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've sat in front of the chief ideologue in the Moscow Kremlin, and I remember him saying to us in so many words, that 'you cannot govern Russia unless you have a one-party state: Our job in the Kremlin here and now, is not to recreate the communist party, but it's to recreate the one party which will be the natural choice'. He didn't say it would be the only choice, (but I think that's what he meant), of the Russian electorate.
I recall a moment when my dad and I, lacking presents, salvaged chairs from a community dumpster, a testament to our determination to make the best of our situation without any sense of pride or entitlement. His willingness to do whatever was necessary for us taught me resilience.
If we turned back the clock to 120 years ago, we wouldn't even be aware of many conflicts and crises when they occurred. It might take days before reading about a distressing situation in a distant land in a newspaper. This isn't to say we should ignore the suffering of others, but rather to understand these events within a larger framework.
An object must be useful before being beautiful.
Simply put, a great business will understand its customers, have a clear, sound strategy and a business plan that can deliver against it. In order to do this it is very important to have a management team who can execute that plan.
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.
On our Sahara Desert crossing, there was a man, who was dying of thirst, who urinated in his hand and shared some with me when he needed it to survive. The world is about sharing and giving to others.
Even though we'd achieved so much success, going solo felt like a clean slate that I could pursue on my own. I'm travelling the world, making music from my heart, making the videos of my dreams and working with a team who believe in me. It's been liberating!
It shocks me that our society has not caught up with the fact that mental illnesses should be treated like any other disease, and not relegated to the justice system. We have so many different therapies and medicines, and people can make significant recoveries.
The first trillionaires are going to be created through space exploration. Imagine the mineral wealth on planet Earth, and then realise that Earth is just a tiny blue dot in our whole galaxy… which is just one galaxy in a universe, which could be part of many universes. Everything we think is rare on Earth, is abundant in space.
When you have good people, the culture naturally thrives on its own. Everyone in our team is remarkable, with strong moral values, which ensures everything runs smoothly.
A lot of people in society understandably want to feel important, and one of the ways you do this is to show people how busy you are… and one of the ways you show people how busy you are is to describe how little time you have for sleep.