It wasn't an excuse. It was a fact. He'd had to make his way alone, and no one - not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses - ever makes it alone.

The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.

The best example of how impossible it will be for Major League Baseball to crack down on steroids is the fact that baseball and the media are still talking about the problem as "steroids.

It's very hard to find someone who's successful and dislikes what they do.

People are in one of two states in a relationship,” Gottman went on. “The first is what I call positive sentiment override, where positive emotion overrides irritability. It’s like a buffer. Their spouse will do something bad, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s just in a crummy mood.’ Or they can be in negative sentiment override, so that even a relatively neutral thing that a partner says gets perceived as negative.

Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.

Occasions when you can change your mind should be cherished, because they mean you're smarter than you were before.