Where Your Best Thinking Actually Happens

The older I get, the less I like cities.

Give me concrete streets with thousands of people, or give me a forest with nobody in sight. I’ll take the forest 99% of the time.

I used to think I needed to be where the action was. More meetings. More networking. More stimulation. That’s where successful people were supposed to be, right? But as I’ve built businesses, traveled, and worked with clients around the world, I’ve realized something…

My best thinking doesn’t happen in crowded conference rooms. It happens in quiet spaces where I can actually think.

The Early Foundation

From ages 2 to 6 ½ , I lived on a kibbutz in Israel. Surrounded by open space. Connected to the land. Part of a community that understood the rhythm of nature.

That experience shaped something fundamental in me about where I think best, where I feel most myself.

I spent years thinking I’d outgrown that need. Chasing the city energy, the business buzz, the networking scene. But success gave me the freedom to choose. And I chose to come back to what formed me.

Not the kibbutz specifically. My family and I live surrounded by forest, mountains, and ocean on the west coast. But that connection to space. To quiet. To environments that feel alive without being overwhelming.

What Business Magazines Won’t Tell You

The most successful leaders I know aren’t grinding in glass towers. They’re taking long walks. They’re sitting by water. They’re choosing environments that fuel their thinking instead of depleting it.

Nature isn’t an escape from work. It’s where the real work happens. Clear thinking. Deep reflection. Connecting with what actually matters.

You can’t get that clarity when you’re surrounded by concrete and chaos and a hundred thousand people competing for your attention. You’re too stimulated. Too distracted. Too pulled in every direction.

Maybe you’ve felt this too. The pull toward quieter spaces. The realization that you don’t actually need to be where everyone else thinks you should be.

It’s Not About Being Anti-Social

I still go to cities. I still meet with people. In fact, I love meeting people from all around the world and having conversations. But I’m deliberate about it now.

It’s about knowing yourself well enough to choose environments that energize you rather than drain you. And having the confidence to design your life and business around that truth.

As you mature in business, something shifts. You stop trying to prove yourself and start trying to be yourself.

You crave depth over stimulation. Quality over quantity. Meaningful conversations over crowded networking events.

The same thing happens with your environment. You realize you don’t need the city energy to be successful. You need the environment that lets you do your best thinking.

For me, that’s nature. Space. Quiet. For you, it might be something else. But the principle is the same.

The Return to What Nourishes You

Maybe you have something like this in your past too. A place or environment where you felt most like yourself before the world told you where successful people were supposed to be.

Success isn’t just about making money. It’s about earning the right to return to what actually nourishes you.

Think about where you do your best thinking. Not where you’re supposed to do it. Where you actually do it.

Is it walking? Sitting by water? In your backyard? On a quiet trail? Maybe a coffee shop? I wrote a good chunk of two of my books in a coffee shop.

I make better decisions in nature. My strategic insights come from quiet reflection, not busy events. The connections I value most happen in conversations with space around them, not rushed meetings between appointments where it often feels transactional.

This isn’t romantic. It’s practical.

Where I Do My Best Work

When I need to think through a difficult decision, I go for a walk and overlook the ocean. Or sit in the hot tub surrounded by trees reaching over a hundred feet towards the sky. Or put on some music and light a fire in winter. Or just enjoy the late night summer sun.

When I need to reconnect with what matters, I choose space over stimulation.

You’ve built a successful business. You have options now. You can choose environments that support your best work instead of just accepting what’s convenient or expected.

You can stop going to networking events because you think you should. Stop forcing yourself into environments that drain you. Stop pretending you thrive in chaos when you know you don’t.

Design Around What Actually Works

Choose what actually works for you. Design your business around environments that fuel you, not deplete you.

The forest over the boardroom isn’t about rejecting success. It’s about understanding what creates it.

For me, clarity comes from nature. Connection comes from space. Better thinking comes from quiet.

And I’ve stopped apologizing for that.

You might be different. That’s fine. But ask yourself honestly: Where do you actually do your best work? And are you giving yourself permission to be there?

Because success should give you the freedom to choose. Not trap you in someone else’s idea of where you’re supposed to be.