Polina is also the author of Hidden Genius: The Secret Ways of Thinking That Power the World's Most Successful People – a book which distils the mental frameworks that so many of the high achievers she has profiled use to view the world and to achieve their extraordinary success - from Navy Seal David Goggins to Spanx founder Sarah Blakeley, Pixar’s Ed Catmull and Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York.
In this conversation, we talk about Polina’s upbringing in Bulgaria before moving to the US and how feeling like an outsider shaped her view of the world and how she learns. We also talk about some of the frameworks used by the high achievers which she details in her book and the lessons they share on taking risk, failure, building a community and the importance of storytelling.