Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais - The Power of Quiet Leadership—Action, Impact, and the Climate Crisis with Tenzin Seldon

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

How do you lead with conviction—without losing your center?Tenzin Seldon is a global climate advocate, human rights leader, and one of the first Tibetan-Americans to rise through the ranks ...of elite institutions like Stanford and Oxford. But her story isn’t about prestige—it’s about purpose.Born to Tibetan refugee parents, Tenzin’s life has been shaped by activism, faith, and a deep connection to community. In this conversation, she shares what it means to be “the first,” how ritual and compassion help her stay grounded, and why indigenous wisdom is essential to solving the climate crisis.We explore the inner practices that support outer impact, and the tension between ambition and integrity. Tenzin offers a refreshing perspective—one that moves beyond fear and toward meaningful action.Originally recorded last fall, this episode feels more urgent than ever. As you listen, reflect on what it takes to stay rooted when the world feels uncertain—and how you show up when your values are tested.__________________Learn more about Tenzin’s climate investment work at www.pulsefund.com_________________Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMasteryGet exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindsetFollow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Finding Mastery is brought to you by Remarkable. In a world that's full of distractions, focused thinking is becoming a rare skill and a massive competitive advantage. That's why I've been using the Remarkable Paper Pro, a digital notebook designed to help you think clearly and work deliberately. It's not another device filled with notifications or apps.
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Starting point is 00:01:19 well, we don't typically invest in climate, but we like your returns. And that's what I want to hear. It's a $23 trillion economy in the next five to seven years. What does it take to lead with purpose without losing your sense of self? Welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I am your host, Dr. Michael Gervais. I trade and training a high performance psychologist. This week's guest is Tenzin Selden, a global climate advocate, a human rights leader, and a spiritual force. Urgency has this caveat that it has to be loud, ferocious. But where I grew up with my parents,
Starting point is 00:01:52 I learned that urgency actually is quiet and consistent. It's about showing up every single day to solve the same problem. Born to Tibetan refugee parents and then educated at Stanford and Oxford, Tenzin's journey is a remarkable blend of activism and grounded wisdom. I really felt in all of my classes that it did not matter where I came from. When you're treated with absolute equality, it really allows for someone to be able to explore their full intellectual, psychological capacity. And that's what Stanford allowed me to do. We talk about the cost of being the first, the quiet power of faith and ritual,
Starting point is 00:02:28 and how she's learned to navigate systems while staying true to her values. It's hard to know what your gifts are if you don't know who you are. I spent a considerable amount of time to naturally not just become an introvert and be comfortable in the introversion, but also in the introspection.
Starting point is 00:02:45 Now, as you listen, maybe you can notice how Tenzin stays rooted in compassion while navigating very complex global issues. Sometimes don't sleep at night thinking about soon-to-be refugees who will not have homes. If you look at Maldives, Miami, that are expected to be underwater, and we're not talking underwater in 50, 60 years. We're talking in decades. And so what do you do with the mass of people that have to now relocate? And then hopefully you'll reflect on how you respond when the demands of the world challenge your values, when those demands challenge your sense of being calm.
Starting point is 00:03:15 With that, let's jump right in. So Tenzin, how are you? I'm good. Thank you so much for having me, Michael. Yeah, this is great. So we will just bring the listener in. We met through a mutual friend. Yes. And Brian is my financial advisor. And he pulled me aside and he's like, there's someone that you have to meet. And we're at a surf ranch, at Kelly Slater's surf
Starting point is 00:03:43 ranch of all things. You're new to surfing, right? I was new. That was the first time. That was the first time. I grew up surfing. Yeah. And then our conversation just felt like it was natural. Yes.
Starting point is 00:03:55 Like it was supposed to happen that way. At the ping pong table. It was at the ping pong table. When we were playing ping pong. Yeah. And so, Brian, thank you for making this conversation come to life. Brian's one of our investors and an exceptional wealth advisor. He is.
Starting point is 00:04:13 Oh, I didn't know he's part of your fund. I did not know that. He is. Oh, he's bearing the lead. He is bearing the lead. Okay. So I want to read something about you. And then these are your accolades.
Starting point is 00:04:24 And it's a little overwhelming when I read what you've done with your life, but I just want to list it. Okay. You are a globally recognized climate leader, founder of multiple companies and venture capitalist over two decades of experience in the climate sector. You're the founder and managing partner of Pulse Fund, which is what we're just mentioning, a venture capitalist climate fund, a top graduate of Stanford University. Well done. The first Tibetan American Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. Well done.
Starting point is 00:04:55 And you were also named an innovative disruptor at the United Nations and most likely to impact the next century by Forbes magazine. So when I read that back to you, how does that land with you? I think that doesn't land because for me, I've always felt that I'm much more than my accolades or what on paper I know the experience of what it took to get there. So I think that it's a real experience for me, and it's not about looking back as much as it is about being able to fully focus on where I am now. You just revealed part of your life philosophy, which is like, okay, that's cool. That's all kind of noisy stuff.
Starting point is 00:05:43 It's great. It's wonderful. I don't identify with that. I identify with being here now, like how I'm doing my life in this moment. Is that fair to say? Yes. I grew up as a Tibetan Buddhist. So for me, my father and family members, I have family members who are monastics. They meditated in the mountains, some for decades. And one of the things that they taught me at an early age was to be able to think and plan in terms of eons. So when you think and plan in terms of eons, five, 10 years seems so inconsequential, just like in a day, five, 10 minutes doesn't seem as consequential, but it is yet still
Starting point is 00:06:22 consequential. And so that's how I was raised and that's how I lived my life. And this was, you were raised in India? I was raised primarily in Northern India. Okay. Is there a family lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in your family? Is that, so this wasn't like first generation? No, no. It's, I would say it would date back maybe even tens of thousands of years, yes. And this is where I wanted to start it because you're a venture capitalist. You're different than every other venture capitalist that I know. First, I don't know anyone that's got a fund that's a climate fund.
Starting point is 00:06:57 And I know that there's climate funds in the world. So I don't know if people that are running venture capitalist climate funds are like you or not, but you're different. You, you've got a different relationship with money. You've got a different relationship with the planet. You are organizing people in your world to do something that's amazingly important and also at the same time, financially rewarding. So at least that's how I experienced our first conversation. And I said, okay, I need to understand what's underneath. Like, how did you design your life?
Starting point is 00:07:32 And then I also want to activate our community. And I know you've, and I said that word, and I know that you've got a real sore spot with activism. And so I do want to talk about that. I don't know if it's sore, but activism. And so I do want to talk about that. I don't know if it's sore, but yes. Well, okay. That's good.
Starting point is 00:07:49 We'll get into it. Yes. But so how you designed your life and some of the rich insights you have about living a great life, the good life, if you will, and then also like celebrate what you're trying to do for the planet. Right. Okay. So let's just start at the beginning. What was it like growing up?
