From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The idea that Google or Meta weren't American companies was a fiction they liked to tell themselves. It just simply wasn't true. And I'll tell you why: physically, their servers are in actual places.
A lot of negatives have already happened in Greece, and now there is an opportunity. Most Greek assets have been going down in price at some time, and if you happen to hold the right assets? You'll make a killing!
Speed and pace are important – the circumstances that brought people to the table can change over time, nothing is forever, nothing is static.
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.
We should not assume that there is one single benchmark for all types of financial transactions. There are certain transactions that should be based on market rates, and others which call for the kind of benchmark that LIBOR provides.
To me, a great leader should be empathetic, authentic, entrepreneurial, creative, ethical and lead from the front.
A principle that I hold personally important is radical transparency in communication. This transparency extends from the shareholders to every level within the organization. It's vital that everyone is aware of what is working, what isn't, and the actions required for improvement.
Our philosophy has been about trying to control the entire customer experience. A lot of people, when they think about branding, they think about advertising and marketing. But we actually don't do any advertising or marketing. Instead, we invest all of that money into the customer experience, and then our customers do our marketing for us through word of mouth.
This is a very tough question because the correlation between growth and returns on assets in China has been completely non-existent. You have had this tremendous growth, with fairly lame returns for equity investors!
Mirroring is a crazy skill, it's so insanely effective. If you explain mirroring to people, they're like nah, that shit'll never work – but it's huge. Just repeating the last 3 words of what someone said or picking out 1-3 words from the middle of the statement, can get you the outcome you need. Using mirroring, you feel like you can work Jedi mind tricks!
When it came to Avatar… James Cameron's track record was just second to none- phenomenal. The creative vision he had to that film, tied to Fox's commitment in the movie and the advances in technology made it seem- at the time- quite an easy decision.
The ability for hedge funds and other private investment product to advertise is certainly a big deal that will have lasting impact on the manner which these products are distributed and marketed.