From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Our relationship with the ocean is beautiful – you frequently see people at the shoreline, just in prayer or meditating… connecting with the ocean, letting the waves wash over them… Being around the ocean is our connection to something bigger- you can just lay in the ocean and let your worries wash away.
My father taught me an important lesson; when you get something, when you receive something, it's important to give back. This lesson is something that has really stuck with me through my whole life, and I've always tried to do social good as much as I can.
Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, a way of acting, that enables you to realise your dreams. It allows ideas to thrive and become reality and success to be born from hard work, good intention, taking risks and believing in something that others may deem to be impossible.
Inside each of us are monsters and angels- there are no divisions between good and bad people- and I've seen how those times of insecurity can make us do terrible things to each other.
By definition, existential risks are those which- by definition- could terminate the species, or permanently limit the long term potential of our civilisation. Martin Rees, the distinguished scientist, said that the difference between killing 90% of humanity, and 100% of humanity is not 10%. The difference is huge. By killing 100% of humanity, you are also killing all future generations.
Endurance is mind over body. It's about tapping into something within us that allows us to push further than we ever thought possible, especially at our weakest moments.
I often hear people say that everything that matters must be measured, and if it can't be measured, it doesn't matter. I believe the absolute reverse. Nothing that matters can be measured.
Our senses allow us to perceive, but they're incredibly limited. Science sees far beyond our human blind spots, and the reaches of this 'bubble' our senses create for us. When you're in a bubble, you inhabit a form of fictional reality, and we've seen the dangerous consequences of this in financial bubbles, stock market bubbles, real estate bubbles.
I know a lot of people who develop and improve by squeezing more and more out of a repertoire, but the journey of development for me is somewhat opposite to that. I'm trying to let go more and more, to be less controlled and more open… that's where I feel the most impactful storytelling comes from.
There's a great quote that is 'political correctness is tyranny with manners'. With Lululemon, we put authenticity into everything we did, it was about being great. Our vision statement was about elevating the world from a place of mediocrity to greatness.
Not all financial contracts are created equal. We should not assume that there is one single benchmark for all types of financial transactions. There are certain transactions that should be based on market rates, and others which call for the kind of benchmark that LIBOR provides.
I've always felt like a natural-born Stoic. When I first read Stoic philosophy, I thought, Oh my God, this is exactly how I've been thinking since childhood. It wasn't a revelation so much as a way to organize the responses that already came naturally to me.