Starting point is 00:08:13 For me, growing up is hard to capture in words, especially in English. I always find English is so limited because English doesn't give the apparatus of spiritual depth of experience that I grew up in. So I grew up in the Himalayas, in the hilltops of the Himalayas in India. My father and mother independently fled, you know, did a month plus long journey through winding through the Himalayas and fled, fled, walked on foot. Okay. Like goat sandal type of thing. I would say even, yeah, maybe yak sandal, not goats. A little higher elevated. A little bit higher elevated animals. So they walked a months long journey winding through the Himalayas and literally dodging soldiers bullets to be able to make it to India. I lost a couple of family members during the course of that journey and afterwards in the transition of acclimatizing to India. Because you can imagine growing up for them 13, 14, 15,000 feet in the mountains
Starting point is 00:09:11 to then coming at sea level in Delhi was a culture shock. And so that level of nuance and paradigm was ingrained in me when I grew up in India. And so the language bit is what you're pointing to? I would say everything from the weather. And I grew up in India. And so the language bit is what you're pointing to? I would say everything from the weather. Because in the Himalayas, in Tibet, it's much more of extreme weather. It's colder and cooler. It's very clean.
Starting point is 00:09:39 It was very clean when they were growing up. And then to come to a metropolitan city like Delhi, where even vegetation, you know, there's, you can't really grow crops and plants and fruits 16,000 feet up high. So there's only a limited amount of vegetables, we can grow potatoes, barley, that's what we were limited to then to come to India with the spices with bananas. I remember my father telling me stories of his family members not even really being able to properly eat a banana because they'd never seen it before. So they used to sometimes eat it raw. And so... What do you mean? Like the outside? Sorry. With the... Yes. Oh, with the stem?
Starting point is 00:10:19 They eat it with the stem. Oh, my goodness. Okay. So now your parents did that and then had you in India. You were born in India. I was raised in the Himalayas. Correct. Raised in India. Correct. Okay.
Starting point is 00:10:34 All right. So I'm trying to map. Like how can I possibly map to your experience? And the best I can do is I was born on a farm or raised on a farm from a very young age, dirt roads, no streetlights, running well. So my parents pretty much dropped out and moved to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. And then fourth grade comes around, and I find myself in the suburbs of California. Wow. Yeah. How did that happen? My dad, I guess, in the suburbs of California. Wow.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Yeah. How did that happen? My dad, I guess, kind of wanted to get a job. Yeah. Well, he had a job. But, like, it was a serious moment to uproot the family to go for a bigger, better way. And so I was like a total fish out of water. Like, I say this endearingly.
Starting point is 00:11:23 I was like a hillbilly as a kid. And then one day dropped into suburbia. I really did not fit in properly. So I can kind of map that for your family, but it's 200 X richer what you described. And as I describe it, I know that it would fall way short in what it would take for parents to be able to flee, you know, but just that small linking of like what it's like to feel like a fish out of water but you didn't have that the the fish out of water yeah no because we personally didn't no i did when i came to america yes absolutely i felt that's where you had like a very very different fish out of out of it felt like a different water altogether i think how old were you i was a adolescent year
Starting point is 00:12:03 so it was a young, young adolescent years. So I did middle school, high school in America, in Minnesota of all places. So your parents are courageous and adventurous. I don't know if I would say adventurous, but I would say courageous. Courageous. Do they talk in ways where their imagination is illuminating a better future? Do they use language to illuminate their vision? I find Tibetans and my father and mother are very much cut from that cloth of the Tibetan ethos and Buddhist upbringing. It's not so much adventurous
Starting point is 00:12:41 in the way that we would define in Silicon Valley, where it's let's think of the way of stemming our planet and rebirthing differences, movements. It's not quite that way. But it's in the presence that they offered. It's in the small levels of action every single day that was repeated. Even the word urgency. I learned in America that urgency has this caveat that it has to be loud and ferocious. But where I grew up with my parents, I learned that urgency actually is quiet and consistent. It's about showing up every single day to solve the same problem. And that is the Tibetan indigenous ethos. It doesn't have to be so loud. It doesn't have to be big and visionary. It just has to be consistent. The urgency of being on time
Starting point is 00:13:33 with this moment, because if you miss it, you've missed it. Yeah, exactly. Right. And so there is an urgency that comes with respecting the fleeting nature of the unfolding moment that just passed. And I think that what they taught me was doing the practice. And whatever that encompasses is like if a woman has her dress on fire, she takes care of it immediately. That's the practice. You take care of it at every moment. It's not something you have aside at 5 p.m. or at night or in the morning. It's not a separation,
Starting point is 00:14:13 but an integration. So the science framing of that is from skill to state to trait. And the idea is there's some sort of skill to practice so that you can have that state of mind more often. And then if you have that state of mind a lot, because the skill is really robust, then it over time turns into an enduring trait. It's a really, it sounds nice, but the idea is that this is a moment to meditate and not just on the pillow, right? This is a moment to meditate and not just on the pillow right this is a moment to be present not just when you do your 5 p.m training interesting um this is a moment to practice a dignified posture not just when and so um there's there's an eloquence in in honoring the fragility of life and not getting swallowed up by it because if i if i i can find myself
Starting point is 00:15:03 get swallowed up like it's so sad. What do you mean? Just like life in general? Well, there's a sadness to like how many moments I've missed because I've been in my head or I've been pissed off or I've been scared or I've overworried about things. And so I've missed a lot because of that. And because of that pain slash suffering, and I'd love to hear your take on the difference of the two, that it sharpens me to be more attentive now. So I don't want to not feel all of that. I want to feel all of it to help me be more present now. Now.
Starting point is 00:15:40 Yeah. But do you feel that your practice in Zen tradition has allowed you to practice this compassion for yourself in those moments? Yeah, that's exactly. I didn't really understand what compassion was for most of my adult life. And then to better understand how I can only give what I have. So I have to have that first, compassion of self, before there's compassion of others. So at least that's how I've developed it. There's probably a million ways to do it. And so that is part of the practice.
Starting point is 00:16:15 And for me, it comes in a form of more of a gratitude practice, which is, it sounds, this will always fall short, I'm sure. Tenzin is, like, this morning I woke up up, like I'm really grateful for my eyes. Right, right. Being kind to my eyes, you know. Right, all day. So all my friends are saying, what are you talking about? As you look at the screen.
Starting point is 00:16:37 Yeah, right, oh God, here we go, right, that's right. Finding Mastery is brought to you by LinkedIn Sales Solutions. In any high-performing environment that I've been part of, from elite teams to executive boardrooms, one thing holds true. Meaningful relationships are at the center of sustained success. And building those relationships, it takes more than effort. It takes a real caring about your people.
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Starting point is 00:18:08 linkedin.com slash deal for two full months for free. Terms and conditions apply. Finding Mastery is brought to you by David Protein. I'm pretty intentional about what I eat, and the majority of my nutrition comes from whole foods. And when I'm traveling or in between meals on a demanding day, certainly I need something quick that will support the way that I feel and think and perform. And that's why I've been leaning on David protein bars. And so has the team here at Finding Mastery. In fact, our GM, Stuart, he loves them so much. I just want to kind of quickly put them on the spot. Stuart, I know you're listening. I think you might be the reason that we're running out of these bars so quickly. They're incredible, Mike. I love them. One a day, one a day. What do you mean one a day?
