We have made money, capital, materialism and consumption into our God, it's a disease – you could call it affluenza. It is perhaps because of this context that humanity has lost its way, and the consideration of human rights has been subordinated to the interests of a handful of powerful people who sit at the top of the pyramid.
— Kumi Naidoo Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace InternationalYou may become rich, engage in philanthropy and help a million people but the only way you can help a billion people is by building a profitable business. Making money has almost become a taboo! People say, 'oh my god! You're making money?' and I say, 'you know what? I'm so proud that my business makes money… it's the only way I can scale and make a huge impact…'
If you really want innovation, you have to say 'no' a lot of times to what's incremental. Saying 'no' reinforces that the small stuff isn't enough.
the distinguishing characteristic of humanity is our awareness that death is inevitable and the disinclination to accept that fact. Very simply, Becker says that we're just like all other creatures- we want to survive- but the difference is that we're able to do it using our vast intelligence. We can imagine things that don't exist and make them real.
A high-performance career usually demands your time, energy and focus within the often rigid structure of organisational life.... Your body and brain require sleep, exercise, efficient breathing and a vibrant diet in order to thrive. Everybody knows this and yet it can be extremely challenging to thrive amidst competing commitments, travel demands and expectations of your role.
Music ties into memory in two ways. First, music itself can be tremendously impactful, so we remember it — and we also remember everything happening around us when we heard it.
Society has undoubtedly faced setbacks, but clinging to practices from 100 years ago isn't a solution. The world has evolved, and so must we, finding our purpose in the new landscape. It's crucial to introspect and work with the hand we're dealt.
Despite these needs, the reality is that more than half of the estimated 2.7 billion working age adults globally are excluded from formal financial services. Poor families, as far as access to financial services is concerned, are doubly penalised. They need financial access more than we do, but they only have access to inferior informal services.
I would have played basketball for $120,000 for 7 years rather than $120 million, because I loved to play basketball. I never said to myself that I would only play basketball if they pay me $100million – I played basketball because I loved basketball.
For the first time since life began, a single animal is utterly dominant: the ape species Homo sapiens. Evolution has equipped us with huge brains, stunning adaptability and brilliantly successful technical prowess.
We now have religion based not on theology but on sociology. In principle, that's not a bad thing, but when your sociology has decided that the point of studying society is to change it (which was Marx's dictem), you've got a problem.
When you have the confidence that you really are an expert closer, you're a competent closer, the word no doesn't matter, because you know that there's going to be a certain number of no's and a certain number of yes's.
My mindset changed from thinking that tomorrow I may be freed, to realising that unless I did something myself, nobody would come and rescue me.