1 Gallup found that…most of the respondents were still not emotionally connected to their work: Jim Harter, “Employee Engagement on the Rise in the US,” Gallup, August 26, 2018, https://news.gallup.com/poll/241649/employee-engagement-rise.aspx.
2 “I wasn’t interested in people’s time sheets”: Interview with Michael Claes, June 30, 2019.
3 “Culture is essentially giving the message that people should be safe”: Interview with Richard A. Friedman (conducted by Jonathan Schienberg), March 1, 2019.
4 “If your job is boring and repetitive”: Annie Nova and John Schoen, “Automation Threatening 25% of Jobs in the US, Especially the ‘Boring and Repetitive’ Ones: Brookings Study,” CNBC, January 25, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/25/these-workers-face-the-highest-risk-of-losing-their-jobs-to-automation.html.
5 “a total civilizing factor”: Interview with Alex Konrad, May 7, 2019.
6 “for centuries, the myth of the lone genius”: Joshua Wolf Shenk, Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity (New York: Mariner Books, 2015), p. xv.
1 “Work, try hard, believe you can succeed, get up and try again”: Allison Pearson, “Why David Cameron Is Right to Praise ‘Tiger Mums,’” The Telegraph, January 12, 2016, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/12095876/Why-David-Cameron-is-right-to-praise-Tiger-Mums.html.
2 “Throw things around, because people have got to know that you feel strongly about it”: Kathleen Elkins, “PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi on Why Steve Jobs Advised Her to Throw Tantrums,” Yahoo! Finance, November 10, 2016, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pepsico-ceo-indra-nooyi-why-183526111.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=pi.
3 “If someone asked me to describe Dan as an athlete and a person”: Garry Smits, “Dan Mullen Learned ‘Relentless Effort’ During High School Days in New Hampshire,” St. Augustine Record, August 31, 2018, https://www.staugustine.com/sports/20180831/dan-mullen-learned-relentless-effort-during-high-school-days-in-new-hampshire/1.
4 “treat every player on the team like they’re our own kids”: Heather Crawford, “First Family of Florida Football: It Was Meant to Be,” First Coast News, February 5, 2018, https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/sports/college/florida-gators/first-family-of-florida-football-it-was-meant-to-be/77-514627473.
5 “Michael Jordan plays ball”: “Thank You for Smoking,” Quotes.net, https://www.quotes.net/mquote/129644.
6 “When you wake up in the morning and look at emails”: Sarah Berger, “‘Shark Tank’ Star Daymond John’s Email Rule Is the Most Important Part of His Morning Routine,” CNBC, January 7, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/07/shark-tank-star-daymond-johns-morning-routine-email-rule.html.
7 “Every day I seated myself at my work table”: Larry Maguire, “Why Creativity Flourishes in Solitude,” Medium, July 17, 2019, https://medium.com/the-reflectionist/why-creativity-flourishes-in-solitude-72bac63e6684.
8 “half our waking minds be designated and saved for quiet reflection”: Alan Lightman, “Why We Owe It to Ourselves to Spend Quiet Time Alone Every Day,” Ideas.Ted.Com, May 15, 2018, https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-owe-it-to-ourselves-to-spend-quiet-time-alone-every-day/.
9 “During that amazing run”: “Austin McChord,” General Catalyst, https://www.generalcatalyst.com/team/austin-mcchord/.
1 “They began talking and thinking strategically”: Daniel Coyle, The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (New York: Bantam Books, 2018), p. xvi.
2 “no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake”: Google, “Identify Dynamics of Effective Teams,” re:Work, https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/steps/identify-dynamics-of-effective-teams/.
3 “While the instruction ‘do not criticize’ is often cited as the important instruction in brainstorming: David Burkus, “How Criticism Creates Innovative Teams,” Harvard Business Review, July 22, 2013, https://hbr.org/2013/07/how-criticism-creates-innovati.
4 “conflict appropriately when it arises”: Carrie Hall, et al., “Can Embracing Conflict Spur Positive Change?” EY Americas Family Business Services, May 10, 2019, https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY_-_Can_embracing_conflict_spur_positive_change/$FILE/ey-family-business-embracing-conflict.pdf.
5 The fact that none of the board members appeared to oppose Swissair’s decision: Aaron Hermann and Hussain Rammal, “The Grounding of the ‘Flying Bank,’” Management Decision 48, no. 7 (August 3, 2010): 1048–1062.
