Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Klaus Kleinfeld - CEO of Siemens | Fortune 500 CEO Reveals Why Most Leaders Fail (And How To Avoid Their Mistakes)
Transcript
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- 1:39My first was pushed into work because my mental sense I was.
- 1:43A money is my gateway to freedom.
- 1:45Clouds Christian Kleinfeld is a German businessman known for leading global giants like Siemens,
- 1:50Alkoa and Arconic. As CEO of Siemens, he modernized the company.
- 1:54After Siemens, he took the helmet Alkoa later leading its transformation
- 1:58and spin off into Arconic where he focused on advanced manufacturing and aerospace.
- 2:03My mother always used to say what people don't pay for isn't worth anything.
- 2:07I was thrown into work at an early age. My father died when I was very young.
- 2:11Then I decided this is part of my life and I better do the things that I like and develop this
- 2:16very simple principle. I love it or I don't love it and I can change it.
- 2:21If I come to the conclusion that I can't change it to love it, then I leave it.
- 2:24Always was very clear and that's probably life is not empty.
- 2:28You better use it in a way that you enjoy it.
- 2:31In 2017, he joined Saudi Arabia's Neum project.
- 2:35Later becoming an advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
- 2:38Now through his investment firm K2 Elevation, he focuses on technology and biotech innovation.
- 2:43His career is marked by high stakes leadership, transformation and strategic foresight.
- 2:47If you are not energized yourself, you cannot energize others.
- 2:51Many people think this is great advice but I don't have the time for it.
- 2:55Many of the energy practices do not need much time.
- 2:59We charge is part of performance.
- 3:01Down time is productive time.
- 3:03Not everything works well.
- 3:04Everyone take a step.
- 3:05The first step is always the most difficult but in this case it's always the most rewarding.
- 3:09Welcome to success story.
- 3:12I'm your host, Scott Clary.
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- 4:09You titled your book,
- 4:11Leading to Thrive.
- 4:13Explain to me all the other ways that people try and lead.
- 4:18What are the other outcomes of leadership that people get wrong?
- 4:21Oh man, I don't even know where to start.
- 4:24So, I mean, I was born in Germany,
- 4:27race in Germany, you know, so on the end there.
- 4:32And I was born in the North.
- 4:34So a very Prussian tradition.
- 4:37Prussian tradition is about, it's all about discipline, you know.
- 4:41There's no excuse.
- 4:42You plow through your tough, you know, and you get going, you know.
- 4:46And whatever the task is, you know, you don't,
- 4:50don't re-neck on it, you get the task done, you know.
- 4:52So this is my original upbringing, you know.
- 4:55So fortunately, something inside of me was wiser to say,
- 5:00well, you know, you have to know what you can do.
- 5:02And you have to balance that.
- 5:04It's good to push yourself.
- 5:05I'm very much for by growing your boundaries.
- 5:09You know, so then I've also seen some people who believe that
- 5:14when you are a leader, I mean, when you're not only leading yourself,
- 5:17but when you lead others, the best is you put pressure on them, you know.
- 5:21And I remember I had one person, you know, who told me,
- 5:26you know, I look at the people who work for me like lemon, you know.
- 5:30And I press the lemon and there's juice coming out.
- 5:33And I press the lemon again.
- 5:34And there's more juice coming out.
- 5:35Press it again. There's more.
- 5:37And one day I don't get any lemon juice out of it.
- 5:39And then the lemon has to be replaced with a new lemon, you know.
- 5:43So that might have worked in the past, you know, long, long time ago.
- 5:47You're, these days, I mean, talent is one of the hottest commodities
- 5:50that you can think about, you know, and you have to attract people.
- 5:54And there, I think it's not just the stick, you know, that you work,
- 5:59but it's also the carrot.
- 6:00So you want to make sure that people have passion in it,
- 6:03that people grow in the business.
- 6:06So I've always believed in the end.
- 6:08It's the two elements.
- 6:09It's the carrot and the stick, you know.
- 6:11And you have to make things attractive for people.
- 6:15And I have to have something that's in it for them.
- 6:18You know, this can be all kinds of things fun.
- 6:21It can be one, you know, purpose is a big one.
- 6:24If people see that the vision that you have put out as a leader,
- 6:28you know, is something that's worth following
- 6:30beyond just the economic basis of the company.
- 6:33In the delivering better lives to people, you know,
- 6:36which is, fortunately, the case for many businesses, you know,
- 6:39and that's a, that's a big motivator,
- 6:41have a huge motivator, frankly, you know.
- 6:44So those are kind of some, some of these things, you know,
- 6:46you lead to better the individual lives.
- 6:49Now, I mean, you, you've managed and, and led to Fortune 500 companies,
- 6:56which is an incredible feat.
- 6:58But when people look at big corporations,
- 7:02I don't think somebody would look at a big corporation and be like,
- 7:04hey, I'm going to go work there to improve my life.
- 7:07I'm, I'm, I think that a lot of people when they get into the,
- 7:10the nine to five mindset, they're like, this is a job and I want to advance
- 7:13and I want to make more money.
- 7:15And then I'm going to have my life on the side.
- 7:17And I'm going to have this concept of, of work, life balance,
- 7:19which I don't necessarily agree with.
- 7:21I do believe that works should be integrated to your life.
- 7:24But when you look at sort of your peers and even what you've done,
- 7:29who do you think is doing an exceptional job of championing like this idea
- 7:33of leading to thrive, not just leading to extract as much value out of these lemons
- 7:39as possible and deliver back to the shareholders?
- 7:41Well, there's just multiple questions and one, you know?
- 7:45So I, so let's, let's shop the elephant one by one by one,
- 7:50because you mentioned a couple of very, very important points, you know?
- 7:54There's this whole discussion about life work balance,
- 7:57you know? And that's, I mean, you have no idea how often I've had my wife
- 8:03having that conversations with colleagues of mine, you know?
- 8:06During dinner parties or whatever, where she comes back.
- 8:09And somebody whisper into here, your husband is working a lot, you know?
- 8:13So kind of like an accusation, you know?
- 8:15And frankly, for me, I never, I never believed in this work and life thing.
- 8:21I always thought I was thrown into work at an early age,
- 8:24because my father died when I was very young, you know?
- 8:27But then somehow I decided, this is part of my life
- 8:31and I better do the things that I like and develop this very simple principle.
- 8:36I love it and obviously I love it and I stay in it and do more of it
- 8:40or I don't love it and I can change it and I try to change it, you know?
- 8:44And that I love it, you know?
