I trust people, and I respect their areas of responsibility.

People who work for me know that they have a lot of autonomy. I like to know what's going on, and I'll offer my opinion, but I want people to feel that they can say to me, "That's great that you have that opinion, but, no, we're not going to do that."

You're surrounded by other people all the time. And you have to take responsibility if you're the eldest or one of the older siblings, and you're constantly communicating in a way that perhaps you aren't if you're in a smaller family.

My parents both left school at 14, but my parents are incredibly smart, successful, thoughtful people. So one of the lessons I learned from my parents is that the fancy degree is just a foot in the door, and there are a lot of very smart people out there who don't necessarily have the fancy degrees. And given the opportunity, they can do amazing things.

I think in most companies you're surrounded by the past. You may have a Web site or archives or a lobby that sort of shows off your work of the past. The future is not as tangible.

Pacing is really important in an organization.

My father builds homes. So I grew up around the idea that you can take a piece of land, and you can bulldozer it and build new homes on it. You can create something new.