In this YouTube segment, host Evan Carmichael introduces Nikesh Arora, who shares his lifelong habit of restlessness that has driven his career choices—from engineering to business school, finance, and international moves—without a fixed plan. Arora emphasizes that restlessness fuels growth but also creates an oxymoron: once satisfied, the urge returns. Carmichael expands the theme to entrepreneurs, arguing that restlessness is essential for starting a venture, as it pushes people out of safe, comfortable jobs into action. He also warns that the same restlessness can become a silent killer when founders become bored with their own companies, falling into repetitive, profit‑driven routines that stifle growth. The solution, he suggests, is a perpetual cycle of personal evolution and business innovation—continually injecting new ideas and challenges to keep the venture fresh. The segment includes supporting anecdotes from creative figures like Neil Peart and Bradley Cooper, who describe their own restless drives in music, drumming, reading, and acting, reinforcing the message that restless curiosity fuels achievement across fields. The video concludes with a call to viewers to share what they are restless about, a shout‑out to a fan, and encouragement to embrace one’s “one word” as a guiding principle.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is "Be Restless." Over to you, Nikesh Arora. I wake up every morning. Espresso keeps me going. I wake up every morning.
In my life, I have always been restless. I have never been able to settle with status quo. Every time I felt that life was getting boring, life was getting unexciting, I decided to pick up and move and do something different. And I've actually never had a plan. So people, I go speak at places, people ask me, "So did you have all this charted out?" And I've never had a plan charted out. I still don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. As long as you're happy, as long as you feel you're making a difference, as long as you feel that your restlessness is getting satisfied, which again is an oxymoron because once your restlessness gets satisfied, you're no longer restless and you have to be restless again. So I always tried to be restless, always tried to do something different. I grew up in this country. I ended up being an engineer, decided I didn't want to do that for too long, which was a bad choice. Now that I'm in Silicon Valley, I realize I should have stuck to those guns. But anyway, decided to become a businessperson and decided to go to business school in the US. I landed there with two suitcases and a pair of white socks, which I still remember fondly. But that's part of my romanticizing again. So from there on, I graduated business school again. I went to work in the financial industry. When I was applying for jobs, I was told that you don't have enough finance. So from then, I went and got 2 more degrees in finance. So every time I felt that I've been challenged, I've gone and picked up my bags and done something different. So I got bored in Boston. I picked up the same 2 bags and went to Germany and decided to work in Germany, where I didn't speak a word of German, and the average peer group was 50 years old. Right, so there are many moments in our lives when we come to that point to realize, what would have happened if I had gone the other way? Or what if the doors had shut sooner before you walked into the train? And you can go back and think about those moments in life, but it's not about those moments. It's about the moments when you actually walk through the door.
I think entrepreneurs in general are pretty restless. We are a restless bunch. We are not satisfied with the status quo. We want to change the way things are done. You know, we don't like our boss, we don't like our job, we don't like the industry we're in. And instead of just complaining, what do we do? We make a change. We do our own thing. We want to be the change that we want to see in the world, right? That's what we as entrepreneurs do. And it's why I believe every major problem in the world will be solved, not by corporations, not by charities, but by entrepreneurs. I think we hold the secret to every positive change that is coming in a big way. And so I think restlessness helps us in two major ways, and one is kind of hidden. So the first is the decision to start. Right? A lot of people have ideas. A lot of people want to start a business. Not everybody does because they're not restless enough. They don't want it badly enough, right? They're safe. They're secure. Sure, they'd like to have more money. Sure, they'd like to have a bigger impact, but they have a nice job. You're making nice money. You know, you have commitments and responsibilities and people to look after. You know, you can't afford to go out and do that thing. You're not restless enough, right? You're too safe in your environment. And so you don't ever do anything. And that's 90% of America, right? You wake up to a job that you hate. And so the restlessness in entrepreneurs allows us to get started, to pursue our vision, to build a company, to solve a problem, to be fulfilled, to help customers. That's what we do. The second part of restlessness though, I think is kind of a silent killer for a lot of entrepreneurs. What happens in a lot of companies is we get bored of our companies. Not something a lot of people talk about. But it happens a lot. Happens to a lot of entrepreneurs. They get bored. They get tired. Why did you leave that job to start your company? Because it was boring. Because you weren't learning. Because you weren't growing. Because you weren't having the impact that you wanted to have. And what ends up happening is at the start of the company, start of your new business, everything is what you want to do. You start building your vision up. And then somewhere along the line, you have customers and there's expectations and you found the things that will make you successful. And so