The first wealth is health.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American transcendentalist

Success Without Self‐Care Is Failure

Hacking the Body—By Any Means?

There are dangers in anecdotal evidence, especially when it comes to biohacking the human body. Take, for example, Thomas Hariot. Hariot was a vital part of Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Roanoke Island in 1585, as he not only had a strong understanding of navigation and mathematics, but spoke Algonquin, a Native Indian language. Hariot was a dedicated scholar (among many other accomplishments, he created two maps of the moon and developed a treatise on navigation) and a convincing storyteller, becoming the spokesman for an incredible plant that was cultivated by the Native Americans. He wrote that this marvelous plant “openeth all the pores and passages whereby their bodies are notably preserved in health and know not many grievous diseases, wherewithal we in England are often times afflicted.” Many British subjects were able to obtain this amazing remedy and quickly implemented it into their daily health regime. The herbal remedy became popular all over the world, and to this day, large portions of the population still partake of it—despite the fact that we have scientifically proven that it causes multiple types of cancer, COPD, and enormously increases your chances of dying early. The Indians referred to it as uppowoc, but it is better known by its English name: Tobacco.

Although most health‐conscious people these days would not willingly smoke tobacco, they do other things that may be just as damaging to their long‐term performance based on anecdotal evidence. In order to strive and achieve your goals, you must understand that taking care of your physical and mental health are key parts of that success. You will not enjoy a better life if your creativity and productivity rely on unnatural chemical stimulation.

We naturally understand that if we want to succeed, we need to have energy, creativity, and stamina. We also know that a clear mind and strong body are important. How you go about achieving those aspects of your success is critical—there are no shortcuts to victory. The human body is an incredibly complex machine. Despite advances in technology and medicine, though, there are still many things about the body that we do not understand. One of these things is the human brain. For example, mankind has successfully used different methods for pain control throughout the generations. Modern anesthesia is a miracle of science. However, we have no idea how it works in the brain.

Many aspects of the brain are shrouded in mystery, but this is not because researchers have failed to take an interest. The National Institutes of Health (U.S.) spent over $4.5 billion in 2014 on brain research. The Chinese have implemented their Five‐Year Plan, which includes a strong focus on brain research that will tap a science fund that is worth 2.5% of China's GDP (at about $11 trillion, a staggering $275 billion). In 2013, the Europeans invested 500 million euros on brain research. Yet for all that hard cold cash, we still have much to learn. For example, we still do not have any idea about how information is encoded, how the firing of neurons actually impacts your behavior, how consciousness works, how we perceive things, and, of course, how to address those very thorny questions dealing with issues like free will and personality. This, of course, doesn't mean that we should not keep trying to understand the brain, but rather that we should be cautious when someone begins to tinker with the delicate chemistry of the body's most important organ.

Biohacking

Although increasing performance can help you reach success, there are some approaches that may seem useful but are actually self‐defeating. One of these alarming trends is microdosing.

Microdosing refers to taking a small amount of a drug to gain an enhanced performance. Like athletes who take steroids, these users claim to experience a physical improvement. Besides the obvious ethical issues of taking drugs (LSD, after all, is still illegal), there are other problems with this type of hacking. For example, although we may not know much about the brain, we have much solid research evidence to show that LSD definitely causes damage to it. In addition, LSD causes hallucinogen‐persisting perception disorder (HPPD); “flashbacks” can occur for years after initial use of the drug, and these are basically recurrences of the effects of the drug even though it is not being used. Just imagine standing in front of possible investors when you suddenly have a flashback…all of your hard work and passion would go up in smoke.

