Steven Bartlett has built a digital empire—but for the entrepreneur and ‘The Diary of a CEO' host, his next big bet is offline
Bartlett is full of anecdotal learnings that have influenced his life too, from the likes of Virgin founder Richard Branson, who taught him to always think through the lens of delegation; Google X's former chief business officer Mo Gawdat, who reframed happiness as meeting your expectations; and Canadian entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary, who observed that the people who are most successful in a particular pursuit are eclectic people, or as Bartlett has observed, those with a broad 'skill stack', citing Steve Jobs's range of interests from typography and design to meditation.
Branson, Gawdat and O'Leary are just a few of the many influential people Bartlett has interviewed for The Diary of a CEO , which he expected to achieve around 50 million downloads and gain half a million followers in the month of July alone—when we speak—making it the fastest growing podcast in the world. An entrepreneur is born
Above As host of 'The Diary of a CEO', the world's fastest growing podcast, Bartlett is a leader in the creator economy
Bartlett is a leader in the creator economy, where individuals produce and distribute content, products or services directly to audiences via digital and social media platforms, generating revenue, primarily through advertising, sponsorships or product sales. He was recently named on Time magazine's inaugural 100 Creators list featuring the most influential digital voices in the world.
Bartlett began as an entrepreneur. Born in 1992 in Botswana to a Nigerian mother and English father, he moved to the UK soon after and settled in the coastal city of Plymouth. 'One of the hallmarks of my childhood was just being different. Plymouth in 1994 was pretty much all white and we moved into a middle-class area, but then we had financial challenges. The background hum of my life was a little bit of shame, a little bit of insecurity and constantly feeling like our family was different,' he says.
The background hum of my life was a little bit of shame, a little bit of insecurity and constantly feeling like our family was different.
- Steven Bartlett -
Instead of hindering him, that shame and embarrassment became a motivational force. He began his earliest ventures while at school, driven by an abundance of independence that was the result of having two busy, working parents, and a need to make money. 'If you give a kid a lot of independence, they're gonna do something with it. And what I started doing with it was trying to solve this other problem I had, which was money,' recalls Bartlett. Just do it
His mother proved to be an important influence. 'I'd vicariously learnt from my mother that you could have an idea and then it could turn into a business. I'd watch her say to my dad, I'm gonna sell furniture out of that garage. And then I'd watch her go and do it. For a lot of people, there's debate and consideration; there's strategy and planning. In my mother's head, it was just: idea, then do it. That idea of just doing things was super formative for me, because that's exactly what I did with all my independence: I just started doing things.'
Above Steven Bartlett
Bartlett wanted to keep doing things—and it felt like school and university weren't conducive. Expelled from the former for poor attendance, when he did get to university he dropped out after just one lecture—a decision that would prove pivotal. 'I thought [university] would be profoundly different [to school]. But on that first day, as I sat in that room, I realised that it was more of school, and I realised that I was going to struggle all the same,' says Bartlett. 'And I looked around and I remember thinking, if I want to become an entrepreneur, who am I going to show this piece of paper that I get at the end of this process to?'
So, instead of university, Bartlett opted to continue executing on his ideas. In 2013, he launched Wallpark, an online student noticeboard. While trying to drive traffic to it, he realised the potential of social media, which became the more attractive business and led to Social Chain, a social media marketing company he founded in 2014 at the age of 21. When it went public as part of a merged company in 2019, it was valued at more than US$200 million. Counterintuitive decisions
In 2020, Bartlett stepped down from Social Chain. It gave him pause to ask himself what he should do now money wasn't a concern—and what he enjoyed most. He had launched his podcast The Diary of a CEO in 2017, but had been inconsistent with recording. It was something he enjoyed—but in which he also saw opportunity.
Thinking about impact and enjoyment [should be] an essential part of your decision framework. Because to do anything well, consistency is the holy grail, and consistency is a byproduct of enjoying the thing.
