Advertise on podcast: Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz

When a mentor, and now friend, told Kenneth Chenault during a hiring process at American Express that he was "looking for catalytic agents of change," it struck a deep chord--because it's exactly what Chenault wanted to be. Kenneth Chenault learned early on to only worry about the things he could control; this helped him when life—and business at American Express—threw unpredictable events his way. In this 2020 interview, he tells Guy how he broke barriers as the company’s first African American CEO and helped turn AmEx from a traveler’s check company into a credit card powerhouse.

Jason Fried, the CEO and co-founder of 37signals (maker of Basecamp) doesn’t want you to come to meetings. He insists that you work no more than 40 hours a week; 36 in the summer. He doesn’t really want you coming to the office either…and this approach has helped make Basecamp hugely successful. In this episode, Fried describes how he’s built an institution by bucking a lot of conventional wisdom.

On taking what you learn shaking up one industry and applying it to an entirely different industry: Mark King has a reputation for turning businesses around by moving fast on innovative, and sometimes expensive, endeavors. Before his current tenure as CEO of Taco Bell, Mark served as president for Adidas’ long-stagnant North American division, reinvigorating the brand with major athletic sponsorships and a deal with Kanye West. From 2003 to 2014, King was CEO of TaylorMade, which under his leadership became the most profitable golf company in the world.

Ken Coleman calls himself “America’s Career Coach.” In his syndicated call-in show, and in books like The Proximity Principle and One Question, Coleman helps people think about what kind of work they would find meaningful, and how they can connect with people that will help get them into that work. Coleman came about the knowledge he imparts honestly: he spent about a decade working different jobs before he found his real calling in broadcasting. In this encore episode, he poses a simple question: what do you wonder about doing? Learn more about why that question is so powerful.

Joe Keohane is a longtime journalist and editor who believes that talking to strangers can not only help people feel happier and more empathetic, but can actually make the world a better place. In his first book, The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting In A Suspicious World, Joe talks to psychologists, anthropologists and plenty of strangers to prove it. In this encore episode, Guy and Joe explore why the lost art of connecting is now so important for our personal and professional well-being.

David Epstein is a science writer and investigative reporter. His articles have spanned a wide range of topics, from crime and violence, to athletes using steroids, to the intersection of science and the Olympics. And, he’s the author of the books The Sports Gene and Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. But, before all of that, David studied geology and ran on Columbia University’s track team as a walk-on. In this encore episode, follow the thread: David went from star athlete to discovering that having a wide range of interests leads to more successful outcomes -- in sports and in life. 

What does it take for a person to change? BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, says the key to behavior change isn’t what we’ve always been taught. In Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything Fogg draws upon true experiments--from his lab and his life--to outline a system anyone can use to create good habits or unravel the bad. In this episode, originally published in 2021: the invaluable lessons about making change through design and celebration.

Stacey Vanek Smith has reported on business and the economy for over 15 years now, first for public radio’s “Marketplace,” and as the host of Planet Money’s daily podcast “The Indicator.” Over that time, she’s seen the same barriers blocking advancement for women in the workplace again and again. Recently, she’s started to recognize that a lot of tools to move past those barriers can be found in the work of Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. Vanek Smith lays out these solutions in her book, Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace. 

Throughout his life, Chad Sanders found himself having to navigate white culture; at school, in the tech industry, and eventually in his career in entertainment. He learned to cope with the frustration of having to do that by writing, and he wrote his first screenplay at a cafe just across the street from Spike Lee’s studio in Brooklyn—where he would run into Spike himself. Chad would come to realize that though his experiences related to racial inequity left him with real trauma, they also equipped him and other Black leaders with certain entrepreneurial skills. Chad writes about these skills in the book Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph.

When Ken Hicks became CEO of Foot Locker in 2009 the company didn’t have a leg to stand on: the economy was in a recession, sales were down almost a billion dollars, and the brand was widely expected to collapse along with indoor shopping malls themselves. How Hicks used a commitment to better storytelling to help Foot Locker get back on the right foot.

Josh Silverman built Evite and turned around eBay. Then, in 2017, Etsy came calling. The online marketplace for creative goods was in deep trouble. Growth had plateaued and the company was on the verge of being sold. Josh stepped in as CEO and got the team focused on one simple metric that made all the difference. Originally published in 2020.