RWH055: The Inner Scorecard w/ Pico Iyer

We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network

Stig Brodersen

Education, Investing, Business

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2025

⏱️ 133 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, William Green welcomes back Pico Iyer, one of his all-time favorite guests. Pico is a famed author & speaker whose TED talks have been viewed about 12 million times. Here, he discusses his new book, “Aflame,” which explores how to find peace of mind, happiness & clarity amid extreme uncertainty & accelerating change. This episode is a masterclass on creating a richer, wiser, happier life while living by what Warren Buffett calls an inner scorecard. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: 00:00 - Intro 04:31 - How to find calm & clarity in the midst of uncertainty & change. 14:39 - How silence helps to “cleanse” our agitated, cluttered minds. 19:09 - Why Pico Iyer has stayed at a monastery more than 100 times. 28:02 - Why the greatest luxury comes from craving less, not more. 31:53 - How he designs his life to maximize freedom & fulfillment. 35:50 - Why he loves Warren Buffett’s idea of living by an inner scorecard. 52:41 - How the greatest investors remind Pico of monks. 01:10:28 - How to create more spaciousness in your own busy life. 01:18:25 - How to achieve more by doing less & taking time to reflect. 01:23:05 - Why it’s helpful to view investing as a game. 01:51:27 - How Leonard Cohen rebounded after losing almost all his money. 01:51:27 - How to maintain hope—& gratitude—in the face of adversity. 01:57:55 - What Pico has learned from his long friendship with the Dalai Lama. Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, Kyle, and the other community members. Pico Iyer’s website. Pico Iyer's book: Aflame: Learning from Silence. Pico Iyer's books: The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama. Henry David Thoreau's book: Walden. Pico Iyer’s TED talk on The Art of Stillness. William’s 2023 podcast interview with Pico Iyer. William’s podcast interview with Daniel Goleman & Tsoknyi Rinpoche. William’s podcast interview with Brad Stulberg. William Green’s book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier” – read the reviews of this book. Follow William Green on X. Email Shawn at [email protected] to attend our free events in Omaha or visit this page. Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcast episodes here. Enjoy ad-free episodes when you subscribe to our Premium Feed. NEW TO THE SHOW? Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, The Intrinsic Value Newsletter. Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs. Follow our official social media accounts: X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: Hardblock Found SimpleMining CFI Education Netsuite Unchained The Bitcoin Way Vanta Shopify Fintool Onramp TurboTax Vanta Fundrise HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Spotify! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to TIP.
0:02.8	Hi there, it's a great pleasure to be back with you again on the richer, wiser, happier
0:07.4	podcast.
0:08.8	One of the great challenges for all of us these days, both in investing and life, is that we
0:14.5	live in a time of extreme uncertainty.
0:17.4	You see it in the world of politics and geopolitics and economics, and it's also shown up recently
0:23.0	in the tremendous volatility of the financial markets, with the stock market getting whipsawed
0:28.2	lately by warnings about the risk of impacting trade wars and the danger that tariffs might
0:34.6	somehow backfire and drive the economy into a recession.
0:38.2	At the same time, hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by the devastating
0:42.3	wildfires in California, which have fueled a mounting sense of uncertainty about the impact
0:48.2	of climate change.
0:50.0	It's also impossible to assess the profound implications of technological breakthroughs, like
0:55.3	the rise of artificial intelligence.
0:58.3	None of us know how all these changes are going to affect our lives, but I think of all
1:03.5	of us since that we're barreling forward into an unknown and unknowable future, and that
1:09.3	everything is speeding up. With all this in mind, one of the
1:13.3	great questions that all of us face is simply, how can we find peace of mind and equanimity and
1:20.4	happiness and clarity in the midst of this maelstrom of change and uncertainty? To put it another way, how can you and I set
1:29.7	ourselves up to lead rich and happy lives when none of us can tell what the future holds?
1:36.0	This is the overarching theme of today's episode of the podcast. Our guest is Pico Aya,
1:42.2	who's the author of 17 books, including a brilliant new book titled A Flame, which is subtitled Learning from Silence. Pico has been a guest on the podcast once before back in 2023, and that conversation was one of my two or three favorite episodes of all time.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -16 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Stig Brodersen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Stig Brodersen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.