- Steven Bartlett -
'I started thinking about what was going on in the world of social media and I could see everything getting shorter and more ephemeral and more forgettable. It's always proven to be the case to me that when you go the other way, you can create huge value.' He started focusing on the podcast, and found that even though he was achieving just 1,000 downloads per episode at the start, he was receiving more positive feedback in real life about these episodes than he ever had for the viral videos he had been producing at Social Chain, which achieved millions of views.
'So, I went for depth and I went for enjoyment and the thing that I liked the most,' says Bartlett. 'And I really believe that's a wonderful framework for anybody—thinking about impact and enjoyment as an essential part of your decision framework. Because to do anything well, consistency is the holy grail, and consistency is a byproduct of enjoying the thing.' Betting on the bizarre
Bartlett's entrepreneurial and business endeavours continued alongside The Diary of a CEO , which now sits under his media and investment company FlightStory. In 2020, he joined psychedelics company Atai Life Sciences and helped take it public on the Nasdaq the following year with a US$3 billion market cap, while at the same time he became the youngest ever Dragon on reality television show Dragons' Den .
Above An entrepreneurial leap into blockchain and Web3 for Bartlett was inspired by leaning into bizarre behaviour—something that has become a key business philosophy for the founder
Bartlett then leapt on the blockchain and Web3 wave with the launch of Thirdweb, a blockchain infrastructure business. This move was an example of another of the business laws from his book: lean into bizarre behaviour. 'I saw people buying these monkey pictures on the internet for a quarter of a million dollars and I bought one myself, and that really led me to start the company,' says Bartlett, referring to the craze for Bored Ape NFTs. Leaning into AI
The next wave he's betting on is AI. 'Never in our lives have we seen the disruption of intelligence. The industrial revolution disrupted our muscles—we had robots and machines that could do things, but we still had our intelligence. And now AI disrupts our intelligence, which is really the thing that we had left,' says Bartlett. 'What are you going to do about it? Are you going to pretend it's not happening? Or are you going to lean in? All the opportunity and value is captured from leaning in.'
From adoption of AI in his own companies, including experimenting with AI-generated podcast content, to investing in AI businesses such as AI inference platform Groq, Bartlett is also learning from the experts, with AI a frequent topic of discussion on The Diary of a CEO . From online to offline
'One of the remarkable things that I found from interviewing some of these AI billionaires is that their other investments were often in things that were community-centric and in real life. They realise that poles rise together and that in a world of automation, we're going to have a lot of free time to spend on other things. They call it the age of abundance. And I didn't believe that at the start, but I do believe that humans are going to find a way to be happier and better.'
I think the next great opportunity as a creator is to bring people together in the real world.
- Steven Bartlett -
Like those AI billionaires, Bartlett is investing in community-centric and in-person gatherings too. 'I think the next great opportunity as a creator is to bring people together in the real world around your IP [intellectual property], whether that's a human IP or brand IP, and create environments where people get value from each other and from being part of that group.' Bartlett has plans to put on 'thousands' of events for small groups of people all over the world. 'I'm going to be spending lots of money—probably millions—on these small community [Diary of a] CEO events in every corner of the world to bring the community together, to meet each other, to network, to do whatever happens when you bring like-minded people together in a room for a couple of hours.'
Above Poles rise together, and while Steven Bartlett is leaning into AI, he's also betting on the offline world by investing in community-centric, in-person events and gatherings
As well as these small-scale events, larger The Diary of a CEO communities will soon be gathering, as Bartlett brings his live speaking tour to Asia for the first time.
He's excited for the expansion of horizons that accompanies travel. 'I get to learn about the people that live in these regions, the opportunity in these regions, how culture impacts those opportunities and how culture is interacting with technology and change. I can imagine myself starting businesses in Asia one day, so I'm hoping to meet lots of entrepreneurs, and maybe invest in some as well.' The pursuit of excellence
Our allotted hour is almost up, and with time for one final question, in the style of The Diary of a CEO , I ask if Bartlett would leave a question for our next Tatler cover star. He thinks for a moment before saying that the interviewer should ask what they could have done differently that would have made the experience better for the subject. It's something that Bartlett asks all his The Diary of a CEO guests once recording stops. 'It feeds into a wider philosophy that a good piece of criticism is worth its weight in gold and if we're truly in pursuit of being better and doing things better, we should seek that out. Most people won't [give it to you], but you have to press them.'
