World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader
blows the whistle on how lack of sleep
is destroying our most important asset

I'm no fan of the World Economic Forum. It seems to be run by a bunch of filthy rich psychopaths intent on depopulating and enslaving the world.

That said, I'm sure everybody who's ever been involved with them hasn't necessarily joined the dark side. But even if they've completely sold out, I'd bet the 0.017% of a Bitcoin I own we could still learn some valuable lessons from these hyper-successful businessmen.

For example, in one of my favourite books, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown tells the story of Geoff Davis, one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders.

Geoff Davis is also President and CEO of Unitus, a social venture capital investor for a global microcredit organization which claims to have helped 12 million poor families around the world. He is also on the board of Kiva, a non-profit which crowdfunds loans to help third-world students pay for their tuition and start their own businesses.

He doesn't exactly sound like the anti-Christ.

But who knows?

Anyway, one thing I do know, and Davis knows now, is that he wasn't sleeping enough.

For years he slept only four to six hours a night.

By the "ripe age of thirty-six..." explains McKeown, "one by one each of his organs started shutting down. His heart rate was erratic. It became painful to stand up straight. He had to blend his food because he could not digest it. His blood pressure was so low he blacked out if he stood up too fast. He went to the emergency room twice."

But he kept forcing himself to keep working until... he found himself cancelling meetings at the last minute because "he was too weak to attend or he would give a speech but bomb it because his brain was cloudy."

His doctor gave him two choices:

1) A long list of drugs that would treat his rapidly growing list of symptoms which he would have to take for the rest of his (probably short) life or...

2) He had to take time off work.

Davis decided he would take a "two-month sabbatical."

To his surprise, he started sleeping fourteen hours each night. Some days he couldn't even get out of bed.

"He was totally non-functional for six weeks," writes McKeown. "He came crawling back in to his doctor and admitted this was going to take a lot longer than a couple of months."

It took another two-and-half years before Davis found himself at another meeting of the World Economic Forum. He was asked to take the mic and give a speech. He opened with three simple words.

"Protect the asset."

In other words, don't sacrifice your body, mind and soul for the "greater good" on the altar of sleep-deprivation.

McKeown explains: "The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we underinvest in ourselves, and by that I mean our minds, our bodies, and our spirits, we damage the very tool we need to make our highest contributions. One of the most common ways people — especially ambitious, successful people — damage this asset is through a lack of sleep."

That just shows you, everything that comes out of the World Economic Forum isn't communist, world-dominating propaganda. I'd argue that we'd probably benefit from learning their secrets to success, so we can better oppose them.

And at that WEF meeting, Davis went on to share his newfound secret to success: "If you think you are so tough you can do anything I have a challenge for you. If you really want to do something hard: say no to an opportunity so you can take a nap."

You can read the rest of Geoff Davis' story in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less available through my shop at: https://blazingpinecone.com/shop/essentialism/ 

Just don't stay up late reading it.

John C.A. Manley

PS One of the reasons people have such a hard time taking naps in the afternoon is because there's too much light. Melatonin, the sleep hormone, needs darkness to kick in. That's why I'll use Bon Changer's black-out blindfold for a 10-20 minute power nap each afternoon. You can purchase these asset-protectors (and get a 15% discount with code BPC) at: https://ca.boncharge.com/collections/black-out-sleep-masks/products?rfsn=7718850.050263 

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscirber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/