6 “This is never going to work in a million years”: Interview with Jonathan Seelig, May 8, 2019.
7 “As we grow older, curiosity tends to be wrung out of us”: Todd Kashdan, “Companies Value Curiosity but Stifle It Anyway,” Harvard Business Review, October 21, 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/10/companies-value-curiosity-but-stifle-it-anyway.
8 “good actors but bad apples”: Anthony Klotz, et al., “Good Actors but Bad Apples: Deviant Consequences of Daily Impression Management at Work,” Journal of Applied Science 103, no. 10 (June 25, 2018): 1145–1154.
9 “We run this company on questions, not answers”: Jeremy Caplan, “Google’s Chief Looks Ahead,” Time, October 2, 2006, http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1541446,00.html.
10 “I don’t know what sport that is”: Aimee Berg, “Fencer with Headscarf Is a Cut Above the Rest,” Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2011, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304569504576404011992467534.
11 “the more constrained the solution paths, the more variable, the more creative the problem solvers”: Patricia Stokes, Creativity from Constraints: The Psychology of Breakthroughs (New York: Springer Publishing, 2006), p. xii.
12 “psychological unease”: Arnold Ludwig, The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy (New York: The Guildford Press, 1995), p. 11.
13 “Psychologists have coined a term for my condition”: Adam Grant, “Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate,” New York Times, January 16, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/opinion/sunday/why-i-taught-myself-to-procrastinate.html.
14 “well-behaved women seldom make history”: Quote Investigator, “Well-Behaved Women Seldon Make History,” https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/03/well-behaved-women/.
15 “The only reason I have a bad reputation is because I’m a girl”: Jaan Uhelszki, “Joan Jett,” Classic Rock, February 1, 2018, https://www.pressreader.com/@Michael_Nichols%60/281483571811934.
16 “I feel compelled to come forward”: Lara Setrakian, “I’m One of Mark Halperin’s Accusers. He’s Part of a Bigger Problem We Need to Fix,” Washington Post, October 27, 2017.
17 “women who expressed anger were consistently accorded lower status”: Victoria Brescoll and Eric Uhlmann, “Can an Angry Woman Get Ahead?: Status Conferral, Gender, and Expression of Emotion in the Workplace,” Psychological Science 19, no. 3 (March, 2008): 268–275.
18 “top performers need to know their efforts are recognized and valued”: Annamarie Mann and Nate Dvorak, “Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact,” Gallup, June 28, 2016, https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236441/employee-recognition-low-cost-high-impact.aspx.
19 “If you asked Danny to give you a truly honest assessment”: Interview with Jonathan Seelig, May 8, 2019.
1 “I feel like when I take a new position”: Interview with Love Whelchel, March 2, 2019.
2 “In essence, I’ve just followed my curiosity”: Interview with Tanya Valle, April 2, 2019.
3 “digital sweatshops”: Jonathan Zittrain, “The Internet Creates a New Kind of Sweatshop,” Newsweek, December 7, 2009, https://www.newsweek.com/internet-creates-new-kind-sweatshop-75751.
4 “They show up; they get their paycheck and do the minimum required”: Barbara Bradley Hagerty, “Quit Your Job,” The Atlantic, April 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/quit-your-job/471501/.
5 “There’s a difference between twenty years of experience”: Ibid.
6 “had a substantially reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease”: “Purpose in Life and Alzheimer’s,” Rush University Medical Center, https://www.rush.edu/health-wellness/discover-health/purpose-life-and-alzheimers.
7 “Any university president worth his or her salt”: Interview with E. Gordon Gee, April 11, 2019.
8 “Theoretical physicists do their best work at a young age”: Interview with Alan Lightman, March 29, 2019.
9 “when we are rejected, the door before us becomes a wall”: Erica Brown, Take Your Soul to Work: 365 Meditations on Every Day Leadership (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015), p. 20.
10 “Success has a much greater influence on the brain than failure”: Frederik Joelving, “How You Learn More from Success Than Failure,” Scientific American, November 1, 2009, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-success-breeds-success/.
11 “Well, then I think you should take over HR”: Interview with Joe Moscola, April 15, 2019.
