Michel Bayan's Inspirations for "Openness to Possibility"

In his interview yesterday on Smashing the Plateau, Michel Bayan (EVP at Fragmob) discussed how to maintain a sense of perspective during periods of intense stress. Here, he shares some of the people and philosophies he looks to for inspiration and balance:

1. Yoga and “Eastern thought in general”

“When one door closes, another one opens. And I think it’s because of my background as a yoga teacher and with meditation that I have sort of trained myself—or at least am trying to in myself as best I can—to find this balance between that strong energy of a businessman that wants to drive forward and achieve my goals and be uber-focused, with that sort of grounded centeredness and openness to possibility that meditating and a great yoga practice and some Eastern philosophy has taught me.”

2. Tony Robbins (@tonyrobbins)

Bayan describes how, before building up his business, he “needed to figure out a way to take the step from the artist’s life to the business life.” He credits Robbins’s “Mastery University” program with helping him do so. The program entails four of Robbins’s multiday workshops combined into a package, which, Bayan says, “allowed me to really dig deep into myself, ask myself the hard questions, do the work to get the hard answers, and understand what I needed to do as a result.” The results “continue to pay dividends—years and years and years later.”

3. Richard Branson (@richardbranson)

Bayan says that Branson is “an amazing guy—one of those amazing CEO’s who’s dyslexic and overcame all of that, built himself up a massive empire, [and] is really a champion for things that are good in this world: fixing the environment, ending the war on drugs, all of these things—trying to get himself into space and build consciousness around that. Humanitarian things—he’s just a huge powerhouse.”

4. Elon Musk (@Elon Musk)

“One of the first time I had met him, they had just sold their hundredth Tesla Roadster… And just to be able to experience him and his thinking—they had just launched their second Falcon rocket for SpaceX, and they had just got their first NASA contract—it was a really exciting time for him. And to see what he’s done with all of that, and how far he’s taken that—it’s just mind-blowing. You know–SolarCity! The way he took his success in PayPal, and took that money, and turned it into three amazing businesses—that are not only amazing businesses, but also some things that are amazing for humanity—is just beautiful to me, and so admirable.”

5. Chloe—”My Girl”

Bayan is looking forward to starting a family: “I’m so blessed to have found the woman that has my back. It’s to a level that I’ve never experienced. My Girl is just one of those whatever-it-takes, super-intelligent, Ivy-League educated, sweetest, most amazing person.”