You are who you go to lunch with! Break bread with cool and you will become more cool. Conversely: break bread with dull and well, you can figure it out.

Excellence comes from human beings doing things of value that customers find memorable.

Never, ever rest on your laurels. Today's laurels are tomorrow's compost.

It may be primarily property taxes in the case of a public library, or state taxes and tuition in the case of an academic library at a public university, but the funding sources of most libraries continue to have a strong geographic component.

I'm about as far from being a flag-waver - you won't find any American flag pins in my drawer - as someone can be.

Passion. The life of an entrepreneur is occasionally exhilarating, and almost always exhausting. Only unbridled passion for the concept is likely to see you through the 17-hour days (month after month) and the painful mistakes that are part and parcel of the start-up process.

The dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible.