Steven Kotler

Biography

Steven Kotler – Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective – is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist and one of the world’s foremost experts on human performance.

As the executive director of the Flow Research Collective, he has conducted research on the neurobiology of human performance with scientists at leading institutions such as USC, UCLA, Stanford and Imperial College, London. He has trained over 250,000 people, including U.S. Navy SEALs, Olympic athletes and executives at companies such as Google, Cisco, and Microsoft, and his teachings continue to generate peak performance in individuals and organizations across the world.

Kotler is the author of nine bestselling books (out of thirteen) including “The Art of Impossible,” “The Future is Faster Than You Think,” “Stealing Fire,” “The Rise of Superman,” “Bold” and “Abundance.” His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and appeared in over 100 publications, including New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME and Harvard Business Review.

Steven Kotler is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers, a division of Stern Strategy Group^®.

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Biography

Steven Kotler – Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective – is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist and one of the world’s foremost experts on human performance.

As the executive director of the Flow Research Collective, he has conducted research on the neurobiology of human performance with scientists at leading institutions such as USC, UCLA, Stanford and Imperial College, London. He has trained over 250,000 people, including U.S. Navy SEALs, Olympic athletes and executives at companies such as Google, Cisco, and Microsoft, and his teachings continue to generate peak performance in individuals and organizations across the world.

Kotler is the author of nine bestselling books (out of thirteen) including “The Art of Impossible,” “The Future is Faster Than You Think,” “Stealing Fire,” “The Rise of Superman,” “Bold” and “Abundance.” His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and appeared in over 100 publications, including New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME and Harvard Business Review.

Steven Kotler is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers, a division of Stern Strategy Group^®.

Speech Topics

The Art of Impossible

Are humans biologically hardwired for high achievement? Is there a science-backed blueprint for greatness?

In his eye-opening talk, New York Times bestselling author and peak performance expert Steven Kotler offers up a practical playbook for serious performance improvement, highlighting cutting-edge neuroscience and decades of research into the frontiers of human possibility.

In recent years, monumental advances in brain science have allowed researchers to decipher the biological underpinnings of peak human performance. As the executive director of the Flow Research Collective — a think tank, research lab and training organization that studies the neuroscience of peak performance — Kotler has helped drive this research forward, while documenting its progress in mega-hit books such as “The Rise of Superman,” “Bold” and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated “Stealing Fire.” His latest work, and the subject of this talk, “The Art of Impossible,” marks an unprecedented leap forward.

Over the past two decades, Kotler has conducted research with scientists at institutions like USC, UCLA, Stanford and Imperial College, London, and trained people from all walks of life, including members of the US Special Forces, Olympic athletes and executives at Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Cisco and Microsoft. Drawing on this work and more, “The Art of Impossible” is both a big think investigation of human potential and a neuroscience-based how-to guide for turning your biggest goals into your most recent achievements.

Situating Kotler’s trailblazing work on flow within the bigger picture of human peak performance, the “Art of Impossible” provides a comprehensive, pragmatic toolkit to people and organizations looking to optimize their potential. And these ideas couldn’t come at a more important time. The quartet of skills explored in this talk — motivation, learning, creativity and flow —  are the exact skills required for thriving in our fast-paced modern world. Until recently, these skills have been exceptionally hard to train — which is why they’re also the skills most people lack. Steven Kotler solves this problem, teaching us to turn our weaknesses into strengths and to use these new capabilities to stretch beyond our old limitations.

At a time when so many people find themselves paralyzed by today’s challenges, “The Art of Impossible” is an uplifting antidote, both deeply inspiring and deadly effective. If you’re interested in aiming high, finally, there’s a blueprint for making it happen.

You’ll learn:

— How to supercharge creativity and innovation

— The 5 biggest human motivators and how to align all of them for maximum drive

— The 6 levels of grit and why true persistence and resilience require all of these skills

— The power of flow and how to tap into the state of optimal performance on demand

— The biology of well-being and life satisfaction and how to get it to work to our advantage.

The Rise of Superman: Flow and Business

In today’s accelerated business climate, peak performance is no longer optional — it’s foundational. And over a century’s worth of research clearly shows the secret to peak performance is the state of consciousness known as “flow.” In business, the data is exceptionally clear. Top executives report being 500 percent more productive in flow. High flow teams consistently exceed benchmarks for collaborative, innovative execution. In fact, in studies of the world’s highest performing organizations, the ones that got the farthest the fastest are always the ones designed to harness and maximize workplace flow.

In this riveting talk, Steven Kotler, executive director of the Flow Research Collective and one of the world’s leading experts on flow and peak performance, teaches companies how to harness this elusive state to amplify every aspect of workplace performance. He focuses on increasing key skills such as motivation and productivity, creativity and innovation, learning and engagement, even meaning, purpose and well-being. With examples drawn from his work with blue chip companies like Google, Microsoft, Deloitte and Accenture, and elite organizations such as the US Navy SEALs, the Marine Corps., and tens of thousands of executives, Kotler turns cutting edge neuroscience into practical, applicable steps for organizational transformation.

You’ll learn:

— What leading companies are doing to drive flow

— Flow’s 22 triggers—the essential toolkit for organizational high performance

— The 3 biggest blockers to workplace flow

— The single most important thing any company can do to increase flow

The Future is Faster Than You Think

Technology is accelerating far more quickly than anyone could have imagined. During the next decade, humanity will experience more disruption and create more wealth than we have in the past hundred years.

In this gripping and insightful roadmap to our near future, Steven Kotler investigates how wave after wave of exponentially accelerating technologies will impact both our daily lives and society as a whole. What happens as AI, robotics, virtual reality, digital biology, and sensors crash into 3D printing, blockchain, and global gigabit networks? How will these convergences transform today’s legacy industries? What will happen to the way we raise our kids, govern our nations, and care for our planet?

Drawing on information from his work with the Flow Research Collective, where they utilize many of these same accelerating technologies to probe the secrets of human performance, his three decades as a journalist covering technology for the likes of The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Forbes and many other publications, and his bestselling mega-hits on the subject, “Abundance,” “Bold” and “The Future is Faster Than You Think,” Kotler probes the trends of technological convergence and how it will reinvent every part of our lives — transportation, retail, advertising, education, health, entertainment, food, and finance — taking humanity into uncharted territories and reimagining the world as we know it.

As indispensable as it is mind-blowing, “The Future is Faster Than You Think” provides a prescient look at our impending future.

 You’ll learn:

— What are the 8 major forces driving today’s accelerated rate of change

— How converging, accelerating technologies increase the speed and scale of disruption in the world and how you and your organization can keep pace

— Where the largest business opportunities lie over the next decade

— New technologies birth new business models — you’ll learn the 7 major business models that will shape the economy over the next decade

*Because “Faster” provides a breakdown of the impact of accelerating technology on the eleven largest industries on the planet, this talk can be customized for industry-specific requests. For example, the impact of disruptive technology on the healthcare industry, or the entertainment industry or the banking/finance industry etc.

Media

Books & Research

Recommendations

Advance Praise for “Art of the Impossible”

“…Thoroughly grounded in science, writing of the biological systems that drive fear, anger, grief, lust, and other emotions, all of which can be turned to advantage.…[Kotler] offers…an entertaining, inspiring approach to life-hacking that begs to be implemented by the willing reader.”

– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“’The Art of Impossible’ is consistently fascinating. There aren’t many writers I would follow on an intellectual journey as ambitious as this to examine peak performance; fortunately, Steven Kotler is one of them.”

– David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of “Range” and “The Sports Gene”

“This book is a tour de force of high performance. It’s an essential resource for those looking to align their curiosity, passion, and purpose to have not just a little more flow and creativity in their lives but to have a lot more flow and creativity. Want to learn how to take your innovation to seemingly impossible heights? Steven Kotler will teach you how.”

– Scott Barry Kaufman, author of “Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization”

“This book is quite literally impossible. I’ve been tracking Steven’s work for ten years now, and it’s impossible to overstate how important it is. It’s impossible that he cracked the code on breakthrough success, yet he has. It’s impossible to have turned extreme innovation from an art to a science, yet he has. It’s impossible that he put it all together in a book that’s impossible to put down, yet he has. Read it and go accomplish the impossible yourself.”

– Salim Ismail, chairman of ExO Works, author of “Exponential Organizations”

“’The Art of Impossible’ is a must-read! Steven Kotler is one of a handful of people on the planet with a deep understanding of the frontiers of human performance. His ability to bring applied neuroscience and psychology to life through storytelling is world-class. This book is a treasure.”

