From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
You have to show 100% genuine emotion and personality through everything you do and allow that to connect to people. You cannot keep things inside because you think people won't accept you, or will think you're strange; just let your freak flag fly.
A fantastic business stumbles onto something psychological which just gives it a fantastic edge. Netflix's killer psychological hack was 'have 3 DVDs at any one time, watch them as often as you want, change them out as often as you want, £19.95 a month. No late fees ever.' That turned into a business worth billions.
Distraction is one of those epidemics that we didn't realise existed until quite recently. At a societal level, it's inevitable that our distraction will be impacting our ability to communicate with each other, and will lead to a lowering of focus and attention across our whole population.
As long as you keep your mind in the game, your body will follow. You convince your body through your mind. I've never heard anyone say, 'well, I was going to quit, but my body pulled me through…' it's your mind that pulls you through, and your body follows.
Imagine you have to walk through a field that has a few land mines scattered through it. If you walk through it and nothing happens, it seems there is no danger. If you walk across it enough times, you'll step on a landmine. Traditional risk management simply fails to account for the fact that the most dangerous risks are those which occur infrequently and don't show up in track-records.
Social media hasn't changed these games; it's merely provided a new platform for them. Virtue status, however, is comparatively accessible, especially within the realms of social media. This ease of gaining virtue status on social media, coupled with our innate desire for status, explains the platform's toxicity. We're drawn to the simplest form of status acquisition, and social media facilitates this with minimal effort.
An example is when you catch a cricket ball your brain is doing the equivalent of solving differential equations, but you do it unconsciously.
One of the most important pieces of advice I could give you is to keep the conversation casual, inquisitive and authentic. Casual means keep it light, don't try and get too deep or specific! Inquisitive means don't keep talking about you! Ask people about themselves, their lives, their career, get to know them! Authentic means be real, don't try and force a networking persona on yourself, just be relaxed and be your natural self.
While pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Painful events are a given in life, but the transformation of this pain into enduring suffering lies within our control. The critical aspect isn't the adversity one faces, but how one responds to such adversity. This reaction, rather than the events themselves, forms the narrative of our lives.
I used to believe in the concept of permanent healing, but my views have evolved. Nothing is permanent; however, each round of healing lightens our load and elevates us energetically. Life will inevitably reactivate old wounds, but these moments don't engulf us as they once did.
Tuning into these feeling tones reveals their powerful influence – they often control our lives in ways we're completely unaware of.
The vast majority of people- if they can benefit from something or make some money, will look the other way. It's personal greed, without thought about the consequences.