Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who just bought Time Magazine for $190 million, says he lives with a 'beginner's mind' — here's what that means

pulse

September 17, 2018 10:27 PM

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff just purchased Time Magazine for $190 million. In an interview, he said that he lives with a beginner's mind, as opposed to an expert's mind. Keep reading to find out exactly what the billionaire means.

6. Marc Benioff, Salesforce

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It's not the first time Benioff has cited the concept of a "

Time Magazine has a new owner: Salesforce CEO and founder Marc Benioff.

The billionaire — whose net worth stands around $6.6 billion, according to Forbes — acquired the magazine for $190 million.

According to Benioff himself, the purchase came about thanks to his particular mindset.

"I live with a beginner's mind," Benioff told the New York Times in an interview via text.

Business Insider's Shana Lebowitz previously reported that the "beginner's mind" concept flows from Zen Buddhism. Someone with a "beginner's mind" constantly sees the world with fresh eyes.

In his text conversation with the New York Times, Benioff reportedly cited wisdom from 20th-century Zen master Shunryu Suzuki: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."

Back in 2016, Benioff described his thought process to The Wall Street Journal: "I kind of try to let go of all the things that have ever happened so far in our industry, which is a lot of stuff, and just go, OK, what's going to happen right now?"

It's a mindset that Benioff — a former Apple intern — reportedly picked up from Steve Jobs. In an appearance at a 2013 TechCrunch conference, he praised his former boss as a "spiritual man" who was "mindful and conscious of everything he did."

Jobs himself was a major advocate for cultivating a "beginner's mind," according to the Wall Street Journal.

Nowadays, Benioff is far from a novice in the world of tech — but he apparently still relies on his "beginner's mind" to make big decisions.

"My power was that I didn't really want to do anything but I was open to all possibilities," Benioff told the New York Times.

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