Inside the High-Stakes Race to Resurrect the Woolly Mammoth — Could This Be the Ultimate Game-Changer for Science and Survival?
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS CHAOTIC,” says Ben Lamm, 43, CEO of Colossal Biosciences, a company with major ambitions—including the “de-extinction” of the woolly mammoth. He’s usually booked every 15 minutes from at least 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., handling strategy, investor meetings, and all the big problems of a fast-moving company. “At my core, I’m a systems guy, so I try to put everything into a framework that holds it all together,” he says. That means red light therapy, protein shakes, lots of lists, and strategies that look like this.
6 a.m.
Wake Up, Work Out
“I immediately spring up and I’ve got ideas, so I keep a notepad next to my bed,” he says. Workouts continue the flow: “I think my best ideas come to me when I’m at the gym or in the shower.”
7:30 a.m.
Light Up
Lamm takes calls and gets ready in a room filled with red-light therapy panels. “On days I don’t do red-light therapy, I feel like my batteries are starting at 60 percent,” he says. Then he spends time with his 9-month-old son before heading to the office.
9 a.m.
Prioritize
“I live by my calendar, and I make a lot of lists,” says Lamm, who estimates he has 18-plus meetings, 100 calls, and 200 emails daily. “I think there’s a lot more time in the day than people realize. If you’re thoughtful about prioritization, it’s manageable.” He keeps a list of people to get back to and how long it should take on a Notes app he designed. “Anytime a meeting ends early, my EA immediately slots in one of these calls.”
11 a.m.
Tackle Stuff
To get where they want to go at Colossal, “the word impossible is banned,” he says. “We don’t think that things that haven’t been done can’t be done. We say, ‘This is a challenge.’ ”
2:30 p.m.
Track It
Lamm usually has his first meal—a protein shake—in the afternoon and logs it on a spreadsheet. Every year, he makes a list of personal and business goals and tracks them back to what he needs to do daily (including cold plunges and green juices) to make them happen. “At the end of the year, I take a full day to see what I overcompensated on, what I achieved, and what I undercompensated on.” Then he sets new goals.
6:30 p.m.
Dine In
When not traveling, Lamm is home for dinner and his son’s bedtime routine. “His new favorite toy is a wooden alligator. We play ‘chomp’ every night for about 15 minutes. He thinks it’s the most fun thing in the world. I think, Wow, I wish I were this entertained by someone just saying the word ‘chomp’ every time they slap their hand down.”
8:30 p.m.
More Thinking
“I probably spend the most time thinking late at night, when the bustle of strategic response isn’t occurring,” Lamm says. He often sketches out ideas on the whiteboard in his home office.
11:30 p.m.
Bedtime
“Basically, I go to bed when I’m through with my meetings and lists,” he says. He uses multiple sound machines, blackout shades, and an Eight Sleep bed, but he wishes he had more of a wind-down routine so he’d have a better resting heart rate going into sleep. “There are always areas for improvement, right?”
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