So I did in fact spend two and a half years in the Middlesbrough car park practising skills. But if you spend four or five or six hours a day practising you get better.

So for a year I spent all my time hiding from Jack Charlton in the car park practising my skills.

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.

There are two ways to extend a business. Take inventory of what you're good at and extend out from your skills. Or determine what your customers need and work backward even if it requires learning new skills. Kindle is an example of working backward.

I think early on I knew what I was going to do and it was based a lot on familiarity but it was also because I didn't have a lot of skills. There was nothing I wanted t be. I didn't want to be a doctor. I wanted to be in show business.

A lot of people including business leaders think the future belongs to China. Globalization is not a zero-sum game but we need to hone our skills to stay in play.

There are people in the public sector with a range of experiences that have no equivalent in business but are essential to governing like keeping a kid in school or helping someone get and hold a job. The value of those skills can't easily be measured against a bottom line.

Mom was 50 when my Dad died. She got on a bus every weekday for years and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison. She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business. It wasn't just a new livelihood. It was a new life.

A successful economic development strategy must focus on improving the skills of the area's workforce reducing the cost of doing business and making available the resources business needs to compete and thrive in today's global economy.

I rate enthusiasm even above professional skill.