you keep doing those things, right? You find the path to success, keep doing that thing. Repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Make more, right? Go, go, go. Challenge is, for someone who's restless, what happens when you're just copying and pasting and copying and pasting and copying and pasting and copying and pasting and copying? You get bored. You don't wanna do the same thing all— that's why you left your job. You don't wanna do the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Ad infinitum, right? You don't want to do that. And not enough entrepreneurs recognize that. And so they end up in a spot where they hate their business, where they've just bought themselves a job and they're saying, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to go start something new. I want to sell this business. I want to move on to something else. Where the real trick to solving this problem is constant and never-ending restlessness and improvement in your business. Once you find what made you successful, keep doing that and then try to beat it. As you evolve and change and grow as a human being, guess what? You have to bring that to your business. If you are evolving and changing and growing and your business is staying the same and doing always the same thing, you are going to get bored. There'll be a point where you've grown so much that you don't recognize your business at all. You don't want to be there anymore. So you need to be constantly introducing restlessness into your business. As you grow, as you get new ideas, as you evolve, you need to bring that to your business immediately. So that line doesn't get too far apart, so that you never get bored of your business. My company has changed a lot since I first started. There's still been that passion for helping entrepreneurs, but the execution has changed a lot. I never thought I'd be doing YouTube. I never wanted to write a book. I never thought I'd be working with big brands. I never thought people would offer me spots on their board of directors. I never thought I'd be investing in the company. None of this was ever part of my plan when I started. But if all I did was what I was doing when I started, I would hate my company right now. You need to evolve your business as you evolve yourself. Continue to be restless. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what are you restless about right now? Leave in the comments below. Super curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Rick Vasquez. Rick, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. Really, really, really means a lot to me, man. I appreciate the support. I hope you're enjoying it. Enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
Why do you still care enough to keep— you're at a point in your life where you could go back, you could do your month in Vegas, and Florence Henderson could open up, and you could go and hit a couple of balls and then some pinball Well, why do you still care so much?
Well, I'm not comparing myself to any of these people, believe me. But you wouldn't say to Picasso, "When are you gonna put those brushes down? Get rid of the canvas, you've done it!" You know, you— I'm an entertainer first and foremost, but there's art involved here, and an artist has an obligation to be en route, to be going somewhere. There's a journey involved here, and you don't know where it is, and that's the fun. So you're always gonna be seeking and looking and going and trying to challenge yourself. Without sitting around thinking of that a lot, it drives you and it keeps you trying to be fresh, trying to be new, trying to call on yourself, calling yourself a little more.
It seems like you are a man of extremes. Like, you don't just drum, you drum on one of the largest kits there is. You don't just ride motorcycles, you ride 50,000 miles.
I'm an extremist.
Even when you describe your appetite for reading too, it seems like a voracious appetite for reading. Is that a I guess, is that what got you where you are as a drummer?
I would expect that it all comes down to a kind of restlessness, because when people talk about boredom, for example, I can honestly say I've never been bored for a second in my life, but I've always found another way not to be. And like, if I have to go to a medical appointment or something, I bring a book with me, so that waiting is not going to be a hardship. But the early days of touring, when all that dead time was hanging on me, reading, portable, useful, nurturing, all that stuff. So I think I combat— You learn to adapt to your own personality, and the extremes do come in there too. Yeah, I wanted to read every book ever written. Drumming-wise, my determination was more important than talent early on. I think for most things you do have to have a bit of a knack, but I had to work so hard to learn so many things, but I was relentless in terms of determination. And with traveling, when I've got a day, I'm tempted by what's the most excellent thing I can do, which might be way too far, way too long, but I'm gonna go for that because it's the most excellent thing I can do. And with writing, it just seems unstinting in the same way because I just kind of know when I've done my best on it, and maybe an editor can help make it better, and maybe somebody else could have written it better, but I have a good built-in sense of this is the best I can do.
All I want to do is good scripts. However they have to manifest themselves.
Have you ever had an agenda? Have you ever been— I never had that mindset. I never have.
I've never had like a— I'm too restless. I could never— here's what I— I don't know what I want to do, but I know what I don't want to do. Is that— I can answer the question like that. I don't want to do the same type of movie over and over again. Mm-hmm. I wouldn't want to just be doing comedies. I wouldn't want to just be doing suspense movies or action movies.
I would—
I mean, I would— that— I mean, I always want to like mix it up.