1 “up to 87.7 percent of America’s workforce is not able to contribute to their full potential”: Randy Pennington, “Is Passion Really What We Need to Succeed?” Huffington Post, June 6, 2016, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/is-passion-really-what-we_b_10310662.
2 “The success at the Huffington Post”: Ruth Umoh, “Arianna Huffington Says She Became Successful After She Quit One Common Bad Habit,” CNBC, March 11, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/11/arianna-huffington-became-successful-after-she-started-sleeping-well.html.
3 “Silicon Valley’s Donald Trump”: Helaine Olen, “What the Fate of Silicon Valley’s Donald Trump Can Teach Us,” Washington Post, September 25, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/25/what-fate-silicon-valleys-donald-trump-can-teach-us/.
4 “a payout per share worth substantially less”: Eliot Brown, “How Adam Neumann’s Over-the-Top Style Built WeWork. ‘This Is Not the Way Everybody Behaves,’” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-is-not-the-way-everybody-behaves-how-adam-neumanns-over-the-top-style-built-wework-11568823827.
5 “rich relational terms”: David Zax, “Want to Be Happier at Work? Learn How from These ‘Job Crafters,’” Fast Company, June 3, 2013, https://www.fastcompany.com/3011081/want-to-be-happier-at-work-learn-how-from-these-job-crafters.
6 “I’ve been wondering what role our business could play in the world around us”: Tayo Oviosu, “If You Could Wave a Magic Wand to Change 1 Thing, What Would It Be?” Moguldom Nation, July 23, 2018, https://moguldom.com/152061/paga-founder-could-wave-a-magic-wand-to-change-1-thing-what-would-it-be-and-why/.
7 “They are isolated, punished, and pushed out”: American Civil Liberties Union, “School-to-Prison Pipeline,” https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline.
8 “It’s a violent culture”: Interview with Maurice Reid, June 1, 2019.
1 “When I first started teaching”: Laura Vanderkam, “Why Insecurity May Be the Key to Success,” Fast Company, November 25, 2013, https://www.fastcompany.com/3022152/why-insecurity-may-be-the-key-to-success.
2 “Although society places a great deal of importance on being confident”: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Confidence: How Much You Really Need and How to Get It (New York: Plume, 2014), p. 73.
3 “Fooled ’em again”: Interview with Jonathan Schienberg, April 9, 2019.
4 “not the world’s greatest manager”: Interview with Riki Drori, May 6, 2019.
5 “It is therefore time to debunk the myth”: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, “Less-Confident People Are More Successful,” Harvard Business Review, July 6, 2012, https://hbr.org/2012/07/less-confident-people-are-more-su.
6 “The results replicated our previous studies”: Elizabeth Tenney, Nathan Meikle, and David Hunsaker, “Research: When Overconfidence Is an Asset, and When It’s a Liability,” Harvard Business Review, December 11, 2018, https://hbr.org/2018/12/research-when-overconfidence-is-an-asset-and-when-its-a-liability.
7 “Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident”: Christine Riordan, “Three Ways Overconfidence Can Make a Fool of You,” Forbes, January 8, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/01/08/three-ways-overconfidence-can-make-a-fool-of-you/#52f1d95537fb.
8 “I have written eleven books”: Carl Richards, “Learning to Deal with the Impostor Syndrome,” New York Times, October 26, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/your-money/learning-to-deal-with-the-impostor-syndrome.html.
9 “I am always looking over my shoulder wondering if I measure up”: Jennifer Ludden, “Sotomayor: ‘Always Looking Over My Shoulder,’” NPR, May 26, 2009, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104538436.
10 “No matter what we’ve done, there comes a point”: Terry Gross, “Tom Hanks Says Self-Doubt Is ‘A High-Wire Act That We All Walk,’” podcast, Fresh Air, NPR, April 26, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/04/26/475573489/tom-hanks-says-self-doubt-is-a-high-wire-act-that-we-all-walk.
11 “Every time I was called on in class”: Julie Ma, “25 Famous Women on Impostor Syndrome and Self-Doubt,” The Cut, January 12, 2017, https://www.thecut.com/2017/01/25-famous-women-on-impostor-syndrome-and-self-doubt.html.
12 “I have to admit that today, even twelve years after graduation”: Aly Weisman, “Natalie Portman Reveals Her ‘Dark Moments’ in College During Powerful Harvard Commencement Speech,” Business Insider, May 30, 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/natalie-portman-harvard-commencement-speech-2015-5.