- 8:46And if I come to the conclusion that I can't change it to love it,
- 8:49then I leave it because I always was very clear in that's probably
- 8:53because I was confronted with the death of loved ones at a young age
- 8:57that life is endless, it's ending, I mean, it's not endless.
- 9:02Life is not endless, it has a beginning and an end, you know?
- 9:05So you better use it in a way that you enjoy it, you know?
- 9:10And I actually, the older I get, the more I think that this concept of work
- 9:14and life distinction has a classical industrial age concept.
- 9:17Before it didn't exist, you know, we open as I still remember this.
- 9:22We opened a smelter in Iceland, you know?
- 9:24And it was one of the first industrial, actually, we were the first industrial base
- 9:30that came into this fjord, the fjord was all fishermen.
- 9:34And one time, I mean, the head of the plant had issues
- 9:37because people didn't show up and then he went back into the village
- 9:41and said, where are they?
- 9:42I mean, the tons they didn't come.
- 9:44And they said, what do you mean?
- 9:45It's a great day to be out there fishing, you know?
- 9:49So we had to tell them that an industrial environment,
- 9:52particularly when you run large things like a smelter,
- 9:55you have to run it 24 hours, seven days a week,
- 9:58including eight a day, you know?
- 10:00So you can't just say it's a nice day and you go out.
- 10:03So, but a strong reminder that in the end,
- 10:06I mean, in the old days, nobody would have ever had the idea
- 10:10that life and work are two different things.
- 10:13Better integrate that and don't have that understanding
- 10:18when it's too late, you know?
- 10:19So, yeah, so that's one point.
- 10:23And I mean, are there role models who have done that?
- 10:28Yes, and it's not necessarily the famous names, you know?
- 10:33It's more, I mean, there are some famous names, I mean,
- 10:35but it's more also people who I saw in my direct surrounding.
- 10:38I mean, my grandfather, for instance, I mean,
- 10:41still was in his 80s, you know, he was working
- 10:46in kind of civil service, but voluntary, voluntary civil service,
- 10:50you know, and did this and did this with the same passion
- 10:53that he has, has brought to every job, a good friend of mine
- 10:57who just recently died Henry Kissinger, you know?
- 11:00He was over 100 years old and I really got friends with Henry
- 11:05when he was in his late 70s, you know?
- 11:07So, and it was wonderful, wonderful,
- 11:11but even until the last breath that came out of him,
- 11:15he was working on a book that was just published, you know?
- 11:18On AI, I mean, on all things.
- 11:20And I think what he added to the discussion on AI
- 11:23is very, very, very important, very important
- 11:27with the perspectives and what he added to this planet
- 11:29has been very important, but he never saw it as,
- 11:31hey, there's life, there's work, you know?
- 11:33He enjoyed this and let it together.
- 11:36And I would highly recommend to everybody.
- 11:39You know, do it, do it, do it that way.
- 11:42Why do you think, why do you think your view
- 11:44because you mentioned before, so you grew up in, in this very,
- 11:49I wouldn't say like, I say a tough, a relatively tough childhood.
- 11:54I mean, your father passed away young, that's not easy.
- 11:57And there's this culture of work and pushing through
- 12:00these difficult periods and continuing on.
- 12:03And that's sort of the culture that you were raised with.
- 12:05So when did your version of work, of leadership start to understand
- 12:11or start to be in, I guess, bring in more components of balance
- 12:17and of thriving on a personal, professional level
- 12:20and of energy management, something you speak about a lot?
- 12:24When did your view start to change?
- 12:26This never comes like drops from heaven and then is there,
- 12:30you know, it comes and it comes gradually.
- 12:33So at first it was pushed into work, you know,
- 12:36because my, not only did my father die young,
- 12:39but we were refugees from East Germany and East Germany was split.
- 12:43So all of our family was in the East and my mother and father
- 12:47were the only ones who were in the West, really.
- 12:48You know, then later on my grandfather and his wife joined,
- 12:52you know, but we were pretty much on our own.
- 12:54You know, so that was why I was pushed into it.
- 12:57I then realized, okay, I better enjoy it.
- 13:01My mental sense was, you know, money is my gateway to freedom.
- 13:07You know, I want to basically have the personal freedom to do whatever I want to do.
- 13:12And money is my gateway to this, you know.
- 13:14So in a way, I also saw it as a measure of my mother always used to say
- 13:20what people don't pay for has been worth anything.
- 13:22And she, I think she basically tried to instill this as a mindset into myself
- 13:26to not being abused, you know.
- 13:28So it used in a way, I mean, I'm not meaning physically abused,
- 13:32but basically what people are misusing your friendliness,
- 13:37you know, that you are doing something for them.
- 13:38And then in the end, you know, people also don't value that.
- 13:41So there was very helpful.
- 13:43So those kind of things happened,
- 13:45but the very fact that I realized the energy part came relatively late in the game.
- 13:50It was actually one day that a very good friend of mine,
- 13:54who I worked together with came into my office in the late evening,
- 13:57you know, and told me class, you've been, I was a big fan of time management.
- 14:00You've been following the wrong God, so to say time, time,
- 14:04you've been pushing us into that late evening sessions.
- 14:06And what was it good for, you know, it didn't last, you know.
- 14:10And he was right.
- 14:11And then we went into it and he said, it's all about energy.
- 14:13And he quoted a bunch of folks who had just published a book on that.
- 14:18And he he won the one, the argument.
- 14:21And since then, I've been looking into it and what,
- 14:23what really, I mean, tipped me over after this conversation is that I started to look at
- 14:30high performance athletes, because I always thought that my,
- 14:33that my analogy of success in business was ultra-marathons.
- 14:37You run and run and run, which comes from the whole idea of plow through plow through,
- 14:41you know, you just have to be trained enough, trained more, you know.
- 14:45But then changed into life is not about constantly running,
- 14:50but it's about running and taking time to recharge, running, taking time to recharge.
- 14:55So it's basically, you know, time, time to recharge is productive time.
- 15:00You know, so, and then I looked at high performance athletes and realized
- 15:05why it's the old tenure was going down.
- 15:07You know, while when you look at, when you look at the burnout rate,
- 15:11even in young people is going tremendously up,
- 15:13when you look at some of the family lies like divorce, you know, children that don't talk to them,
- 15:18this was getting more and more and more dysfunctional families.
- 15:22Whereas on the high performance athlete side, you saw almost in all sports,
- 15:26and the one that I love most is tennis, you know, so I saw that they are getting older,
- 15:31then they perform on a very top level, you know, at an age that was not even thinkable before
- 15:36and win, you know, so I was wondering what the hell is going on there.
