WHEN IDEAS THAT MATTER GO GLOBAL with Jonah Sachs

Alloutcoach

This is a recording of the type of critical, candid, yet fun conversation that is also a hands-on expert lesson on how to think creatively with purpose in a distracted world with one of the brightest and creative individuals I have met. I sat down with Jonah Sachs, a true original thinker, marketing executive, speaker, philanthropist, and author of "Unsafe Thinking" and “Winning the Story Wars” who shared his personal perspectives on unlocking creativity with social responsibility and purpose to spread the ideas that matter! Highlights: 04:19 – What inspired you to write “Unsafe Thinking”? Jonah: This book describes my personal journey to answer how I along with my ad agency could re-learn to break the rules once again which is how we had originally become successful. 7:08 – What are some of the ideas that matter to you today? Jonah: I have now moved from marketing to philanthropy and am very concerned as a father about the state of our climate and the ecological crisis we are about to face. 9:19 – Do you have to have a clear vision in order to spread the ideas that matter? 10:04 – Jonah: Scene from “The Matrix” where Neo is tied up and Agents Smith 11:12 – There is a story in your book “Unsafe Thinking” about an expedition to discover the new source of the Nile river that captivated me. What are some of the lessons from it you wanted to convey to the readers? Jonah: In 2005, one adventurer, Cam McLeay and his team navigated the Nile all the way from the mouth to what they call its new source, farther than anyone had ever done. They were expert navigators and included an expert aviator and were able to make their boats fly by attaching wings to their boat to fly over the top of the waterfall. It took one small innovation at a time at every challenge to accomplish this feat. 13:32 – Jonah: Use Fear as Fuel - Mahatma Gandhi case study of learning to embrace and manage his fears. 16:50 – Tim Grover, Michael Jordan’s personal coach of many years, and the author of “W1NNING” states that fear teaches you how to win, while doubt merely teaches you what to do in order not to lose. 18:35 – What kind of feedback have you received while touring for your book “Unsafe Thinking” for 2 years globally? Jonah: The most common response is “I would love to take risks but my boss or my company or my clients just will not let me “. We live in a world that constantly rewards conformism so an important lesson I have learned is to be an explorer, not an expert. 21:45 – Jonah: Study of 20,000 so-called recognized “experts” by Philip Tetlock at Berkeley 23:42 – Dr. Barry Marshall’s unconventional approach that led to the cure of ulcers and his Nobel prize. 27:37 – Yuval Harrari, a globally renowned lecturer, writer, and history professor from Oxford, says that “our history began when we created Gods and our history will end when we become Gods”. 28:45 – Jonah: Harrari has another fantastic quote – “The Scientific Revolution was kicked off when we started being more interested in what we did not know than in what we know.” 29:33 – Question from the LinkedIn Live Audience: What are your thoughts on tactics for convincing the expert that maybe the newbies/outsiders’ ideas are better? Jonah: Shared information bias is a situation in which teams of people gravitate towards what most agree upon. 32:36 – How can we utilize technology in a way to make the ideas that matter go global? Jonah: We consulted Tristan Harris on the famous Netflix movie called “Social Dilemma”, which talks about how we are being manipulated by social media. But distraction may also be a big part of our creativity. 36:35 – Your ideas and dedication to social responsibility is inspiring. As Andy Warhol said, “the idea is not to live forever but to leave ideas that will”. Jonah: Any piece of advice taken to the extremes will lead you to the safe thinking cycle. Listen to the experts, take it all in, and live a varied life of unexpected moments of discovery!