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[music] >> Welcome back to Giant [music] Ideas.
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Last week we spoke to Halle Tecco, the leading US healthcare entrepreneur, investor, and author about massively improving [music] healthcare.
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Today we're going to talk to her about the wisdom she's accumulated in life and about the person behind the giant idea.
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Ali, if you could choose three photographs that defined your life and [snorts] were moments that you really gained wisdom of what life is all about, what would those three photographs be?
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So, well thank you for telling me this question in advance because I don't know if I could have picked three on the spot.
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But last night I was kind of going through like my my personal life's photo album, which was a really fun exercise and I think I think I did figure out the three.
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Um so the first is coming going to San Francisco.
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When I moved to San Francisco in 2006 right out of college and I can like see the city out my window.
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I'm I'm a window seat gal for life and just kind of seeing the city and that feeling I had of like a new beginning for myself.
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Um I had I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and I went to school there as well.
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I was a first gen college student and for me like I I literally took the job I got that was farthest away from Ohio.
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I just really was at that point in my life so eager to have a new adventure.
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And so that was a huge huge moment in my life and then obviously going to San Francisco for lived there for 9 years defined everything I have done professionally and it's also where I met my husband who I then married in 2012, which is my second picture.
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Um and my husband and I married in 2012 and I would say I was told in business school that one of the most important decisions you would make is who you marry and I could not be more true.
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Having a partner and a spouse who supports your work and enables you to achieve everything that you want to achieve is just so special.
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And I've now seen unfortunately friends who marry people who haven't been the most supportive and have kind of different visions for their life together that is really misaligned that makes me as I'm now been married for 15 years.
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Um no, not 15 years, 13 years.
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>> [laughter] >> Uh you know kind of see see and really appreciate how your personal life is one thing and optimizing for having you know a strong relationship and friends and family around is important but actually for your career, like having a spouse that really supports you in your career can like make or break that.
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>> Do you think who you marry is the single most important decision you make? In your life? Oh my gosh. It's one of them. Yes. Yes, it's one of them.
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>> What would the other ones be? Um to have kids or not. Okay.
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I think that's really important.
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Making that a conscious choice I think is an [clears throat] underrated one. Yeah.
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My cousin gave me great advice before I had kids.
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He was like at the very least at least make it a hyperconscious decision where most people just do it because that's what what everyone else does, which I don't think is a good idea.
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>> Yes, I agree with that.
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>> This cousin's very consistent.
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He also tried very hard to convince me not to have any more children at dinner.
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>> [laughter] >> Did this person have Does your cousin have kids?
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That's the irony of that. But yeah, I agree.
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I think in in society there are certain expectations of what you do and you get married and you have kids and sometimes people go through the motions without really thinking of it.
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And I mean maybe that's changing now because there's the rise of the dink. You know the dinks? No.
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Dual income, no kids lifestyle.
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The dink lifestyle I think is becoming more known and so people can see that there's another path.
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But I have friends that never had kids and are perfectly happy and fulfilled and they get to be aunts and I think that's okay. >> Yeah.
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Did you know your husband was definitely the right choice?
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When I was dating him, no.
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I mean we were so young and we were partying a lot in San Francisco and having a good time and it wasn't necessarily on our our minds at the time. He was a little wild.
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It was the early days of Facebook, right?
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It was the early days of Facebook and it was you know San Francisco.
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It was just a different lifestyle than what I I was wanting.
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And then I went to business school so we were apart for 2 years and you know that was hard but we we made it work and by the end of that it was but by the end of my first year kind of like knew like okay, this is this is going to work. Um so yeah. And what's the third?
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Oh and the third I would say is the picture over in my window seat on the plane moving to London and I got so lucky because the path wasn't supposed to go over London but we had to wait like half an hour and so the pilot took us over London and got to see the river and the bridge and it was just such a stunning view.
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It was a beautiful clear day in April and I was almost in tears cuz like both excited for a new adventure but like what a remarkable city this is.
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Like such a privilege to be able to move here and um get my visa and be be able to just get up and move like that.
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People don't really do that in their 30s and 40s.
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I think people kind of get settled somewhere, they have kids and then that's like their place and for us to we've moved so much and we're like such adventurers that that was it was a big deal but it was also something that we did with a lot of conviction.
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What would be your advice to I guess the 22-year-old Ali flying into San Francisco looking out the window?
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>> You know when you're in San Francisco just having fun and being young you meet a lot of people who are working on really interesting things and 99 out of 100 times it's not going to end up being anything significant but some people are going to end up building these like game-changing platforms.
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Um and so you know a lot of folks that I was able to like just have beers with and get to know as humans ended up doing really cool things.
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So that was that you know I don't know if I would have any different advice for that but that was something I don't think I expected.
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I was just trying to make friends and have fun.
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Um and that's like a really special thing about San Francisco is that it's not it wasn't networking.