Nootropics are another area where the striver should beware. Nootropics can refer to any type of chemical that may be used to enhance cognitive performance. They can include Chinese medicine, like ginseng for energy, as well as prescription‐based medicines like Adderall, which is typically prescribed for those who suffer from ADHD, and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), an omega‐3 fatty acid that is a main structural part of the human brain. Ginseng and DHA are frequently sold in the United States as supplements and have been designated as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe), but it is difficult to quantify their impact on the human body. Some studies show positive effects and others show little to no effect. In addition, knowing how much of these types of substances to take is difficult to determine. If you are interested in taking supplements, you should consult a medical professional. The first concern is, of course, efficacy, but even GRAS supplements can have interactions with each other or other drugs you may be taking. For example, fish oil supplements have been found to negate the efficacy of certain cancer drugs. Ginseng can increase the chance of bleeding when taken in conjunction with aspirin. Taking prescription drugs when you do not have a condition that requires treatment is irresponsible. The whole point of Strive is to embrace uncomfortable change and risk with a clear, healthy mind. It is not possible to understand all the effects of a prescription drug on the normal human body, which is why these drugs are offered only through consultation with a doctor. It can be extremely dangerous to take prescription drugs in order to enhance yourself. I strongly discourage it. The side effects of prescription drugs can be traumatic. For example, several studies highlighted the fact that there has been a tremendous spike in the number of serious ER visits by users of ADHD prescriptions. The users of these prescription drugs were taking them to enhance cognitive performance (although, it should be noted that it seems few people actually improved their grades or abilities by taking them), but ended up with cardiac‐related issues. Are you dying to achieve success?

Ingesting chemicals is not the only unsafe and self‐defeating practice. There are also individuals who attempt to go outside the regulatory walls of institutions to play Dr. Frankenstein. The so‐called “garage biology movement” involves setting up a DIY lab in your home or garage and then attempting to enhance the body through the utilization of science or technology. It sounds great—a community of DIYers who are trying to push the boundaries of the human body.

Future You

There is incredible technology out there that is currently being developed in labs across the world, both commercially and academically. This technology is more amazing than a fitness tracker and it will soon become a part of your daily life. Right now, you have access to apps and wearables that can help you track your moods, heart rate, oxygen levels, footsteps, and location. But there will be many other safe extensions for you to use. For example, Ekso Bionics' Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) is an exoskeleton that augments the power of the human body so one can lift amazing amounts of weight. Motorola has snagged the patent for an electronic throat device that allows you to issue voice commands to a computer from wherever you are. Designers and scientists are turning their attention to smart fabrics, e‐textiles, and graphene to create eye‐catching, utilitarian clothing that can let you unobtrusively protect yourself from harsh cold or hot environments and understand and amplify your mood while still looking great. All of these devices will become part of your tomorrow—after they have been vetted to ensure their safety. I believe in taking risks, but strivers must take smart risks. Any technology must be carefully evaluated for its impact on the individual and the others around them.

Eventually, we may (safely) move beyond simply augmenting our abilities with technology to completely becoming more than human. The transhumanism movement is dedicated to making technologies broadly available to people and enhancing the human mind and body far beyond their current capacity. Man has always dreamed of eternal life, and transhumanists believe that technology will eventually take us there. Perhaps the most audacious member of the transhumanist movement is a man who believes that computers will grant us eternal life. Russian billionaire, Dmitry Itskov, sees the name of his project (2045) as the deadline for his life's work. Itskov believes that he can figure out a way to upload the human mind into a computer, resulting in a sort of “eternal life” for the consciousness. Besides the obvious questions, such as “Should we live forever?” “Who gets to do it?” and, of course, “Who pays for it?” the more pressing question is, “Is it possible?”

Busy = Better?

You have probably seen those kinds of commercials. Little Caesar's has one where the “busy people” are all eating lunch at their desks at the office. KFC has Norm McDonald on the phone, stamping documents, and typing all at the same time. Even Weight Watchers has a commercial where a busy professional is working and getting fed by an assistant. All of these images present busyness as a natural and normal part of life—something expected.

Are you always busy? Is it hard to relax or find the time to meet up with friends or read a book? Our modern society tells us that we must be busy: If you are not busy, you are lazy or not managing your time well. After all, we all get the same 24 hours in a day. What you do with them ultimately determines your overall success. But what is busyness? How is it really affecting our lives? Is being busy the same as being productive?

