Growing up, I knew you were supposed to have a profession - and something better than being a shopkeeper, which is what my parents were.

"What would people say about you when you're gone?" That to me was a very important question. I thought about that for a couple of years and said, "What people say about you when you're gone doesn't matter. You're gone." What really matters is, "What do you say about yourself in the here and now? Are you proud of what you're doing?" If you had a short lease and it ended today, or it ends tomorrow, what would you wish you would have done? You better do it.

In the '70s and '80s, the mentality of America was that everything was disposable. The notion of quality wasn't important.

Entrepreneurs, guys that start businesses, grow with them. It's more painful than it would appear.

Ask yourself: What forms the decisions you make? What is it that gnaws at you? What are your crucible moments?

As an entrepreneur, you work out solutions.

I think finding the way in life is the hardest part. At every stage of life, every trial, every success, you know, you're going into some kind of fog. There isn't a plan that suddenly reveals itself, and you go, "Ta-da! Now I understand."