Forbes Australia Editor-in-Chief Sarah O’Carroll on health, wellness, innovation and what to expect in issue two.
Health isn’t the first word that springs to mind when you think about Apple, the world’s biggest company. But in 2019, CEO Tim Cook said that when we look back, the company’s greatest contribution to mankind would be to people’s health. Our phones have morphed into personal health assistants, monitoring hearts, sleep, movement and stress levels. A watch no longer just tells the time; it can measure blood oxygen levels and tell you when to calm down.
The global outburst of innovation and mass adoption of health-monitoring tools is meeting the demands of a world obsessed with wellness and performance. As the promise of ultimate wellness and prolonged youth becomes more seductive, legions of biohacking innovations are emerging from Silicon Valley and beyond. Think infrared saunas, memory and brain enhancers, nutrition hacks and meditation offerings.
Wellness is one of the great winners of the pandemic and the prospect of twinning profit with genuine population-level health improvements to well-being is enormously exciting. Healthier people work better, think better, and stay productive for longer. Health matters to business.
Health is also not the first word that springs to mind when you think about property tycoon Tim Gurner. But the 40-year-old entrepreneur, whose net worth is hovering just under a billion dollars, says that although his life’s work has been in property development, his life’s purpose is in wellness.
Faced with potential financial ruin in 2016, he turned to performance coach Nam Baldwin to train him like an Olympic athlete. Gurner now credits his focus on peak physical and mental wellbeing to his survival in the biggest challenge of his career. We spent the day with Tim at his house in Toorak to observe his daily routine. From ice baths to red light therapy, Oura rings and muse apps – it was a day of precision wellness.
“Legions of biohacking innovations are emerging from Silicon Valley and beyond.”
Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Australia Sarah O’Carroll | editor@forbes.com.au
In this issue’s cover story, Gurner exclusively reveals to Forbes Australia how he’s turning his life’s purpose and 20 years of testing hundreds of biohacks into a new multi-million-dollar wellness enterprise. And the best part is, a lot of his routine can be done for free.
Also in this issue, we speak to 91-year-old Heinrich Hora on how close he is to creating viable nuclear fusion, we examine Hoan Ton-That’s defence of his controversial Clearview AI software and we speak to the Australians at the forefront of changing global market dynamics in rare earths.
And it’s not Forbes Australia without our joy columns: My Beer with a Billionaire is with David Dicker discussing his new Bombardier jet, Westfield heiress Betty Klimenko enthuses about her V8 supercars and favourite roadster, and former creative director of Qantas Marc Newson (who also helped design the Apple Watch) talks about how much of his work is about problem solving. The outlook for 2023 is uncertain; no two pundits can agree on what will happen. Amid sharply deteriorating conditions for the global economy we will continue to focus on innovation, successes and survival stories.
I hope you enjoy the second issue as much as we enjoyed bringing it together and we’re looking forward to seeing you at our many events in 2023. Here’s to all of us striving to be better and performing at our best next year.