How would one expect society to develop 'actualisation' and 'esteem' driving characteristics (economic growth and spending) when the basic 'physiological' and 'safety' needs (food security, employment, health, property) are not met.

I'd had 20 years of the most indescribable intensity and focus; and not many people can appreciate what that means, because there are very few people that have grown a business organically from one person to over 10,000. After 20 years of that, I had sort-of 'had enough.'

In the early days it was controversy… I remember, back then, thinking that there was something good about not being acceptable to everyone… it made us stand out from the crowd, and courted press attention.

I've never gone into a startup thinking, 'oh hey, I'm going to disrupt an industry….' I go in trying to solve a problem, and if you can effectively solve a problem, you might end up disrupting a whole industry.

What we need now is the George C. Marshall of our era to help us train better than the Chinese and the Russians.

All you've got to do is- to their face- call yourself every name that they are harbouring about you, it's that simple; it means you're demonstrating understanding. Whatever adjective from your culture best describes the worst possible name they could think of for you- all you've got to do is look them in the eye and say you feel I am – that's super simple, right? The thing is, it may sound easy- but it's hard to do- but if you can do it- it can unlock a situation in a heartbeat.

But when it comes to claims like 'pets alleviate depression,' there's really no solid evidence. In fact, the findings so far are pretty ambiguous. And in one study that found no significant overall effect, cat owners were actually more depressed than the control group.

Fundamentally, it's really hard to work on intellectual and complex projects collaboratively. Complexity is underestimated, even by the people who are in the thick of it.

Those who have the most meaningful, purpose filled lives tend to dream so big – that those dreams will rarely be completed in a lifetime. What keeps you going is the beauty you encounter at every juncture of the path.

As a founder, you're not God. You're a mere piece of the puzzle. To have a company grow, it has to have a lot of people and those people need to feel ownership. You need a winning culture to keep people driving forward. It's not just about loving each other's company, it's about winning together.

Many people say that if you're the brightest person in the room, you're in the wrong room – that's totally right. You need to bring in people with much more expertise than you to take the business forward. I started out making shoes by hand – I'm a shoemaker, not an intellectual.

There is then a second order overconfidence where someone recognises a bubble but feels they will escape it when other people don't.