– Dr. Michael Gervais, high-performance psychologist

“In ‘The Art of Impossible,’ Steven Kotler has managed to articulate what many peak performers intuitively know but can’t explain: that there’s a formula for impossible. Kotler demystifies the mythic, breaking down that formula and giving readers exactly the tools they need to accomplish their dreams, no matter how big.”

– Laird Hamilton, waterman, big-wave surfer

Praise for Steven Kotler’s Books

“Diamandis and Kotler do a masterful job.”

— Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX and Tesla

“‘BOLD’ is a visionary roadmap for people who believe they can change the world—and offers invaluable advice about bringing together the partners and technologies to help them do it.”

— President Bill Clinton

“At a moment when our world faces multiple crises and is awash in pessimism, “Abundance” redirects the conversation, spotlighting scientific innovators working to improve people’s lives around the world. The result is more than a portrait of brilliant minds – it’s a reminder of the infinite possibilities for doing good when we tap into our own empathy and wisdom.”

— Arianna Huffington, CEO, Huffington Post

“I loved Peter Diamandis’ and Steven Kotler’s book “Abundance,” their writing and their Vision. “BOLD” is an amazing sequel, a book that every entrepreneur should read. It is inspiring, filled with incredible insights and offers a practical how-to game plan for going big and impacting the world.”

— Michael Dell, CEO, Dell Computers

“Every coach in America needs to listen to this stuff from Kotler.”

— George Karl, NBA Hall-of-Fame Coach

“The result is nothing less than the most transformative and thrilling period in human history.”

— Timothy Ferriss, Investor and #1 NY Times Bestselling Author of  “The 4-Hour Workweek”

“’Stealing Fire’ is a beautifully written, must-read for anyone interested in living up to their full potential. A user-manual for your hacking your brain to drive high performance.”

— Peter Diamandis, Founder of the X Prize, co-chairman of Singularity University, bestselling author

“‘BOLD’ is an essential navigation tool for any proactive CEO who wants to remain relevant. In the next decade it is reasonable to assume that some of the corporations at the top of the Fortune 500 will be displaced by the ‘exponential entrepreneur’. History tells us that if we don’t proactively change and adapt, change will be imposed on us. ‘BOLD’ spells out the implications and opportunities driven by exponential changes transforming our world.”

— Jim Moffatt, CEO of U.S. Deloitte Consulting, LLP

“A fast-paced, electrified, and captivating journey into the deep potential of the human brain.”

— David Eagleman, Presenter of PBS’s “THE BRAIN”

“’Stealing Fire’ cracks the secret code of peak performance so that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results.”

— Colonel Mark Divine, New York Times bestselling author, founder SEALFIT and Unbeatable Mind

“If you read one business book in the twenty-first century, this should be the one. When Peter and I cofounded Singularity University, we based it on the ideas of exponential change and ‘learn by doing.’ This book clearly explains how to apply these concepts to change the world and overcome the age-old afflictions of human civilization.”

— Ray Kurzweil, Inventor, Author, Director of Engineering at Google, Chancellor of Singularity University

Praise for Steven Kotler’s Presentations

“In short, Kotler was a huge success! He closed out the discussion part of the conference and I heard the word “flow” the rest of the weekend! Awesome choice you suggested, greatly appreciated!”

— Potomac Communications Strategies

“What Steven Kotler is seeking is nothing less than the big explanation.”

— Village Voice

“I am on a Steven Kotler high. He was amazing!”

— Microsoft

“Many thanks to you and Steven Kotler for a wonderful event. Steven generated a lot of conversation in our group and that extended well into the next day. Very successful!!”

— ARCH Ventures

“Steven was FABULOUS!”

— St. Mary’s University

“Steven Kotler’s presentation was cutting-edge and utterly engaging. He introduced our audience to a unique set of concepts and perspectives that left participants deeply informed, richly inspired, and with a renewed sense of purpose. I recommend him highly.”

— The SuperheroYou Conference

“Steven connected with our audience in an unimaginable way. His incredible breadth of neuroscience knowledge allowed him to dramatically engage our group of academics and mental health professionals. The session was high energy, innovative, humorous and at times even heart-warming. This talk was a masterful demonstration of skill and talent from a brilliant mind. An experience worth repeating!”

— The International Society for Neurofeedback and Research

“Steven Kotler presents a vision for the future that not only brings optimism, but inspires all who listen. His visit left our business school buzzing, and transformed students’ visions for the roles business leaders can play in shaping the future.”

— University of Iowa School of Business

More Information

Steven Kotler’s Website

Flow Research Collective

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