Excellence isn't about meeting the spec, it's about setting the spec.

Before you promise to change the world, it makes sense to do the hard work of changing your neighborhood.

Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits the sale to be this or that, not yes or no.

I've never once met a successful blogger who questioned the personal value of what she did.

All motivation is self-motivation. Your family, your boss, or your co-workers can try to get your engine going, but until you decide what to accomplish, nothing will happen.

Set up a life you don't need to escape from.

And in a world where we have too many choices and too little time, the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff. And my parable here is, you're driving down the road and you see a cow, and you keep driving 'cause you've seen cows before. Cows are invisible. Cows are boring. Who's going to stop and pull over and say, oh, look, a cow? Nobody.