One reason people who spend a lot of time thinking about and working on a problem or a craft seem to find breakthroughs more often than everyone else is that they've failed more often than everyone else.

Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it's not just a record, it's a movement.

Acknowledge to yourself that the factory job is dead. Having a factory job is not a natural state. It wasn't at the heart of being human until very recently. We've been culturally brainwashed.

If you're in the idea business, it doesn't matter where you're from. It matters if we care about the change you're making.

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

The competitive advantages the marketplace demands is someone more human, connected, and mature. Someone with passion and energy, capable of seeing things as they are and negotiating multiple priorities as she makes useful decisions without angst. Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion. All of these attributes are choices, not talents, and all of them are available to you.

Your history of work is as important as the work you'll do tomorrow.