13 “I am not a writer”: Maria Popova, “How Steinbeck Used the Diary as a Tool of Discipline, a Hedge against Self-Doubt, and a Pacemaker for the Heartbeat of Creative Work,” Brain Pickings, https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/02/john-steinbeck-working-days/.
14 “Is this good news or bad news?”: Shana Lebowitz, “Richard Branson Says He Didn’t Know the Difference Between ‘Net’ and ‘Gross’ Until Age 50—And It Didn’t Stop Him Building an Empire,” Business Insider, February 28, 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-net-vs-gross-dyslexia-2018-2.
15 “If you have a learning disability, you become a very good delegator”: Ibid.
16 “financial PTSD”: Guy Raz, “Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter,” podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, NPR, May 28, 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/05/24/614081933/lady-gaga-atom-factory-troy-carter.
17 “The paranoid person does not project onto the sky, so to speak”: Roderick Kramer, “When Paranoia Makes Sense,” Harvard Business Review, July 2002, https://hbr.org/2002/07/when-paranoia-makes-sense.
18 “The best way to maintain a company’s success is to always be paranoid”: Ratmir Timashev, “Why Paranoia Is Necessary for Success,” Fortune, February 2, 2016, https://fortune.com/2016/02/02/paranoia-necessary-success/.
19 “Prudent paranoia”: Roderick Kramer, “When Paranoia Makes Sense,” Harvard Business Review, July 2002, https://hbr.org/2002/07/when-paranoia-makes-sense.
1 “Guys, there it is”: Doug Pray, dir., Surfwise, motion picture, United States: Magnolia Pictures, 2007.
2 “was worried about my way of life as a surfing doctor”: Dorian Paskowitz, Surfing and Health (Honolulu: Juliette Publishing, 2007), p. 180.
3 “We were simply messhugge [sic]”: Ibid., p. 181.
4 “I’m actually not passionate about shoes at all”: Guy Raz, “Zappos: Tony Hsieh,” podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, NPR, January 23, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/01/23/510576153/zappos-tony-hsieh.
5 “Choudhury had allegedly violated women under his tutelage”: Kate Fagan, “Bikram Yoga’s Moral Dilemma,” espnW, November 9, 2018, http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/feature/article/23539292/after-serious-allegations-founder-bikram-yoga-practitioners-crossroads.
6 “The best part about going through hell is that you come out on fire!”: Bea Arthur, “Failing Forward: Lessons Learned from the End of a Startup,” Forbes, June 15, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/beaarthur/2016/06/15/failing-forward-lessons-learned-from-the-end-of-a-startup/#273796357d86.
7 “I had exactly $2.45, and I’m ready to go see this play”: Interview with Bea Arthur, July 16, 2019.
8 “Now I always trust my gut”: “Finding Balance with What You Do & Who You Are | Bea Arthur,” Triple F.A.T. Goose, https://triplefatgoose.com/blogs/down-time/bea-arthur-finding-balance-with-what-you-do-and-who-you-are.
9 “Rationality has to be defined according to how well you accomplish some goals”: Suzi Jamil, “How to Harness Humans’ Inherent Tendency Towards Irrationality,” Think Inc., July 6, 2018, https://thinkinc.org.au/how-to-harness-humans-inherent-tendency-towards-irrationality/.
10 “There was some skepticism about my ability to handle the challenges”: Victoria Wang and Candice Helfand-Rogers, “Bringing Car Confidence to Women,” The Story Exchange, June 15, 2016, https://thestoryexchange.org/good-audra-fordin/.
11 “Of all the definitions of man,” the French journalist Anatole France once wrote: Laurie Santos and Alexandra Rosati, “The Evolutionary Routes of Human Decision Making,” Annual Review of Psychology 66 (June 2, 2015): 321–347.
12 “I have never put much weight on focus groups”: Interview with Michael Bruno, May 8, 2019.
13 “Speed is the ultimate competitive advantage”: “About Roger Abramson,” Abramson Accelerator, https://www.abramsonaccel.com/our-roots.
14 “I pretty much always go with my gut no matter what”: Interview with Roger Abramson, June 5, 2019.
