I recently had the privilege to be invited to Forming Impact's annual retreat on Richard Branson's Necker island. This incredible opportunity selects 40 impact-driven entrepreneurs to spend 5 days on the island alongside Richard himself. This was a truly transformational experience for me and a single blog post does it no justice — however I will aim to share some of my key impressions below, with more to follow in the coming weeks — there's a subscribe button if you want to get notified 😄

The selection

People say an organisation is only as good as the people within it, and this stands even if you throw an exotic island or two into the picture. What impressed me with the selection criteria for this event is that we weren't primarily assessed based on the scale of our companies, KPIs, number of exits, etc. A certain level of success certainly played a role, but the biggest factor was the person you are — your ambitions, your impact drivers, your motivations. Your values, your fears, the challenges you've had and the ones you're struggling with now. You are assessed to display vulnerability, openness, and humbleness — because in the end, we're all human beings. This already started setting the stage of what kind of an event that is.

A networking event

...for fostering genuine relationships

All of us seek a place of belonging, and entrepreneurs aren't exempt from that. Although one might think that high-impact individuals, going to many places and meeting loads of people, find it easier to have a closer inner circle, I would say that it's the opposite. If the combination of frequent travelling, moving where the business takes you, and less time hanging out doesn't disconnect you socially, you might find that whatever closer friends you still have will not resonate with your ambition, challenges, and sacrifices you're making.

In this context, this event focused on helping you rebuild your inner circle better than ever — with people who inspire you and whom you mutually inspire. This wasn't a networking event — it was a friendship building exercise, which just somehow managed to convince 40 incredibly busy people to drop everything and fly to the BVI for a week. And those people just so happen to be filtered in a way that it'd be hard not to resonate with them!

I cannot stress how incredibly valuable that is — to have a close inner circle of friends, who resonate and inspire each other, and who genuinely connect with each other on a human level. I have never managed to achieve that out of a networking event and I doubt that it'd ever work. If you're finding it hard to call a group of people your place of belonging, it might be worth organising a retreat with people you like, and focus on talking about anything but work. It might just do wonders 😄

Kindness goes a long way

Regardless of your wealth bracket

One of my first, and still yet strongest, impressions of meeting Richard Branson is just how kind, humble, and caring he is. He certainly has all the potential justifications to pretend like he's above that, but he just doesn't do so. One example that left an impression was that when I was playing tennis with a couple others on the island, occasionally one of us would offshoot the ball into a nearby bush or tree. Richard, walking by on his way to somewhere, would go around a few bushes and throw some of the balls towards us. There were plenty of staff members around to whom he could have delegated this "chore", especially as busy as a man like him is. Doing so himself, however, signalled to everyone: "Hey, we're all in this together and none of us is above the other. I'm just doing my bit".

More than the benefit of the action itself, kindness is a way to tell another human being that you're not pretending to be above them in a fundamental level, and that you're treating them with the respect they deserve. In turn, they'll lower their guard, open up and trust you, and treat you with similar respect. That's the magic of little acts of kindness.

They're all normal people

I was curious to understand what made people like Richard, as well as the 40 outstanding entrepreneurs around, as successful and beautiful as they are. On the outside, you see highly accomplished individuals, who probably don't sleep, eat, or defecate from grinding, together with having the answer to most questions about our world and where it's heading, and have already figured what life is about. Or at the very least, some minified version of a superhuman, superior in ability and skill to the layman.

I may say that I was a little surprised at the outcome... When you turn the work mode off and just hang out, they all really seem to be normal people — with their fears, traumas, challenges, insecurities, uncertainty about life, psychological patterns, and, well, not knowing everything 🤣.

However, I noticed that high-impact entrepreneurs have a few, very slight, character traits which propel them hugely forward and provide an asymmetric return. In no certain order, that is:

• Curiosity — the desire to understand something new when you see it
• Growth mindset — the desire to get at least slightly better at something on a regular basis. It compounds!
• Discipline — when you decide that something be done, it gets done
• Ambition — the simple wish to create something bigger and better than what is easily achievable

Note, that none of that sounds so extraordinary. But it gets you moving towards the right direction, and eventually, slowly but surely, you'll get somewhere 🚀

