From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
You should never place your value as a human being on results. You don't control the results of the game – people get lucky or go bankrupt. Also, what happens when you achieve your result? What long-term satisfaction does that bring you?
I think these are all cases where our brains lie to us. It's not because they're doing something insidious or that there's some advantage to messing up our sense of happiness—it's just the normal processes of our brains sometimes go awry, and we end up not appreciating what we have as much as we could.
Having a plan, feeling confident and being competent are the greatest antidotes to fear. If you're just trying to deal with the unknown by crossing your fingers and hoping, you will be utterly helpless when a situation finally manifests. In reality, you're rarely (if ever) completely helpless, you allow yourself to be helpless.
The biggest challenge is a lack of confidence. Confidence is preventing businesses from investing significant amounts of their balance sheet strength, they simply do not feel they will get returns on that investment, and so they're holding cash.
It's conceivable that survival odds were higher for ancestors who embraced false information endorsed by their tribe, compared to those who acknowledged empirically accurate information but were thereby alienated from their group.
When you observe chimpanzees and other apes, you see how extremely humanlike they are in almost everything they do. We have been so indoctrinated to think we are special (as a species) that when you see an ape up close and see they are- in essence- us, you don't know what to do with those feelings.
Control and leverage are two-dimensional concepts that can lead you to leaving money on the table. By trying to get control you can drive deals away but if you know that the other side is control-oriented? You can get all the leverage by saying, 'wow… you're so powerful, you're in charge… you have all the leverage…' and once you know that's what turns the other side on? You can get them to give you want ever you want!
There's something intrinsically sensual about jewellery, you wear it on your skin, it's a part of you and it embodies and imbues the personality and lustre of the wearer. There's something about gold and stones in particular which- for me- have a magical element.
The goal is to make people care about the story, which is why our audience often engages deeply with our coverage. It's extensive, yet also personal, bringing the news directly into people's homes, into their living rooms, and bedrooms, in a way that helps them empathize with those we interview.
You are unwittingly making your leadership and life harder and more painful than it needs to be. Even worse is individuals have no understanding or self-awareness that they are doing this.
To be an entrepreneur, you need a love for process and to be comfortable with adversity. If you love process and you're comfortable with adversity, and if you love the journey over the fruits and riches of that journey- then you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is on a pedestal; everyone wants to be one. Here's the truth, it sucks. Entrepreneurship is hard and almost everyone loses.
Our apps and platforms are addictive by design. We know this both because the tech titans behind them have admitted it publicly, and because the dominant apps and social media platforms use the same suite of techniques that are well-proven to ensnare us.