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Starting point is 00:20:09 So, okay. So as we're talking about philosophy, what I'm most interested in is how has it shaped you? Let's jump to when you came to the U.S. Did you come with an idea that I'm coming to the United States to go to the great education whatever system? Yes and no. I had this very elusive idea that many Tibetans and Indians have of what the United States means for us and represents. I mean, the soft part of the U.S. is felt around the world. Everybody has some idea or an inclination of what America means. I just knew it was raw power. As a young kid, that's how you felt? Yes, absolutely. Raw power
Starting point is 00:20:52 in the sense of being able to be malleable, being able to learn, being able to open up and have the capacity. I had an idea of it, even though I didn't, you know, we didn't really have access to TV, definitely, certainly not to news. I grew up in, I went to school in a boarding school. And so I grew up really remote from everyday life. And I just, my father and brother came one day and told me we're going to America because they reconnected with my mother a decade or so later. It was a long time. And she won the immigration lottery. So it was really a lot of chance encounters that happened.
Starting point is 00:21:37 So how do you find yourself at Stanford? So, I mean, it's like the water. It's like when someone is thirsty, they will enjoy and really take every sip of this water and be able to celebrate it. And that's what it was for me when I came to America. I was in Minnesota of all places. So you can imagine from the mountains of India to Minnesota is quite a transition. I think I'm better prepared now for Mars than I was then for Minnesota. Because that was, everything was so just, it was a culture shock. But the insight there is rich, which is like when you, if you're thirsty, you're going to enjoy every morsel of water that you have.
Starting point is 00:22:19 And so you were thirsty for something. And that was the education, the growth potential that you felt here, the raw power to be your very best, to be, I don't want to put words in your mouth of the Tibetan lineage that I received. Even though my family, having left their country and all of their resources, had nothing in India, what we did have was a very strong sense of community and a richness of connection, which was very difficult to find in America. Very difficult. It took decades. I mean, that's the idea of like LA is a tough place. It's because you don't really know your neighbors.
Starting point is 00:23:15 Right. I think, so living here most of my adult life, like it's the five families that you do know and being really connected. Now, they might be a couple miles up the road. They might, whatever. It's not your five that are on your block. Right. And it's not necessarily your uncle, aunt, grandmother. Maybe, if you're lucky and they live in the same area. Right.
Starting point is 00:23:39 But it's having your connection to your people. Yes. Yeah. And practicing compassion, as we talked about. It's having your connection to your people. Yes. Yeah. And practicing compassion, as we talked about, meaning, you know, when we had someone who had just fled from Tibet that day, I mean, we knew how treacherous that journey was. So the entire community came in and chipped in to really help them acclimate to India, to help them find room and board, to help them take care of their children, to help them go to school and learn the language. It was a community effort always. And so when I went to Minnesota and, you know, had to start school there, it was a, the culture shock was not the physical culture shock of new environment. It was the ethos and perspectives
Starting point is 00:24:26 that I just couldn't really connect or relate with. How did you manage that? I think, number one, as children, we're very resilient. So relying on that inner resilience. And number two, I think the training of, even as a young child, my parents taught me prayer and meditation and going inward and I think that the self-compass is always there and so that's I just relied heavily on that and
Starting point is 00:24:52 then having my brothers to be able to do that the other interesting fact that people don't realize about Minnesota is that it's a home to one of the largest diasporic community of Somalian, Hmong and Tibetans and other refugee communities because they've nestled and created enclaves there. And so there was almost a like-minded family component to these communities interacting with one another. That's really rich. And how, let's go back to compassion one more time. How would you help me be more compassionate?
Starting point is 00:25:25 I don't know if someone can help or teach you to be more compassionate. I think compassion, the difference between empathy, sympathy, and compassion for me is action. Compassion requires action. And so that action can be the inner action or an external action, but it requires some sort of underlying fundamental. I will make this change, and that's how I will represent compassion. Yeah. Yeah, it's the action bit, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:25:53 Like my wife, her family came from Cuba, now Salvador, so they're immigrants as well. I would not call them adventurers, but they went on a radical adventure. They fled for different reasons, again, to use your language. And one of the things that she says is like, yeah, words are good. Yes. Right? Like they are.
Starting point is 00:26:14 They're nice. They're good. But the actions are really what's foundational. So when you talk about compassion, you're saying actions for yourself and actions for others and doing it out of a place of understanding the emotional experience that you're having or the others having. You've mentioned energy a handful of times. So I want to understand what do you mean by energy? For me, you know, I use it in multiple different contexts, but I think it depends on the context. But energy is just, as I said, raw forms of power that all of us have within us.
Starting point is 00:26:52 And that power doesn't have, as I said, it doesn't have to be loud and big. Energy can be very subtle. Are we talking chi? Are we talking something different than that? I think, yes, it could be chi. I think that in the form of money, that's a form of energy. In the form of capital and moving capital, that's another form of energy. In the form of bridging communities and bridging action, that's another energy.
Starting point is 00:27:21 But when you said it, there's a subtlety to it but there's also a power like you were holding those two variables um i could feel it when you said it so the reason i went to chi is because i felt like you had just tapped into what we would call chi right i don't know if you felt that or not but what just happened for you? Tapping into the chi. Well, I don't know if it was chi or not. I just tried to put a word to it. But what happened to you when you were – I mean, that's the thing with words.
Starting point is 00:27:51 It's like it's so limiting that I – But what happened to you? What happened to me when I said – Like 12 seconds ago. I think I just, yeah, went into that reservoir to embody it because sometimes words can help us embody the energy that we're trying to communicate. Okay, this is what I thought.
Starting point is 00:28:11 I didn't know what you were going to say about this part of being. That reservoir, I want to understand what that means. And then aligning to the reservoir has led you to Stanford, Rhodes Scholar to Oxford, and a very important climate fund. Okay. So yeah, great. We can celebrate.
Starting point is 00:28:37 This is like when people watch the Olympics and we're like, oh my God, they're so amazing. I could never do that. Bullshit on that. You might not be 6'2 with a 40-inch vertical. Of course. I understand that. However, the way that they've organized their life to know their gifts and talents and refine the skills is very uncommon. It's a fundamental commitment to organize your life to reveal and express what you're capable of. And when you can take those gifts and skills and that dogged perseverance to stay in that refinement phase for a long period of And like you're making, I don't know, 28% return on investment, but we're making cocktail umbrellas that are meaningless.
Starting point is 00:29:32 That's not going to, you probably turn that for like four years and then be quite miserable with yourself and have lots of money and be completely disaligned. Misaligned. All right. So, okay, this is the gold now. What's the reservoir and how do you align to the reservoir? Because if the listener can do that, if I can do that more often, I feel like we're talking now about the recipe to live well. I agree. I think the reservoir is, in order to be able to know what the reservoir is, you have to be in the reservoir and you have to be comfortable in the reservoir. And that is the internal work that many people miss. So it's like it's hard to know what your gifts are if you don't know who you are.
Starting point is 00:30:14 And so I spent a considerable amount of time in my life because of the fact that I was in some ways very alone growing up in all of these contexts where I was different and seen as either unique, special, or different. All of those categories allow for there to be a separation. And that separation gave me a lot of space and time to naturally not just become an introvert and be comfortable in the introversion, but also in the introspection. And so the reservoir for me of energy is directing it where a friend told me this is going and meeting the future, but also having the future meet me. And so being very clear and judicious about what it is that I am doing. So when I came to America in 10th grade, I learned the term climate change.
