I always say the Nubank story was very unlikely. It was a very low probability event. Again. We were going after these very big incumbent banks. Everybody told me, you know, you're Colombian. You have no idea what you're doing in Brazil. They're going to crush you. Like, don't. Just don't do it. And I did it mostly because everybody told me I couldn't do it. And so, if somebody tells me I can't do something, I want to go do it.
What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong?
Question
Which writers or artists most influenced your work?
Taste & recommendation
Question
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
Failure & regret
Yeah, and it’s made it considerably more difficult. It’s funny when you look back now, because everybody’s sort of copied those films. They’re so ingrained in the culture now, it’s almost impossible to think there was a point where those things were completely odd and unique.
Academy of Achievement, Academy of Achievement interview, Skywalker Ranch, California, 1 June 1999 source ↗
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David Vélez
Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
Recorded
John Waldron, Goldman Sachs Talks, Goldman Sachs (official event transcript)
source ↗
Daron Acemoglu
Economist; Nobel laureate in economic sciences for work on institutions and prosperity
It is simplistic in the following sense that you cannot institute democracy from above. It’s a very difficult process. And democracy is not the only dimension of institutions that matters. Although my work does emphasise that democracy by itself matters as well. But the problem is really alive today in the industrialised world, where you would think, and many political scientists have claimed that democracy is safe and secure and would never be under threat. It is under threat. Support for democracy is at an all time low, not just in the US, although really jarringly in the US but not just in the US, throughout the western world. So democracy is not easy to make work because democracy is about democratic citizenship. It’s about consensus, it’s about communication. It’s about accepting defeat, making compromises, talking and understanding the other side. All of those things are always difficult. They become more difficult during times of turbulence, which, you know, we are living through and they become harder when the infrastructure, for example, the communication infrastructure, makes this sort of democratic citizenship harder, which I think is not the only factor. But social media has certainly played that role.
Recorded
Adam Smith, Telephone interview recorded shortly after the prize announcement, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 October 2026
source ↗
Allyson Felix
United States sprinter, 2003–2022
If we have children, we risk pay cuts from our sponsors during pregnancy and afterward. It's one example of a sports industry where the rules are still mostly made for and by men.
Lee Kuan Yew
Prime Minister of Singapore, 1959–1990; Senior Minister 1990–2004; Minister Mentor 2004–2011
Our young should prepare to seek their fortunes in this golden age. It is silly to moan that properties and cars are going out of their reach. They will never be out of reach of those who seize their opportunities. Of course those on profit sharing schemes and stock options will do better than those on salaries. But even those on salaries will have their salaries double in the next 10 years of high growth. The big winners will be those who find a vein of gold and dig it out. But you have to work to find it and dig it out. Those who bemuse and befuddle themselves into believing the great opportunities are already behind them will regret it when they see their more discerning and perceptive contemporaries prosper.
Recorded
Singapore Press Club, Petir (People's Action Party), reproducing the speech in full, 7 June 1996
source ↗
More from George Lucas
View profile →I liked all the normal kinds of adventure books, Kidnapped, Treasure Island, Huck Finn sorts of things. I loved Swiss Family Robinson and that whole period of South Sea adventure movies. I liked westerns. Westerns were very big when I was growing up. When we finally got a television there was a whole run of westerns on television. John Wayne films, directed by John Ford, before I knew who John Ford was. I think those were very influential in my enjoyment of movies.
Whenever you’re making a movie, especially when you’re writing, you always have self-doubts. I did the first location shooting in Tunisia.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement, Academy of Achievement interview, Skywalker Ranch, California, 1 June 1999
source ↗
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