I’m fascinated with any kind of insights into how people who have sustained success long term actually think. If you keep your eyes and ears open you’ll pick up clues all the time from interviews with successful people from all walks of life whether on TV, in the news or a biography. The late Jim Rohn said ‘Success leaves clues.’ Do you ever think about what keeps someone like David Attenborough going? Or what kept a 90-something-year-old billionaire like Charlie Munger going? Or even Steven Spielberg? Why not quit and relax a bit? The answer you’ll hear a lot from these kinds of people when asked that question is ‘curiosity’. An endless curiosity. They’re constantly tinkering and exploring and wondering ‘what if’ and trying new things. Isn’t that a fantastic answer? To be as excited about life at 93 as you were at 23. I’d certainly like to be like that when I’m 93.

Smaller minds tend to think they know it all. What a sad way to exist. Imagine at 50 to think you know it all and have nothing more to learn. To never want to explore or be curious or test or be inquisitive. To mistakenly think that you are destined to live your current version of your life like ground hog day, the same thing over and over. Afraid to wonder what if?

I encourage you to never stop experimenting. To always stay excited about your future and your possibilities. Read voraciously. Give your mind the input that will stimulate it and stretch it and make it work.

And don’t be afraid to fail. Without being willing to fail, you’ll never achieve your true potential. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon talks about failure and innovation being inseparable twins. He wrote in a letter to shareholders this year that he is willing to test most things and to fail because most decisions at are a 2 way door. You can walk through the door. Try the new thing and test it out. And if doesn’t work, you just turn around and walk back through the door again. That is how true innovation happens.