Engine failing

Sweat dripping

Iron tearing

Heart racing

Enemy trailing

Fear overwhelming

Windows breaking

Eyes closing

Critical failing

Blood spilling

Instruments spinning

No precedent

Thinking

Loving

Existing

Dreaming

Living

Engine shutting

Muscles failing

Target acquiring

Consciousness fading

Missile approaching

Spirit leaving

Cockpit burning

Time ending

Radio playing

Bravo Alpha

We'll miss you

I did well

I did incredible

Good enough

Falling is human

Failing is human

Limits are human

I look right

Through fire

A photo

Glass shattered

Myself

Is this myself

Am I myself

Who am I to judge impossibility

Who am I to convince

Who am I to assume

Who am I to limit

Who am I to expect

Who am I to decide

Who am I to estimate

Who am I to kill

Who am I to extinguish

Who am I to not be

Where's my responsibility

Fire raging

Power bursting

Glass flying

Nebula exploding

Iron melting

Stars collapsing

Missile penetrating

Atoms fusing

Wings falling

Quarks dissipating

I am not myself

With my knife

I slit it

Blood bursting

All the doubt

All the conflict

All the judgement

All the impossibility

All the crime

I am not done

Wound closing

Sweat dripping

Heart pumping

Time resuming

Eyes peeking

Eyebrows intimidating

Forehead wrinkling

Wheel steering

Last fuel

Throttle raising

Let's go

Show me what you got

Lets talk about yourself

You're incredible

You're an example to be followed

Admired

In all the right aspects

You wish the good for yourself

Above all, you wish the good of others

The greater purpose

Good job

You're on the right path

Yet there's this part about you

Very small

Insignificant you'd argue

One which creates confusion

With the rest of yourself

One which deviates you from your values

One which holds the potential

To erode the otherwise

Overwhelmingly good you

Make no compromise

Its power should be feared

It seeks evil

Death

Suffering

Pain

You wish that

To yourself

To everyone

To the greater good

That's pathetic

And sad

And worthy of the deepest shame

It spreads like a tumour

Hiding itself behind

Tiny and insignificant things

You pass it on

Unknowingly

Unwillingly

And everyone else does the same

Respect yourself

Don't compromise yourself

Be consistent

Hold your values with integrity

You can do that

Be the one to take the stand

Be the one to fight

Against all odds

Seek uncertainty

Seek genuine good

Become the example of others

Become the opportunity

That cures them

You can do that too

However

If you decide that you don't want to

If you decide

That you don't want

A positive and fulfilling life

For you and everyone involved

I won't respect degeneration

I won't tolerate destruction

I won't forgive evil

It is not your responsibility to consider me

That is true

It isn't to respect me

To tolerate me

To fulfill my desires

Yet it is your responsibility to serve the greater good

To surrender to it

To evolve our world

And you're failing that

Miserably

I will show you the opportunity

And if you don't take it

I don't care what you think you need

Honestly

I will make you fix that

Ruthlessly

Shamelessly

I will use force

I will use leverage

I will change your circumstances

So you're forced to adapt

I might even hurt you

Intentionally

Without hesitation

For sometimes it is the only way

To help you

Dear living being

I love you

Unconditionally

You're truly incredible

Which is why it hurts so much

To hurt you

Intentionally

Purposefully

It hurts me to hurt the very same someone

For whom I want to alleviate pain

May that be counterproductive but believe me

Sometimes

It

Is

Necessary

As necessary as wishing for the common good

For which it leads us closer to

It pains me to hurt the same someone I wish to cure

I risk losing you

In whichever form I had you

To serve the greater good

To show you the right path

For people resist change

And sometimes

The only way to achieve change

Is to risk losing all

I stand committed behind my values

To create death

To wish upon the destruction of the world

Is

Unfortunately for you

Not among them

Dear human being

Dear world cohabitant

I love you

I want us to love each other

Not all is lost

You can change

You can reconsider your values

You wish to serve the greater good

In all of the right ways

And you're doing that. Well.

I only hope I've given you the opportunity to understand

How you're trashing all of that

With an apparently

Tiny and insignificant thing

I honestly hope that you'll reconsider

The damage and destruction you're wishing

Upon yourself

Upon me

Upon all of us

For many

You truly are

An example to be followed

I only wish you could become

One for me as well

I saw you

you were happy

I was happy

we talked

we had fun

And then you did it

very normal, innocent

and it scared me

you showed it

I saw it

there it was standing

It is scary

dangerous

In it I saw

all our own falacies

I saw what separates man

from any animal

the ability to desire evil

destruction

without meaning and purpose

I saw the death of human spirit

the definition of personal degradation

the embodiment of the devil himself

the wish for destruction without rebuild

evil in its purest form

the peak of stupidity

absurdity

erosion

the desire to damage others

for the sake of damaging oneself

it's not even selfish

for it to be

you need to gain something

The void

death

entropy

emptiness

meaninglessness

The strongest enemy to man

the only worth fighting

the only impossible feat

the only to guarantee

immense personal growth

to anyone who challenges it

ascension to heaven

the ubermensch

What charges with power

what gives life, meaning, purpose

that immense

immaculate strength

the wish to destroy the destruction

And then rebuild

rebuild what was taken away

by our own selves

resolve our own mysery

stop looking for responsibility

and start taking one of our own selves.

stop aiming high

while you have nowhere to stand

you keep sinking

blinded

misguided by your own self

for recovery must come from within

and so it begins

the war of wars

You look

You keep looking

You go to every place in this world

And keep searching

You talk to every person ever born

And keep seeking

And alas

The effort pays off

Finally!

And nothing changed

And you don't know why

And you're confused

Aimless

Worthless

Empty

So you think

You strategise

And you look somewhere else

You keep looking

Our society is in great danger

Too much thinking, too little doing.

Too much planning, too little feeling.

Too much mind, too little human.

Wolves hunt

Monkeys hang

Raindeer run

Cats lay

Hampsters mate

But humans ...

No, humans think.

That mind.

Limitless ability.

Limitless opportunity.

And it is the mind which speaks

The mind which decides

The mind which plans, conquers, achieves

The mind which causes pain and destruction

The mind.

So tell me, friend

Why it is then

That people feel so purposeless

Aimless

The ego is what speaks

Ego is what thinks

Able to move mountains

Able to re-engineer society

Yet is it the ego what feels

Is it the ego which inspires

Motivates

Gives you purpose

Fills you with magic

That immaculate strength

For life has been about experience since forever

A creature managed to emerge

So arrogant

Naive

Such that it decided to ignore that