15 “When you look at what’s happening inside the brain”: Narjas Zatat, “Schools Are ‘Factories for Humans’ and Dumb Down Genius Children, Study Finds,” The Independent, January 24, 2018, https://www.indy100.com/article/genius-children-schools-factories-humans-dumb-down-clever-kids-nasa-dr-george-land-tedx-8175136.
16 “What we discovered, to our surprise”: Renee Montagne, “Preschoolers Outsmart College Students in Figuring Out Gadgets,” podcast, The Shots, NPR, June 30, 2014, https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=325230618?storyId=325230618.
17 “I was told by everyone that you do not sue NASA”: Christian Davenport, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (New York: Hachette, 2018), p. 48.
18 “a very unusual cat”: Interview with Philippe Krakowsky, July 2, 2019.
19 “Listen—I’m going to ask the fucking questions here”: Interview with Todd Dagres, June 1, 2019.
20 “She puts the word fuck through every part of speech the word can be bent into”: David Freedlander, “‘I Want Him on Everything’: Meet the Woman Behind the Buttigieg Media Frenzy,” Politico, April 29, 2019, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/29/lis-smith-buttigieg-2020-president-campaign-manager-226756.
21 “I had never done anything like it before”: Interview with Vibhav Prasad, June 11, 2019.
1 “I would say around 120 kids would claim me as mom”: Interview with India Howell, July 19, 2019.
2 “My kids aren’t orphans”: “The Children’s Village,” 60 Minutes, July 31, 2016, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-tanzania-rift-valley-childrens-village-2/.
3 “Knocking out these areas appears to free your ability to feel for others”: Mindy Weisberger, “Your Giving Brain: Are Humans ‘Hardwired’ for Generosity?” Live Science, December 19, 2016, https://www.livescience.com/57255-humans-hardwired-for-altruism.html.
4 “Life in the jungle may be bloody, but it is not devoid of love and loyalty”: Judith Rich Harris, The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999), p. 149.
5 There is a Hebrew word achrayut: “Bereishit (5774—Taking Responsibility,” The Office of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, September 28, 2013, http://rabbisacks.org/bereishit-5774-taking-responsibility/.
6 “Then I suddenly remembered,” Kirk recounted to me: Interview with Kirk McDonald, July 11, 2019.
7 In another study of six hundred medical students in Belgium: Adam Grant, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success (New York: Viking, 2013), p. 6.
8 “Hollywood’s Mr. Nice Guy”: Ned Zeman, “Ron Meyer, Hollywood’s Mr. Nice Guy,” Wall Street Journal Magazine, September 28, 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-meyer-hollywoods-mr-nice-guy-1475076890.
9 “Our results, however, suggest that they may be more successful”: Katherine Nelson et al., “Do Unto Others or Treat Yourself? The Effects of Prosocial and Self-Focused Behavior on Psychological Flourishing,” Emotion 16, no. 6 (April 21, 2016): 850–861.
10 “That job wasn’t for everyone”: Interview with Stephen Valyou, August 11, 2019.
11 “People who are highly altruistic are really good at recognizing other people’s fear”: Nina Strochlic, “How Fear Makes You Do Good or Evil,” National Geographic, January 3, 2018, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/01/fear-factor-abigail-marsh-psychopath-altruism/.
12 “We took over because of the mission”: Interview with Ari and Noah Meyerowitz, June 14, 2019.
13 “Part of what happens to nurses is they give so much of themselves”: Interview with Beverly Warne, August 6, 2019.
14 “They would have pushed me and pushed me until I gave up”: Interview with Diana Higbee, July 13, 2019.
15 “My soul was just empty”: Interview with Jane, April 1, 2019.
16 “I have a responsibility to the worker, both blue-collar and white-collar”: Kent Greenfield, “The Impact of ‘Going Private’ on Corporate Stakeholders,” Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law 3, no. 1 (December 4, 2008): 75–88.
17 “While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose”: “Business Roundtable Redefines the Purpose of a Corporation to Promote ‘An Economy That Serves All Americans,’” Business Roundtable, August 19, 2019, https://www.businessroundtable.org/business-roundtable-redefines-the-purpose-of-a-corporation-to-promote-an-economy-that-serves-all-americans.
1 “I wish I could encourage you to major in English instead of chemistry”: Email interview with Matthew Guberman, July 7, 2017.