I say that the genius of the marketing strategy that we've had in every company that I've ever been in, is that if you ask your customers what they want and you give it to them, you shouldn't be shocked if they love it.

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.

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.

I've given my email address to all 3,000 T-Mobile stores. Serious customer escalations come directly to me. Customers get a kick out of me responding to them, and the employees do, too.

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.

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 went, and my first interview was with René Obermann, who was the CEO of Deutsche Telekom at the time - wonderful guy. And right after hello, I told him that it was my opinion that he could only fail one way in the US. I said, "Do exactly what you're doing - nothing."