If you go back in my career, you'll find I've always been a lead-from-the-front people-manager guy. I've always been outspoken. I've always attempted to break the mold. My advice to myself, then, would be to go all in on it. The world doesn't need another cookie-cutter business-school leader. The world needs somebody to stick out and be loud and proud.

We did start with a simple manifesto, as we called it, which was a description of what we were about, and it was the Un-carrier. It was about finding and solving customer pain points in an attempt to fix a stupid, broken, arrogant industry. It was something we felt passionate about. It was our goal to make changes and have the industry make the same ones.

When I go to T-Mobile retail stores, I jokingly tell the employees that everybody between me and them is the enemy. In effect, what I mean is that in my paramilitary hierarchy, if I can hear them and they can hear me, everything will be fine. All we need to do is make sure the entire company understands that it's their job to pass information between us. And so far so good.

When I finished my last job, at Global Crossing, it was the first time in God knows how many years that I wasn't in a job. It was probably 32 years or so, and there I was, it was like pow!

I'm very careful, especially with the company, to not spend too much time playing the success reel because I really do believe that everything that's been accomplished can be parlayed in an equal amount going forward.

I started to be the brand, more and more. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, I wear T-Mobile gear. I'm a bright beacon of magenta. My clothing's gotten more elaborate because a lot of people want me to wear their clothes! And then when I go to a call center, I give away my T-Mobile clothes, and walk out to my car with my socks on.

When we're talking about the transformation, we can add in the 25 pounds I've gained - I've been eating my way through the wireless industry.