Part of striving to achieve your goals involves uncomfortable change, so what I am going to include in this section may make you very uncomfortable. This is because it goes against everything you see on TV, everything you see in the media, everything you read about in magazines, and everything you hear from the people around you.

Busyness does not equal productivity.

In a piece in Harvard Business Review, Sarah Green Carmichael noted that overwork actually limits productivity. She found that this is a business insight that was first noticed during the heyday of manufacturing. In the 1800s, the average workweek was more than 70 hours; most workers were employed in terrible conditions doing back‐breaking labor. However, when employers were forced to change the workday to a maximum of eight hours, they were shocked to see that productivity soared. This fact is borne out by OECD data, which shows that Mexico, which has the world's longest average workweek, is at the bottom when it comes to worker productivity. On the opposite end, Germany and the Netherlands have the shortest average workweeks, but enjoy the highest productivity per worker. Being too busy can keep you from greater productivity and decrease your chances of achieving your goals. Why?

Busyness typically involves trying to manage multiple projects or activities at the same time. Physically, this is impossible. René Marois and his team from Vanderbilt University used MRIs to show that a bottleneck occurs in the brain when you try to multitask, so your brain cannot focus on two different tasks at exactly the same time. Instead, your mind switches quickly from one thought to another and then back again. You are not really working on two projects at the same time. You are simply switching your attention. This switching is a productivity killer.

David Meyer, a professor at the University of Michigan's Cognition and Perception Program in the Psychology Department, found that your productivity drops when you begin switching between tasks to finish them. On average, he found a 25% drop in the productivity for both tasks. Imagine that it takes you one hour to finish your slides for a presentation and another hour to create charts and graphs. By switching between these two tasks, you will have wasted a total of 30 minutes. Now multiply that number by the times you are interrupted with e‐mails, meetings, phone calls, and chats with coworkers, and you may be wasting hours every day.

Researcher Jennifer Ackerman found that many people are at their most productive in the first few hours after they wake up—between two and four hours, specifically. But if we are honest, we know that some people are night owls and others are early risers—there's no one perfect strategy. This is where self‐quantification can help. By tracking your vital signs with apps and commercially available smart devices, you can uncover your personal best times to approach tasks—or relax.

It's pretty clear that there are many unsafe things people do that they believe will enhance their success. There are, however, some safe approaches you can use to enhance your success.

Good Health—Do You Measure Up?

I am not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV. But I do believe there are some things that can underpin your success and even launch you toward greater accomplishments. I have an extremely busy schedule. I can speak in Saudi Arabia on Monday and be in Seoul the next day. In order to be able to maintain my stamina, I pay close attention to my body. The first and most important part of my routine is, of course, a healthy diet. You are what you eat. As I mentioned earlier, I have changed the way I eat to include more fresh organic fruits and vegetables. Your dietary needs will probably vary somewhat from mine, but dropping unhealthy fatty foods from your diet will likely pay off.

Physical exercise also plays an important role in your success. Not only does exercise help you control your weight, it can improve or eliminate certain health conditions, as well as boost your energy level and mood. There are many types of exercise, and you need to find out what kinds are especially beneficial to your lifestyle and health. Your best bet is to consult your physician to ensure that you are engaging in a really great exercise program. However, no matter how great an exercise program is, if you don't follow it, you won't benefit from it. Not all exercise is for every person. Running is beneficial, but you may find that running is too hard on your spine or joints. Yoga can aid in flexibility, but you may find that it does not help you reach your fitness goals. You may prefer kickboxing or Taekwondo to high intensity interval training (HIIT). Whatever program you choose, I recommend that you monitor your own progress through your biometrics in a journal. Just as you can monitor your biometric data to figure out what time of day is your personal best, monitoring and recording your vitals in response to your exercise program can show how you are progressing or if you have entered a danger zone. I am not particular to any device, app, or program. But there are many devices out there that can help you track your information and help you understand yourself better, as well as know when to see a doctor. Devices and apps should never be used for self‐diagnosis (of a disease). They are only tools that can help you enhance your chances of success. For example, checking your heart rate shows if you have reached an ideal range. Understanding how many footsteps you have taken will allow you to push higher to achieve more. You should look at the data from all these devices and apps as Personal Empowerment Points. Each piece of data can help you understand yourself and allow you to increase your performance. They operate as a kind of Digital Currency of Happiness, where you find that sweet spot for your health, performance, and success.