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It was just like hanging out with cool like-minded folks who had moved to San Francisco and wanted you know to talk about what's going on in the world.
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Ali, this is this is a big one to to ask any person but if you had to step back what would be the wisdom that you feel you've accumulated in life that you would like to share with people?
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What's life all about for you? Oh my gosh. Um No pressure.
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So when I when I was living in San Francisco in about 2011 or 2012 I got a call one day from my sister that my dad was in the hospital and he had a heart attack and um she would keep me posted.
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And so I kind of just I was like okay, keep me posted and you know talked to them every few hours to hear what was going on and I I didn't do anything.
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I went on with my day, I went on with my week.
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I had a bunch of meetings that I just didn't think to move and go home and you know change everything up and I look back now I'm like I have no idea what those meetings were.
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Like what I was doing that was more important than going home.
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Fortunately my dad recovered, he went to cardiac rehab and he's 80 years old today, which is great.
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Uh but that was a huge inflection point in my career because I few months later looked back and was so ashamed of myself for putting random work meetings with people that would have absolutely understood hey, my dad had a heart attack, I need to go home and be with him and I I really regretted making that choice.
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And that was when my husband and I decided to leave San Francisco.
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And we realized that while it is such a magical place and I'm so glad I was there not just because it was where I launched my career and met my husband and made so many great friends but it is it is it was then and it is returning to be now a hustle culture that is not compatible with living a life revolving around your family where your family matters to you. >> Yeah.
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That story about your dad resonates massively with me.
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When I when I lost my dad a couple of years ago, I I basically went back to work almost within 3 days or something and lovely guy called Zach who's an investor here in London at M&G gave me some great advice which was to let the grief in because otherwise if it sets it will turn to concrete.
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And it was one of the best pieces of advice I've I've ever got. Yeah.
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So what did you then take time off and give yourself >> I basically let the grief in whenever it came and it comes in cycles and random moments but the kind of the main advice was when it comes allow it to wash over you and fully embrace it rather than blocking it out. >> Yeah.
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Yeah, I think you know our time with our our parents, our time with our children, our time with our partners are are limited and so important and it's it's hard to make it a priority when you love what you're doing and it's professionally because I love working.
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Like I could work 80 hours if I didn't have anyone in my life that I cared about spending time with.
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And I was I also I wasn't working out. I never went to the gym.
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I just wasn't really taking care of myself.
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We were out partying all night and then working all day and it was it was not healthy.
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And so leaving San Francisco at that time was was was important I think for us and we were able to kind of like regroup our life and decide what we wanted to do which is when we were also like okay, let's start a family.
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Like let's let's put family first.
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Our parents are getting older.
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We were kind of ready for that.
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We we always joked we were ready to bring someone else into the relationship.
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>> [laughter] >> So so that was kind of when we started our our journey to becoming parents.
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Last one we ask every guest who comes to Giant Ideas this.
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What is it about you that has made you so successful?
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Oh gosh, that's a hard one. >> No modesty allowed.
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>> I um I work really hard.
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I've always had to kind of earn everything.
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Um you know I was I was a work study student.
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I don't know if that is something you guys know but I I was on a work study program meaning I had to work through college and the government supported my my college degree.
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So I'm just used to working a lot.
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I also in in addition to being work study, I worked at the mall at Nordstrom throughout college.
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was Um so, I'm used to just juggling a lot of things and working really hard.
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And um and I think that's that's paid off. Amazing.
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The greatest football manager in English history called Alex Ferguson, he managed Manchester United.
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His his big thing was that hard work is a great talent. It is.
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And I do, you know, it's something I think about a lot for my my son because he's has a very different upbringing than than I had.
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Um so, how can I help distill that hard work?
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And so, one of the things I've been doing lately is um and I read this in a book and maybe you guys can use this with your children is really praising effort over outcome.
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And [clears throat] like I'm so proud of you.
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You worked so hard on that. Yeah. What was it? Raising adults?
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>> Is it Is it Is it the story story you wish your parents had read or something like that? I think like that.
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>> "You worked so hard preparing for that test.
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You tried really hard [clears throat] and I'm really proud of you. You took it seriously."
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And and really focusing on kind of the effort because once we get to a point of just focusing on outcomes, then they're not thinking about the joy in just learning.
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And so, when things get hard, uh they, you know, children can become persistent and not or not not be persistent and kind of shy away from a good challenge. So.
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>> of identity in the results rather than effort, which is also >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
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And my parents just didn't really care.
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Like, they were they were like they weren't really impressed by by much.
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They kind of just wanted me to be happy and healthy.
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They were always so supportive and loving, but like neither of my parents went to college, so they didn't really have uh you know, they they they wanted me to go to college, but beyond that, they just wanted me to be happy and have a 401k and stability. So, Yeah.
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Well, thank you so much for sharing, Hattie. Thanks. Thanks, Hattie. Really appreciate it. >> [music]