From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
In the case of Brazil, one of the most important things is the huge ethnic and cultural mixture which makes us a country with dynamism, vibrancy, and the ability to understand the psychology of other nations.
I believe that working towards women's economic empowerment at the global level is the single most important battle we will fight in our lifetime, and that's because harnessing the incredible talents and potential of women is not only the right thing to do – it will also create stronger economies and a fairer society for all.
We run the very real risk now, not of going back to the 1970s, but of going back to the 1930s or 40s with economic and financial collapse, massive pandemic, and real-world wars.
Being an entrepreneur, or even running a large organization, is like being a society builder. The system is bigger than any individual. You can take the same person, place them in different environments—like the old Soviet Union versus the UK or the US—and get completely different outcomes. It's about the system.
Arguably, the biggest challenge we face right now as humans and as a society is climate change and the issues associated with our negative impact on the environment. So, this has become a key element of my business endeavours along with all surrounding technologies that help tackle this issue.
As a collective, we tend to look at progress as being linear, especially where it concerns women's rights. This is a huge mistake and breeds complacency because we risk losing the hard-won gains.
I remember one particular interview with a boy, Peter, aged just 14. He told me how he posted on Instagram and then waited and waited for someone to like his posts. When they didn't' it made him feel awful and invisible. It's so heart-wrenching to think of that.
I'm a firm believer in the inherent goodness of the world. The notion that refugees aim to usurp others' opportunities is a misconception. Excellence and dedication secure positions, not nationality. If a refugee excels, it's a call for self-improvement, not resentment. My goal is to demonstrate through our actions that coexistence is not only possible but enriching.
Sometimes it's hard to shake the feeling that we are slipping backwards, but I'm an optimist at heart. We have a long way to go, but if history has taught us anything, it's that women rarely win anything without a fight!
We are no longer sovereign-islands protected by fortified walls and arbitrary map-lines- we are an interconnected global family who depend on each other in incredibly profound ways.
The truth is that stable societies are built on the backs of women. Attacking women has a crippling impact on communities.
GDP only catches a slice of the value that we value. It captures what goes on in the market, the financial value of goods and services sold in an economy over a year. In the boxing match between free market laissez-faire capitalists and state loving socialists the economic debate ignored the household – which is expected to provide the food, do the cooking, washing, cleaning, sweeping, education, look after the sick and elderly, yet is completely missing from GDP.