Starting point is 00:31:08 And Michael, for me, that was a very monumental moment because all of my life growing up in the Himalayas, I saw with my own two eyes the impact of the climate catastrophe, but I did not have words around it. Most people who are the first to be impacted by climate are the last to know what's happening because many of them are poor, disenfranchised, or uneducated. So the edification of the climate movement has really not met with the people who live there.
Starting point is 00:31:37 And for me, seeing that and not knowing what was happening, and when I would go to the adults in the room, they would often tell me that it was the wrath of the gods, the anger of Krishna or Shiva that was bringing down the hailstorms and heating up the water systems. And I knew fundamentally in my gut that that was not right. So when I came to America, and in geography class in 10th grade, I learned the term climate change. It was that moment of the complete reservoir meeting its moment. It was like, this is what's happening in my country. This is what's happening to the planet. And this is what's destroying our ecosystem. So when you think about reservoir, I want to, I have an idea that I want to share with you, but I don't want to, I don't want to introduce an idea.
Starting point is 00:32:28 I just want to ask the question, and then I want to calibrate. So reservoir is like you're using a container and let's call it a liquid that it's holding or an energy that it's holding in this case. How do you build the container properly and or how do you fill the container with resources? Like what are the ways that you think about that? I think fortunately or unfortunately, some people are born with transmutated containers that are very evolved. So if you're one of those people, then, you know, good for you for your past karmas. But if you are one that's starting, like I feel in many ways I was, I think it is, it's time and perspective to be able to know how you want to build that reservoir of energy,
Starting point is 00:33:21 knowing how much you have. Some people naturally have endless amount of energy and prana and others have to build even 5% of that. And knowing the limitation of that energy source, I think is really critical. And knowing what builds it. So you said introvert, right? And introvert means, doesn't mean shy. It doesn't mean socially awkward. It doesn't mean that you don't know what to say at a party. It doesn't mean you don't like to dance. What introversion means is that I gather my energy in a more quiet way. And I take in information from the world. I love one-on-one, one-on-two conversations. A cartoon character of an introvert has big eyes and big ears. It's got to go,
Starting point is 00:34:07 I'm taking in information, I'm making sense of it, I'm thinking and feeling, thinking and feeling. And when it comes out, pay attention. It's gone through some filters here. It's gone through some tumblers and chambers
Starting point is 00:34:17 and I understand what I'm saying. Right, right, right, right. The extroverts look like they're the life of the party. They're changing their mind mid-sentence publicly four times. So they drive the introverts crazy. But we celebrate the extrovert because of the gregariousness of it. Correct.
Starting point is 00:34:38 However, extroverts gather energy from being around people. Introverts gather energy in a very different way. So knowing how to feed energy and how to recover from the opposite is a really important. But at the same time, for me, as I said, I'm a natural introvert, but I'm a learned extrovert. There is a difference. It's a crisis if you don't think about it like a light switch and you want to be able to go it's more like a dimming switch right but let's just for for binary reasons do on and off um to know how to be able to flip it to an introvert and flip it to an
Starting point is 00:35:18 extrovert if you only know one yes it's a crisis waiting to happen. 100%. Right. Because if it's introvert and you're always trying to be an extrovert, but you're abandoning your true self, it's a problem now. Absolutely. And if you're an introvert and you stay in that gear and don't flex the extrovert gear, that's a problem too. Same for the extroverts. 100%. And it's more like a dimmer than it is, you know is the duality of things. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Momentus. When it comes to high performance, whether you're leading a team, raising a family, pushing physical limits, or simply trying to be better today than you were yesterday, what you put
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Starting point is 00:36:38 And together, these foundational nutrients support muscle recovery, brain function, and long-term energy. They're part of my daily routine. And if you're ready to fuel your brain and body with the best, Momentus has a great new offer just for our community right here. Use the code FINDINGMASTERY for 35% off your first subscription order at livemomentus.com. Again, that's L-I-V-E, Momentus, M-O-M-E-N-T-O-U-S, livemomentous.com and use the code Finding Mastery for 35% off your first subscription order. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Felix Gray. I spent a lot of time thinking about how we can create the conditions for high performance.
Starting point is 00:37:22 How do we protect our ability to focus, to recover, to be present? And one of the biggest challenges we face today is our sheer amount of screen time. It messes with our sleep, our clarity, even our mood. And that's why I've been using Felix Grey glasses. What I appreciate most about Felix Grey is that they're just not another wellness product. They're rooted in real science. Developed alongside leading researchers and ophthalmologists, they've demonstrated these types of glasses boost melatonin, help you fall asleep faster, and hit deeper stages of rest. When I'm on the road and bouncing around between time zones, slipping on my Felix Grey's in the evening, it's a simple way to cue my body just to wind down. And when I'm locked into deep work, they also help me stay focused for longer without digital fatigue creeping in. Plus, they look great. Clean,
Starting point is 00:38:11 clear, no funky color distortion. Just good design, great science. And if you're ready to feel the difference for yourself, Felix Gray is offering all Finding Mastery listeners 20% off. Just head to FelixGray.com and use the code FINDINGMASTERY20 at checkout. Again, that's Felix Gray. You spell it F-E-L-I-X-G-R-A-Y.com and use the code FINDINGMASTERY20 at FelixGray.com for 20% off. And I think as you said, circumstances and environments can bring different parts of you out as well, like can bring different shapes of you and different parts of your energy. So for example, like in my graduate school, when I was at Oxford, I felt I was a lot more extroverted because of the fact that I wanted
Starting point is 00:38:54 to explore what life had to offer in a place that was psychologically safe, and also novel and so rich in history and tradition. And so I think in different moments in our lives, we have to be able to get that energy source from different ways. And have a boundary of like my recovery processes, like whatever that means. It might be cold shower, hot bath. I don't know. It might be napping. It could be walking by yourself.
Starting point is 00:39:24 It could be lots of yourself. It could be lots of ways. Okay. And it could be going to a party for some odd reason that helps extroverts. I used to be way more extroverted. I'm falling to the mean. Okay. There is a contour to the way that you use your words that I just want to highlight. It's you, you're not using right angles. You're not using easily available emblems. There's a contour to what you're doing, which I really appreciate. So, okay. In a sentence, what'd you learn at Stanford? In a sentence? As a reductionist.
Starting point is 00:40:07 Yes. I learned that there could be a place where if learning was completely equitable, that that's what it would feel like. I really felt in all of my classes that it did not matter who my family members were, where I came from, because what mattered was the intellectual capacity and vitality you brought in that classroom. It didn't matter if I was in a classroom with Reed Jobs or with, you know, a daughter or son of a very prominent person who had been almost trained and groomed to be at Stanford. And I certainly was not groomed to be there. But it mattered that we were treated absolutely equitably.
