Life lessons: Sir Tım Smit on what life has taught him

Sir Tım Smit

Tim Smit was born in the Netherlands and attended Durham University to study archaeology before entering the music industry and winning platinum records for songwriting. He came up with a proposal in 1996 to transform a lifeless Cornish clay pit into the Eden Project, the largest indoor rainforest in the world. He resides in Cornwall and has four kids.

My daily routine is...

I have a sense that today might be the day that I do something completely different every morning. This sensation is not a mantra. Many individuals don't invest in a life of novelty in order to keep their minds from becoming fixed in the certainties of their political class, but I've always had doubts about my convictions.

I have optimism regarding...

Science involves learning things that, as a hippie in 1969, I believed to be true, such as the fact that we are all made of stardust. We are all a part of the same creaturely life force when you consider all the discoveries regarding the microrhizome and the microbial cities inside of us. I believe that future generations will develop a deep spirituality, not via religion but rather through a profound understanding that will help us let go of our conceit and enable us to live within the limits of the planet, which are the same for everyone.

What aggravates me

cruelly lazy. Nothing, save for your own health, could not be improved by basic good manners, as my ex-father-in-law once said. As I gave it more thinking, I realized how significant it was—having decent manners, you wouldn't allow your neighbors go hungry, etc.

If I weren't in business, I would have liked to be...

I have experience in archaeology. I spent ten years working in the music industry. I completed Eden. Despite being enterprising, I'm not a businessman. I'm not incredibly wealthy, and I have no interest in being. I stopped working as an archaeologist because it paid so little, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

When times are bad, I...

When things are very bad, all I can think is, "Are my kids still alive?" Do I cherish them? Do my pals still exist? Do I have any cash? Yes. I'm in the top 0.1 percent in the globe, wow, am I lucky. I then feel incredibly uplifted.

The book I hope everyone reads...

Humphrey Jennings' Pandaemonium, a history of the Enlightenment told in the words of those who saw it firsthand, is a good example of this. It's a remarkable book in which you can trace the evolution of contemporary thought as a whole. People generally don't think. They merely dress up in their friends' clothes, despite the fact that they believe they do. Thinking entails getting back to the basics, which is exhausting. This book, which is absolutely stunning, demonstrates how to conduct research and ask the appropriate questions.

The main life decision I've since altered my mind about...

the majority of individuals want to harm you. We create an image of every neighborhood as being filled with fear. Not at all. The majority of people are good, and the 5% who aren't usually had something bad happen to them.

What keeps me up at night is...

Nothing. Like a tiger, I snooze.

The thing that most inspires me is...

My primary motivations are vanity and the production of beautiful things. I have strange vanity. I adore coaching others. I enjoy it when people I look up to ask me for advice, and I love it even more when they succeed. And great humiliation if things goes wrong.

My parents gave me some...

That's challenging because I barely saw them after being sent to a private school at age six. I learned to despise private schooling from them. The loneliness of being dismissed in such a manner 

is unsatisfactory. I observe an odd sensitivity and a lack of emotional literacy among the English establishment. The privilege of receiving a 'good education' came at a cost to the class that received it: a lack of class identity outside of your own.

I believe this to be true.

Meeting the individuals you didn't realize you needed to meet is where magic happens. I made the decision to live a little differently and have an open mind at the age of 37 by accepting every third invitation. Which is not to say that I don't accept the first, but I always do. I've opened houses for the elderly. Competitions for ballroom dancing were judged by me. Every time I've met someone, my life has been changed. Therefore, I tell my kids to "be brave and put yourself in the jeopardy of going to places that you wouldn't have chosen to go."

At the Blue Earth Summit, which is for businesspeople who are motivated by the outdoors, Tim Smit will be speaking. Bristol, October 11–13 2023.