- 15:39I started to look into this and realized, wow, there's a method behind this.
- 15:44Let's learn this method, because I always thought a leader in the end, you know,
- 15:47you have to have energy, because you have to energize others when you want to lead.
- 15:51You know, so I want to learn from this high performance athletes, you know, that started their
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- 17:19I love it, and I think that it's very important to note, so there's a lot of different themes
- 17:22that you speak about in this book and sort of in your work, and I mean, the title of the book
- 17:27is leading to thrive, but if you're going to lead and help other people's thrive,
- 17:31you have to embody some of these things that allow you to thrive as well because people
- 17:36are going to mirror you. So if you focus on time, other people will focus on time management.
- 17:41And if you are a high-performing individual and a CEO or a founder, and you build this wonderful
- 17:47company, but you don't have relationships with your family and you don't have, you know,
- 17:51your two ex-wives later, but don't worry, you've made a lot of money.
- 17:55It's like, well, people start to look at that, and they're like, well, maybe that's not exactly
- 17:58what I want. So there's some, there's some, there's some lacking.
- 18:01The first thing is you would get that, and on your last day on this planet, I mean, I recently
- 18:07had a conversation with the hair, hair apparent of a very, very successful family,
- 18:16where the father made all the money, multi-billion, multi-billion in one lifetime.
- 18:21And we had a long evening together, and at the end, she said, but you know,
- 18:27Klaus, and I knew him, I knew him relatively well, and she said, you knew Klaus, he wasn't happy,
- 18:34he never was happy, you know, and I agree with that, he never was happy, he was proud of what he's
- 18:42done, and he had all right to be proud, but happy and joy in life, no, he didn't. And then,
- 18:49you know, the last day comes and you can't cause correct anymore.
- 18:53Of course. So that's, you know, to bring it back to what I was, I was mentioning, it's just that
- 18:58when you act a certain way, people mirror you. So if you only focus on time, or if you only
- 19:02focus on like traditional success metrics, that's what other people are going to think is important.
- 19:06So it's very important for a leader that through line is it's very important for a leader to
- 19:10understand how to optimize their life and how to have, how to have the integration between their
- 19:15family and their business and their wealth or whatever, how much money they make. But also,
- 19:21how do you manage your energy? Because if you can manage your energy,
- 19:24then you're going to be able to fulfill all these buckets appropriately. But if you don't,
- 19:28then one of those buckets is going to be severely deficient. And I think it's beautiful,
- 19:32because I don't take a lot of people focused on energy management. A lot of people do focus on
- 19:36time management. Of the high performance athletes all do, they all do, they all do. But it doesn't
- 19:41transcend business as much as it should. It hasn't transcended into business at all. I mean, many
- 19:46of the very good practices, you know, that help you gain energy are today seen as wellness,
- 19:52happiness. Yes, it also leads often to wellness and to more happiness. But in truth, the real
- 20:00measure that you should you have as a business guy is performance. You know, if you are not
- 20:05energized yourself, you cannot energize others. So your performance, I mean, how can you be
- 20:10a leader without energizing others? This is impossible. Unless you have a big stick, you know,
- 20:15and you constantly, you know, chase them around. But then you lose all the talent and it's only
- 20:20a question in midterm, you know, one of the things turns down. So talk to me about sort of the
- 20:26sources of energy that you tap into. So I mean, the simple version is it's body, mind and soul,
- 20:33you know, I split mind into kind of emotional as well as mental, you know. So I mean, body
- 20:40is clear, you know, it's all a lot about movement, you know, so, but what's not so clear in
- 20:46some parts is the role of breathing in this very simple way to control yourself, you know, what's
- 20:53also not so clear to many is how do you get to a good night's sleep, you know, so I mean, those
- 21:00things, those things are not so well understood. Then on the emotional side, I mean, the thing that I
- 21:06always realized people don't realize is when I tell the story about Buddha, you know, how did
- 21:14Buddha manage their his emotion and Buddha is going around India, you know, and comes to a village
- 21:21and one village was really mad with him. He yelled at him and throws crap at him. And after 20
- 21:28minutes, finally, the guy stopped talking because Buddha has not responded and says, well, what do you
- 21:34say? And Buddha says, let me ask you a question, you know, if somebody comes to present your present
- 21:39and you are not taking the present, who then owns the present? Obviously, the person who wants to
- 21:46give the present hasn't, hasn't gotten rid of the present, so the person arounds it. What he really
- 21:51was saying is, whatever your emotions are, you have no way to put these on me. I control the
- 21:58emotions entirely myself, you know, and you can yell at me, you can jump around, accuse me forever,
- 22:05it doesn't affect me. I'm in charge of my own emotions. I'm not accepting that you give me
- 22:10this presence of your negative emotions. So literally, you're fully in control of your own emotions.
- 22:16You have to train a little bit, you know, but that's, I think that's for many people a huge, huge
- 22:22discovery. And then there are some tricks that are compartmentalizations and stuff like that. And
- 22:26then on the my, on the mental side, I mean, the question is focused. I mean, how many people have I
- 22:32seen, you know, who did not see an opportunity where others saw an opportunity or see only obstacles
- 22:38where others see opportunities, you know, so it's really, really about focus. And then on the spiritual
- 22:43side is the alignment with your own values and that you can't even discuss in business circles,
- 22:50you know, I mean, I actually was wondering whether I should put that into my book originally,
- 22:57you know, and that gives you, that gives you an idea. But it is a big chapter in my book,
- 23:01because from my personal experience, I have to say, the spiritual energy is one of the most
- 23:07important energy sources in very, very tough times. I mean, I wish nobody to have tough times,
- 23:14you know, but when the times are very dire, you know, that is one of the most important sources
- 23:20of energy. When you were leading, when you were leading these massive companies, did you speak
- 23:26openly about energy and even spiritual at like, or were you just going to worry about being
- 23:33laughed out of the room if you brought these concepts up? No, as I said, I mean, the the energy
- 23:39management side came relatively late, you know, into my knowledge, I would say probably about
- 23:46when more than 20, 27, 8 or so, roughly 7, 8, 9, 10 or whatever, you know, so something around
- 23:54that nature, you know, so the people who I worked with, I talked about this, you know, and also
- 24:03tried to teach everybody, you know, through some experts, you know, how to best use that.
- 24:10But I mean, I also didn't think of writing a book. I mean, the motivation to write a book,
- 24:17even if you would have asked me two years ago, what you write a book, I would have said no way.
