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What It Takes is a podcast series featuring intimate, revealing conversations with towering figures in almost every field: music, science, sports, politics, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice. These rare interviews have been recorded over the past 25 years by The Academy of Achievement. They offer the life stories and reflections of people who have had a huge impact on the world, and insights you can apply to your own life. Subscribe to the What It Takes podcast series at iTunes.com/WhatItTakes

Thomas Keller grew up in the restaurant business in Palm Beach, Florida, working his way up from dishwasher to cook. As a teenager, he fell in love with the art of French cooking, and learned his craft working in restaurants up and down the East Coast before moving to France to complete his training. In 1987, he opened his first restaurant in New York City, but the Wall Street crash of that year hit his business hard and he headed west. In 1994, he set his heart on a converted laundry building in Yountville, in the heart of California's Napa Valley wine country. It took 19 months to raise the money to purchase the place, but in 1994 he opened his restaurant, The French Laundry, and quickly made it a destination for gourmets and connoisseurs from all over the world. Twice named "Best Restaurant in the World" by Restaurant magazine, it was soon joined by other Keller establishments: Bouchon and Ad Hoc in Yountville, and Per Se in New York City. Keller has written five best-selling cookbooks, starting with The French Laundry Cookbook, and has received "Best Chef" honors from TIME magazine, the James Beard Foundation and the Culinary Institute of America. Keller is the first and only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings from the prestigious Michelin Guide, and is the first American male chef to be designated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France's paramount honorary order. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, he retraces the story of his life in the restaurant business, and the values he learned in building a culinary empire.

This podcast features two of the visionaries of today's world of Internet commerce and social media. Reid Hoffman has been called "the most connected man in Silicon Valley," the "ºber-investor" who "has had a hand in creating nearly every lucrative social media startup." He was the originator of the PayPal online commerce tool and is the founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, as well as an early investor in Facebook, GroupOn and Airbnb. Joi Ito, a social media entrepreneur in his own right, is now Director of the MIT Media Lab. A techno-prodigy and onetime nightclub DJ, he founded the venture capital firm Neoteny Co., Ltd., and was an early investor in Kickstarter, Twitter and many other innovative Internet companies. One of the world's leading advocates of Internet freedom, he has described his vision of a decentralized political structure, mediated through the Internet, in the widely-disseminated essay Emergent Democracy. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, the two friends engage in a freewheeling discussion of today's media landscape, with personal observations of the industry's leaders and a tantalizing peek at its future.

This podcast features two of the visionaries of today's world of Internet commerce and social media. Reid Hoffman has been called "the most connected man in Silicon Valley," the "ºber-investor" who "has had a hand in creating nearly every lucrative social media startup." He was the originator of the PayPal online commerce tool and is the founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, as well as an early investor in Facebook, GroupOn and Airbnb. Joi Ito, a social media entrepreneur in his own right, is now Director of the MIT Media Lab. A techno-prodigy and onetime nightclub DJ, he founded the venture capital firm Neoteny Co., Ltd., and was an early investor in Kickstarter, Twitter and many other innovative Internet companies. One of the world's leading advocates of Internet freedom, he has described his vision of a decentralized political structure, mediated through the Internet, in the widely-disseminated essay Emergent Democracy. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, the two friends engage in a freewheeling discussion of today's media landscape, with personal observations of the industry's leaders and a tantalizing peek at its future.

When the rest of the world was just waking up to the possibility of cell phones and the Internet, Tony Fadell was already creating the technology behind the smartphone. Author of more than 300 patents, he sold a microprocessor startup to Apple just as he was leaving college. He spent the next decade pioneering mobile technology for the leading electronics companies, but none would fully commit to marketing the devices he created. When investors passed on Fadell's idea for a pocket-sized digital music player, Steve Jobs recruited him to design just such a product for Apple. Fadell led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone, rising to Senior Vice President of the iPod division. Not satisfied with revolutionizing the way we communicate, navigate and listen to music, Fadell founded Nest Labs to bring smart technology to the most common household devices. The Nest Thermostat conserves energy by learning the habits of its users and can be managed remotely by smartphone. Nest Protect is an intelligent smoke and carbon monoxide detector that distinguishes between levels of threat and provides relaxed voice alerts instead of piercing alarms. Future products may address areas such as water conservation and home security. Last January, Nest was acquired by Google for $3.2 billion. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, he is joined onstage by journalist and Academy of Achievement delegate Samantha Barry. In their conversation, Tony Fadell, still recovering from a sporting injury, describes his career as an inventor, an Apple computer executive, and as the Founder and CEO of Nest.