Starting point is 00:40:48 That was the first place that I was treated completely as equal. And it's not just that they're just like you, Michael. It's that the people in power and influence treat you equally. I think that also matters. Yeah, it's the equal part that is so... Like in sport, one of the things I love about sport, when it's done right, it's a meritocracy. Like if you can do it, you can do it.
Starting point is 00:41:20 Now, and if you can't get it done, that there's somebody else that we wanna give a shot. So like it's based on your merit and and you're using the word equal and in what way are we talking about equal equal in the opportunity to explore oneself there it is so you came back again one more time to introspection so this is a theme that keeps coming up for you okay to look within to get to the truth i think that i just added To look within, to get to the truth. I think that I just added that. Is that right? To get to the truth of something? I would say so, yes. And that is how you expand your reservoir and actually fill the energy within. When you keep
Starting point is 00:41:58 getting down to the truth of something, the reservoir goes, oh, wait, hold on. It's bigger than that. Oh, it's bigger. Oh, wait. It's actually there's no container. Huh. This is weird. I feel out of control now. I'm so powerful. Right.
Starting point is 00:42:11 Right. Yeah. Okay. So how did the feeling of being treated equally impact the next phase of your life? It allowed me to rise and to be able to fully explore all parts of me and know that there will be an absence of judgment in doing so. Because I think that when you are a refugee person of any kind, there's always a fear of judgment. Like there's this feeling of, oh, I'm indebted to this country. I'm indebted to these people. I'm indebted to this land. I'm indebted to this system. I'm indebted to this governance. And when you feel indebted to something, you always are fearful of judgment. And so when you're treated with absolute equality, there is an absence of judgment. And so it really allows for someone to
Starting point is 00:43:07 be able to explore their full intellectual, psychological capacity. And that's what Stanford allowed me to do. And that's why I was able to be the first Tibetan American Rhodes Scholar, because of that capacity. That's so cool. And that was a long process, Michael. No, no, no. And I think where I want to, I just want to highlight is with the equalness, the feeling of equal, there's a responsibility. So it's not like some adult or those people in power are going to fix, whether it's climate or the burning dress. It's my job. Like we're equals here. That's right. I have a responsibility.
Starting point is 00:43:48 Yeah, I have a responsibility to co-designing my life and are co-designing some solutions. Yes. So Rhodes Scholar, I imagine that in your living room, that was quite the celebration. I think for the school, yes. For the school? And what about for the school, yes. For the school. And what about
Starting point is 00:44:05 for your family? Yes. My family supported me in celebrating and they were just thrilled. They were really excited for me. I think they were also a little bit lost for words. They didn't know how to capture it because it just wasn't an expectation in any way. But my father especially was consistently always like, yes, you could do this. In your community growing up, did you feel like you were a sure thing or you were an underdog? We don't have those distinctions. So I didn't feel either one. What did you feel? I didn't quite feel those two, but I felt different because of the fact that in India, the girl child is usually the one that eats after the boy child does. And yet my father made sure that I ate
Starting point is 00:44:55 same time that I was treated as an equal. And I think that in some ways he was very forward in his approach in treating me with a level of dignity and respect I deserve, which wasn't translated in India, in the country context. So I had it in my little home, in my pocket of safety. But then when I would step outside, it would be all of these other altering messages. And so the reconciliation of the two was often the difficult thing for me. Yeah, right. Like I feel this way around people that love me and support me, and then I feel differently when I'm in a boarding school
Starting point is 00:45:35 and not really quite knowing how to navigate that. That's right. And then explain to the listener why the Rhodes Scholar is such a big deal. I don't know if I'm the right person to explain that. So the Rhodes Scholarship is a two- to three-year scholarship to go to Oxford, and it's a full-ride scholarship. There's 32 Rhodes Scholars that are selected in the United States. It's a very lengthy process.
Starting point is 00:46:00 People work, I feel, years for it. The actual process itself is about a year. It's amazing. And California, Hawaii, and Nevada have two Rhodes Scholars per year. So the three states combined, and that's a lot of people. That's a lot of people. So you have to be endorsed by your school first, and then you go through your region and national. Rad. Rad. Okay. In a sentence, what did you learn from your time at Oxford?
Starting point is 00:46:30 That's a really good question. I learned that tradition and legacy has a role to play, but that true legacy is not just about building more institution, but it's with each person that you leave a little bit of your legacy behind. Because Oxford has such an aura and distinction of being a very legacy-based, tradition-based institution. And I respected it. I appreciated it. But at the same time, I didn't want to be defined by it. I can hear the makings of why you built a venture fund. I can also hear the makings of why you wanted to do something globally significant and at the same time, why it would be successful.
Starting point is 00:47:20 Let's just start with a description of what your venture fund is and what a climate fund is and what you're trying to do here. And then we'll get to partners, if you will. Pulse Fund is a venture capital fund that is investing in high growth, scalable climate tech companies. So we invest across four sectors, energy, food and agriculture, infrastructure and mobility. And within that, we look at vertically integrated companies that have outsized financial wins and outsized climate impact. We're not an impact fund, but we are a financial fund that has impact. There's a distinction. So we don't believe that climate has concessionary returns or needs concessionary returns, although there is a
Starting point is 00:48:05 place for that. We really believe that outsized financial wins that are at market rate or even better will ultimately be the price parity and give the durability for the climate movement. And so for us as a fund, we invest in companies that are high growth, that are tackling some of the most challenging industries in today's both ecosystem and science-based and really data-based. So let's tackle a few things. Vertical integration, meaning that a company has a full stack solution. Correct. Right. So they're controlling a supply chain and an expression of what they're building, right? Like that's how I understand.
Starting point is 00:48:49 For us at Pulse Fund, we don't define it as that you have to control the full vertical integration, the full supply chain or demand, but that you have to at least have two or more pieces of it. Okay. And then did I hear the way that you're describing it is that the difference between an impact fund and your fund is that you are interested in financial returns. You're not interested in – That's our priority. Yeah, you're not interested in just making an impact.
Starting point is 00:49:13 You're saying impact plus. I'm saying that we are a financial fund first because without that being the crux of the foundation, there is no fourth, fifth, hundredth fund. And so in order to have staying power in the world of venture capital and finance, you need to be able to be able to show the returns. And that's what Pulse does, is that it is able to show that we have financial wins through investing in the right companies that are aligned with the planet and that have the right metrics for climate. Yeah. So if somebody wants to align their money to doing good for the planet, you could donate. Yes. Right?
Starting point is 00:49:52 Yes, of course. You could build a company. You could take a piece of a company, invest in a piece of a company for shares and maybe support or send on a board. And you could invest in a fund that is saying, okay, look, we're not just going to go do good in the world. We're going to stay here for the long run. And thank you for your $50 million, $1 million, whatever the ranges are.
Starting point is 00:50:20 Thank you for your money. And we're going to work our asses off to get you a return on that investment. And we're going to place bets in these four verticals that you just described. And the bets, they're going to be sound companies that are vertically integrated. And we believe that they're going to have an XX return on investment over XX years. Yes. And they're going to help solve that specific issue that they're targeting. Right. So whether it's, say them again, agriculture. Food and agriculture, whether it's geothermal, for example, and energy or hydrogen. Now, my experience with VCs are that they're great early on. Right.
