From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The first thing we need is activism. Corruption is a system, and to fight it we must first change the mindset of the population, and that can only happen through activism, through being present in politics, through being elected. You have to be in the media, you have to have a voice, you have to be able to convey your message strongly.
We have to constantly evolve how we make an impact, and make sure that we're doing what the communities we work in want us to support rather than enforcing some kind of model. Our work has to be led by the leaders of communities telling us what will work.
STS-93, the mission where we launched the Chandra telescope, was conceived 25 years before we launched it. Someone had that vision long before it became a reality. This long-term perspective is essential.
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.
Success for me has been the ability to change my life, change my family's life and help a lot of other people.
Success really is a team sport. There are very few successful people who competed the journey solo, and figured out how to do everything themselves.
The greatest leaders have humility. A good leader is a humble leader. A good leader listens to people, gets other inputs, admits when they're wrong… and that boils down to humility; it's the single most important characteristic that I see in leaders.
The way you eliminate fear is to approach your situation from every angle, almost as though it were a logic puzzle. It's also setting a goal but not being afraid to back away if you think that you're going to do irreversible damage on the way there.
Firstly, pay has to be high enough to give people agency in their own lives and secondly, humans have to be treated like humans. Those are the minimum conditions for good jobs – there also needs to be a career path that enables people to learn and grow in their jobs.
Think about how that feels when you're told that for this essential skill that is part of the astronaut job, you're not needed. It's as if they were saying, 'You don't bring anything essential and we won't miss you.' That encouragement pushed me to show up to spacewalking meetings I wasn't initially invited to.
I continue to go back to that same economically depressed neighbourhood that I grew up in, in the Bronx. I tell these people that I was them, 60 years ago, and they can be me as they continue their journey. I hope to continue shining that path and encouraging others as they pursue their own dreams.
My role as a judge is to make sure that to the best of my ability, the right outcome happens in a case – and parties understand what the outcome is, and that my decision is not based on anything woke, or politically correct, but is based on the facts I see before me.