Today. Tom is sitting down with author and entrepreneur, Suneel Gupta, to discuss his new book, BACKABLE: The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance on You.

Suneel is the co-founder of Rise Labs, Inc. and teaches innovation on faculty at Harvard University. Using the seven steps inside BACKABLE, Suneel went from being the face of failure for the New York Times to being the “New Face of Innovation” for the New York Stock Exchange. His ideas have been backed by firms like Greylock and Google Ventures, and he has invested in startups including Airbnb, Calm, and SpaceX. Suneel also serves as an emissary for Gross National Happiness between the United States and the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Tune in for today’s fascinating discussion as Tom and Suneel discuss how the “it” factor can be learned, what makes someone “backable,” failure, Gross National Happiness, and some of the biggest lessons and key concepts from his book, BACKABLE.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:08] About today’s episode with Suneel Gupta.

[:52] Tom welcomes Suneel to the podcast.

[1:06] About Suneel’s rich career background.

[2:22] Suneel talks about why surveying for Gross National Happiness is important, what initially got him interested in better measurement for societal progress, and key lessons he learned in speaking directly to the researchers in Bhutan who collect the GNH data.

[6:05] What Suneel learned about the art of pitching in writing his book, BACKABLE.

[9:10] What makes someone “backable.”

[10:47] Suneel unpacks the second concept of what makes someone backable: “Put yourself in a story that makes your case memorable.”

[14:41] Suneel elaborates on the sixth concept of what makes someone backable: “You can’t just wing it. You have to practice and you have to adjust based on feedback from practice.” [17:27] How high school and college could do a better job in helping people develop the skills necessary in order to become more backable.

[21:48] Why everyone can benefit from reading BACKABLE.

[22:29] About Screencastify, the leading K-12 screen recording solution.

[23:15] How Suneel continues to learn.

[25:45] Tom congratulates Suneel for his new book and thanks him for joining the podcast!

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Suneel Gupta

BACKABLE: The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance on You, by Suneel Gupta with Carlye Adler

Rise Labs, Inc.

Gross National Happiness

TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” by Sir Ken Robinson

Screencastify.com/GettingSmart

Getting Smart Podcast Ep. 302: “Kim Smith on Creating Schools, Companies and the Pahara Institute”

 

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