From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
At most gyms, if you don't show up, nobody cares, and that's the truth. I love gyms, but if you don't show up, nobody will call you, nobody cares, they just take your money and have one less body in the room. We were different, we cared, we wanted you to show up.
People think these founders are all brilliant and can't make mistakes, we've found that; there's a sense that they can fix everything or have the answers for everything… they don't, and they can't.
The truth is that we live in a very unethical society. We don't teach ethics at home, schools or university. As a consequence most businesses don't have a code of ethics or conduct.
Because Peter Paul Rubens signed his name to his paintings (several of which were finished by his artisans), they commanded a higher price. Today, the famous contemporary glass artist, Dale Chihuly puts his name on every work of glass although he never makes any of it.
Climate change is a real, and present, threat to the economy – and to all classes of national and private assets. If you manage other people's money, you have a fiduciary duty to de-risk it by managing for climate change.
Out of the 1,800 companies we measured, 250 created more environmental damage a year than profit. 600 created environmental damage of 25% or more of their profits. Together, the 1,800 businesses we researched created over $3 trillion of environmental damage in a single year.
Mirroring is a crazy skill, it's so insanely effective. 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!
People play Farmville, they don't play Zynga! In the same sense, people don't go to Paramount movies, they go to see Mission Impossible.
Every person is different, but every sale is the same.
Navigating complexity and uncertainty requires long-term thinking, not long-term planning. Long-term thinking requires accepting, even enjoying, the challenges of unpredictability, builds the flexibility required to navigate it, and rejects simplified narratives that lose the nuance of this reality.
If those assets are not being productively converted into goods and services that make the world a better place, it's a missed opportunity. Over the past half-century, we've standardised on a 'way' to do things – and that's clearly flawed but continues. We need managers and leaders to up their game if we're going to hope to tackle the environmental, inequality and other crises we face.
You are NOT a machine: There's a reason that presentations are often called 'death by PowerPoint,' and many of the most masterful presentations don't even need slides… More than anything, you need to realise that first and foremost, you're a storyteller – and in any pitch, you have to engage the emotions and interest of your audience.