- personal journey from college to Fortune to The Profile
- What is genius?
- hindsight bias and culling habits of the most successful people
- What about people who had those habits but are not successful?
- What about people who didn’t have those habit but became successful?
- David Goggins: do something that sucks every single day—Elective hardship
- victimhood: “Suffering is universal but victimhood is optional.” —Holocaust survivor Edith Eva Eger
- fear
- What distinguishes the truly exceptional from the merely great?
- updating existing beliefs
- pursuing meaningful goals
- original creators typically have three things in common: (1) they have a unique point of view on the world; (2) they are confident they can achieve an ambitious goal, and (3) they are willing to fail spectacularly in the name of creating something revolutionary.
- stress-test yourself through regular hardship
- trust = consistency + time.
Polina Marinova Pompliano is the founder of The Profile, a new media company that features longform profiles of successful people and companies each week. Previously, she spent five years at Fortune where she wrote more than 1,300 articles and earned the trust of prominent investors and entrepreneurs. As the author and editor of Term Sheet, Fortune’s industry-leading dealmaking newsletter, Polina interviewed the industry’s most influential dealmakers, including Melinda Gates, Steve Case, Chamath Palihapitiya, Alexis Ohanian, and more. Her new book is Hidden Genius: The Secret Ways of Thinking That Power the World’s Most Successful People.
About the Book
After five years of writing The Profile, Polina Marinova Pompliano has studied thousands of the most successful and interesting people in the world and examined how they reason their way through problems, unleash their creativity, and perform under extreme pressure. The highest performers don’t use tricks or hacks to achieve greatness. They use mental frameworks that fundamentally change the way they see the world. They’ve learned how to unlock their hidden genius in order to reach their full potential. This book will help you do the same. After learning from the world’s most successful people featured inside, you will have a mental toolkit to help you tackle thorny problems, navigate relationships, and use creativity and resilience in times of uncertainty.
If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support by making a $5 or $10 monthly donation.
This episode was released on September 19, 2023.
