From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Our company has always been guided by our foundational values: innovation, service, quality, and thought. We believe in embodying these values through our actions, rather than merely discussing them.
Success is different for everyone, but for me success has always been about finding meaning and personal fulfillment. While that may have meant different things at different times in my life, learning, making meaningful connections with people and helping others achieve this same level of satisfaction has been a sign of success for me.
I'm also very conscious that my life was saved, and I decided, very early on, to make mine a life worth saving. I don't fritter my days away. I try to do something worthwhile each day, and with that I've become a very happy person.
Truth is an aspiration which none of us can ever know that we have attained. Nobody has a pipeline to the truth; nobody is imbued with divine revelation. We seek truth through institutions like science, journalism, governance, justice systems and record keeping.
Legacy is not for us to decide, it's not for us to chase, it's not for us to get, it's not for us to enjoy. I don't think about it much.
The most important thing a leader has to have is an idea on where they want to go and the ability to bring people with them. Dangerous leaders can be charismatic and effective at mobilizing people, but take them down a wrong path.
Digital technologies can actually draw attention to our humanity as we take so much of this for granted. How we behave really affects others, and has repercussions, and by understanding behaviour as deeply as we need to, it can draw attention to ourselves and make us more mindful as a result.
Life is just receiving a rope from your parents. A rope of a certain quality, with a certain diameter and of a certain material. Your only duty is to take the rope and try to make a better one. Your only duty is to make the best rope you can for your children, for the next generation.
The smartest being on planet Earth is life itself. And if we mimic the intelligence of life, life creates with abundance, not with scarcity. Life does not want to kill the tigers for the deer to survive. Life basically says more deer, more tigers, more poop. Everyone's happy.
Music is woven into the fabric of the universe. As far back as Pythagoras and Kepler, scientists were writing about the fact that music was intrinsic in the planets… part of the harmonic series in sound. We also have a whole branch of knowledge called zoomusicology, which shows that an appreciation of music and sound is a part of nature, not just unique to humans.
If you fall flat on your face, at least you're moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again!
It's quite remarkable that we, creatures who evolved dodging predators on the African savannah, have been able to develop quantum mechanics. I find this to be a splendid evolutionary offshoot.