- 24:20And I'm sitting behind my desk way too many hours anyway, but the motivation of writing the book
- 24:25was a more intense work with CEOs as a mentor. And I realized how important this concept and a
- 24:36deeper understanding of it was for them to chart their course in a more successful performance wise
- 24:43way. And one thing that was most interesting to me to see that even in the very young generation,
- 24:50people who do startups, who founders, you know, how fast they are burning out. I mean, super fast,
- 24:56they are burning out. When you see how many people are even in the media, in the 30s, early 30s,
- 25:02you know, who have burned out as a founder, this is insane, you know, and I thought this is not okay.
- 25:08I mean, this is just not okay. I cannot let that pass. And I also don't have the capacity to
- 25:15to do it all. So I said, I have to find a major player. That's why the book about it, you know.
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- 26:14stay dreams, get started today with Taylor Brands. It is, I'm sure, I mean, you've been you've
- 26:19been working and you've been building for so long. I guess you you see a significant difference
- 26:24for me. I'm 34. So I see all the same people burning out, but it just seems like my peers,
- 26:30it seems like almost like a prerequisite for building a successful career, because so many of
- 26:37them are doing it. I know it's not, but it just seems to be the norm, right? And if you look at
- 26:41your entire career, nobody can look at you and say that you didn't basically accomplish what
- 26:46most people would dream to accomplish running running publicly traded Fortune 500 companies is
- 26:51pretty much the the extreme of stress and performance and whatever you want to accomplish. That's
- 26:58that's right up there. But even, you know, coming from you, it's interesting. You're saying that
- 27:02people are still not the way that people work right now is not a healthy way for people to work,
- 27:07even though you come from an environment of running one of the largest companies in the world.
- 27:10Well, but they don't know the interesting thing is many people think, oh, you know, this is great
- 27:15advice, but I don't have the time for it. And and what they don't realize is that many of the
- 27:22energy practices do not need much time. You know, you have to have a conceptual understanding,
- 27:28and I give you the extreme example of this. I mean, if you look at top tennis players, you know,
- 27:34the average top games last about more than two hours, you know, so and they cannot just say,
- 27:41I go, I have 20 minutes of time, I recharge, you know, even though it's a hot day,
- 27:47and I'm playing in Australia, you know, so the tennis association allows you only 20 seconds
- 27:53between the serves, you know, 20 seconds. That's your kind of relaxation time. But what they
- 28:00have learned is how to condition themselves, you know, in such a way that in these 20 seconds,
- 28:06they can fully recharge, fully recharge. I mean, not fully, but maximum recharge. And there are
- 28:13techniques around how you do that. And and what you see it today, when you watch a tennis game,
- 28:18they all have their routines. And when they get the new balls, they do something with it,
- 28:22something art. You know, everybody has an art strange routine. They squeeze it, take three balls,
- 28:26squeeze it, throw two away, get another one. Why do they do that? You know, they have a movie going
- 28:31through their hat, you know, that completely recharges them. This is a learned routine. And these
- 28:36are things that pretty much all of the kind of top notch pros, you know, used today, you know,
- 28:44including all so special forces. I mean, everybody uses that, you know, breathing plays a big
- 28:50important role. Yes, you have to have physical fitness. Yes, no doubt, helps, you know. But I think
- 28:56the discovery of saying, if I reach recharge is part of performance, you know, I mean, downtime
- 29:02is productive time. But it doesn't mean that you have to have equal downtime to the productive time.
- 29:07That's not that's not necessary. You have to you can develop micro habits, you know, a good friend
- 29:13of mine, he works in Hong Kong at a high rise, you know, his micro routine is he gives his cell phone
- 29:19to his assistant, you know, and then drives down on the elevator, you know, takes a few minutes,
- 29:26walk around the block, fresh air goes up again, you know. And and if somebody calls him, his assistant
- 29:32is right there and says, wait a second, he will come back in the next 10 minutes, I call you back.
- 29:37You know, that's easy, easy, and everybody can do that, you know, and there's a ton of stuff
- 29:43like that that I also want to put out and put into the books, very practical things, you know,
- 29:48to recharge. I think that's important to I think that even those small things can really help
- 29:52somebody reframe the worst thing you can do is just sit with your thoughts and stress for hours
- 29:59on end and now because we're virtual, I mean, myself included, we don't even leave the house
- 30:04if we don't force ourselves to leave the house. So you just end up sitting with your own thoughts.
- 30:10You you have a really good story in the book about the miracle on the Hudson and why this illustrates it.
- 30:15Explain to me why this explain you can walk through the story, but explain why it sort of ties back
- 30:20to this concept. Well, this now comes to the dynamics of energy and what happened,
- 30:26Sadi Salivan is the captain, you know, it's a it's a nice day and cold like like today it's cold,
- 30:34it's sunny, it's blue sky and they are going down south, you know, and they are talking to each
- 30:39other, the copilot and him and then a flock of geese. They hit a flock of geese while they are
- 30:45ascending, you know, and and first one engine goes off and the other engine goes off and those who
- 30:53know, no New York, he comes from LaGuardia, he turns to a left is it's where the the great the
- 30:59George Washington, which is over the George Washington, which both ends and goes off. They have
- 31:03sitting out port right there, he thinks he can get there, you know, but then he realizes it won't
- 31:08get him there, you know, and then he basically turns left and goes and lands in the Hudson, you know.
- 31:15So the likelihood of landing a plane safely on water is close to zero, you know. So the guys kind
- 31:21of crazy, you know, but when you when you see what's been happening as he goes obviously from
- 31:27he's relaxed, he is in basically almost like a relaxation, it's a beautiful day, they're going home,
- 31:32we had a great time in New York, you know, so his colleague is a good friend, blah, blah, blah, they
- 31:37are talking to each other about what's happening in New York, bomb these geese come on, he goes from
- 31:41basically relaxation, you know, and and and to perform a performance zone to survival zone,
- 31:48survival zone, you know, what happens in survival zone, you know, Adrenaline, this beautiful thing
- 31:54of Adrenaline kicks in, you know, hormones, and Adrenaline is extremely good, it makes us super
- 32:00human, you know, so your focus, your focus shifts, you know, all other body functions get reduced,
- 32:06you're completely focused on the task, you know, and you are literally super human, but then if you
- 32:11stay in that too long, you burn out, boom, you know, so, but what he does, he then switches back
- 32:17to performance zone, you know, he basically, you can see it in the in the transcript, you know,
- 32:23he first asks the tower, you know, can I land there in New Jersey, they give him permission to land,
- 32:29then he turns around, doesn't even talk to the tower anymore, picks up the microphone and says,
- 32:35you know, prepare for impact to the cabin, you know, and then he lands, you know, so how can
- 32:41somebody do this, you know, he did it purely in performance zone, you know, and why, why was he
- 32:47able to go with two engines off, you know, learning on ads and to go back into performance zone,
- 32:52because he has trained as an assimilator thousands of times, not only has he trained it in his
- 32:57training, but he was a trainer from the airline, you know, so obviously, obviously experience helps,
- 33:04you know, if you can move into into into a pattern, where you say, I know what's going on here,
- 33:11I know how to handle this, and now we're going to land that plane. So he managed to go back
- 33:17between this patterns, you know, extremely well, extremely well. Thank you, Netsweed for
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- 34:42If you're talking to an entrepreneur or somebody's earlier on in their career,
- 34:47what would be the advice to manage these different energy zones for sort of peak performance?