A good piece of criticism is worth its weight in gold and if we're truly in pursuit of being better and doing things better, we should seek that out.
- Steven Bartlett -
So, what feedback would he give about today's interview? He quips, 'If it had been at 11am, it would have been better for me!' And before I can press him further, our time is up, leaving him free to return to the high-stakes, million-dollar decisions that he is proving every day to be so adept at making.
Steven Bartlett presents The Business & Life Speaking Tour takes place across Asia in September 2025; for more details and tickets visit: https://www.forthecurious.asia/
Credits
Styling: Madeleine Mak, Jay Hines
Creative Direction: Zoe Yau
Photography: Jason Hetherington
Photographer's Assistant: Aiden Gibson
Grooming: Lesley Vye
Stylist's Assistant: Varvara Barto
Producer: Alex Aalto, Jack So, Melissa Scott
Production: Pete Jung, Oscar Maher
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Tatler Asia
02-08-2025
- Tatler Asia
Steven Bartlett has built a digital empire—but for the entrepreneur and ‘The Diary of a CEO' host, his next big bet is offline
There are other daily habits and rituals too. Bartlett walks in the sunshine every morning, goes to the gym daily, takes electrolytes, Omega-3s and creatine, and is trying to meditate but 'struggling with it'. Mental and physical well-being are part of his 'first foundation'—the core elements that support everything else in life—as he wrote in his 2023 bestselling book, The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business & Life . Bartlett is full of anecdotal learnings that have influenced his life too, from the likes of Virgin founder Richard Branson, who taught him to always think through the lens of delegation; Google X's former chief business officer Mo Gawdat, who reframed happiness as meeting your expectations; and Canadian entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary, who observed that the people who are most successful in a particular pursuit are eclectic people, or as Bartlett has observed, those with a broad 'skill stack', citing Steve Jobs's range of interests from typography and design to meditation. Branson, Gawdat and O'Leary are just a few of the many influential people Bartlett has interviewed for The Diary of a CEO , which he expected to achieve around 50 million downloads and gain half a million followers in the month of July alone—when we speak—making it the fastest growing podcast in the world. An entrepreneur is born Above As host of 'The Diary of a CEO', the world's fastest growing podcast, Bartlett is a leader in the creator economy Bartlett is a leader in the creator economy, where individuals produce and distribute content, products or services directly to audiences via digital and social media platforms, generating revenue, primarily through advertising, sponsorships or product sales. He was recently named on Time magazine's inaugural 100 Creators list featuring the most influential digital voices in the world. Bartlett began as an entrepreneur. Born in 1992 in Botswana to a Nigerian mother and English father, he moved to the UK soon after and settled in the coastal city of Plymouth. 'One of the hallmarks of my childhood was just being different. Plymouth in 1994 was pretty much all white and we moved into a middle-class area, but then we had financial challenges. The background hum of my life was a little bit of shame, a little bit of insecurity and constantly feeling like our family was different,' he says. The background hum of my life was a little bit of shame, a little bit of insecurity and constantly feeling like our family was different. - Steven Bartlett - Instead of hindering him, that shame and embarrassment became a motivational force. He began his earliest ventures while at school, driven by an abundance of independence that was the result of having two busy, working parents, and a need to make money. 'If you give a kid a lot of independence, they're gonna do something with it. And what I started doing with it was trying to solve this other problem I had, which was money,' recalls Bartlett. Just do it His mother proved to be an important influence. 'I'd vicariously learnt from my mother that you could have an idea and then it could turn into a business. I'd watch her say to my dad, I'm gonna sell furniture out of that garage. And then I'd watch her go and do it. For a lot of people, there's debate and consideration; there's strategy and planning. In my mother's head, it was just: idea, then do it. That idea of just doing things was super formative for me, because that's exactly what I did with all my independence: I just started doing things.' Above Steven Bartlett Bartlett wanted to keep doing things—and it felt like school and university weren't conducive. Expelled from the former for poor attendance, when he did get to university he dropped out after just one lecture—a decision that would prove pivotal. 