From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
We do have quite a bit of agency over our lives, and to the degree that we can plot our own course and choose our lives as opposed to being subject to environmental factors, that means we're leading the lives we want rather than the lives we have-to live.
You have to empower your board to make their own decisions, follow their instinct, and execute. Think of your board in many ways as a team of entrepreneurs that you're investing in, rather than as employees that you manage.
I woke up every day both inspired and terrified by the thought of building something from scratch and helping to save lives. It's a pretty good way to live, being both inspired and terrified.
One interesting way to break the sunk cost is to think about the cost of staying to other people. You might be willing to absorb the abuse yourself — but are you willing to put your family through the effects of your staying?
Legacy is not for us to decide, it's not for us to chase, it's not for us to get, it's not for us to enjoy. I don't think about it much.
It's not success we should be seeking but consonance, alignment, flow. When what we do actually matters to us. We are being called upon to solve a problem at hand, to use what we do best in the world, and in turn being rewarded for in a way that is meaningful to us.
As a team captain, you have to figure out how people work, you have to make sure you say the right thing to the right person… you have to know when to shout, when to listen, when to be tough and when to be kind.
Insecurity is normal, we all feel it. If you don't? you're a psychopath! This is the manager who really leads from that place of insecurity.
There's an Overton window of policies you can make, but it's a wider window than the policies you can run your political campaign on. It's more a matter of legislators than politicians -- even though they're the same people.
I don't believe there's a universal formula for success—I can only share what worked for me, which was driven by enthusiasm for new ideas. What I value most in people is enthusiasm—not passion, which I find overused—but genuine enthusiasm to see opportunities and act upon them.
It's about the pursuit of a vision. It's about being brutally honest each day. It's about truly understanding the role of housekeeping versus the relationship with your customer.
All the great achievements of humankind – from building the pyramids to reaching the Moon – are based on large scale cooperation. And all large scale human cooperation is based on belief in fictions such as gods, nations, money and human rights.