Talk to people no one else is talking to. Who would have thought that giving a speech at a funeral at age 12 would introduce me to a man who would introduce me to my first business contact who would introduce me to several other important people in my life. That's luck. That's randomness.

Sometimes Plan B can have the same desired outcome, but a different path for getting there.

It got a little stressful in my first two years of high school, trying to make conference calls with investors in between classes, but I definitely learned a lot of important time-management lessons.

Sometimes I have to pause to make the distinction between Ben the teenager and Ben the businessman.

I don't want to be normal. I want to be something else.

Rule of thumb: Be skeptical of things you learned before you could read. E.g., religion.

I'm just the smallest dot in a big map of human history.