We've greatly exaggerated the risk of sinking, without celebrating the value of swimming.

Go ahead, fail. Try to avoid mistakes, though.

Without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely to be worth the journey. Persist.

The unhappy theory of business ethics is this: you have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit. Period. To do anything other than that is to cheat your investors. And in a competitive world, you don't have much wiggle room here.

Perhaps your challenge isn't finding a better project or a better boss. Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen.

Just saying yes because you can't bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work.

The easiest way to thrive as an outlier is to avoid being one. At least among your most treasured peers. Surround yourself with people in at least as much of a hurry, at least as inquisitive, at least as focused as you are.