Purpose is not an add-on, it’s not an initiative. It is a culture change and it never finishes

I think sometimes when you come from a conservative background, you want to rebel a little bit. I dropped out of school at 15 and learned early in life that saying yes was a lot more fun than saying no. If you have the opportunity to explore the skies and attempt something people haven't done before - well, I was damned if I was going to sit around watching television while someone else was doing it.

Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that's what a number of us are trying to do.

We hope to create thousands of astronauts over the next few years and bring alive their dream of seeing the majestic beauty of our planet from above, the stars in all their glory and the amazing sensations of weightlessness and space flight.

We spend most of our lives working. So why do so few people have a good time doing it?

I believe in goals. It's never a bad thing to have a dream. If something is really what you want to do, just do it. Whatever your goal.

When people warn me against doing something once my mind is made up, I grow increasingly determined to try it.