In a long distance race, everyone gets tired. The winner is the runner who figures out where to put the tired, figures out how to store it away until after the race is over. Sure, he's tired. Everyone is. That's not the point. The point is to run.

I feel like I'm treating people as I'd like to be treated.

You can't fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.

Put aside your need for a step-by-step manual and instead realize that analogies are your best friend.

Anyone who says failure is not an option has also ruled out innovation.

You're competing against people in a state of flow, people who are truly committed, people who care deeply about the outcome. You can't merely wing it and expect to keep up with them. Setting aside all the safety valves and pleasant distractions is the first way to send yourself the message that you're playing for keeps

Here's the fascinating part, call it the golden shoulder: We have no idea in advance who the great contributors are going to be. We know that there's a huge cohort of people struggling outside the boundaries of the curated, selected few, but we don't know who they are.