Empathy represents the foundation skill for all the social competencies important for work.

Although traditional incentives such as bonuses or recognition can prod people to better performance, no external motivators can get people to perform at their absolute best. . . .Wherever people gravitate within their work roles, indicates where their real pleasure lies—and that pleasure is itself motivating.

As a freshman in college, I was having a lot of trouble adjusting. I took a meditation class to handle anxiety. It really helped. Then as a grad student at Harvard, I was awarded a pre-doctoral traveling fellowship to India, where my focus was on the ancient systems of psychology and meditation practices of Asia.

Every morning, I go off to a small studio behind my house to write. I try to ignore all email and phone calls until lunchtime. Then I launch into the sometimes frantic busy-ness of a tightly scheduled day.

Fear, in evolution, has a special prominence: perhaps more than any other emotion it is crucial for survival.

Risk taking and the drive to pursue innovative ideas are the fuel that stokes the entrepreneurial spirit.

Shipping by sea produces 1/60 the emissions of shipping by air and about 1/5 that of trucking.