We live in a vague world. And it gets vaguer all the time. In this environment, the power of the specific, measurable and useful promise made and kept is difficult to overstate.

You are far more likely to do your best work if you are willing to delight a few as opposed to soothe the masses.

I don't like offending people, and it's easy to offend people when you don't know as much as they do. This group knows more about what it takes to lead in this way than I ever will. My goal is to push people, but I need to do it from a place of respect.

Take the long way. Do the hard work, consistently and with generosity and transparency. And then you won't waste time doing it over.

The one path that never works is the most common one: doing nothing at all.

If you hesitate to map out your future, to make a big plan or to set a goal, you've just gone ahead and mapped your future anyway.

We need students who can learn how to learn, who can discover how to push themselves and are generous enough and honest enough to engage with the outside world to make those dreams happen.