We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all.

Part of me thinks that innovation, real innovation in health care delivery, needs to happen from the bottom to the top.

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

Outlier are those who have been given opportunities-- -and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.

A study at the University of Utah found that if you ask someone why he is friendly with someone else, he’ll say it is because he and his friend share similar attitudes. But if you actually quiz the two of them on their attitudes, you’ll find out that what they actually share is similar activities. We’re friends with the people we do things with, as much as we are with the people we resemble. We don’t seek out friends, in other words. We associate with the people who occupy the same small, physical spaces that we do.

Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard.

A prediction, in a field where prediction is not possible, is no more than a prejudice.