'Why risk?' I responded. 'It should be, why not to risk?'

Over the years my mother's steadfast faith in God has inspired me, particularly when I had to perform extremely difficult surgical procedures or when I found myself faced with my own medical scare.

I like the idea of a proportional tax. That way you pay according to your ability.

Successful people don't have fewer problems. They have determined that nothing will stop them from going forward.

The most important thing for me is having a relationship with God. To know that the owner, the creator of the universe loves you, sent His Son to die for your sins; that's very empowering. Knowing Him and knowing that He loves me gives me encouragement and confidence to move forward.

I started reading about people of great accomplishment … and it dawned on me suddenly that the person who has the most to do with what happens in your life is you.

If for you the most important thing is to make a lot of money, then you don't want to take a certain type of risk. If, on another hand, the most important thing to you is to make people around you have a more fulfilled life, then there is a different set of things that are important to you. Unless you really know that about yourself, you will never be able to appropriately assess risk.