- 34:52Well, the first one is relaxation time is productive time. Don't go into the fog and think
- 35:00of an ultramarathon where you push and push and push and eventually and forget to recharge.
- 35:05Eventually you hit the wall and that's it. No, no. Find a way how you can get into your performance
- 35:11zone and when you feel you know what, do some recharging. Again, recharging can be very short,
- 35:17like my friend in Hong Kong, get down on the elevator, go out, you know, listen to a piece of music,
- 35:23you know, or whatever, whatever you like that gives you energy. You know, there's thousands of
- 35:27things, listen to a painting, you know, or whatever, or call a friend for four, four, five minutes,
- 35:33you know, write a nice email or whatever, whatever gives you energy and then get back in it.
- 35:38Just get back in it or close your eyes to a breathing exercise, you know, boom, you know,
- 35:42gets you, gets you back, gets you back into it. That's one thing. Secondly, you know, whenever you
- 35:47feel you're going from performance zone into survival zone, you know, understand that that has a
- 35:54positive one because you're now superhuman, it has also a positive one because you're expanding
- 36:00your comfort zone. So it's good if you do that once in a while, but the moment this goes on is
- 36:05like you're on a clock, you know, now you have to make sure that you're relatively quickly going
- 36:11back to your performance zone. So in reality, you have to find a way how you how how you frame the
- 36:19situation differently, you know, so that you are able to go back into your performance zone,
- 36:24right? So take an action that gets you out of the survival zone into your performance zone or
- 36:31train this in a controlled environment, you know, like Saudi has done, he's been in a simulator
- 36:36in a controlled environment on smaller, I mean, I've done restructurings many, many times,
- 36:41when we started with small restructurings, and they got big and then they got very big and I
- 36:44got jagged gigantic big, you know, but if I had done the gigantic big one, I probably would have
- 36:50died, you know, so but as I knew going into it, I had a pattern recognition and said, oh, this
- 36:56is happening, oh, this is happening. So, you know, you know, how to handle it, you know, you
- 37:01mentioned something. So I want to move on to I want to move on to some of the restructurings and
- 37:06sort of some transformation, the leadership stories that you've been a part of, because I think
- 37:10that, I mean, you have some, you have some incredible stories, you can pick which ones, I mean,
- 37:14you think are most relevant to the audience, but one that in particular I found interesting was the,
- 37:21I mean, you managed the Siemens X-ray division turnaround, you managed Alkoa from 2008, 2009,
- 37:29there was some crises that you dealt with. So talk to me about, I mean, now we understand
- 37:33sort of the playbook for what is optimal leadership, what is optimal,
- 37:38what is optimal leadership for yourself, for your team, for your company, now, you've applied
- 37:42this very successfully. So let's talk about how a leader operating in the right mind actually
- 37:47sort of executes. Well, I mean, I think it brings us to the pinnacle that connects us because on
- 37:54the end of the side, the one thing we didn't talk about was purpose, you know, we haven't talked
- 37:58about purpose and purpose is what what a laser does to light, you know, when light is normally
- 38:05as diffuse, you know, you put it into laser, it brings it into a beam that can literally go
- 38:12through any material, destroy anything, you know, and that's what purpose does to energy, the
- 38:16energy is diffuse, you have it, but the moment you say, this is my purpose, or these are my
- 38:21purposes, you suddenly have something where the energy goes into tune, you know, so this is
- 38:28important. Now, purpose on the business side, if you want to translate your own purpose or the
- 38:35purpose of the business into the people who work for you, we would need a vision, you know,
- 38:43we need a vision that makes them understand, I'm doing something that has a higher value than
- 38:49just putting together extreme machines, you know, or angiography machines, you know, and the
- 38:55problem there was, at Siemens, it was the longest standing division and medical, super successful,
- 39:00super, super, it was a birthplace of Siemens medical, but it has kind of been put into the shadow by
- 39:07the more modern ones like ultrasound, computer tomography, magnetic resonance, and it was also not
- 39:13making money. So many people had tried to turn it around and then they gave it to me kind of,
- 39:19another guy trying it out, you know, and I asked them to be able to go to hospitals to see how
- 39:27the equipment is used and that was, I was the moment when my aha moment, because I realized when
- 39:33I saw the patient and talked to the doctor, is that we had something that nobody else had, we
- 39:37actually could use the x-ray for not just the diagnosis, but also for the intervention for the
- 39:43cure, and you may remember you're too young, probably too young, but many other might remember,
- 39:48there was a time when surgery was the thing, these days fortunately you can do a lot,
- 39:52you could call it minimally invasive, you know, so we're literally not even in the teacher,
- 39:56it's needed for this, and that needs image guidance in most cases, you know, so you need an
- 40:00extra machine to see where is this thing in your body that they are pushing through, you know,
- 40:06so I had this idea, then I invited a young woman to our all-hands meeting who I knew
- 40:14whose life was saved, you know, by exactly that, the right diagnosis with our equipment and then
- 40:21also treatment, and didn't tell anybody, she told her story, and I gave her in the medical
- 40:26environment, you have stringent regulation, so you have to document who worked on what
- 40:32machines, so I gave her the list of all people who had worked on the machines that she was diagnosed
- 40:37and treated with, she read out this, this names, and brought the people on stage,
- 40:42wow, I mean these are people in the northern part of Bavaria, who cannot easily be moved,
- 40:46you know, they've seen a lot in their lives, you know, but on that day there were a lot of people
- 40:51with tears in their eyes, you know, so now that, and that, I mean in the evening, the head of the
- 40:57labor union, busy, told me, Klaus, you brought our soul back, you know, so because before they
