Daniel H. Pink is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Dan’s books have won multiple awards, have been translated into 46 languages, and have sold millions of copies around the world. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family.

Daniel Pink

Here are 5 things I wish I knew at 21 (now that I’m 61):

1. Don’t work with jerks.
Even if they’re smart or well-connected—jerks will drain you. They’ll ruin your energy, your progress, your joy.

2. Shortcuts are scams.
If it’s meaningful, it’ll take time. The “quick route” usually leads nowhere—or backwards.

3. Nobody’s watching you.
You think people are judging you. They’re not. They’re too busy thinking about themselves.

4. You’ll regret inaction more than action.
It’s the jobs you didn’t go for… the risks you didn’t take… that will haunt you.

5. Build a body of work—not just a résumé.
In the long run, people don’t hire credentials. They hire evidence. Proof. Work that speaks for itself.

If you’re in your 20s, steal this list.
I’ve had 40 years to earn it.

#1 New York Times bestselling author of 7 books.

A ceramics teacher once split her students into two groups. One had to make a perfect pot, the other as many pots as possible quality didn't matter. By the end, the best pots came from the quantity group.

Why?

They stopped overthinking and learned by doing. Most people fail to master skills because they chase perfection instead of just getting the reps.

So whatever you're learning, writing, filming, anything, don't aim for perfection. Just make more because quality comes from quantity.

This is the Pottery Class Paradox, a simple experiment that will change how you approach mastery forever.

What do people think about at the end of their life?

Despite what you may think, the research shows that it’s not money, accomplishments or fame.

Death doula Diane Button has sat with hundreds of people at the very end.

Here’s what she’s learned about living well, from those who’ve reached the finish line.

1. The ordinary is everything.
    It’s not the vacations or awards people miss most, it’s pasta with family.
    Messy photos. Pajama nights.
    The small stuff is the big stuff.
    
2. Count your joy.
    One client kept a “joy counter” above his bed, tallying small moments of delight.
    The more he clicked, the more he found.
    Joy multiplies when you look for it.
    
3. Live with a clean slate.
    Say the thing. Fix the thing. Do the thing.
    Every moment you wait is one you won’t get back.
    Leave nothing important unsaid.
    
4. Kindness builds community.
    The end of life isn’t judged by résumés but by casseroles, tangerines, and hugs.
    The smallest acts often echo the loudest.
    
5. Don’t miss the moments.
    One client spent his life building a fortune, only to die alone in a mansion
    He missed what mattered most:
    The people inside it.
    
The takeaway:
Live now.
Say what needs to be said.
And don’t wait for the end to live a life worth remembering.

90% of your productivity comes down to just 3 things:

1. Energy.
You can’t manage time if you don’t manage energy.
Sleep, movement, and breaks. That’s your real fuel.
Run out of energy, and no system or app can save you.

2. Focus.
Distraction is the enemy.
Every notification is a tax on your brain.
The best performers protect their attention like it’s gold… because it is.

3. Priorities.
Most of what we do doesn’t matter.
The key is knowing the few things that do and doing those first.
Everything else is noise.

Master these 3 and the rest takes care of itself.

Neuroscience has taught us more about how we think and act in the last few decades than ever before.

Here are 3 discoveries everyone should know:

1. Your brain has two modes of thinking.
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman called them:

System 1: fast, emotional, automatic
System 2: slow, rational, deliberate
Most of your decisions? System 1.

The skill is knowing when to slow down — and let System 2 take over.

2. Neuroplasticity is real.
For years, scientists believed the brain stopped changing after childhood.
They were wrong.
Experience reshapes your neural connections at any age.
Learn a language. Pick up a skill. Change your habits.
Your brain literally rewires itself.

3. Dopamine isn’t about pleasure — it’s about anticipation.
The “reward chemical” spikes before you get the reward.

That’s why countdowns, cliffhangers, and goals hook us.
It’s not the reward itself — it’s the chase that keeps dopamine flowing.