Your Digital Currency of Happiness can be used beyond your fitness routine, too. When the FitBit was first launched, it was seen as a tool to help track exercise progress. But myriad devices like it can help us with so much more—we can see our blood glucose level after we eat or sleep, track our heart rate in various situations (such as when we meet someone new, our in‐laws, or your boss), and measure certain other aspects of the human body after exercise, eating, sleeping, playing sports, working, watching TV, playing video games, and reading books.

Self‐quantification, monitoring your personal biometrics in a journal to understand your health and well‐being, puts power into your hands. Imagine the different kinds of decisions you would make about going to see the doctor. For example, say you don't feel well, so you wonder if you should set up an appointment. There are two possible approaches here. You could decide to wait until after next month's big sales meeting, since you have not been monitoring your personal biometrics. Or, if you are monitoring your biometric information, you find that your blood sugar has spiked dramatically and decide to make an appointment as soon as possible. In the first situation, you are basing your decision to see the doctor on an uninformed feeling. The second approach is based on knowing that there is something wrong inside you—and knowing can not only help you improve your performance, it could save your life.

Technology is enabling us to quantify, optimize, and accelerate our personal development without the need to depend on microdosing or any drugs. It's optimization through data analytics. Eventually, you will be able to partner your personal data with an AI personal assistant who can help you in understanding your health.

Boost Your Brainpower

Exercise helps you control your weight, improve or eliminate certain health conditions, boost your energy level and mental focus, and may even help you partially fend off some of the declines associated with old age. A recent study performed by the Centers for Disease Control showed that people who vigorously exercised had longer telomeres, a biological marker of aging. (Shorter telomeres are associated with aging.) Although this research is still in its early stages, you have probably already noticed that there are older people around you who enjoy exceptionally good health and mental clarity despite their advanced age.

You don't have to be a senior citizen to enjoy the brain‐boost from exercise. Exercise strengthens your current mental acuity and willpower. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have shown that exercise actually increases the size of the hippocampus. Other studies have indicated that the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex experience growth as well. The enhancement of the hippocampus has a direct effect on your ability to learn and remember what you learned. Exercise has also been shown to affect your attention span: Students who engaged in regular rigorous exercise were able to improve their focus in school. They were also able to better control themselves and retain what they learned.

Exercise has clear benefits that can help you on the road to success. But let's face it—sometimes we are simply too tired or don't feel like doing it. That is where willpower comes into play: Once you understand that a healthy lifestyle is part of your ultimate success, you will be more likely to pursue good health. Now imagine how you could know exactly when to exercise to obtain the maximum benefits to your body and mind—technology can give this to you. By tracking yourself through your health journal, you can obtain more powerful insights into your personal health and well‐being.

Stress, Rest, and Your Brain

Silicon Valley types are burning the candle at both ends—but no one can keep up that pace forever. And no one should. If you are not convinced, consider the following. In Japan, death from overworking is so common that it has its own special term: Karōshi. In 2015, the number of claims of death from overwork were an astonishing 2,310. That number may even be higher since that is only counting families who have petitioned the government for compensation. (One estimate said that it is around 10,000 people a year.) A study by the Japanese government in 2016 found that approximately 20% of the working population was at risk of death from overwork. (A little perspective: There are about 66 million workers, making the total at‐risk population a whopping 13.2 million people.) Many of those who suffer karōshi are in their 20s and 30s.

Your body is complex. When you are young, the occasional all‐night cram session for chemistry or physics may not be a problem, but now imagine that you are cramming every single night for a “test” the next day—your job. The human body can only handle so much stress before it begins to break down—and sometimes, you won't even know it until real damage is done.