'I thought [university] would be profoundly different [to school]. But on that first day, as I sat in that room, I realised that it was more of school, and I realised that I was going to struggle all the same,' says Bartlett. 'And I looked around and I remember thinking, if I want to become an entrepreneur, who am I going to show this piece of paper that I get at the end of this process to?' So, instead of university, Bartlett opted to continue executing on his ideas. In 2013, he launched Wallpark, an online student noticeboard. While trying to drive traffic to it, he realised the potential of social media, which became the more attractive business and led to Social Chain, a social media marketing company he founded in 2014 at the age of 21. When it went public as part of a merged company in 2019, it was valued at more than US$200 million. Counterintuitive decisions In 2020, Bartlett stepped down from Social Chain. It gave him pause to ask himself what he should do now money wasn't a concern—and what he enjoyed most. He had launched his podcast The Diary of a CEO in 2017, but had been inconsistent with recording. It was something he enjoyed—but in which he also saw opportunity. Thinking about impact and enjoyment [should be] an essential part of your decision framework. Because to do anything well, consistency is the holy grail, and consistency is a byproduct of enjoying the thing. - Steven Bartlett - 'I started thinking about what was going on in the world of social media and I could see everything getting shorter and more ephemeral and more forgettable. It's always proven to be the case to me that when you go the other way, you can create huge value.' He started focusing on the podcast, and found that even though he was achieving just 1,000 downloads per episode at the start, he was receiving more positive feedback in real life about these episodes than he ever had for the viral videos he had been producing at Social Chain, which achieved millions of views. 'So, I went for depth and I went for enjoyment and the thing that I liked the most,' says Bartlett. 'And I really believe that's a wonderful framework for anybody—thinking about impact and enjoyment as an essential part of your decision framework. Because to do anything well, consistency is the holy grail, and consistency is a byproduct of enjoying the thing.' Betting on the bizarre Bartlett's entrepreneurial and business endeavours continued alongside The Diary of a CEO , which now sits under his media and investment company FlightStory. In 2020, he joined psychedelics company Atai Life Sciences and helped take it public on the Nasdaq the following year with a US$3 billion market cap, while at the same time he became the youngest ever Dragon on reality television show Dragons' Den . Above An entrepreneurial leap into blockchain and Web3 for Bartlett was inspired by leaning into bizarre behaviour—something that has become a key business philosophy for the founder Bartlett then leapt on the blockchain and Web3 wave with the launch of Thirdweb, a blockchain infrastructure business. This move was an example of another of the business laws from his book: lean into bizarre behaviour. 'I saw people buying these monkey pictures on the internet for a quarter of a million dollars and I bought one myself, and that really led me to start the company,' says Bartlett, referring to the craze for Bored Ape NFTs. Leaning into AI The next wave he's betting on is AI. 'Never in our lives have we seen the disruption of intelligence. The industrial revolution disrupted our muscles—we had robots and machines that could do things, but we still had our intelligence. And now AI disrupts our intelligence, which is really the thing that we had left,' says Bartlett. 'What are you going to do about it? Are you going to pretend it's not happening? Or are you going to lean in? All the opportunity and value is captured from leaning in.' From adoption of AI in his own companies, including experimenting with AI-generated podcast content, to investing in AI businesses such as AI inference platform Groq, Bartlett is also learning from the experts, with AI a frequent topic of discussion on The Diary of a CEO . From online to offline 'One of the remarkable things that I found from interviewing some of these AI billionaires is that their other investments were often in things that were community-centric and in real life. They realise that poles rise together and that in a world of automation, we're going to have a lot of free time to spend on other things. They call it the age of abundance. And I didn't believe that at the start, but I do believe that humans are going to find a way to be happier and better.' I think the next great opportunity as a creator is to bring people together in the real world. - Steven Bartlett - Like those AI billionaires, Bartlett is investing in community-centric and in-person gatherings too. 