The lesson?
Your brain isn’t a machine to control.
It’s a partner to understand.

This tiny toilet might be one of the best mental health hacks.

Here are 3 discoveries everyone should know.

“If I can do it, so can you”, sounds supportive.

But for leaders, this mindset can quietly hold your team back.

New research from Muriel Wilkins introduces a hidden blocker, the belief that your capabilities should be your team’s baseline.

It often leads to:
— Unfair expectations
— Harsh feedback
— Missed growth opportunities

Not because leaders lack good intentions, but because they project their own standards onto others.

This is rooted in something called naïve realism, the assumption that your view of the world is objective and everyone else should see it the same way.

Here’s the problem:
Your way isn’t the way.

Exceptional leaders don’t measure others by their own pace, preferences, or past.

They meet people where they are.

They ask:
What support would help you most?
How do you define success?
Where do you want to grow next?

The best leaders don’t raise the bar by replicating themselves.
They raise the bar by helping others realize their own potential.

Captrics Consulting

Founded a company to provide project management, innovation and technology consulting services for capital projects.

- Outotec / Vale - Voisey's Bay Paste Backfill Project (lump sum) - Delivery project management services
- Confidential Nevada In-Situ Recovery Project - Scoping Study - Owner's project management and engineering services
- Novamera - Various conceptual studies - Sustainable mining by drilling technology - Engineering and cost estimating services
- Confidential Nevada Gold Project - Pre-Feasibility Study - Owner's representative for technical / cost estimating
- Consultec / Ascot Resources - EPCM project management, project engineering and procurement services
- AEX Gold - Nalunaq Internal Feasibility Study, Greenland - EPCM project management services
- Electra Battery Materials - Building Noth America's first cobalt hydroxide to cobalt sulfate refinery - Owner's project management services
- Electra Battery Materials - Nickel hydroxide to nickel sulfate refinery and pCAM production scoping study - Owner's project management services
- Origin Mining Mineral Park Project - Owner's steering team
- Vital Metals / Halyard - Project Management Services
- Amaroq Minerals / Halyard - Bulk sample program planning and budgeting
- Origin Mining Mineral Park Project - Owner's project management services
- Hudbay - Post project review
- Confidential Battery Gigafactory - Advisory services to owners team
- Advisory services to mining EPCM company for various projects
- Conceptual study of various midstream battery plants for an African government

Founder and CEO

Inspire Resources Inc.

Creating sustainable outcomes using a redefined mining business model and supporting digital platform.

- Flexible system architecture designs that can handle volatility / uncertainty.
- Incorporation of community needs into engineering design.
- Utilizing new technologies to unlock flexibility / paradigm shifts in system architecture.
- Developing discrete event simulations to analyze system designs.
- Applying systems thinking to solve complex problems.

VP Engineering

SNC-Lavalin

P&L responsibility for all major capital projects being executed in North America.

Salalah Ammonia - Oman - ~$400m Lump Sum EPC
Milestone Potash - Saskatechewan - ~$40m Lump Sum EP+CM

VP Project Delivery, North America, M&M

Ausenco

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OVERSIGHT

PROJECT / OVERSIGHT
Goldcorp Century PFS, New Gold Blackwater PFS, New Gold Rainy River Sustaining Capital, Greenstone Hardrock, Alamos Lynn Lake FS, Centerra Portfolio of Projects, Nevsun Rakita

PROCESS ENGINEERING 

STAFFING MANAGEMENT

Director - Mining and Minerals (Toronto)

Accenture

My role at Accenture varied between project management, management consulting and being a subject matter expert in capital project management and the resources industry.

Program Manager - Government Commuter Transport Organization - Oversee a program of projects and operational readiness activities to establish an integrated operating control centre for a rail and bus commuter network.

Project Manager / Subject Matter Expert - Global EPCM Corporation - Plan the deployment of EcoSys and SmartPlant Materials into an integrated project controls system to manage cost control, procurement and materials management.