- 41:02saw themselves as a restructuring case, and I completely forgotten, completely forgotten what great
- 41:07things they have been doing, and when I mean, when I told some of the people on the shop floor,
- 41:12you know, who are late with their equipment, I said, do you understand that this equipment goes
- 41:17to the US, you know, to that little village, the village has just taken the old machine out,
- 41:22and now in the radius of about 100 miles, you know, people cannot be diagnosed, are you aware that
- 41:28this is what's happening because we cannot get this machine shipped on time, you know, and the
- 41:33moment people understand this, this is one thing, but the moment they see a patient and realize
- 41:38this could be me, this could be my mother, this could be my sister, you know, that makes all the
- 41:43difference, I mean, so from that on motivational, I don't think we had an issue and business wise,
- 41:48so we did the right things. I just want to take a quick break and thank the HubSpot podcast
- 41:53network for supporting success story for the past two years. Now the HubSpot podcast network has
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- 42:40and this is what ended up helping with the turnaround of the whole division. That was major,
- 42:44major for the turnaround, major. I wonder, I wonder how many people listening to this who are working
- 42:50in jobs understand the purpose of the company that they're working for. Yes, they're my upbringing
- 42:59and partially too with two societies has helped me being sensitive to this because it was
- 43:05kind of marks, to criticize capitalism and set the industrialization has really led to a
- 43:12lack of understanding of for the worker what the work is good for. The worker has become an
- 43:20exchangeable, completely exchangeable good and we have to bring meaning to them back and I
- 43:25strongly believe that and I think it's doable in almost all jobs. We did the same thing in Al-Qua
- 43:30with inviting an astronaut and having an astronaut talk to the employees. Is this how you manage the
- 43:38crisis in July 2008? No, 2008, this was not a question of our motivation. Everybody was
- 43:45motivated, big time motivated. This was more a question of the world is coming to an end and we
- 43:51had the price of metal drop to one third drop to in less than six months. So let's say you have
- 43:58a hundred dollars and suddenly the good that you're producing only gets sold for thirty dollars
- 44:03there's no way you know you can adjust to this just none and that was brilliant, brilliant response
- 44:11from the whole organization, but the organization was hugely motivated. I was lucky to have the
- 44:16very very, but you still, but they still had to understand like every single director, every single
- 44:21executive thought to understand the purpose that you were trying to achieve because if not,
- 44:25I mean nothing is keeping them there. They can still go somewhere else and they can jump
- 44:29ship, but they feel like this is not going in the right direction. That is correct. That's correct.
- 44:33The more people you can have, you will never be able to get everybody to passion. Some people
- 44:41are cynics, some people just say, hey, I don't give a damn, I'm just in it for the money, fine,
- 44:46you know, and some of it, yeah, whatever, you know, but that's fine, you know, but the more people
- 44:54you can make understood why they are doing what they are doing and what the impact of that is,
- 45:00the better off you are. I'm curious because obviously this is important to you because it's been
- 45:04impactful in your life. How did you, I mean you had a good relationship with Kissinger,
- 45:11what was his purpose and how did he align that with what your personal goals were because I find
- 45:17that very fascinating as well? Well, I mean Henry would probably be much better suited if he
- 45:24were still alive to say that. I think how I perceived him, he had a very amazing life born in
- 45:31Germany and fled to the US, you know, very humbling experience here in New York, you know,
- 45:39and then when as a universe, he defined himself as a history professor. He never defined
- 45:45himself, I think, as a politician that came probably a little later, but even when his late life,
- 45:51I think his main, main deficit definition was, I'm a history professor and there's this old saying,
- 45:59history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes, you know, and I think he believed him and he believed in
- 46:05the deeper the understanding you have on historic mechanisms, the better off you are and seeing
- 46:13things around the corner and one of my matters for leaders is I don't want, I don't measure the
- 46:18leader of explaining to me what they've done in the past and why certain things work and why they
- 46:23didn't. I look at a leader of somebody who looks around the corner who can basically tell me,
- 46:28this is most likely what can happen, you know, give me a range of good and bad and say these are
- 46:34the counter-action, or this is how we're going to use it. And Henry, I think saw himself like that,
- 46:38you know, and how can this be used in a way to make the US strong or to be honest, you know,
- 46:47that that was always, I think, his perspective. I think that, I mean, if I look at your work too,
- 46:51you've obviously, I think that, first of all, I agree, I think that it's smart to study the past
- 46:56and to look for patterns and I think that you don't always have to reinvent the wheel,
- 46:59it's have the reason why, I mean, this podcast is trying to tap into the wisdom, not that far
- 47:06in the past, but tap into wisdom, a people that have sort of figured it out. So the listeners don't
- 47:09have to reinvent the wheel and figure things out from scratch, right? That's really the goal of
- 47:13this. And I think that's the goal of his work. And that's what you sort of adopted as well. Because I
- 47:17see, I see again, a pattern like you reference Sun Su, you reference a Klaus Whitt. So you reference
- 47:25historical works that impact how you think and how you strategize. So now that makes a ton of
- 47:31sense. So talk to me about even some of this sort of strategic historical wisdom that you speak
- 47:36about. Well, I mean, in the book, the biggest part, the biggest section on historic wisdom is the
- 47:48part on purpose, because I've always struggled with this concept of purpose. And I thought this is
- 47:55a good thing that I use the time for writing a book to figure it out for myself to sort it out.