Starting point is 00:50:57 They're great. We could, let's imagine if you had $100 million, you know what, we could do this. And how about this? And what are some of your plans? Like, can you write it down? Open up the top of this thing. Imagine if you had unlimited check. Okay, that's fun.
Starting point is 00:51:12 That's great. And then when they need their money back, it's not so fun. So I haven't learned from personal experience. I've learned from people I really respect describing to me what the later stage is when they want their money back and if they don't like how you're performing. So I'm wondering, are they all ruthless? And I met you. I was like, huh, how do you do that?
Starting point is 00:51:38 How do you get to that tension point where you've invested $50 million, let's say, in a business that you really believe and they're underperforming at a seven-year mark. And it's management. It's not the conditions of the external. Management's blowing it. That's right. That happens often. Yeah. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Cozy Earth. Over the years, I've learned that recovery doesn't just happen when we sleep. It starts with how we transition and wind down. And that's why I've built intentional routines into the way that I close my day. And Cozy Earth has become a new part of that. Their bedding, it's incredibly soft, like next level soft. And what surprised me the
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Starting point is 00:54:16 That's calderalab, C-A-L-D-E-R-L-A-B.com slash finding mastery. So I think that for me, it's interesting because I would say that compassion can have many forms, and wrathful is one of them. Oh, keep going. What does this mean? This is why I'm afraid now. Wrathful meaning that actually the most compassionate people are the most boundaried. They're the people who, if you come into their home and you say a racist remark, you say, not in my house, leave. Yeah, cool. And so that's what I practice. You call that wrath?
Starting point is 00:54:51 Wrathful, yes. That's wrathful. Wrathful is actually, in our tradition, it's dakinis. Some dakinis are wrathful, which is positive. It's never negative. So I think that it's a misnomer to presuppose that just because I'm a compassionate person that I am not focused and determined. Ruthless, I think, is a different category altogether. I have gotten to where I am in my life because I have been unwavering in what I need to do and determined in where I need to be. And so for me, when that happens, and that happens often, we're sometimes in venture capital, not necessarily at Pulse, because we do very, very extensive and thorough vetting process. We spend months and months to understand every single thing about not just the company, but also the founders. We sometimes have gone to the lens of even talking to their pastor
Starting point is 00:55:44 to understand, are they an ethical founder? Because we know this is a long-term relationship. So I need to understand, how do you show up in your community? This is how we do it in elite sport, in the NFL for the draft. We talk to the strength coach, we talk to parents, we talk to... No, no, I say we like it's me. It's not me. It's the scouts and GMs. And they even talk to the custodians at their high school.
Starting point is 00:56:13 Like, how does he leave the weight room? Right, right. Like that, right. So that type of character. And that's important. And you saw our data room and you heard about the thoroughness of it is because we're very proud of that because we think that venture capital sometimes has received a bad reputation of going off of gut and instincts and not enough on diligence. And we think it's a balance. And so for us, we lead with our data and
Starting point is 00:56:38 diligence first. And then the other part about gut and vetting the founders on the other measures come in. So when an instance happens, and it happens often in venture capital, because you're taking risks and you're taking bold risks in industries, in companies, in people, in founders, in management teams. And so we believe in risk-adjust adjusted returns. So in making sure that the portfolio is balanced and holistic, and that we come in as active investors that when things are going wrong, we come in before it goes wrong. Because if you are an active investor that's steady and careful and meticulous, you have a sense of when things are going awry and when you have to jump in to make sure that governance is practiced. So solid and clear governance is important. That's why for most of our companies we try to take a board seat or board observer position so that
Starting point is 00:57:39 we understand and have a purview. And to not be afraid to change management teams, to not be afraid to make those important calculated decisions that are right for the fabric of the company and its mission. So in one or two sentences, like, again, this is reductionist because I do want to get to the climate, the actual climate issues. But what makes for a great business? When you think about practices or principles or like processes, people, there's a lot of P's in there. But in your mind,
Starting point is 00:58:13 what makes a great business? I think it's not just one element. For us, as I said, we're holistic thinkers. So what we believe makes a great climate business is being able to look under the hood. So we've defined and outlined strategies of each fund and various different sectors. So within energy, for example, let's take sustainable aviation fuel. the company called 12th that takes carbon from the atmosphere and actually through an electrolyzer that they created, create net zero fuel, sustainable aviation fuel that's completely net zero. I read about this. This is really important.
Starting point is 00:58:54 From carbon. From carbon. In the air that we're breathing. Correct. And they run it through a filter process. An electrolyzer that they've created that they have over 200 patents for. It's interesting, electrolyzer, because that's kind of how our human cells work. Like it goes through an electrical process.
Starting point is 00:59:12 Correct. A conversion of energy. That's right. That's brilliant. So why is the name 12? Well, that is a little bit more complex, but it's the isotopes, 12 isotopes. Yeah, okay. That's a little more nerdy than I'm ready for. Okay, so they are converting an energy to reusable, did you say?
Starting point is 00:59:37 So taking carbon and then through the electrolyzer creating it a net zero fuel. A net zero. So from carbon in the air, it comes out as a liquid that we could throw into a jetliner. Correct. That's being used, actually. They signed the largest contract in history, $3 billion with the IAG group that includes British Airways. Okay. To take it net zero. And so what I'm saying here is that what we did initially is we looked at the sector because we knew we needed in mobility and energy. We needed aviation fuel. We looked at what was the best price parity that could be hit in the next five to ten years.
Starting point is 01:00:15 What does price parity mean? Meaning a company that's going to be able to hit at the same price as fossil fuel industries. Oh, got it. Because climate companies, as you know, a lot of conservatives are worried about this, is that climate companies are more expensive because it's novel, it's new, so it requires more capital. And we need the consumer to say, this is good for the planet.
Starting point is 01:00:38 Correct. And so I'm going to spend a little bit more on my whatever as opposed to my more, I don't know, cost-effective fash-fasten. That's right. Right. I'm going to spend $2 extra on my t-shirt because it's good for the planet. Right. And you're saying that's not going to necessarily be sustainable.
Starting point is 01:00:55 I'm saying that that's not necessarily sustainable, but we require both consumers and policy and corporates to all come in. So, for example, in Texas, wind energy, it's not because Texans are necessarily more of a climate activist that they use clean energy. Oh, I think that's a good statement. It is because in Texas, Texas is the largest producer of wind energy, and so, therefore, it has hit price parity, and it's actually cheaper now. What is cheaper? It's cheaper to have energy from wind, so clean energy. And so therefore it is hit price parity and it's actually cheaper now. What is cheaper?
Starting point is 01:01:25 It's cheaper to have energy from wind. It's a clean energy to power your home than it is fossil. Okay, cool. So therein, invest in wind makes sense. Exactly. So therein, now going back to mobility and sustainable aviation fuel, we look at the industry and then we found that 12 was by far categorically the best company doing this at scale. For us, scale is really important, the commercial traction, the focus, the vertical integration, and then the team. It's a three-person team, two women physicists who founded it, built it, and then brought in the CEO who also they met at Space Club at Stanford. And the three of them founded this company, and now here we are, signing some of the largest contracts in history to be able to provide us clean fuel.
