True success - financial, personal, and professional - lies above all in loving your family, working hard, and living your passion. In telling your story. In authenticity, hustle, and patience. In caring fiercely about the big and the small stuff. In valuing legacy over currency.

It's not about what you're saying, it's about how you listen.

Make every decision based on your last years of life instead of your next 10.

I don't want anybody to not recognize how appreciative I am of the volume of e-mails I get.

I've always had a knack for branding, so even with the lemonade stands, it was "Gary's Lemonade Stand." I worked on the signs all day, more so than on the lemonade itself. Then I learned you had to make good lemonade to build an actual business, so that taught me about lifetime value and quality.

I didn't start with a lot. I have friends who started with a lot who have now built on top of it, and I'm impressed because I used to think that was a disadvantage. I think there are a million ways to do it.

Word of mouth works now, much more than ever. @-reply every single person.