The advice I always give founders is, 'Don't ask people what they think about your idea; ask them what's wrong with your idea. Invite them to poke holes in it because you want to find those holes before you bring your idea into the world.'

The human species basically has two parts to their brain: They have their logical part and then there's the emotional part ... You don't want to let the emotional part stand in the way of the logical part in order to make the best decisions possible.

It's important as founders, as disruptors, and as people to evaluate our ideas with as little ego as possible. If an idea is good, it's good no matter who gets the credit. If it's bad, you should say it's bad—even if it's yours.

Whether you're starting a new venture or just going about your life, we tend to seek out agreement so we can feel secure and supported, but agreement on its own can lead to confirmation bias. This is why I believe and actively encourage disagreement.

The key to success is [knowing that] you don't have to do everything yourself. You don't have to say 'I'm the guy who came up with the idea' and be possessive about that. You just want the best idea wherever it comes from.

I believe that the reason people typically miss the big moments of evolution coming at them in life is that we each experience only tiny pieces of what's happening. We are like ants preoccupied with our jobs of carrying crumbs in our minuscule lifetimes instead of having a broader perspective of the big picture, patterns and cycles, the important interrelated things driving them, where we are within the cycles, [and what's likely to transpire].

I think there's an emotional reaction to disagreeing. That's so stupid. If one could calm oneself down and understand the art of thoughtful disagreement, the capacity to see how others see things, and to then understand those differences, it's enlightening.

I think the problem of... our educational system is that it teaches you to be right, and you have a possessiveness to be right ... It's embarrassing when you're wrong. It's embarrassing when you have a weakness. Everybody's wrong at times. Everybody's got weaknesses.

I believe disagreement is the wellspring of great ideas and great companies but only if you harness the conflict constructively.

Make sure people don't confuse the right to complain, give advice, and openly debate with the right to make decisions.

Whatever success I've had in life has been more due to meditation, I think, than anything else.

I learned a long time ago through a lot of different experiences that the things that surprised me most were things that hadn't happened to me in my lifetime before but happened many times before that.