What does it say about a society that it devotes more care and patience to the selection of those who handle its money than of those who handle its children?

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.

That was it! The whole Redwood City philosophy was based on a willingness to try harder than anyone else.

The single most important thing a city can do is provide a community where interesting, smart people want to live with their families.

It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.

If you don't contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you're not thinking.

I think that persistence and stubbornness and hard work are probably, at the end of the day, more important than the willingness to take a risk.