Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.

The principal reason, invariably, most "successful" giant companies rather quickly become also-rans, or just amorphous blobs on the competitive landscape, is their failure to re-tool in anything like a fundamental way. In fact, the worse things get, typically, the more they dig in their heels and defend yesterday's turf.

Anybody who is an entrepreneur is a person who essentially has impaired judgment. The odds of success are zilch. This valley is loaded to the gills with a whole lot of totally insane people who honest to God believe that they can be the next Bill Gates or the next Scott McNealy. And that is genuinely stupid.

Communication is everyone's panacea for everything.

Business is about people. It's about passion. It's about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.

Statistically and emotionally, I believe that the way I can be of help to society is by doing what I know and what I've been good at.

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.