Project Systems Advisor - Major Mining Corporation - Provide insights into what technologies can be utilized to increase efficiencies across capital project execution and operations and in which areas these would have the most impact.

Project Manager / Subject Matter Expert - Major North American Oil & Gas Pipeline Corporation – Project managed a small expert team to perform an assessment to generate a road map for an engineering drawing management system.

Subject Matter Expert / Training Lead - Major North American Oil & Gas Pipeline Corporation – Implementation of a new enterprise project controls platform to be used on a capital project portfolio with a value of around $30bn.

Project Manager / Subject Matter Expert - Major North American Oil & Gas Pipeline Corporation – Assessment of a capital project portfolio with a value of around $30bn and provide a strategy to migrate these projects from an obsolete project controls platform to a new and improved one.

Manager - Capital Projects and Resources

DRA Global

Ken reported to the VP Projects and was instrumental in growing DRA Americas from 40 people to 70 people during 2013.

Execution Project Manager:
- Colossus Minerals - Flot Plant Project (Gold/Platinum | Brazil)
- Ontario Graphite - Kearney Restart Project (Graphite | Canada)

Study Manager:
- TMAC Resources - Hope Bay Project (Gold | Canada)
- JDS Mining - Luna Gold PFS (Gold | Brazil)
- BASF - Seneca Plant (Platinum | USA)
- SRK - Gahcho Kue Due Diligence (Diamonds | Canada)

Head of Department - Mechanical Engineering and Drawing Office:
- Managing the recruitment and development of a team of 7 mechanical engineers.
- Overseeing the management and systems development of a drawing office team of 14 personnel.

Project Management Systems - Developing, improving and implementing project management systems in line with local regulatory and best practice requirements:

Contract Operations - Planning of the contract operations division of the company.

Business Development - Generating new business, networking, liasing with new clients and preparing proposals.

Senior Project Manager

Ken was the only project manager employed at DRA Americas during this period and reported directly to the CEO. He was instrumental in expanding DRA into North and South America. The company grew from 7 to 40 people during this period.

Execution Project Manager:
 - Labrador Iron Mines - Phase 3 Project (Iron | Canada) - $36m

Study Manager:
 - Starfield Resources - Stillwater PEA Review (Chrome | USA)
 - Andean American - Invicta Feasibility Study (Gold | Peru)
 - Labrador Iron Mines - Houston PEA Study (Iron | Canada)

Project Management Systems - Developing, improving and implementing project management systems in line with local regulatory and best practice requirements.

Project Manager

Area Project Manager

Assmang - Khumani - Iron Ore - $1b
Anglo Platinum - Amandelbult - Platinum - $100m
BHP Billiton - Middelburg - Coal - $30m

Project Engineer

Kemix

Design, fabrication and commissioning of carbon regeneration kilns, interstage screens, electrowinning cells, agitators, elution plants and carbon adsorption plants.

- Automate designs of mechanical equipment.
- Design and draught mineral process plants.

Mechanical Designer

Accutech Weighing Systems

Design and draught various weighing and packages systems.

Draughtsman

Ken is a consulting professional, based in Toronto, Ontario with around 25 years of industry experience growing companies that are involved in capital projects. His experience spans from management consulting, conceptualization, feasibility, engineering, procurement, construction and operations across a diverse range of commodities and several continents.

- Project Oversight and Management (Consulting, Studies and Execution Projects)
- Innovation in Engineering, Technology and Management
- Advisory

Ken Murray

Here are some PPI indices for mining equipment, electrical equipment, steel products, copper, HDPE, cement and labour which are the major capital inputs into major capital projects.

You can see that Covid had a massive impact on steel, HDPE and copper with an increase of about >50% in two years which has clawed back slightly since then. Be very careful when escalating costs from this period. I've seen several people try apply consumer PPI indices of 5% at their peril.

Mining, Projects and Innovation Leadership

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