Peter Diamandis at the Make BIG Happen Summit
Why Your Mindset is the Biggest Asset You Have in a Changing World
Remember when the three-day or four-day work week was trending? Sometimes it feels like I’ve perfected the ten-day work week, and I’m sure many of you feel the same. The CEO’s job has only become more complicated in the past few years. No one ever said being a CEO would be easy, that’s for sure.
I like to say that a CEO has five things they’re responsible for: Vision, Cash, People, Relationships, and Learning. But it can be overwhelming balancing these elements and being there for your team in a time of constant change.
There is so much out of our control right now as executives—new technology, a volatile macroeconomic picture, and a fragile supply chain are just three major issues that are keeping me up at night.
At the latest Make BIG Happen Summit in Miami, we invited serial entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author, and business leader Peter Diamandis, co-host of the innovation podcast Moonshots, to give his take on how to prepare for a world that’s constantly changing.
Read on for our key takeaways from this fascinating session.
The 5 mindsets that set CEOs up for success in a changing world
When you look at some of the greatest leaders of all time—Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Gloria Steinem, Steve Jobs—ask yourself: What made them an amazing leader?
“It was their mindset that set them apart,” answers Diamandis. “Take away everything else and you know they’d rebuild their success because mindset is the most important thing you can have as a leader.”
Diamandis encourages every CEO to evaluate their own mindset and where it comes from. Everything from upbringing to friendships, schooling, and religion shapes your leadership approach. If you’re looking to grow, Diamandis breaks down the five approaches that he’s seen leaders time and time again be successful with:
1. A purpose-driven mindset motivates you to be the best
Mark Twain once said, “The most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.”
Purpose is what’s behind every action. What wakes you up in the morning? What inspires you? What problems stick in your brain that you just have to solve? “I was so lucky to grow up in the ‘60s,” says Diamandis, whose work is at the forefront of private space exploration. “The Apollo space program and Star Trek really inspired me and gave me a purpose.”
The thing about purpose is it’s not something you can think your way into. “Purpose is in your heart. Doing anything big and bold is hard work. It’s the emotional element that’s going to drive you when you hit a wall at 2 AM so that you keep going,” he says.
2. An exponential mindset keeps you thinking bigger
An exponential mindset “is the notion that today any of us can create something that could impact the lives of a billion people,” says Diamandis. “It’s an extraordinary thing to have that level of connectivity with the planet.”
Think of it in terms of distance. If you take 30 linear steps, all you’ve done is 30 meters. But if you take 30 exponential steps, you’ve gone 26 times around the planet.
The way to do this is by paying attention to your craziest, wildest ideas. “What was a crazy idea yesterday becomes a breakthrough today,” says Diamandis. “You need to entertain these ideas and get them into circulation in your organization.”
One way to do this is by using AI to help you identify these 10x opportunities. You can ask it to say, ‘If Elon Musk was running my company, what would he do?’
Says Diamandis, “The point is to get these ideas that you would never have thought of before, so you can engage with them as a team and determine which ones could be worth pursuing.”
3. A curiosity mindset inspires you to try something new
If you can only pick one mindset to work on, it’s this one. “As a parent, my job is to help support my kids in finding their purpose. And they do that through curiosity,” says Diamandis. “I want to give them as many different experiences as possible so they can find something that clicks for them. Not to push them, but to give them inspiration.”
Curiosity, says Diamandis, is the inner desire to go deeper. “It’s more important to ask great questions than to know everything,” he says. “And in this AI-driven world, you can indulge your curiosity at any time. I use AI to have conversations that follow my curiosity about any subject. I want to know about everything. This self-motivated learning is something every CEO should make time for.”
4. An abundance mindset reminds you that there’s always room for more
This is the idea that nothing is truly scarce. And it’s the exact opposite of how most companies run.
“A scarcity business model is all about having a set amount of assets and metering them out a little bit at a time at a high price,” explains Diamandis. “But if you flip that, with technology as the force that takes whatever was scarce and makes it abundant, it changes everything.”
Take, for example, energy. Whalers used to go out on dangerous, long sea voyages to use whale oil to light our nights. Now, we can use solar energy—an abundant resource that’s always available somewhere on earth at any given time—to power electricity.
Scarcity mindset is the predominant mindset, even as our society has become better at almost every measure. “Extreme poverty is down. Our global literacy rate has exploded. Malnutrition deaths have been cut in half. Energy costs have plummeted. We’re more connected than ever before. You have access to Einstein-level intelligence in your pocket. You can converse over video with anyone on the planet. These are all things your ancestors, even your grandparents, would not be able to understand. And we totally take it for granted,” says Diamandis.
5. A longevity mindset helps you keep the bigger picture in mind
“If I asked you today how long you’ll live, you probably have a number in your mind,” says Diamandis. “But I think it’s time to think bigger, much bigger.”
Diamandis believes that AI will unlock revolutionary advances in health and longevity, compressing a hundred years of progress into the next five to ten years. “I want you to think about your life and what you would do with an extra twenty years. You could spend more time with your kids. Vacation more. Start another company.”
Instead of thinking about your lifespan as fixed, give yourself more time to dream bigger.
A coach can help you shift your mindset
Mindset may be the biggest asset that you have to work with—but it can also be one of the most difficult things to actually change.
A coach challenges you by asking the questions that get to the heart of your organizational or personal issues. They’re not going to tell you what to do or use the latest formulas. They’re going to tailor the conversation to what you need to move forward.
If you’ve been wondering why your business isn’t growing the way you’d hoped, or you’re prepping for a big event, like a financing round or an exit, our experienced coaches have been in your shoes before. Reach out to one of our coaches today >
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