In the premiere episode of the CNBC Changemakers & Power Players podcast, CNBC Senior Media and Tech reporter Julia Boorstin spoke with Thrive Global Founder and CEO Arianna Huffington about her profession, leadership model and longevity.
Listen to the complete episode here. New episodes drop each Tuesday.
All references should be sourced to CNBC Changemakers & Power Players podcast.
HUFFINGTON ON LONGEVITY CRAZE
JULIA BOORSTIN: I believed it was so fascinating to see you weigh in on this query of the longevity competitors that is going on proper now, particularly in Silicon Valley, amongst lots of these tech corporations. There’s this longevity motion. Lots of people have made some huge cash within the tech trade, spending fortunes to attempt to stay without end or to stay for lots of of years. You got here out in opposition to this.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: Well, this is the factor, it is such a whole delusion that we’ll stay without end. There’s actually zero scientific proof that we’ll stay without end. We can broaden our lifespan and we are able to positively dramatically enhance our well being span however we’re not going to stay without end. I believe one of many issues with this longevity craze is that individuals are losing a lot time day by day doing issues which are each unproductive and unfulfilling, that I believe as an alternative of attempting to stay without end, how about attempting to enhance the way you spend your day?
HUFFINGTON ON SOCIAL MEDIA
BOORSTIN: What recommendation would you give to younger folks now attempting to navigate this loopy world with AI and social media and all these various things.
HUFFINGTON: Pick a time on the finish of the day that you simply declare as the top of your working day, as a result of, let’s face it, there isn’t a finish to our working day. And if anyone listening has an finish to their working day, they should change jobs, as a result of it means their job isn’t fascinating sufficient. Nobody with an fascinating job has an finish to their day, proper? You might spend all night time answering emails, texts, prepping for interviews. So you need to declare an finish to the working day. And the best way I declare the top to my working day is taking my telephone and my iPad and my laptop computer exterior my bed room. And it is not nearly blue lights, and many others. It’s about the truth that these are the repositories of each downside and each mission that we’re dealing with. And so as to have the ability to sleep and deeply recharge, we have to separate ourselves from that. And so in mattress, I solely learn bodily books, and I learn poetry, I learn fiction, I learn historical past, nothing to do with media, well being care, geopolitical points, and I really feel that is so essential, as a result of all of us have to construct pathways to that centered place in ourselves.
HUFFINGTON ON DEALING WITH FAILURE & REJECTION
BOOSTIN: What was your greatest failure and what did you study from it?
HUFFINGTON: The most painful failure was my second ebook. My first ebook I wrote after I was 23 and it was an enormous success in regards to the altering function of ladies, and then I did not wish to write anymore about girls. I had stated all the pieces I knew, so I locked myself up and wrote a ebook on leadership, imagine it or not, and I obtained 37 rejections, by which period I had run out of cash, the cash I had comprised of my first ebook, and I began considering that, hey, perhaps the primary ebook was a fluke, and I have to go get an actual job. And I keep in mind, actually, I lived in London on the time, strolling down St James’s Street, type of depressed, and seeing Barclays Bank within the nook. And one thing made me go into the financial institution and ask the supervisor if I might have a mortgage, or what the Brits name an overdraft, and I had no belongings. For some cause, he gave it to me, and that stored me going till I obtained an acceptance for the ebook.
HUFFINGTON ON HOW HER LEADERSHIP STYLE HAS ENABLED SUCCESS IN DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES
BOORSTIN: What is it about your leadership model that has enabled such success in diverse worlds?
HUFFINGTON: Well, let me let you know what’s my high leadership ebook. It’s a ebook by Marcus Aurelius known as “Meditations.” Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome for 19 years, however he was additionally a stoic thinker, and he wrote this ebook about the best way to lead from a spot that we might now name the attention of the hurricane. You know, he confronted invasions and betrayals and a 13-year plague. So for me, leadership is about figuring out the best way to transfer in to that centered place of knowledge, peace and resilience in us, as a result of that is the place from which you can even not simply make nice choices, not simply have a look at the place the icebergs are earlier than they hit the Titanic, which is without doubt one of the most essential features of leadership, to look At the long run and see the place the world goes, but in addition to speak that to your staff, to the folks you lead.
HUFFINGTON ON AI AS A “GPS FOR THE SOUL”
BOORSTIN: You wrote in one among your items about AI that it may be used as a kind of GPS for the soul. Unpack that for us. What does that imply?
HUFFINGTON: Well, what it means is that now that we all know that AI shall be extra clever than people. I did a dialog with Sam Altman at JP Morgan’s Tech 100 convention, and I I stated to him, so what’s the world that your kids, he has slightly son, will inherit what is the world due to AI that is going to be so totally different. He stated, “My children will never be more intelligent than AI,” and we at the moment are all coming to imagine that, and due to that, human beings must ask the query, so if we’re not our IQ, if we’re not outlined by our intelligence, who’re we? And that is the place we’re going to have to really come to phrases with the truth that we’re not simply materials beings outlined by our intelligence, that we have now consciousness, otherwise you choose to name it soul or spirit or Atman, the phrase you employ would not matter. What issues is to acknowledge that we’re greater than intelligence.