- A lot of the time we do have good ideas,
but we are afraid of failing.
When I'm not joyful, I look at what happened.
We have a dedicated section called Good News section.
It only has good news.
What I'm telling you is to regularly disconnect
from technology, to regularly unplug and recharge.
In the end, it's about how we feel inside
and what is it that nourishes us.
Socrates said, "Practice death daily."
It's perfectly okay to be upset and angry and irritated.
But how long do you stay on it?
Well, first of all, I prioritize sleep.
It was when he was in meditation
that often a lot of his best ideas for Apple came to him.
Success, the way we've defined it, is no longer sustainable.
- She's a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist,
and occasional actress.
She's the co-founder and editor-in-chief
of The Huffington Post.
As of 2014, she's listed as the 52nd most powerful woman
in the world by Forbes magazine.
She's Arianna Huffington and here are her top ten rules
for success.
(airplane taking off)
- A lot of the time, we do have good ideas,
but we are afraid of failing.
I think especially for women.
And I see that in my daughters and my daughters' friends.
Fear of failure is what stops us more than anything.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, I agree.
- I was like it in that I had a mother
who was full of sort of this colloquial wisdom.
And she used to say to me, "Failure is not the opposite
"of success, it's a stepping stone to success."
There's nobody who has not failed along the way.
So I think it's very important for young women especially
as they are starting in life to recognize that.
Because otherwise they only see people's successes.
So when I speak, I speak of my failures.
One entry point is
bringing joy back
into our everyday lives.
Because so many of us, and I speak as a complete culprit,
as like a certifiable type A,
workaholic, driven personality
who basically felt my job was about
getting it all done, getting it done in time,
getting it accomplished.
Joy, who has time for joy?
And now I feel that not at all.
That it's like when I'm not joyful, I look at what happened.
I don't mean joyful like there are no challenges,
problems, et cetera.
I mean like when I'm not like, "Hey, this is great.
"I'm blessed. I'm doing something I love.
"I'm grateful."
When I don't have that feeling, I know I'm off.
I need to course correct.
So joy, kind of really checking in and seeing
how am I doing.
You don't even have to check in
because you know when you are in the flow,
in the joy and when you're not.
What I tell everyone who works with us is that
all this stuff that we've learned, we now need to apply
to actually bringing people
to see how they can live their lives in a better way
and make the world better.
So these things don't have to be boring.
They can actually be really exciting.
We have a dedicated section called Good News section.
It only has good news.
It's one of our most popular sections.
(audience applause)
And I think part of it
is because of the zeitgeist.
And I really believe in the zeitgeist.
And I know it's a terrible German word,
but there is such a thing as the zeitgeist,
you know the spirit of the times.
The spirit of the times is changing.
You see now many brands want to be part of wellness
for example.
When I decided to launch The Huffington Post,
it was an expensive operation.
I wanted to be free.
I was absolutely committed to that.
I didn't want anybody to have to pay for it
because I wanted everybody to be able to access it.
I never thought it would be sponsored.
When we announced that we are going to launch it at CS,
we had brands competing to sponsor it.
It ended up being sponsored by Weight Watchers
because of the connection between stress and weight.
I really believe that if we set up in the media
to do the right thing, and do it effectively,
and do it smartly, and do it in a way
that draws people to it not in a didactic way,
then the monetization will follow.
If you look around you, you see leaders in positions
of power in politics, in media, in business.
All of them with high IQs, great degrees
making terrible decisions.
What is missing is not IQ but wisdom.
And today it's getting harder and harder to tap
into our own wisdom because we are all so hyper connected
to our devices, our screens, our social media
that we're having a hard time disconnecting
from technology and reconnecting with ourselves.
Your very own, very wise Smith sophomore, Erin McDaniel,
wrote in the Sophian about her decision to disconnect
from all her social media.
"We have eschewed," she said, "real social connections
"in favor of superficial technology-bridged ones.
"We have become, in many cases,
"nearly as socially robotic as our computers."
Now, you don't have the head of a digital company
telling you to completely disconnect from technology.
What I'm telling you is to regularly disconnect
from technology, to regularly unplug and recharge
in order to reconnect with ourselves
and our own deepest wisdom.
It was actually at Cambridge when I discovered
the Cambridge Union which was a debating society.
And I fell in love with the spectacle of people's minds
and hearts being moved by words.
And I said I want to do that.
And I was terrible.
When I first stood up to speak, I was literally laughed at
especially with my thick Greek accent
which was even thicker than now.
I had to read every word, but at every debate,
I would get up.
Often they would call on me at midnight
after they had exhausted calling on everyone else.
And I was just determined to learn to speak.
