It's as if you were interested in fashion and your neighbor when you were growing up happened to be Giorgio Armani.

The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today?

People who bring transformative change have courage, know how to re-frame the problem and have a sense of urgency.

To be someone's best friend requires a minimum investment of time. More than that, though, it takes emotional energy. Caring about someone deeply is exhausting.

Instead of thinking about talent as something that you acquire, talent should be thought of as something that you develop.

There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.

I'm convinced that ideas and behaviors and new products move through a population very much like a disease does.