Are Great Leaders Born Or Made?

There are certain qualities that many leaders have in common. Are these qualities learned or are they inherited? What makes a leader great?

Analyze the Billionaires of a Society to Gauge Its Economic Health | Ruchir Sharma

Billionaires: what have they done for us lately? Well, some of them have developed the tech you're reading this on (scoring good points), but others have gamed the system and nepotismed their way to the bank (bad, bad billionaires). Sharma's latest book is "The Rise and Fall of Nations

The lottery of life

We tend to look patronisingly at people convinced they might win the lottery. But we often harbour equally misguided hopes for our romantic and professional lives.

Success at school vs Success in life

"We want to do well at school for an obvious reason: because – as we’re often told – it’s the primary route to doing well at life. 

Few of us are in love with the A grades themselves – we want them because we’re understandably interested in one day having a fulfilling career, a pleasant house and the respect of others.

But, sometimes, more often than seems entirely reassuring, something confusing occurs: we come across people who triumphed at school – but flunked at life. And vice versa…”

Increase Your Productivity by Mastering Singular Focus and Mindful Meditation | Emma Seppälä

Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., is the science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, the founder of the popular news site FulfillmentDaily.com, and a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today. Her work has appeared in Scientific American Mind, The Huffington Post, and Spirituality & Health. Seppälä holds degrees from Yale, Columbia, and Stanford. Her book is The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success. More at www.emmaseppala.com.

The Most Valuable Skill that Nobody Teaches: How to Listen, with Tom Yorton

Tom Yorton is co-author of the book Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses "No, But" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration--Lessons from The Second City. Since 2002 Yorton has served as CEO of Second City Works, the b2b arm of The Second City -- one of the world’s premier comedy theater and school of improvisation. Before joining Second City, Tom worked in advertising and marketing at agencies like Ogilvy, Grey, and Hal Riney before jumping to the client side, with stints as a marketing vice president at Sears and 3Com, where he actually hired Second City Works on a couple of occasions. Second City Works now does more than four hundred engagements a year, half with Fortune 1000 companies. Tom and his team focus on refining The Second City's unique capabilities—creating funny short-form content and using improv to develop vital skills in businesspeople—to help companies communicate, collaborate, and innovate better in a web-first, social-everything world.

Noam Chomsky on Austerity