Anyone who has ever scanned the bookshelves of a new girlfriend or boyfriend- or peeked inside his or her medicine cabinet- understands this implicitly; you can learn as much - or more - from one glance at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.

People can't do much about the fate part, but we can certainly do a lot about the man part.

The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.

Track is full of the absolute nicest and most polite athletes in all of sports, and where does it get us?

Performance ought to improve with experience, and pressure is an obstacle that the diligent can overcome.

Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.

By shifting the balance away from the individual we open the door for the individual. Because we make it obvious that anyone can do it given the right circumstance.