Mo Gawdat: Former Chief Business Officer of Google X, happiness author of Solve for Happy and Scary Smart, and founder of the One Billion Happy mission, whose son Ali died in 2014.
What this episode covers
In his second appearance on Diary of a CEO, Mo Gawdat talks with Steven Bartlett about living 'in flow,' embracing life's changing seasons, and why he has stepped away from a traditional committed relationship to focus on his mission. He frames dating and love as an economics and probability problem, and argues money is largely an illusion that owns us rather than serving us. The conversation centers on his book That Little Voice in Your Head: how thoughts (not events) create unhappiness, the four bad inputs that corrupt our thinking, and how neuroplasticity lets anyone retrain their brain for happiness. Gawdat also makes the case that the world's hyper-masculine bias is humanity's biggest mistake and that embracing feminine qualities makes people more intelligent and effective. The episode closes with a tribute to his late son Ali, whom he credits as the source of all his work.
The guest's own work
That Little Voice in Your Head
Mo Gawdat
“so why did you choose to write a book called that little voice in your head”— Steven Bartlett
Scary Smart
Mo Gawdat
“when i wrote scary scarysmart and you know scarysmart was entirely about technology and where technology is going”— Mo Gawdat
Solve for Happy
Mo Gawdat
“i wrote sulfur happy at a time where ali had just left our world and he helped me really really figure things out”— Mo Gawdat
Finding Love
Mo Gawdat
“i'm writing all of this in a book called finding love one of the most interesting chapters is all the models of love”— Mo Gawdat
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Inception
Christopher Nolan
“if you like the movie inception um you know when she when his wife had that um thought”— Mo Gawdat
Big reveals from this episode
- Mo packed his entire life into a tiny storage unit in Dubai and now has no fixed home, living completely 'in flow.'
- He reveals he is 'single and not single,' having concluded his current lifestyle does not qualify him for a traditional committed relationship.
- He recounts how the death of his son Ali changed the context of his 27-year marriage to Nibel, leading them to grow apart.
- Gawdat declares 'dating is entirely an economics problem' governed by supply, demand and probability.
- He admits he 'definitely overdoes the masculinity' and his girlfriend points it out to him.
- He says since empowering his feminine side four and a half years ago he became '10 times more intelligent.'
- His message that the greatest wealth in his life was NOT money, cars or things, which he calls 'a total waste of life.'
Worth remembering
- Mo cites monk Matthieu Ricard, a PhD in molecular biology turned monk with 60,000 lifetime meditation hours, called 'the happiest man in the world.'
- Gawdat ranks the top three causes of unhappiness as lack of self-love, ego, and the little voice in your head.
- He explains the 'n squared problem': each added partner criterion roughly multiplies the rarity tenfold, so six criteria means one in 100,000.
- He describes fractional reserve banking: a loan is literally numbers typed into a spreadsheet, creating money that never existed before.
- In Islamic culture 'risk' refers not to income but to the good money brings, like the meal you eat or a gift for your child.
- Neuroplasticity: 'neurons that fire together wire together', every action rewires the brain, becoming permanent after about 20 repetitions.
- Gawdat's rule: for every negative thought, task your brain with finding nine positive ones, since over 90% of life is fine.
- Matthieu Ricard's brain physically differs from average, larger insula and prefrontal cortex from sustained meditation.
- Bartlett's reframe of Gawdat's idea: an 80-year life gives roughly 500,000 hours of active life, so 'I was born a millionaire.'
- Gawdat argues Steve Jobs succeeded because of feminine qualities, appreciation of beauty, creativity, color and empathy, not obnoxiousness.