To become original, you have to try something new, which means accepting some measure of risk. - Adam Grant

It’s more important to be good ancestors than dutiful descendants. Too many people spend their lives being custodians of the past instead of stewards of the future. We worry about making our parents proud when we should be focused on making our children proud. The responsibility of each generation is not to please our predecessors — it’s to improve conditions for our successors.

When we select leaders, we don’t usually pick the person with the strongest leadership skills. We frequently choose the person who talks the most. It’s called the babble effect. Research shows that groups promote the people who command the most airtime — regardless of their aptitude and expertise. We mistake confidence for competence, certainty for credibility, and quantity for quality. We get stuck following people who dominate the discussion instead of those who elevate it.

The greatest communicators of all time,” says communication expert Nancy Duarte — who has spent her career studying the shape of superb presentations — start by establishing “what is: here’s the status quo.” Then, they “compare that to what could be,” making “that gap as big as possible.