www.secretleaders.com<\/a> for more information about the podcast, or subscribe with iTunes or Spotify.<\/p>\n\u200bSuccess can follow failure<\/h2>\n
Michael and Ali are two of the most successful innovators in the UK\u2019s tech scene. Michael\u2019s mindfulness and meditation programme is forecasting revenue of $70-80 million this year, having wrapped up Apple\u2019s prestigious App of the Year award in 2017. Ali is the founder of a healthcare app that is changing the way people around the world access healthcare \u2013 and counts the Health Secretary as one of its users. But it hasn\u2019t always been easy.<\/p>\n
Six years ago, Michael\u2019s Moshi Monsters venture was at the height of its success. \u201cWe thought it was going to last forever. We were winning all these awards.\u201d \u201cWe thought that the graphs would keep going up and to the right, and that we\u2019d be the next Disney,\u201d he reflects. \u201cUnfortunately, in 2012 that all changed. And it feels like that was all just overnight.\u201d Sales collapsed. Painful losses and job cuts followed.<\/p>\n
In 2006, Ali\u2019s Circle Health won \u00a3500 million of investment from Lehman Brothers and RBS \u2013 shortly before one collapsed and the other was bailed out in the financial crisis. The funding disappeared. \u201cWe had to find that money overnight,\u201d he recalls. He found it \u2013 but at the cost of involving venture capitalists who wouldn\u2019t support back his plans for a revolutionary new health app that would connect patients with GPs digitally: \u201cThey said it was a lack of focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali left Circle Health and set up Babylon. Michael got into meditation and mindfulness on the solo holiday he took to recuperate after Moshi\u2019s year of decline. And the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n
Perspective matters<\/h2>\n
For Michael and Ali, retaining equilibrium in terms of their personal health has been crucial to their success. Michael recalled that the misery of seeing Moshi struggle was what brought him to an important realisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that you\u2019re going to have to have to close the business down, that\u2019s pretty scary. But I stepped back and realised: that\u2019s not that big a deal compared to what was going on in my head, and how awful I was feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
For both, a key to success has been a sense of proportion. \u201cPut the fear aside\u201d is Ali\u2019s advice. \u201cThat\u2019s incredibly liberating, because it allows you to take risks.\u201d \u201cWhen you get older\u201d, he adds, \u201cyou find perspective in the way that you know that every problem will come, and every problem will go.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Calm, that means taking time out to meditate at 10am every morning \u2013 \u201ca wonderful way to start the day as a team\u201d \u2013 and for Ali, it\u2019s maintaining balance: \u201cI used to work 80, 90 hours a week, 100 hours a week. And I tell you, you don\u2019t work. You do about 40 hours of a decent job, and 40 hours of being a zombie. And it\u2019s not good for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health tech will change humanity \u2013 forever<\/h2>\n
Calm.com and Babylon Health are changing the way care is delivered, but Michael and Ali agree that this is just the beginning of a process in which ordinary people control their individual well-being. \u201cOne of the really exciting things that\u2019s happening in the world of technology and the internet is that people are taking responsibility for their own health, and learning about it,\u201d says Michael.<\/p>\n
According to Ali, a patient in rural China or India could soon be able to access better, more up-to-date diagnostic information than the nearest doctor. With half of the world\u2019s population today able to access the internet, he argues, \u201cwe now have ways of reaching people that we have never had before\u201d \u2013 with the inevitable result that \u201cwe will make healthcare accessible and affordable, and we will put it in the hands of every human being on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then? Michael believes that the key to overcoming human suffering is to understand that change is inevitable, and that life is impermanent. But Ali is not so sure: \u201cWe\u2019ve never managed to elongate human life \u2013 what we have done is managed to stop diseases killing people prematurely,\u201d he observes. But that may yet change: \u201cWhether it is 50 years or 500 years, my belief is that we will start to see drastic changes in our power to affect the whole process of death and ageing\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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