- 48:01And then I decided that the best thing is to make this process transparent for the reader,
- 48:08because my assumption was that many are struggling in the same way or have been struggling in the
- 48:12same way that I have. Yet it is a concept that has been relevant for mankind almost as long as
- 48:20mankind exists. That's kind of fascinating. You know, so how is it that there is a concept that
- 48:27is so important? And still, you know, it is when I'm talking about it much. So that's why I call it
- 48:36the right through time and space when you go through the chapter and it starts with fundamental
- 48:42ancient religions and goes into the Greeks as well as the Roman Romans, you know, looks at
- 48:48looks at stoics, you know, looks at also as into Buddhism, you know, and looks into more modern
- 48:56thinkers, you know, like Deepak Chopra was his combination of science and the Eastern philosophy as
- 49:03well as Akartoller, you know, and who I'm a big fan of, you know, a really big fan of, you know,
- 49:10unfortunately, I've never met him. He's German also, but never met him. So I think he's
- 49:16more popular here than he is in Germany. But anyway, so, so, so and and I provide and then I also
- 49:22looked at what what have we learned from people who have died, you know, and in the last last days,
- 49:28you know, and and and and also what have we learned from the research around longevity. And also,
- 49:34I try to provide this so that people can make up their own mind and say, what is it that I care
- 49:41for? You know, because there are some philosophies that say, you want to be a good citizen, you want to
- 49:46do good for, you know, your community, you know, other spaces, you come to say, it's your journey
- 49:53of self-discovery, you know, it's not an endpoint, it's a journey, you know, so there's a lot of ways
- 49:59and you I think in the end should go on this journey yourself and figure out what is it that
- 50:05gives you joy and progress. If you're going to look at sort of your death, your your purpose,
- 50:12as it's evolved, as you've gotten more wise and you've and you've lived more and learned more,
- 50:17how is your how is your purpose changed over your life? Well, first of all, I don't think it's
- 50:22I think I have more than one purpose, you know, and because I think I have more than one rule,
- 50:29you know, I'm a husband, I'm a father, you know, and now even I have grandchildren, you know,
- 50:36so and I have certain purposes in that, that role and then today and I have my own businesses,
- 50:43you know, and also also mentoring CEOs, you know, so in each one, I follow a different, different
- 50:51purpose. I think the overarching thing is, I mean, I try to give give people learnings that
- 50:59hopefully make them happier and more successful life and that they don't have to make all the
- 51:06mistakes that I've made, you know, so so so I never learned learned from that, you know, I think
- 51:13that it's important that that purpose can evolve over time. I think that that and also purpose
- 51:18doesn't have to be just one thing at a time. I think that's very wise because I think that you're
- 51:21right, everyone is trying to figure out what they're put on this earth to do and it's it's confusing
- 51:27and it's difficult. You mentioned another thing too, which I want to understand the similarities
- 51:33and the differences. So you mentioned, you speak about values in the context of performance,
- 51:39but values to me sound very similar or they're adjacent to purpose. So how would you consider or how
- 51:47would you define values in purpose in terms of needing them to impact your performance as an
- 51:57individual? Can you perform without them or do you need to figure those first?
- 52:02Well, first of all, the word values doesn't say positive or negative values, but it's mostly
- 52:10meant as positive values, you know, so that's also how I use it in the book. There are people who
- 52:18say values are for the faint ones, you know, power is just about power and what really matters is
- 52:26that I get more power, you know, and they might see most of the things in life as a zero-sum game,
- 52:36you know, where I see it as, hey, it's about broadening, broadening the pie, and if we work together,
- 52:43we can all get a bigger piece than working against each other, you know, but that's not necessarily
- 52:49the common thought for everybody, I think you can't assume that, you know. So purpose is really
- 52:58something that either you want to directly go in that direction or you want to achieve, you know,
- 53:05so that does not necessarily mean that it is a positive thing, you know. So values is about what
- 53:11does that, if you achieve that, what does that stand for, you know. So if you, let's talk about
- 53:19wonderful Austrian fellow who happened to cause the world a lot of trouble, you know, who failed
- 53:27that his philosophy was a philosophy that he wanted to bring as a gift to the whole world and
- 53:33wanted to basically own it and cause a second world war because of that, you know. So his purpose
- 53:41was very clear, you know, he wanted domination, you know, for this, you know, but values wise,
- 53:47I think most people would agree with me that that was not, that was not typically what we would
- 53:52consider as the right values, you know. No, and values just broader, you know, as broader than that,
- 54:00broader than that. Purpose is about most cases about outcome or going into direction of outcomes,
- 54:05you know. And then the values is whether or not you're doing in the in the right way,
- 54:11yeah, whether in the moral way, in the right way, or it's just something when you achieve it,
- 54:15that makes the world a better place, you know. So, do you can have as a business leader,
- 54:20you can have a high performer that has a purpose, but their values do not align.
- 54:26And in fact, you have that more than you think. I just want to take a second and thank
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- 55:45some great promotions for listeners of success story. That is freshbooks.com slash pricing dash
- 55:51offer. What do you do with that person? I have believed and seen it many times that if you do not
- 55:58eliminate that person from your firm as quickly as possible, you know, you have a cancer.
- 56:04You have a cancer and you will not be able to have an environment for high performer. High
- 56:11performers for a long time. So it works for if somebody just optimizes short-term performance,
- 56:17it works. That's not an issue. Short-term can even be a few years. And if it's about a
- 56:22repetitive business, if it's some business where you don't need intelligence and you don't need
- 56:26people, you can do it as long as you want. So it's kind of comes close to slavery, modern
- 56:31version of slavery. But if you want, if you are in a business where the most of the businesses
- 56:38these days, I mean, I would say 80% of the wisdom's worldwide need the skills of the individuals as
- 56:44the most important competitive advantage, because the world is so much changing and people
- 56:48have to immediately adopt, you know, and this is the ingenuity of humankind that shows us that.
- 56:54So there you have to be attractive for top-notch performers and you have to be able to make them
- 56:58work together. So people who are just in it for themselves and screw over others or kiss up and
- 57:05kick down, that's not what you want. How, I mean, when you obviously, when you're when you're
- 57:10just starting out, it's a little bit easier to figure out if these people have these values,
- 57:16systems that don't align. But talk to somebody who's running a large organization, because there's
- 57:21people in this in this audience who do run large businesses. And I'm sure they know they have
- 57:27a cancer in their company, but it's very hard to find out where it is. When you scale to a certain
- 57:32point, what would be your strategy? When you have thousands of employees? What's the frame?