'I think the next great opportunity as a creator is to bring people together in the real world around your IP [intellectual property], whether that's a human IP or brand IP, and create environments where people get value from each other and from being part of that group.' Bartlett has plans to put on 'thousands' of events for small groups of people all over the world. 'I'm going to be spending lots of money—probably millions—on these small community [Diary of a] CEO events in every corner of the world to bring the community together, to meet each other, to network, to do whatever happens when you bring like-minded people together in a room for a couple of hours.' Above Poles rise together, and while Steven Bartlett is leaning into AI, he's also betting on the offline world by investing in community-centric, in-person events and gatherings As well as these small-scale events, larger The Diary of a CEO communities will soon be gathering, as Bartlett brings his live speaking tour to Asia for the first time. He's excited for the expansion of horizons that accompanies travel. 'I get to learn about the people that live in these regions, the opportunity in these regions, how culture impacts those opportunities and how culture is interacting with technology and change. I can imagine myself starting businesses in Asia one day, so I'm hoping to meet lots of entrepreneurs, and maybe invest in some as well.' The pursuit of excellence Our allotted hour is almost up, and with time for one final question, in the style of The Diary of a CEO , I ask if Bartlett would leave a question for our next Tatler cover star. He thinks for a moment before saying that the interviewer should ask what they could have done differently that would have made the experience better for the subject. It's something that Bartlett asks all his The Diary of a CEO guests once recording stops. 'It feeds into a wider philosophy that a good piece of criticism is worth its weight in gold and if we're truly in pursuit of being better and doing things better, we should seek that out. Most people won't [give it to you], but you have to press them.' A good piece of criticism is worth its weight in gold and if we're truly in pursuit of being better and doing things better, we should seek that out. - Steven Bartlett - So, what feedback would he give about today's interview? He quips, 'If it had been at 11am, it would have been better for me!' And before I can press him further, our time is up, leaving him free to return to the high-stakes, million-dollar decisions that he is proving every day to be so adept at making. Steven Bartlett presents The Business & Life Speaking Tour takes place across Asia in September 2025; for more details and tickets visit: Credits Styling: Madeleine Mak, Jay Hines Creative Direction: Zoe Yau Photography: Jason Hetherington Photographer's Assistant: Aiden Gibson Grooming: Lesley Vye Stylist's Assistant: Varvara Barto Producer: Alex Aalto, Jack So, Melissa Scott Production: Pete Jung, Oscar Maher
Libyan Express
22-07-2025
- Libyan Express
Over 867,000 migrants in Libya, most based in the west
BY Libyan Express Jul 22, 2025 - 01:53 Over half are based in the west, with Sudanese, Nigerien, and Egyptian nationals most represented The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has revealed that Libya is currently host to 867,055 migrants, with more than half residing in the western region of the country. The most represented nationalities are Sudanese, Nigerian, and Egyptian. According to the IOM's latest report , adult males comprise 78% of the migrant population, while women and children each account for 11%. The majority — also 78% — are employed in labour-intensive sectors, primarily construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. Despite this, the unemployment rate among migrants stands at 21%, with a particularly high rate among women at 55%, compared to 18% among men. The report also highlights the importance of remittances, with over half of the migrants relying on them as their families' main source of income. On average, the cost of migrating to Libya is estimated at 657 US dollars per person, according to the IOM. The views expressed in Op-Ed pieces are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Libyan Express. How to submit an Op-Ed: Libyan Express accepts opinion articles on a wide range of topics. Submissions may be sent to oped@ Please include 'Op-Ed' in the subject line.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Who is Michael Sabia and why did Mark Carney bring him back into government?
