Sometimes you realize you are not ready to diagnose a situation; at least not in a way you really believe - so there is no point trying to push for a change

My parents still owe me a skateboard!

Trust is nice, but I can't rely on it, mutual assured destruction is better.

Without this principle solidly anchored in leaders’ minds, the resulting plan will at best be an elegant balancing act of compromises. Compromises that will yield compromised results. In other words, a lot of activity and no clearly bankable progress; a lost year.

The most terrible lesson I learned was simple but profound: over time, inevitably, pain will change you.