Starting point is 01:02:14 That must be rad to be part of, both from a business standpoint, as well as knowing that these promises, somehow, what is that, a 2030 carbon neutral? That's what the airlines are saying, right? Something like that. That's what they're saying. United and a few others have signed the pledge. It looks, maybe they knew, obviously they know so much more than I would ever in this field. But that seems like a pie in the sky, pun intended, that they're going to be able to do that.
Starting point is 01:02:41 But it sounds like- But they did it. Yeah, it sounds like it's right there. They did it. And so the recipe for that took everything from us pedagogically understanding this industry, right? My team has over centuries of collective climate and finance and venture experience. So really having the right people at the roundtable, and then pedagogically setting what it is that we're trying to aim for, and then going out there and finding the best companies that have the commercial traction, that have the team.
Starting point is 01:03:07 These are very difficult recipes in the climate sector, but yet we're seeing a rising amount of it. Another company that we're very proud and excited about is a company called Mass Reforestation. Because wildfires have now in the Pacific Northwest increased 200%. We're smelling it. We're smelling it. In Malibu, you can't even get insurance for your home. I don't know if you've had that issue because of the fact that the wildfire and its unpredictability. And so what happens to all of that burnt land?
Starting point is 01:03:35 So this company came in and created a vertically integrated solution where they brought, they bought the primary amount of seeds, the seedling market in the Western Hemisphere. And they also are able to go in. Initially, they started using drone technology to reseed with higher efficacy. And now what they do is they have an entire cycle to be able to regenerate the land and then sell that carbon because forest carbon is extremely valuable carbon credits. Sell that carbon back to companies like Microsoft and Shopify and Salesforce who need to buy it to get to their net zero goals
Starting point is 01:04:15 because they can't get to their net zero goals without buying in the carbon market. Yeah, very cool. That's a good partnership then. So most climate folks just scare the Jesus out of me. Like it's like, yeah, we've been sliding for a little bit and then we hit 2025. And if we don't fix A, B and C, we're going to lose turtles. And then once we lose turtles, then, you know, we're going to be wearing masks. And, you know, so but there are some like really concerning things that are taking place that we can pay attention to.
Starting point is 01:04:49 I don't want the listener to feel hopeless. Sure. But I would like to hear a couple of things that you've got your eyes on that you're really concerned about for the planet. Yes. And then maybe a couple of ways that you're inspired that people can take some actions. I will say that I think in the climate world, it's called disaster porn. Disaster porn. Yes.
Starting point is 01:05:08 Which is like pointing to. Yes, disasters. And there was a point in time it worked with the wave of the documentary films like Inconvenient Truth. But at some point, people have tuned out and we lost a lot of people because people can't continue to hear about what's not working. I think people need hope, right? It was the entire presidency campaign of Barack Obama was hope.
Starting point is 01:05:32 And that is something that I think is a real source for people. So I focus on that. And what I'm lucky and fortunate to do is to be able to every single day meet with others who are focused on the solution building because there's a lot of amazing solutions. But in terms of you said you wanted me to talk about the concerns. Yeah, some of the concerns that like some of the choke points are really the cliffs that we're running into. We're running toward the anti-hope. My greatest concern is climate mitigation efforts. I think that to some degree we are beyond the point of prevention entirely,
Starting point is 01:06:12 and so we need to now think about adaptation, and adaptation for hundreds of millions of people who will not have a home. People don't think about the loss of homes and physical locations. Why would we not have? Because of sea level rising, right? The 1.5 degrees Celsius that United Nations IPCC report that has come out. It's the longest standing eight-year vetted report by hundreds of scientists that have come together to say that 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030, we have to be able to mitigate in
Starting point is 01:06:43 order for us to have a habitable planet. And if we don't do it by 2030s, then it will be irreversible. And so that is the point of, I don't think doom, but a point of real mobilization. And so in between that point and after that point, we'll still be sea level rising, we'll be global warming, will be what we're seeing disasters. We are seeing natural disasters have increased around the world significantly. As I just said, wildfires have increased in the Pacific Northwest 200% and expected to go 600% in the next seven years. And so how do you mitigate that you have to have adaptation plans?
Starting point is 01:07:22 And I think that we as a planet and as a civilization have furred on really thinking through what does that look like. I constantly, I mean, sometimes don't sleep at night thinking about what does that look like for refugees and soon-to-be refugees and forced migrants who will not have homes. I mean, if you look at even Maldives, right, the country is expected at some point to be underwater. You look at Miami, there are parts of the island that are expected
Starting point is 01:07:50 to be underwater. And we're not talking underwater in 50, 60 years, we're talking in decades. And so this is within our lifetimes. And so what do you do with the mass of people that have to now relocate? Because I know what that experience is like. And yet there has not been governance that is actually thought through that has matched with the private sector. I think a lot of work in climate is done in silos. And that's been the issue for a long time. I am seeing that change, though. And I don't mean that change at COP, Conference of the Parties. COP is important because COP does allow for countries to come together to actually be held reliable and accountable. However, I'm seeing the true action being taken by activists, by solutionists, by entrepreneurs on the ground where they're saying, let's figure out our own farming system if we don't have food. Let's figure out our own thermal system and our own solar system if we don't have a
Starting point is 01:08:46 government that can supply our water and our air and our homes. And that is what gives me hope, is the level of resilience and also... I like that you use the word adaptation. Yes. Yeah, because prevention intervention is where I thought you're going to go. And you went prevention adaptation. Now, human adaptation takes a long time. But the beginning stages of adapting to the external conditions doesn't mean that our brain is adapting. It just means that we're adapting in our thinking and our behaviors, which I really like, you know, that piece. So it's not pointing to interventions. It's pointing to the downstream
Starting point is 01:09:26 resilience of people to adapt to the new conditions. And you're pointing now that we've also got an incredible business opportunity to invest in some of those. It's kind of like knowing that gold is going to be a thing at some point. And like, hey, I know where there's a bunch of people that are really interested in finding gold. And you're really early in that. Not really early. You're early. Maybe in 10 years time, you'll be considered like really early.
Starting point is 01:09:53 But you're early in building businesses that can change what you see as a necessary condition of the future. Correct. Finding Mastery is brought to you by iRestore. When it comes to my health, I try to approach things with a proactive mindset. It's not about avoiding poor health. This is about creating the conditions for growth. Now, hair health is one of those areas
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Starting point is 01:13:02 our, our economy. And yet what is rarer than gold is biomass, is human beings, is living systems. And yet we don't give it any equation of value. Why is that? And so I'm now looking at what I'm excited about is conversations and work that's being done behind the scenes quietly by groups of people who are, again, coming together to think about a new economy that is backed by a currency that's backed by nature. What does that look like? Eco coins. How do you do that? Where do you pilot it? Why is it that 80% of the world's biodiversity is protected primarily by only 5% to 6% of the world's population. Did you know that, Michael?