Huffington Post publisher Arianna Huffington is no stranger to challenges and understands first‐hand how vital rest is to success. The high‐powered entrepreneur was a hands‐on person who worked diligently to see her dreams come true. However, she allowed one aspect of her life to completely lapse—sleep.

Meditation Can Rewire Your Brain—For Good

There's a reason that meditation is a part of the world's major religions: It offers the practitioner unique benefits. In our busy world, we rush from one project to another, one meeting to another, and one continent to another, but are we really accomplishing as much as we think?

Meditation, defined as a set of breathing exercises to help the mind reach calm and silence, can help lead to greater success. I discovered this when I was building technology start‐ups. I was so stressed that I realized I needed to do something to help myself. I began to meditate and found that it boosted my feelings of well‐being and allowed me to focus better on solving my problems. I continued to meditate even after the startup grew into a great success. It was eventually scooped up by a Fortune 500 company. Although I was asked to stay on with the new parent company, I decided that what I needed to do was to strike out on my own. I took a tremendous risk: I started my own tech company that created a robo‐advisory product. Although robo‐advisory is beginning to take off now, I was a bit too early to attract the kind of investment required to really succeed. I had eaten through all of our savings. I invested everything I had in that business. After three years, I was in agony: I was forced to let all my employees go. My family only had enough money to live on for two months—and nothing to show for all my efforts and investment. I thought I knew what I was doing, since I had accomplished a major merger and acquisition. But I still failed. I didn't trust myself. I second‐guessed myself. I could not believe in myself. Meditation helped me during these tough times, and allowed me to see the larger picture that is my whole life, not merely professional success.

Researchers have shown that meditation offers many benefits. For example, one study showed that people who meditated regularly had a higher emotional intelligence (EI), less perceived stress, and fewer negative mental health issues than those who did not. A study in the Social Science Journal showed that students who meditated reported lower amounts of pain and did not need to engage in the use of tranquilizers to fall asleep. (Incidentally, meditation can be used for all kinds of people, even those who are not busy professionals. One study involved inmates at a correctional facility, and regular meditation reduced inmates' feelings of rage and the need to strike out at others, improved sleep, and increased feelings of well‐being.)

Meditation can improve your life, and it is something you can do right now. The great thing about meditation is that anyone can do it and it offers everyone some benefits. For example, people who meditate generally feel less anxious than those that do not. This is because meditation has a physical effect on your brain and how it functions. Part of your brain, the medial prefrontal cortex, manages information about your daily experiences. When you are afraid, the medial prefrontal cortex is strongly affected because the neural pathway from the area of your brain where you feel fear is strongly connected to it. Meditation loosens this connection and allows you to more rationally perceive your experiences and environment.

Meditation can help you improve your creativity and memory. Have you ever felt like your creative tank was empty? Or how about those times when you just know you had a good idea yesterday but find that it has left the building today? You don't need to be a writer to understand “writer's block”; there are definitely versions of it in every profession. (Ever hear a speaker who suddenly pauses and fills in the awkward silence with “um”?) Meditation can help solve both of these problems. Dr. Catherine Kerr found that those who meditate have improved memory recall because they are able to adjust their brain waves (their sensory cortical alpha rhythms) to eliminate distractions. Meditation has been shown to improve memory, increase intelligence, increase feelings of compassion, decrease negative feelings, and improve sleep. Meditation is an aspect of Strive that can help you achieve your dreams.

Some Final Words

I would like to leave you with a few thoughts. Your success is in your hands, but it involves you reaching beyond yourself to embrace risk and change. Goal‐setting, planning, carefully considering your path, and taking care of yourself can lead you to heights you have never imagined. If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be the head of a venture capital fund and helping to bring about transformation in nations, I probably would have thought you were crazy. But here I am. I am healthier than I have ever been. I am spending more time with my family and doing the things that are important to me. I am reaching out and grabbing my dreams, and helping others do the same. I have found real success in my life through taking risks and embracing change. I know you can too.

Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become.

—Heraclitus, Greek philosopher