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Kindle Notes & Highlights
‘My favourite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.’
I’ve always lived every day as if it’s my last, fiercely loving my family and friends and trying to make a positive difference. We only get one life, and this is mine.
demagogues,
When it comes to deals like this, or any negotiations really, the key is to display passion, know-how and determination. Get to the point quickly, be persistent and consistent, and don’t rely too heavily on prompts, statistics, and certainly not PowerPoint slides. I went into the meeting with my notebook in my back pocket, armed with beautiful spaceship pictures, a lot of enthusiasm and belief in the project. Investors buy into people and ideas, not numbers alone.
If somebody works for me and doesn’t take notes, I ask them: ‘Are you too important? Note taking isn’t beneath anyone.’
Dad died a happy man. The only way you can do that is by filling your life with purpose and love: what you give, what you do, how you treat people and how you make them feel.
While business may have changed from when I started out, the principles are the same and still fit what I am good at: finding markets that need shaking up, coming up with ways to make people’s lives better, then finding brilliant people to bring it to life. Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. I know I’d find a gap in the market somewhere.
The deal was a perfect example of our investment strategy for the new business landscape: building companies to scale, then accessing external capital to build them further through sales of stakes to partners or through the public markets.
However, I still felt there was space for more traditional hotels if they were reimagined with all the pain points removed.
Any manager who punishes their staff for expressing an opinion hasn’t got the faintest idea about leadership. People in charge should empower their employees, not scare them into silence.
“We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”’
Too many leaders wait until deadlines are looming or a crisis is in full flow before injecting urgency into their team. By then it’s too late. I like to shake things up in my teams and keep people motivated by pushing them to think as if it’s a crisis, when everything is running on schedule. This way, innovations can be sparked, and future crises can be averted.
‘When we see the Earth from space we see ourselves as a whole. We see the unity, but not the divisions. One planet, one human race. We are here together and we need to live together with tolerance and respect.’
‘A leader is someone who falls in love with the people they serve and allows the people to fall in love with them.’
As I write, the Elders are doing a complete review to see how to make the next ten years even more productive than the last. That’s also what I try to do, every new year and every new decade.
‘We are worth more than the worst moment of our lives.’
I’ve realised that legacy is not that important except to your children and family and friends. When I am on my deathbed, I just want to feel as if I have loved and been loved, done some good in the world and made a difference here and there.
The way to become a great leader is to look for the best in people – seldom criticise – always praise.
Watching them as toddlers reminded me that you don’t learn to walk by following the rules. You learn by doing and by falling over.
