From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Everyone has important skills and likely unique skills, but they may not always be as confident in those skills as they should be. We need to challenge the notion that if you don't feel like a superhero, then you must not be the right person for the job. Being underestimated in that way often brings out the best in me. For me, it's not just about overcoming insecurity but leveraging it as a catalyst to ensure that I bring everything I have to the mission.
So much of silence is about perpetuating the status quo, reinforcing what someone or dominant groups within an entity or organization have deemed appropriate, good, polite. Being different inherently exposes you to vulnerability; you're pushing against everything that the forces of mimicry urge you to do, which is to conform. Yet, we also recognize that innovation is impossible without differing opinions.
If you're an artist, you start with catharsis. You have to express your own feelings. I genuinely believe that if music comes from your heart and soul, that people will hear that and will be able to connect with the truth of it.
Without understanding the rules of the game, you might assume that your outcomes are determined mostly by luck. People who end up unhappy about what they get conclude that they were unlucky or that the system was rigged against them. After enough of these experiences, they believe that's just how the world works.
We can use the pain of our past as a catapult propelling us forward. As the saying goes, 'the best revenge is a life well-lived.' So, the most gratifying way to spite all those who tried to harm me during my childhood is to say, 'Look at me now; I'm speaking to Vikas Shah, 50 years later.'
It makes you respect money more when it comes from something you create, rather than just trading back and forth with someone else's cash.
Everything you do in life that's worthwhile entails some risk, that's the nature of exploration and the nature of adventure.
True grit is that rare strength and resilience to dust yourself off, look at what went wrong, refine your proposition and plough on. Always be prepared to adapt: an open mind is everything – but stay focused on your end game.
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.
have to persuade people to part with money for goods or services that are used by others
I'm particularly interested in the human propensity to copy behaviours that lack any kind of knowable causal structure. This is how we learn arbitrary conventions—and I think it originates in a distinctively human way of building group identities.
There's nothing more important in life than knowing who you are, the path that you are on and its final end. Who are you? What is your purpose in life? What is the path to living that purpose? Those three things are so critical to know.