Bonus: How do CEO’s stay fit?

**Nicolai Tangen** (0:01)
Hi everybody, I'm Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Sub and Wealth Fund, and you are listening to In Good Company.
Now, when you spend as much time as I do sitting across from chief executives, world jams, and some of the sharpest investors on our planet, you start to notice something. These people work incredibly hard, but almost all of them also quietly are obsessive about how they look after themselves. So somewhere in most of these conversations, I cannot help asking, when you get up, do you exercise, how do you sleep, and how on earth do you switch off? In this special episode, we have gathered some of the most fascinating of those answers. The exercise, the sleep, the cold water, the naps, the food, and the little rituals that keep our guests fit, sharp and able to perform at the very top. None of them are doctors, so think of this as what works for them, not a prescription. But there is a surprising amount of wisdom packed into the next few minutes, and one or two habits I have happily stole myself. And right at the very end, I'll tell you what I do. Let's get into it.
Let's start with a man who more than anyone has turned all of this into a system. Vas Narasimhan runs Novartis, one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, and he organizes his whole life around four simple words.

**Vas Narasimhan** (1:15)
I got taught very early on from a coach that I work with today, his name is Scott Pelton, this approach, mindset movement, nutrition and recovery. And I stick with it.
So mindset, clearly mindfulness, meditation, observing yourself, observing why you think the things you think, why you feel the things you do, and then setting yourself up in the right mindset each day and for each interaction or each moment, even when I have to show up on the In Good Company podcast.
Nutrition, I think you have to think, why do you eat the things you eat? And how you eat will affect your performance, even in small ways. That's something I always think about. Obviously, movement, I mean, exercise has a lot of impact on the nervous system. Over the years, I've learned that exercise can reset your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. By the way, so much of leadership comes down to managing your nervous system. You're likely not going to make a good decision when you're on high sympathetic drive. When you're more balanced, parasympathetic, sympathetic, you're more likely to get all the inputs that you need. So observing that in yourself is hugely important. And then recovery, I've learned over the years the power of sleep. I mean, I'm obsessed with trying to optimize my sleep. I've got, you know, technology, sleep technology, sleep supplements, all kinds of things to really say, how can I get seven plus hours of very high quality sleep and recover? And all of those things compound over time and then give you the energy.

**Nicolai Tangen** (2:44)
And the nutrition part is delightfully specific.

**Vas Narasimhan** (2:46)
I'm a lifelong vegetarian, so I've never had meat in my life. So you know, that may be strange, maybe not so strange. I eat whey protein every morning, two scoops of whey protein every day. It's kind of a way I start my day.
Nothing else magical I can think of. I mean, I do try some of the various supplements, like ashwagandha and some of this stuff. It's probably all a placebo effect, but nonetheless, I definitely test these things out.

**Nicolai Tangen** (3:16)
If mindset comes first, movement comes a very close second, and nearly everyone starts the day with it. Bob Iger has run Disney through some of the biggest moments, and he's clear that he simply couldn't do the job without it.

**Bob Iger** (3:28)
I think it's a lot of things. I think some of it is how you're wired its genes. Some of it is how you're prepared. So staying in shape, having stamina is critical for me, and that's eating well and exercising and just taking care of my body and my mind is really important. I could not do this job if I were not in some form of physical and even mental health. One could argue that I'm not getting enough sleep, but that morning time for me is rejuvenating actually. It's, first of all, it's meditative, it's quiet. The stimulation that exists in my life when it's still dark out and no one else is up, is toned down, and so I get a chance to be alone with my thoughts, and that gives me an opportunity to order things, meaning to figure out an order and a set of priorities. It's a way that I begin the day with more purpose. Instead of waking up and suddenly being bombarded by all the incoming that comes my way, I can attack the world in the day just with a little bit more organization. I have a cup of coffee first, and then I put on my workout clothes and I work out at the house. I work out almost every day. I do the same thing when I'm in a hotel anywhere in the world. I work out for about an hour every morning, sometimes less, but rarely less than 45 minutes.