“Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.”

There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don’t know.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers – they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.

Agreement can always be reached by increasing the generality of the conclusion; when this is done, the form is generally preserved but only the illusion of policy is created.

Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.

Presidential leadership needn’t always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.

Politics is human beings; it’s addition rather than subtraction.

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

With the press there is no ‘off the record.’

If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

Learn to say ‘I don’t know.’ If used when appropriate, it will be often.

Prune – prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.

Everyone’s saying you can’t do anything until you can do everything.

Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn’t exist.

If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.

Whatever your position, reach out to those who know more than you do, and have been around longer than you have. Find those people. Listen carefully. And learn.

Now I truly believe that we in this generation must come to terms with nature, and I think we’re challenged, as mankind has never been challenged before, to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature but of ourselves.

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.

Never back down from a real challenge. They give the best lessons in life.

I have a very strong opinion. I’m absolutely against it. I’m against the challenge system. I’m for the way it is right now. Don’t change that.

It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged.

Don’t get hung up on the hard times, the challenges. Tell your story by highlighting the victories. Because it’s your victories that will inspire, motivate, encourage other people to live their stories in grander ways.

Your daily challenge to not be like a boss, but the boss, in all things you.

When I am wrong, I will learn the lesson and move on to face other challenges. For me, that’s what creating your own life is. Doing your best work while being your best self.