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

Marc Benioff

Time Magazine was acquired by Salesforce CEO and founder Marc Benioff for $190 million.
The billionaire spoke to the New York Times about how his "beginner's mind" prompted him to make the purchase.
It's not the first time Benioff has cited the concept of a "beginner's mind."

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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