You feel like a product when you're on these things. You feel like you're selling yourself. But what's amazing is that when you get people in person, actually interacting, much of the time they don't do that same optimisation, especially if you give them just a few nudges.

I didn't like the rampant tracking and the fact that Google and Facebook effectively ran some of the largest information gathering networks on earth (and that's a very charitable way of describing it).

It's a myth that both sides of a negotiation have to be equally happy or unhappy. A great relationship is where people are happy- not just with how things are but with how they got to be.

Typically, when you ask a business person about their progress, their immediate response tends to revolve around growth figures – 'We're 20% up from last year' – under the assumption that growth equates to robustness and sustainability. However, empirical evidence doesn't support this assumption.

Always remember – it's best to own 10% of a big number, than all of nothing!

To me, writing a song is like a ball game. You bounce the ball back and forth until someone doesn't want to play anymore. When you make music, you want to make someone feel something.

We have to leave behind the myth that our economies are actually fit for the present that we understand, and the vision of the future we want to create. We need to redesign economics for our times.

History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, the second as a farce. I think one of the things I have learned with history is that it's important to study it, but it will rarely give you the right answer. Quite often because there is no right answer, and what you're really looking for is to understand how you got here.

Initially, there was no intention of doing anything with Deliciously Ella – it was a personal project, and that allowed it to grow as a community, and a space, that wasn't commercially focused. I think this gave it a level of authenticity that perhaps some brands struggle with and in retrospect it's been a really interesting approach, albeit an unusual one.

My approach is always to redirect their focus from this nebulous concept of confidence to the concrete tasks at hand. These are tasks they have successfully completed numerous times. Whether they feel confident or not is irrelevant; the real key is maintaining focus in the moment.

Starting a business is an exciting venture, often filled with enthusiasm, borrowed money, and a fair share of ignorance. In fact, a certain level of ignorance can be beneficial for an entrepreneur. If you were fully aware of the potential obstacles ahead, you might hesitate to start.

The true measure of success for United Way and other philanthropic organizations is bottom-line results: the lives that are changed and the communities that are shaped.