Who will win the battle of business versus politics?
Thank you for inviting me to this Summit. I am delighted to have this opportunity to learn, discuss, and exchange ideas together with you.
With those opening words, Jack Ma’s fortune was changed.
How many of us have said words we would later regret? Maybe in anger to a friend or family member? Perhaps something to a work colleague? Whatever the words, I am sure it hasn’t cost you billions of dollars and lead to conspiracy theories across the internet asking where you have disappeared to.
But none of you are Jack Ma.
Opening remarks
In which we introduce Jack Ma
Jack Ma is the founder of Alibaba…
The man with 15,000 matches knows how to build a brand
Most Swiped Man on Tinder.
There are a few titles I’d like. World’s Richest Entrepreneur. Funniest Person on Earth. Most Viewed Article on the Internet. Now I had a new one to add to the list of titles I would never achieve (hmm, maybe that’s a new one to aspire to, Most Titles Missed Out On).
The Most Swiped Man on Tinder.
I had to find out more about this guy. Who was he? How did he win the title of ‘most swiped’ and most importantly, what could I learn from him? …
#3: Inviting people to scam the CEO
Before the public sees an advertisement, it goes through several levels. Usually, there is an advertising agency that presents ideas and concepts. These get approved by various marketing leaders or senior management of the brand. There are plenty of options for quality control and to sense check any campaign before it goes live.
Yet still, some of the most idiotic advertisements make it into the public domain — brands both big and small.
Today, we look at nine of the worst advertisements of all time. As there are so many failed ads for us to shake our heads at, this…
A guide to a more fulfilling life, according to Matthieu Ricard.
Matthieu Ricard has been called the world’s happiest person.
This isn't an award given out based on votes on a reality TV show, or to the influencer who gets the most likes on a social media post. This title was awarded to Ricard based on a twelve-year brain study on meditation and compassion led by a neuroscientist from the University of Wisconsin, Richard Davidson.
His skull was linked up to 256 sensors and scans showed that when Ricard was meditating on compassion, his brain produced a level of gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning, and memory —…
The Goldilocks approach — not too short, not too long, but just right
“I’m the freaking Energizer bunny!”
My roommate yelled this as he came downstairs into the living room. He had been in his room with his girlfriend for some period of time, during which I guess he had been having sex.
“She called me an Energizer bunny because I go all day and all night!”
Unsure if he wanted congratulations or a prize, I just gave him a bemused smile and went back to watching TV. He was so proud of himself for the fact he had sex for a long time.
But it got me thinking, how long is too…
Humor
A word of warning
Dearest Penelope Peloton,
I know we have never gotten along. I see you on the podium. The star of the show. Low fat flavor of the month. That was me not so long ago. I want you to take this bit of advice from someone who has been around the block — at a leisurely six miles per hour.
Advice on these humans that love you so much at the moment, posing on you, telling their friends, and bragging how they ride you. They sure are taking you for a ride. Meeting every morning — the Peleton Peeps as you…
MySpace and Napster are far from dead — they’re still attracting visitors
At one stage in the early 2000s, Tom Anderson was the most popular person on the planet — he certainly had more friends than anyone else.
Way before Clubhouse and Tik Tok, even before Facebook and Instagram, there was MySpace. And anyone who started a MySpace account automatically became a friend of co-founder Tom. MySpace was the first popular social media website, and by June 2006, it was the most visited website in the United States.
Tom sold MySpace to News Corp in July 2005 for $580 million and eventually disappeared from public view. Soon we turned to Facebook and…
‘Alone’ shouldn’t be perceived as a negative word.
After I graduated from college, I was accepted into a marketing position with a big global company. On the first day, they gave the new starters a personality test.
You know the ones:
What would you rather do a) sit alone and read a book or b) stand on stage and give a speech?
It took thirty minutes to complete, and at the end of week one, we got our results. The HR Manager was surprised at my results, “Ash, you are more extroverted than 99.9% of test participants worldwide. It’s the most extreme result I’ve seen.”
I laughed and…
The lessons I learned about investing, and major regret
I should be wealthy. Unfortunately, there is a huge difference between should be and am.
My father has always been a share trader. When I was in college, he told me about an upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO) in an Australian company called Commonwealth Serum Labororaties (CSL). CSL was established in Melbourne, Australia, in 1916 and has provided Australians with access to insulin and penicillin and vaccines against influenza, polio, and from April 2021 — COVID-19. In June 1994, they were going to launch on the Australian Stock Exchange.
This all meant nothing to me as a nineteen-year-old, but given…
The fourth richest person of all time wrote the Gospel of Wealth that Gates and Buffett follow
The current wealthiest person on this planet is Jeff Bezos. As I write this, he is worth approximately $190 billion. Next is Elon Musk, who today is worth $177 billion.
This would make them combined less than what Andrew Carnegie’s net worth (adjusted for inflation) was at his peak.
Carnegie’s wealth was estimated to be $372 billion in today’s figures, making him the fourth richest person of all time.
I read a lot about entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses. Approximately 23% of all articles (or so it seems) feature business lessons from Bezos and Musk. It gets boring after the first…
