Stop making excuses. Create your own reality: Gary Whitehill
TEDxBayArea
December 11, 2013
Gary is a relentless entrepreneur and driven philanthropist with a footprint on four continents; broad experience spanning entrepreneurship, M&A, business turnarounds, and Fortune 50 board directorships. Seasoned in structuring the macro-level dynamics of entrepreneurial ecosystems, Gary has been featured in industry-leading publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Inc. and the New York Times
David Brooks on the Road to Character
iqsquared
Royal Geographical Society on 26th May 2015.
His book ‘The Social Animal’, a study of the unconscious mind and the triggers that drive human behaviour … David Cameron instructed all the members of his Cabinet to read it.
his latest book, ‘The Road to Character’. Brooks argued that today’s ‘Big Me’ culture is making us increasingly self-preoccupied: we live in a world where we’re taught to be assertive, to master skills, to broadcast our brand, to get likes, to get followers. But amidst all the noise of self-promotion, Brooks claimed that we’ve lost sight of an important and counterintuitive truth: that in order to fulfil ourselves we need to learn how to forget ourselves.
To make his case, Brooks distinguished two sorts of virtues: resumé virtues and eulogy virtues. Resumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace: wealth, fame, status and a great career. Eulogy virtues are the things people will say about you at your funeral: that you were honest, loving, and steadfast. Most of us would say that eulogy virtues are more important, but it’s the resumé virtues we tend to think about the most.
By interweaving politics, spirituality and psychology, and citing examples from some of history’s greatest thinkers and leaders – St. Augustine, Dwight Eisenhower and Samuel Johnson – Brooks showed that by cultivating the eulogy virtues we can create depth of character and restore balance to our lives.
<20:55 Suffering gives you empathy
49:20 they had looked at the horrors of WWII and they just wanted to turn the page
1:11:07 What’s the event that made you who you are today?
No-one ever said “Well, I took this amazing vacation in Orlando”
They usually mention a period of struggle.
Then, we shoot for happiness but we are formed by suffering and struggle.
Within each of us are two selves, suggests David Brooks in this meditative short talk: the self who craves success, who builds a résumé, and the self who seeks connection, community, love — the values that make for a great eulogy. (Joseph Soloveitchik has called these selves “Adam I” and “Adam II.”) Brooks asks: Can we balance these two selves?
It measures the values of individuals.
It includes 56 single-value items, representing 10 distinct motivational value constructs.
Respondents rate the importance of each value item as “a guiding principle of my life”, on a 9-point scale from 7 (“of supreme importance”) to -1 (“opposed to my values”)
On the first axis, Self-transcendence values (Universalism and Benevolence, i.e., values emphasising acceptance of others as equals and concern for their welfare) are opposed to Self-Enhancement values (Achivement and Power, i.e., values emphasising the pursuit of one’s own relative success and dominance over others).
A second axis opposes Conservation values (Conformity, Tradition and Security, i.e., values emphasising submissive self-restriction, preservation of traditional practices and protection of stability) to Openess to Change values (Self-Direction and Stimulation, i.e., values emphasising its own independent thought and action and favouring change).
The 10th value of Hedonism is located between the Openness to Change and Self-Enhancement axes.
The Schwartz Value Survey (Schwartz, S.H. 1992)