- 57:37I think that your premise might not be right. And I think that a good leader very often has
- 57:43enough indicators to figure out that that person is not really somebody who works with the team,
- 57:50but it's rather, as I said, kissing up and kicking down, you know, I think the harder thing for
- 57:56most leaders is if this is a top-notch performer, and that performance matters for their performance
- 58:02as a leader, to then say, I'm going to kick that person out, because very often this is the
- 58:06biggest performer. And that makes your bonus, you know, a part of your bonus. The biggest issue is,
- 58:12do I take the leap of faith and kick that person out, even though I know I cannot immediately replace
- 58:18the person with an individual that has the same performance? I've seen that being the most
- 58:23problematic thing, you know. But I also address the first one, how do we find out, you know, as a
- 58:29good leader, you should have your ear on the ground and see very carefully watch. You know, there
- 58:35are methods like Net Promoter Score that you can use as employee engagement, but even there I've
- 58:40seen that leaders like this have a mechanism, you know, to challenge the employees to say it
- 58:48mildly so that the Net Promoter Score looks well. But there are ways. I think for a decent
- 58:55experienced leader, it's not difficult. They sometimes probably have a good self-defense mechanism
- 59:02to feel that they are not sure, and therefore they can't take action, you know, maybe out of their
- 59:08own self-defense to continue to have that acidic performer still there. What would be, I mean,
- 59:14you've ran companies that are in the multi-billions of dollars of revenue. What would be one piece of
- 59:20advice that is applicable when you're running a company that size, that is still applicable to
- 59:27when you're just starting out? There's a ton of those things, you know, but the one thing, let me
- 59:33focus on one that's often probably forgotten or misunderstood. In the end, also, it's not only
- 59:40the strategy that's important. The strategy is very important, but you also have to have the skills
- 59:45of drilling down. And I think this combination of, on the one hand, being able to see where the
- 59:52outside world going and what tendencies are there, what could work, what could not work, looking
- 59:57around the corner, that's extremely important. That is, at the same time, extremely important,
- 1:00:03to also, if necessary, drill down to the very bottom level, go down to what is really going on
- 1:00:09there. Because if you only stay on this top level, you might find yourself in an ivory tower
- 1:00:14isolated and non-understanding that you think that that's the ship that you run and reality,
- 1:00:19and you think is a pretty nice cruiser, and in reality, the machine looks pretty ugly and they
- 1:00:24are cranking the engine and the oil is already spilling. And you did that, even, or any other
- 1:00:30company. Always done that. That's my, that has to be my second nature. I think, you know, and also,
- 1:00:37because I don't think you have to be an expert in this, you know, I think what people,
- 1:00:43that's another thing that you learn is, it's not the answers that lead you. It's the questions
- 1:00:48that you ask. How many times, I mean, people, you can learn a lot through questions, so don't be shy,
- 1:00:54if you, I mean, one of the, the, the, the red lights that go on for me is if somebody tells me,
- 1:01:01after I've asked three times, Clouds, this is complicated and we won't have the time. And I say,
- 1:01:05look, wait a second, I have all the time, I just want to understand what's the issue here, you know,
- 1:01:11then the person goes in, starts to explain to me, and I still can't understand it. After the third
- 1:01:15time, I say, look, do you realize that you are talking mumble, jumble to me and language that I
- 1:01:20don't understand? And I don't understand it, you know, so then the person says, yeah, you know,
- 1:01:25it's complicated, that we were there before. It's complicated, right? So, so, so, and then it comes
- 1:01:31to the point where I say, look, just to make it crystal clear, who has a problem with this
- 1:01:35conversation? You know, me who do not understand that what you're saying, or you who cannot explain it
- 1:01:42to me, and to be very clear, you know, I am your boss. So, you have the problem, you know, I think
- 1:01:49it also show, I was going to say, I think it also shows their level of competence, if they can,
- 1:01:53if they can find a way to simplify it. To be honest, you know, I have the, the privilege to also be
- 1:01:58an honorary senator, they call it, the Nobel laureates meeting in Lindo. And when you talk to
- 1:02:03these individuals, highly accomplished and feels that I have foggy side years, but when you ask them,
- 1:02:09what exactly are you doing? Almost all of them can explain it to you in a language that you say,
- 1:02:15get it, I get it, I might not get all the details, but I get it. Amazing. I want to, I want to just
- 1:02:23give a shout out. So, the book leading to thrive, it's available everywhere you want to get book.
- 1:02:27So, Amazon and, and all the, all the regular bookstores. I have a couple just rapid fire to close
- 1:02:33it up, but before we finish this out, where else do people connect with you? Where, where do you,
- 1:02:38where are you most available on social or website, all of that? There's a website leading to thrive,
- 1:02:45and that is probably the easiest way you can, there's a way to connect, to connect with me.
- 1:02:51The, the biggest, yes, so that's the way you should, you should, you should leave a message there
- 1:02:56and, and say, hey, you know, this, this is what I, what I want, you know, yes, I know, I'll put
- 1:03:02that all in the, I'll put that all in the show notes as well. Do you have any socials that you
- 1:03:06still keep writing or is it the one that I, the one that I really do myself is linked in, you know,
- 1:03:12and the others, because I, I mean, it's, it's a professional environment. I mean, I'm not talking to
- 1:03:16the general audience, I'm talking to people who are leaders, I want to be leaders, you want to
- 1:03:20learn about leadership, you know, so LinkedIn is the right, is the right medium for that.
- 1:03:25Just to close this out. First of all, I just want to say thank you for coming on, and I appreciate
- 1:03:29your time. Was there anything that, you think is an important piece of wisdom to leave the audience
- 1:03:36with a question that I, maybe I didn't ask you or something that we didn't go into?
- 1:03:40No, I don't think so. I think we, we touched most of the points and I mean, I would just say,
- 1:03:45take a look, you know, try some of the things out, I try to keep it as practically as possible,
- 1:03:51you know, also language wise, you know, I mean, I'm a practitioner, I speak to a practitioner,
- 1:03:57so it's not that I can't speak to you radically, but I don't think it's interesting to be honest,
- 1:04:02you know, so I hope, I hope it's enjoyable, it's enjoyable. No, I think we touched on most of the
- 1:04:08try it out. I mean, in the end, you know, there's a number of things, not everything works for
- 1:04:12everyone, you know, so take a step, you know, and as it has, you know, the first step is always
- 1:04:21the most difficult, but in this case, always the most rewarding, you know, I think that's great.
- 1:04:26I mean, listen, the lessons that you've learned over your career, you don't want somebody to feel
- 1:04:31like they're drinking from the fire hose, trying to take in ex years of experience and wisdom
- 1:04:37and applying it into their startup tomorrow, but if they take one idea and they run with it,
- 1:04:41and it improves their lives by a measurable amount, that's a, that's a win, and then you take the
- 1:04:46next one. Exactly, exactly, exactly. The last question I always like to ask, because again,
- 1:04:51you've had a great career, multiple seasons of your life and of what you've built.
- 1:04:57If you could give one last lesson to not even your younger self, but say you wanted to impart
- 1:05:04some words of wisdom with your children, what would be some wisdom that you would want to leave
- 1:05:09them with? Spend some time with yourself to learn who you are and who you want to be,
- 1:05:16because that's the most difficult thing. Most people very often get carried along, you know,
- 1:05:22and the path of life brings them somewhere, and then in late point in time they realize that
- 1:05:30that was not really what they wanted, and don't have fear, you know, don't be fearful, you know,
- 1:05:41my definition of fear is false expectation that appears real, false expectation appearing real,
- 1:05:47you know, and that's very often the case, you know, and have the courage, have the courage,
- 1:05:52and follow the path of love it, change it or leave it, you know, and then I think the
- 1:06:02scenarios much more likely that you will have a happy, happy, joyful life.