up nation' for nothing. We have great statistics to show the number of start-ups per capita, the number of PhD's per capita, V/C Dollars per capita, Patents per capita and more. Israel creates a huge amount of innovative start-ups which are often bought out before they are even revenue producing!
You don't have to choose a business that's going to drown you, be a treadmill, or suck you underneath. You can start slow, make a bit of money and then double down. You don't have to risk it all at the beginning. Start slow… make a bit of money… make a bit more… then you're playing with the house's money.
We often project our 'superhero' aspirations onto our leaders and vulnerability, and other more human traits, are not always encouraged. Organisational leaders often experience loneliness, and the 'truth' within their company is often illusive to them because subordinates will often tell them what they want to hear.
I think it's about usefulness! People talk of 'following your passion' but there are plenty of things people are passionate about that nobody will pay them money for, so you can't just tell someone to just follow their passion. The missing piece? usefulness... We say the magic formula is: Passion + Usefulness = Success.
Rather than politicising our cultural challenges, we have to allow people to feel comfortable about their culture and about who they are, and to accept each other as equals.
Everybody has regrets- the only people who don't are babies, sociopaths, and people with brain damage. You might wonder why an emotion that's objectively so unpleasant is also so ubiquitous? Well… it's because it's useful (if we treat it right).
We have to understand that the world has been inefficient for decades, producing too much, using too much and throwing away too much. We waste 75% of the energy we produce, half the food we produce and half of our natural resources.
Most people think of optimism as a celebration, but for us optimism is a courageous choice to remain grittily determined to find solutions in a timely and collaborative way. We have no choice but to address climate change, and thus we have no choice but to remain stubbornly optimistic.