I believe that making players conform to a rigid system would lead to the loss of many potentially great talents, with only a handful thriving. Out of respect for the players, I opted for a different approach – selecting fewer players but offering highly personalized training.

So, without thinking it through, I got a tourist visa and flew to Moscow. I didn't consider the repercussions or how risky it could be—I just did it. If Stein could go to Moscow, so could I. Others had gone there, and I knew tourists were allowed. So I went as a tourist, and we'd figure things out from there.

Chinese global trade went down 20% and Chinese exports collapsed by 25%. This had an immediate effect whereby factories along the coast, in the last quarter of 2008 alone, fired between 20-30 million migrant workers.

My mother's unbelievable parenting in deploying enormous self-esteem and confidence meant I believed in myself in a way that was blind. The best entrepreneurs are the most optimistic and completely out of tune with reality right? Why would you do it otherwise. My father made me a word-is-bond, word-is-everything, shake a hand and stick to it kinda' guy. That combined with blind faith and belief has become an amazing concoction and something I live-off even today.

From fighter-pilot, to test-pilot to astronaut was a logical sequence for a guy that loves aviation. I was very fortunate.