Every Person I Admire Shares This One Trait
Every Person I Admire Shares This One Trait
PLUS: The 8 Behaviours Of Elite Performers
September 27, 2026
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
\- Albert Einstein
I turned 55 recently and inevitably it led to a period of reflection.
When I look back at my life, the one common thread throughout has been an insatiable curiosity about human potential. Knowing what I know now, it burns brighter than ever.
The more I’ve learned, the more I want to know.
When I look at the people in life I respect the most, that characteristic is the red thread. It’s what connects a cognitive neuroscientist to a Special Forces Team Leader.
Every great person I know sees themselves as an explorer rather than an expert. Why? Because they are always propelled by curiosity.
From authors to adventurers and from sports people to scientists, it’s the fuel of personal development and exploring your own potential.
And the business world is no different - executives who want to keep innovating, entrepreneurs who keep asking ‘why not?’
And yet, most of us know so little about the capability of curiosity itself - it’s a bit meta, but I got curious about harnessing curiosity. Here’s what you need to know…
THE SCIENCE
We tend to think of curiosity as a whim or indulgence rather than a capability.
As with so many things, the neuroscience of the brain helps deepen our understanding.
In 2009, researchers at Caltech scanned people's brains while showing them trivia questions.
The more curious someone felt about a question, the more activity lit up in the caudate nucleus - a brain region best known for one thing. Anticipating a reward.
That's why people are incentivized to spend real time and effort just to satisfy it. Because wanting to know feels good in itself. The journey is as stimulating as the destination.
There’s another element worth understanding. One of the researchers behind the study, George Loewenstein, had already shown that curiosity is triggered by the size of the gap between what you know and what you want to know.
Know nothing about a subject, and there's no gap to feel. Know too much and the stimulus is also absent.
It's that space in between, where the gap feels bridgeable, that lights the ‘fuse’ in your brain.
Which is also why curiosity compounds. The more you know, the more gaps you start noticing… and your brain encourages you to close them.
THE PROOF
I saw the author Ryan Holiday speak live at the Troxy in London, a couple of years ago.
Here's a man who, in 21st century America, became curious about the writings of Greek and Roman philosophers who'd been dead for two thousand years.
Men who preached that you cannot control external events, but you can always control your own thoughts and reactions.
On paper, you’d think that would end up in the proverbial ‘who cares?’ bucket.
After all, we live in the attention economy. Algorithms reward speed, simplicity and outrage. Ancient philosophy is slow, complex and considered.
And yet his Daily Stoic podcast has been downloaded over 150 million times. His books have sold more than 10 million copies. And there were over 3,000 of us in a sold-out theatre in East London hanging on his every word.
That’s the power of curiosity.
He went deep into that material because it fascinated him. He chose to share it with others, not because he thought he’d make millions, but because he suspected that others would share that fascination and benefit from those insights.
That's what compounding curiosity looks like.
In Holiday’s case it’s led to millions benefitting from the wisdom of Greek philosophers in a way that no algorithm could have predicted.
THE APPLICATION
As a leader, you need to think about how you can harness curiosity not just for your personal growth, but also for those around you.
4 rules to live by:
Stasis is the enemy
AI is the obvious example for me to use to illustrate this point right now. Some of you will be feeling overwhelmed by it and will be tempted to sit on the sidelines for a while or rely on others to ‘figure it out’ for you.
That’s the illusion of safety. Treat it with curiosity and explore. Just start.
Set the standard
Google's Project Aristotle studied over 180 internal teams to find out what actually led to high performance. Seniority, experience, personality mix - none of it mattered as much as one thing. Psychological safety.
Teams performed best when people felt safe admitting what they didn't know, asking the obvious question, or challenging an idea without fear of looking foolish.
The leader who displays curiosity gives everyone around them permission to do the same - to sit with not knowing, instead of faking certainty.
Create a network effect
Holiday didn't hoard what he learned. He built an entire career on sharing it with others. As you explore, share your findings and your discoveries. Encourage others to do the same.
This compounds. It powers everyone forward, not just you.
Display bravery
Not every gap you seek to close will pay off in a way you can point to. Holiday didn't know Stoicism would reach millions when he first opened that book.
In a world that favours hard metrics and instant gratification, it takes courage to take the harder path - investing in something with no immediate return, because you trust it matters.
Stay the course.
Go well.
J.
LIVE BETTER, LEAD BETTER
The best content I researched this week:
1. This is a great article from McKinsey about the eight consistent behaviours displayed by elite performers. After reading what I’ve shared this week, you won’t be surprised that “an always-learning and curious mindset” is among them.
2. And this YouTube interview with Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke is great brainfood for curious minds. Learn everything from the leadership skills that AI makes more valuable through to why the best long-term decisions often lack immediate feedback.
3. Author and professor Adam Grant does a deep dive podcast where he explores how leaders can make people feel heard without adopting every idea and how to speak up in ways that actually create change.
Share this with a fellow leader - we’re stronger together.
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