As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.

LEARN FROM FAILURE. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn't a success, welcome to the club.

An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right.

I've used the Phoenix Centrifuge to replicate what the body's going to go through on the flight up. I've also done some gravity tests with ZERO-G [a charter-flight service in Arlington, Va., that uses modified Boeing 727s to simulate weightlessness], which went great.

Half the art of ballooning is to make your crashes so gentle that you can fool yourself into calling them landings.

Take a chance - it's the best way to test yourself, have fund and push boundaries.

Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.