Michael Sabia will add Clerk of the Privy Council to his resumé of senior corporate and government posts after the chief executive of Hydro Quebec was tapped by Prime Minister Mark Carney to lead Canada's civil service starting July 7, 2025. The one-time CEO of BCE Inc., Sabia has transitioned seamlessly back and forth between the public and private sectors during his extensive career. His latest job description will see him provide advice to the prime minister and senior elected officials from an objective, non-partisan, public policy perspective. Here's a look at Sabia's career and why Carney likely sought him out for his new role. Born in St. Catharines, Ont., about a 90-minute drive from Toronto, Sabia has spent his career moving between public and private roles, with much of his time spent with Quebec-based companies and institutions. His grandparents immigrated to Canada from Italy and his first language is English. But his command of French is very strong, which led to senior roles in Quebec. He has led organizations in several sectors including asset management, telecommunications, transportation and utilities. His government work has included senior roles in the finance department and the privy council office. His education includes earning a bachelor of arts degree in economics and politics from the University of Toronto and graduate degrees in the same areas of study from Yale University. Most recently, Sabia was CEO of Hydro-Quebec, which he joined in 2023. Prior to that he was the first native-English speaker to run the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province's multi-billion pension manager, a job he held from March 2009 to January 2020. His run as chief executive of the Caisse was widely considered a success despite some early concerns that he might be considered an outsider. Prior to that, he spent several years at Montreal-based Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE Inc.), joining in 1999 and rising through the ranks to become president and chief executive in 2002 after serving as chief operating office and CEO of Bell Canada International. From 1993 to 1999, he worked at Canadian National Railway, with roles including chief financial officer. Sabia was instrumental in the privatization of CN in 1995. Sabia was Canada's deputy minister of finance from 2020 to 2023. He was also a member of the Canadian government's Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which was created in 2016, and served as chair of the Canada Infrastructure Bank from 2020 to 2021. He spent much of his early career in government before moving to the private sector. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he worked at the department of finance where he was director general of tax policy and one of the architects of a comprehensive reform of Canada's tax system, and at the Privy Council Office, where he was deputy secretary to the cabinet. His boss there, clerk of the Privy Council Paul Tellier, left to run Canadian National Railway in the early 1990s and Sabia followed. Sabia won praise for stabilizing the Caisse de depot after it sustained a deep loss during the financial in 2008. During his tenure, assets nearly tripled, reaching $326.7 billion, and the pension posted five and 10-year annualized returns of 8.3 and 9.9 per cent. However, assessments of his earlier tenure at BCE were mixed. A sluggish share price led to shareholder unrest and a contentious takeover battle by a consortium that included the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which intended to privatize the telecom company in what would have been the biggest corporate takeover in Canadian history. The planned deal ultimately did not take place, and some blamed Sabia for the tumultuous period marked by court battles. Sabia was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2016 in recognition of his leadership across business, finance and public service. In receiving the honour, he was credited by governor general Mary Simon with 'helping to rejuvenate Canada's fiscal infrastructure as the country's general director of tax policy before lending his business acumen to a number of iconic Canadian enterprises.' Hydro-Québec's new boss: What you should know about the man and the job Why turning Canada's new defence spending into economic growth may be 'easier said than done' Sabia's close association with Quebec is seen as a strength for the minority Liberal government that may need support from the Bloc Québécois party to remain in power and get key legislation passed. Carney already reached into the Caisse de depot, where Sabia also worked, for his chief of staff: former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Marc-André Blanchard. Sabia also brings a deep understanding of Canadian pensions funds, which will be brought to bear as the government seeks to 'catalyze' billions of dollars in private investment. 'Canada's exemplary public service — with Mr. Sabia at the helm — will advance nation-building projects, catalyze enormous private investment to drive growth, and deliver the change Canadians want and deserve,' the government said in a statement announcing his appointment. • Email: bshecter@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
