In particularly dire circumstances when the “facts” seemed to dictate a certain outcome, I learned to look for alternative narratives and explanations coming from radically different perspectives to inform my outlook.

As a result, I ended up moving in multiple social circles and hanging out with kids with very different outlooks on the world. It amazed me how a diverse perspective utterly changed the meaning of every significant event in the world.

Former secretary of state Colin Powell says that leadership is the ability to get someone to follow you even if only out of curiosity.

There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.

It taught me that being scared didn’t mean I was gutless. What I did mattered and would determine whether I would be a hero or a coward.

I have been barbecuing for years, and my skills have earned me the nickname from my African American friends “the Jackie Robinson of Barbecue.” I crossed the color line.

Because hip-hop artists aspire to be both great and successful and see themselves as entrepreneurs, many of the themes—competing, making money, being misunderstood—provide insight into the hard things.

That’s the hard thing about hard things—there is no formula for dealing with them.

follow the first principle of the Bushido—the way of the warrior: keep death in mind at all times.