What are the key takeaways from this In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen episode?

Key insights include: **Dual-direction mentorship:** Seek mentors both older and younger than you. Zak Brown, age 53, still learns from 85-year-old Roger Penske while simultaneously seeking guidance from younger people who are native to technologies that older generations struggle to understand.; **Build range before depth:** Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan warns against racing up the ladder too early. Lateral moves across R&D, marketing, and manufacturing — even unplanned ones — built the cross-functional range that ultimately made his CEO role possible years later.; **Delay specialization in college:** Paul Singer, founder of Elliott Management, advises against business courses in college. Instead, load up on history, philosophy, political science, and religion. Narrow technical skills come later; broad thinking equips you for what actually happens in the world.

What did Zak Brown and Karin Holstrom discuss on In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen?

Nine leaders — including CEOs of McLaren, Novartis, Figma, and Aviva, plus investors Paul Singer and David Rubinstein — share career and life advice for young people across mentorship, resilience, specialization, and purpose. Key topics include: **Dual-direction mentorship:** Seek mentors both older and younger than you. Zak Brown, age 53, still learns from 85-year-old Roger Penske while simultaneously seeking guidance from younger people who are native to technologies that older generations struggle to understand.; **Build range before depth:** Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan warns against racing up the ladder too early. Lateral moves across R&D, marketing, and manufacturing — even unplanned ones — built the cross-functional range that ultimately made his CEO role possible years later..

How long is this episode of In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen?

This episode is 14 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

Bonus: Advice to young people

August 11, 2026

14 min episode · 2 min read

Zak Brown,Karin Holstrom,Vas Narasimann

Episode

14 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Investing, Startups

AI-Generated Summary

Published Aug 11, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Dual-direction mentorship: Seek mentors both older and younger than you. Zak Brown, age 53, still learns from 85-year-old Roger Penske while simultaneously seeking guidance from younger people who are native to technologies that older generations struggle to understand.
✓Build range before depth: Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan warns against racing up the ladder too early. Lateral moves across R&D, marketing, and manufacturing — even unplanned ones — built the cross-functional range that ultimately made his CEO role possible years later.
✓Delay specialization in college: Paul Singer, founder of Elliott Management, advises against business courses in college. Instead, load up on history, philosophy, political science, and religion. Narrow technical skills come later; broad thinking equips you for what actually happens in the world.
✓Treat boredom as a signal, not a phase: Orange CEO Christel Heydemann treats workplace boredom as an actionable trigger. When learning stops, proactively tell your manager directly — not to change jobs, but to immediately expand scope before stagnation becomes a career pattern.

What It Covers

Nine leaders — including CEOs of McLaren, Novartis, Figma, and Aviva, plus investors Paul Singer and David Rubinstein — share career and life advice for young people across mentorship, resilience, specialization, and purpose.

Key Questions Answered

•Dual-direction mentorship: Seek mentors both older and younger than you. Zak Brown, age 53, still learns from 85-year-old Roger Penske while simultaneously seeking guidance from younger people who are native to technologies that older generations struggle to understand.
•Build range before depth: Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan warns against racing up the ladder too early. Lateral moves across R&D, marketing, and manufacturing — even unplanned ones — built the cross-functional range that ultimately made his CEO role possible years later.
•Delay specialization in college: Paul Singer, founder of Elliott Management, advises against business courses in college. Instead, load up on history, philosophy, political science, and religion. Narrow technical skills come later; broad thinking equips you for what actually happens in the world.
•Treat boredom as a signal, not a phase: Orange CEO Christel Heydemann treats workplace boredom as an actionable trigger. When learning stops, proactively tell your manager directly — not to change jobs, but to immediately expand scope before stagnation becomes a career pattern.

Notable Moment

Investor Chris Horne delivered the episode's most unexpected advice: explore the spiritual dimension of life. He recounted his own son dismissing the soul as a myth — and then completely reversing that view after personal experience.

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Episode Transcript

Hi, everybody. I'm Nikola Tangen, and you are listening to In Good Company. Now you might know that I like to end every conversation on these podcasts the same way. Whether I'm sitting across from the head of a Formula one team, the boss of the global bank, or some of the sharpest investor alive, I always ask them the same thing. What's your advice to young people? It's become a bit of a tradition on the show. And to be honest, it's often the part I look forward to the most. So in this special episode, we gathered some of the really great advice from some of our amazing guests. You'll hear about mentors, resilience, and why specializing too early might be a mistake. And right at the end, one piece of advice I really wasn't expecting. Whether you're a student trying to figure out your path, just starting out in your career, or simply after a bit of fresh perspective, there is a lot of wisdom packed into the next few minutes. Let's start with Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing, one of the most famous names in Formula one. His advice is all about mentors, and he explains why the best mentors might be both older and younger than you. Get mentors. Get mentor. I was fortunate at a young age because I was racing cars to hang out with CEOs when I was 21 years old. The gap in experience between being a 21 year old who's just full of adrenaline and, pick an age 40, 50, 60, 70 year old. I think about how much you know, I'm 53 now, and I look up the Roger Penske, who's 85 ish. And I think, look at how much I've experienced. He's got thirty years more of what I'm experienced, and I can't even imagine what I'm gonna see in the next thirty years. But if I go talk to Roger Penske, he can share some of that with me. So I think mentors are critical and and all along the way because there's always someone smarter than you, and there's always someone who has more experience than you. And I'm gonna wanna have that the entire way. And then when you do get old, which I'm not there yet, but I'm getting then you wanna be mentored by the youth because the youth are growing up with technology that us old guys are like, what? So it's you know, I think you can get mentored by people that are more experienced that are older and people that are more experienced and are younger because of how fast this world is moving. Next, Karin Holstrom, the CEO of Dimotruck, one of the world's largest commercial vehicle makers. She shares the advice she wishes somebody had given her earlier. I think one advice I would have needed to hear myself is to just believe in yourself. I don't think I realized that I could make a difference …

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