Starting point is 01:13:46 No. 5% to 6% of the world's population are indigenous, and indigenous people are the closest ally in terms of physical location. Proximity is key here. They're the closest to the land, and so they protect 80% of the biodiversity. Do you know how much of the capital from the Western markets they get to protect that land? Probably less than, it's a decimal point. It's so inconsequential. And yet they do it every single day. And so
Starting point is 01:14:17 what if there could be a currency that could be thought of that is rarer than gold? Because gold, we know biomass is rarer than gold. Living beings are rare. Nature is rare. And yet we don't assign it any value. So there are countries like Bhutan, areas in the Amazon that I know are significantly interested in piloting right now digital asset currencies of how to actually use the natural environment to create currency. So shorthand is if you give life to the planet, you make money. Think about it. It's a novel system, but yet it's the indigenous way.
Starting point is 01:14:59 Yeah, that's really cool. And that's being piloted right now. So U.S. is not pulling their weight? Well, China and U.S. are two of the largest carbon emitters because of, obviously, the amount of energy that we use. But, yes, I think the U.S. and China and countries like India and Japan, Iran can do more. Absolutely. Can do more in terms of cutting their carbon emissions. This has to be a multilateral process.
Starting point is 01:15:33 People are becoming very purist about what it means to be an environmentalist. And this is a debate that I often hear where it's like, oh, no, no, no. We have to only preserve, preserve. Or no, no, no. We only have to do climate tech. And I don't believe that it's one or the other. I think we need a bilateral solution where it's nuanced, it's both and, and really looking at it with the country specific context as well. What are things that individuals can do if we bring it to the living room or we bring it to the boardroom? What are things that individuals can do that have an
Starting point is 01:16:01 outsized impact? Having almost done this for two decades, I will tell you I've never been more inspired and more awake in this sector than now, because I find that the younger and younger and younger people are more and more nuanced and clear about the actions they have to take. I would say number one is proximity. Proximity is power. Most people think that in order to make a difference in climate, you have to either give money or you have to sign the petition. Yes, those are important things, but you need to have proximity to be able to feel and to be able to understand nature. And there is a complete dissonance and disconnection of that. So you're saying get connected to nature. Get connected to nature first.
Starting point is 01:16:49 That's really cool. I would say that proximity is power. I would say that would be first. Second is if you want to give your money, if you want to invest, invest in the smallest group that's making the largest outsized impact and that are nature-based solutions and indigenous people, people of color. As I said, 80% of our biodiversity is handled and protected by 5% to 6% of our entire population, Michael.
Starting point is 01:17:16 That's crazy. That's a wild number. We talk about the Amazon being our lungs, but do we ever ask who is protecting her? Who is? That's my question. Find ask who is protecting her? Right, yeah. Who is? Yeah. That's my question. Yeah. Find out who is protecting her is the second thing, and then give there.
Starting point is 01:17:30 Yeah, support there. Support there. And then third, I would say, is engage. I think there's a deep level of fear in engaging because this sector and this community has for so long been isolated by its own academia and intellectualism and pedagogies. That climate as a movement and as a sector has been dominated by scientists, academics. And so I think that everyday people have felt like, well, we don't have a role there. But it's like, no, they have the most important roles. We're finding time and time again that the companies that we invest in are people who have been there doing the work on the ground first.
Starting point is 01:18:11 So they know what's actually happening. So we need engagement from everyday people. We need engagement from farmers. It's not just the thinkers that we need to start activating. We need to start activating the folks on the ground. So you probably have two things that maybe a listener can do is if they've got a company that is rock solid in plan and purpose and their people and – Profits. Yeah, and they're looking for the fuel to be able to kind of get to the next level, you might be a fund for them.
Starting point is 01:18:47 Yes. For deal flow, if you will. We're always looking for companies that are, number one, have a strong financial stability and trajectory. Number two, have commercial traction. Number three, have the right team. And number four, are targeting and knowing which part of the climate sector they're targeting. And then the other is that there's probably, if someone is sitting on $50 million and they want to do good for the planet, you'll probably say, yeah, I'd like to meet you as well. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:19:16 And I don't know what your target number is, but if, I'm sure it's more than $500. So if there's folks that are in a position to invest in climate funds, and they like what they heard, and they like your vibe about it, that you would also be open to... And the other thing is that, it's funny, one of our institutional investors said, well, you know, we don't typically invest in climate,
Starting point is 01:19:40 but we like your returns. And that's what I want to hear. I want to hear more of those individuals, institutions, people who have doubted whether climate is really a field worth investing in. In my opinion, it's one of the only most important fields worth investing in. It's a $23 trillion economy in the next five to seven years. I mean, we're not talking billion here or billion. We're talking about entire new
Starting point is 01:20:05 sectors we have to create to be able to have a habitable planet. Finally, we're at a point where capitalism is aligning with the fact that we need to protect this planet. We're at that nexus right now, Michael, and that's the most interesting nexus right now is to be in. And so climate is an inelastic demand, meaning people still need to eat food and they want healthy food options, as you know. People still need to get to point A to B. People need to build homes. And so all of that is still there. And that is why it's a booming economy.
Starting point is 01:20:37 Tenzin, thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, just what a great – it's going to fall short when I say great conversation because there's real depth, real compassion taking action to make a difference for individuals and as grandiose as it sounds, the planet. So thank you for being a custodian of her in so many ways. I've loved this conversation. Thank you. Thank you so much, Michael, for having me. And I enjoyed this as well.
Starting point is 01:21:12 Okay, Emma, I'm thinking that our next episode is an ask me anything. Is that right? You got it. Our listeners asked and with the help of Yogi is the voice of the people. You answered. Yes, we worked to do that. Okay, it is that time again, when we're turning the microphone around. And instead of diving into the concepts of mastery through the lens of our guests, we're going straight to you, our listeners, for a unique Ask Me Anything episode where you submitted so many questions. I mean, they were legit, hard, difficult, complex questions about life and performance and relationships and navigating the complexities of the human experience. And with the help of our friend here at Finding Mastery, Yogi Roth, a dear friend of mine personally. He is a modern Renaissance man, an author, documentarian, broadcaster, football analyst.
Starting point is 01:21:59 So we sat down to answer those questions and perhaps get a little closer to our personal best. So I encourage you to tune in to hear your questions, my reflections, and an exploration of what matters most here at Finding Mastery. All right. Thank you so much for diving into another episode of Finding Mastery with us. Our team loves creating this podcast and sharing these conversations with you. We really appreciate you being part of this community. And if you're enjoying the show,
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Starting point is 01:22:53 The show wouldn't be possible without our sponsors and we take our recommendations seriously. And the team is very thoughtful about making sure we love and endorse every product you hear on the show. If you want to check out any of our sponsor offers you heard about in this episode, you can find those deals at findingmastery.com slash sponsors. And remember, no one does it alone. The door here at Finding Mastery is always open to those looking to explore the edges and the reaches of their potential so that they can help others do the same. So join our community, share your favorite episode with a friend and let us know how we can continue to show up for you.
Starting point is 01:23:29 Lastly, as a quick reminder, information in this podcast and from any material on the Finding Mastery website and social channels is for information purposes only. If you're looking for meaningful support, which we all need, one of the best things you can do is to talk to a
Starting point is 01:23:46 licensed professional. So seek assistance from your healthcare providers. Again, a sincere thank you for listening. Until next episode, be well, think well, keep exploring.

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