Anyone can criticize or accept praise, but initiating a positive exchange is a hallmark of a difference maker.

The temptation many creative people I know have is to strive for popularity. To make, do, and say things that other people like in the hopes of pleasing them. This motivation is nice. And sometimes the end result is good. But often what happens in trying so hard to please other people, especially many other people, the result is mediocre.

Commit yourself to taking enough risks that you will fail some of the time. If you're not failing, we're not doing something sufficiently difficult or creative.

There is a big difference between wanting to say you wrote a book, and actually writing one. Many people think they want to write, even though they find crafting sentences and paragraphs unpleasant. They hope there is a way to write without writing. I can tell you with certainty there isn’t one.

People tell me this is obvious. But it's ok to be obvious. Knowing and doing are different. Many people know many obvious things they completely fail to do, despite their knowledge.

I don’t want to be perfect. I want to be useful, I want to be good, and I want to sound like myself. Trying to be perfect gets in the way of all three.

It’s not the fear of writing that blocks people, it’s fear of not writing well something quite different.

Part of the challenge of innovation is coming up with the problem to solve, not just its solution.

It seems that bad advice that's fun will always be better known than than good advice that's dull-no matter how useless that fun advice is.

Staying curious and open is what makes growth possible, and it requires practice to maintain that mindset. To keep learning, we have to avoid the temptation to slide into narrow, safe views of what we do.

Innovation is significant positive change.

Innovative ideas are rarely rejected on their merits they’re rejected because of how they make people feel. If you forget people’s concerns and feelings when you present an innovation, or neglect to understand their perspectives in your design, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

It's rare for people to genuinely try to understand what others are trying to say.

If you'd like to be good at something, the first thing to out the window is the notion of perfection.

My intent is simply to know my material so well that I'm very comfortable with it. Confidence, not perfection, is the goal.

It's safe to assume that no matter where you stand, someone would be happy to be in your shoes, just as you'd be happy to be in someone else's.