It's still my favorite thing even though
obviously I spend a lot of time online
and running a digital company.
And I've written 14 books.
My favorite thing is speaking.
In the end, it's about how we feel inside
and what is it that nourishes us.
And it may not be what our society values.
And that's why a lot of ...
Increasingly we see millennials especially
turning down the jobs with the big salaries
and doing something like becoming a teacher
in an inner city school because that's what fuels them
in a positive way and that's what touches their heart.
So when we dare to do that
instead of living someone else's life really,
it's dramatic how everything changes.
Socrates said, "Practice death daily."
He didn't mean that in a morbid sense.
He meant that if we really consciously realize
and remember every day that we're all going to die,
then we live life differently.
Because first of all we don't sweat the small stuff.
When it comes to death, everything is small stuff.
It's the same thing that the Romans thought.
You know they would carve on statues and on trees:
"MM" memento mori, remember death.
It's one of the things ...
We actually have now a dedicated reporter
on The Huffington Post covering death.
Because again, that's again a huge silence in our culture.
But the thing that is the absolutely inevitable part
of our lives is not being covered by the media.
The Columbia Journalism Review, his first name is (mumbles)
if you can't remember his last name.
He's doing amazing things around death
in our religion section, which is next
to our science section, because increasingly
we're trying to see how the two are not opposed
to each other.
Dogmas may be opposed, but the heart of a religion
is very connected to the heart
of huge scientific discoveries.
So my point, to go back to death,
is that if we make it part of life,
it will make us live life differently.
And so when the time comes for us to die,
we will be prepared for it.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, because we practiced it.
- Because we'll have practiced it every day.
And my advice to everybody is
look at a child
and see how a child handles being upset or angry.
I don't believe in growing a thick skin.
I think that stops you from really being permeable
and feeling everything to the fullest.
But a child will get really upset and really cry
and then like five minutes later
it's as though nothing has happened.
That's what I love.
I love to live life like that.
It's perfectly okay to be upset and angry and irritated.
But how long do you stay on it?
That's for me the key.
It's like, can you say "next" and move on
and not hold grudges.
That's the other key. Oh my God.
Holding grudges is the worst.
- It's a big part of the political landscape.
Did you have to learn to do that, to let go?
- Oh yeah, I worked at it, and I really believe in it.
The most draining thing we can do in our lives
is hold onto something other than upset
or anger or judgments.
I like what the Bible says, "The evil of today is enough."
"Let the dead bury the dead."
Move on, that's my advice for everybody.
Well, first of all, I prioritize sleep.
That means saying no to things you want to do.
It's not easy.
- [Interviewer] That is hard, I think the hardest thing.
- Last night Sheryl Sandberg interviewed me
at the San Francisco Symphony Hall.
And then I had to sign books.
I would have loved to go and have dinner with her.
But I went to bed.
Because if had gone out to dinner and hadn't gotten my
at least seven hours sleep that I need
and had to get up early to do TV, I would not be enjoying
being here with you now, and I'm really enjoying it.
And I'm 100% present and I'm not tired.
And I hate being tired more than I hate anything.
If you really want to be creative,
just go with Steve Jobs' biography
by Walter Isaacson
in which Steve Jobs says how it was when he was
in meditation that often a lot of his best ideas
for Apple came to him.
He calls it being able to listen to the whisperings.
But otherwise we are really too busy
and there's too much static in our lives to listen to them.
- Yeah, yeah, beautiful, yeah.
- And Bill Gates, you know he would have his
what do you call think weeks, when he would take a week off
without any devices and go to a cabin and think.
And again, to go back to another Greek.
I always go back to the Greeks.
Who came up with his Eureka moment in the bath.
How often don't we have our most creative ideas
in the shower or the bath.
At the moment, our society's notion of success
is largely composed of two parts: money and power.
In fact, success, money, and power have practically
become synonymous.
But it's time for a third metric beyond money and power,
one founded on well-being, wisdom,
our ability to wonder and to give back.
(audience applause)
You know, money and power by themselves
are like a two-legged stool.
You can balance on them for a while,
but eventually you're going to topple over.
And more and more people, very successful people,
are toppling over every day.
Basically, success the way we've defined it
is no longer sustainable.
It's not sustainable for human beings.
It's not sustainable for the planet.
- Thank you so much for watching.
I made this video because Alf asked me to.
So if there's a famous entrepreneur
that you want me to profile next,
leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do.
I'd also love to know which of Huffington's top ten rules
meant the most to you, had the biggest impact.
Leave it in the comments below
and I'll join in the discussion.
Thank you so much for watching.
Continue to believe and I'll see you soon.