From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
In business, you get incredible highs and lows… and it can take a decade of work before you start to see the story, and so having peer networks around you helps you realise other people have been through this.
I grew up in survival mode. It was constant. I didn't know what to expect on any given day, what was coming, and I had to be strong enough to be ready for anything – to take it, hide from it, or dodge it. I had to have a strategy.
Unlearning silence doesn't mean speaking incessantly—the world is far too noisy for that. Instead, it means understanding the difference between choosing to be silent and having silence imposed upon you. It's recognizing whether silence is additive or oppressive, whether it's reflective and generative or merely detracting.
When you fail, you take ownership of the failure, and then you assess what mistakes were made, what could be done differently, what better instructions you could have given, what better support you could have given, then you fix those problems, move on and try again, simple.
Gender identity drives self-socialization. People think adults socialise their children, but children socialise themselves. We see the same process in the Great Apes. Self-socialisation we see, is not limited just to humans! That's why I talk about the idea of gender in apes, not just sex.
Music can reveal the nature that lies within us, the part of us we cannot hide. When you hear a single note, a C, it's not a single sound, it's the result of many harmonies. It's like God hiding in plain sight.
Dress is the way in which individuals learn to live in their bodies and feel at home in them.
Humans have this incredible ability; we understand the world around us, we can dream, we can share visions of the future and persuade each other- and ourselves- to improve. This is so deep in our biology.
Everyone experiences some form of trauma. Many people are unaware that being bullied, constantly criticised, or neglected can also be forms of trauma. There's a growing recognition of these repeated relational injuries—being ignored or growing up in a dysfunctional family where excessive drinking or overworking occurs, neglecting one's emotional needs.
Human dignity can seem abstract, but when you are transformed into merchandise, something to be exchanged or bargained with, you need the intellectual, emotional and spiritual tools to cling to your humanity. That's the only way you can retain value in your own eyes.
The human mind can shape itself – the human mind can take itself as an object and change – no other living creature on the planet can do that, and it gives me tremendous optimism.
30% of people who have life-threatening illnesses don't take their medicine as prescribed, that's mind-blowing. These are not people who have a cold – these are people who are going to die if they don't take their medicine, and even in that situation, compliance is difficult.