Achievement is talent plus preparation.
There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.
You can learn as much – or more – from one glance at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.
To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success – the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history – with a society that provides opportunities for all.
Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from.
We have the kind of self-made-man myth, which says that super-successful people did it themselves.
Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.
The great accomplishment of Jobs’s life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies – his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness – in the service of perfection.
Anyone who knows the marketing world knows that ideas come and go, and people latch onto things and think of them as a kind of solution...
There will be statues of Bill Gates across the Third World. There’s a reasonable shot that – because of his money – we will cure malaria.
We don’t know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don’t always appreciate their fragility.
Outliers are those who have been given opportunities – and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.
In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.
The nature of athletic celebrity is increasingly moving away from the actual field of play.
By shifting the balance away from the individual we open the door for the individual. Because we make it obvious that anyone can do it given the right circumstance.
There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.
My earliest memories of my father are of seeing him work at his desk and realizing that he was happy. I did not know it then, but that was one of the most precious gifts a father can give his child.
Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.
Activism that challenges the status quo, that attacks deeply rooted problems, is not for the faint of heart.