At age 19, Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of college. Ten years later, she was the youngest woman in the world to become a self-made billionaire. She had entered Stanford University as a chemical engineering major, but after asking herself, "What is the greatest change I could make in the world?" she set out to create a new technology that would process medical tests faster at lower cost. She left school in 2003 andŮwith the money her parents had saved for her educationŮstarted a company to develop her patents. That company, Theranos, is now valued at $9 billion, with Holmes herself retaining more than 50 percent ownership. Rather than physically shipping vials of blood to a centralized location for testing, Theranos draws a few drops into a cartridge that is loaded into a compact device for analysis. Results are sent wirelessly to a secure database, reducing the errors and delays that occur with human handling. Up to 30 tests can be performed on a single sample, and the results are shared directly with the patient. Pharmaceutical companies are now partnering with Theranos for new drug testing, and Walgreens has announced plans to open Theranos "wellness centers" in all of its 8200 pharmacies. The low cost of Theranos blood tests may save patients, insurers and the government hundreds of billions of dollars in the next decade, while empowering consumers to manage their own health care. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, Ms. Holmes describes her company's innovative blood testing method as the first component of a long-term effort to reduce the many inefficiencies in our healthcare system, potentially saving both lives and dollars on a massive scale.

Ray Dalio is the founder and owner of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest and richest hedge fund. The firm manages approximately $130 billion in global investments for institutional clients including foreign governments and central banks, pension funds, university endowments and charitable foundations. The son of a jazz musician, Dalio began investing at the age of 12 when he bought shares of Northeast Airlines for $300, tripling his investment when the airline merged with another company. After completing his education at Long Island University and Harvard Business School, Dalio worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and invested in commodity futures. In 1975, at age 26, he founded Bridgewater Associates in his two-bedroom Manhattan apartment. As the firm expanded, he wrote a 100-page essay, 'Principles,' to share his management philosophy with his employees. Dalio believes his team must be 'radically truthful and transparent' to achieve excellence. 'We need to know what's true,' he asserts, 'especially those things that we would rather not be true…' In both 2010 and 2011, Bridgewater ranked as the largest and best-performing hedge fund manager in the world. Its clients and employees routinely give Bridgewater top satisfaction ratings in annual surveys. Forbes magazine has estimated Dalio's net worth at $10 billion, making him one of the wealthiest self-made men in America. In 2011, he personally earned $3 billion. Ray Dalio shares his philosophy of life and business in this podcast, recorded at historic Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., during the 2012 International Achievement Summit.

A graduate of the University of Virginia and Stanford Business School, Jacqueline Novogratz began her career in international banking with Chase Manhattan Bank before founding Duterimbere, a micro-finance institution in Rwanda. She initiated and led The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2001, Novogratz founded the Acumen Fund to finance small-scale businesses that supply life-changing goods and services to underserved communities in the developing world. By 2009 Acumen Fund had invested $40 million in over 35 enterprises. Today, locally controlled businesses with Acumen financing are providing energy, health care, housing and running water to 25 million people in Pakistan, India, Kenya and Tanzania. She related her experiences in the bestselling memoir, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

A graduate of the University of Virginia and Stanford Business School, Jacqueline Novogratz began her career in international banking with Chase Manhattan Bank before founding Duterimbere, a micro-finance institution in Rwanda. She initiated and led The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2001, Novogratz founded the Acumen Fund to finance small-scale businesses that supply life-changing goods and services to underserved communities in the developing world. By 2009 Acumen Fund had invested $40 million in over 35 enterprises. Today, locally controlled businesses with Acumen financing are providing energy, health care, housing and running water to 25 million people in Pakistan, India, Kenya and Tanzania. She related her experiences in the bestselling memoir, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

As a 27-year-old domestic policy aide to President Jimmy Carter, David Rubenstein earned a reputation for tireless dedication to his work. After leaving the White House, he brought the same inexhaustible energy to building the global private equity powerhouse known as the Carlyle Group. Over the years, former secretaries of state and defense, a former British prime minister -- even a President of the United States -- have served the group as directors or advisers. Although Carlyle earned an early reputation for expertise in defense and aerospace, its interests run the gamut: automotive and transportation, consumer and retail, energy and power, health care, telecom and media. David Rubenstein's matchless network of Washington contacts has given the Carlyle Group a powerful public image of authority and influence, but the most numerous beneficiaries of the group's investments are the millions of ordinary men and women whose pensions are invested in Carlyle funds. Rubenstein's contributions to the life of the nation's capital extend beyond the realms of business and government. He currently serves as Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In this podcast, recorded at the 2010 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C., Mr. Rubenstein emphasizes the importance of building on one's early accomplishments, rather than resting on one's laurels.