A 19th?century European in a comparable position would have needed extraordinary privilege ? such as royalty ? or extraordinary wealth. Europeans are fascinated with Lincoln because he didn't have either of those, and yet he had a genius for dealing with power and with the democratic process.

The first time he had taken the massa to one of these "high-falutin' to-dos," as Bell called them, Kunta had been all but overwhelmed by conflicting emotions: awe, indignation, envy, contempt, fascination, revulsion—but most of all a deep loneliness and melancholy from which it took him almost a week to recover. He couldn't believe that such incredible wealth actually existed, that people really lived that way. It took him a long time, and a great many more parties, to realize that they didn't live that way, that it was all strangely unreal, a kind of beautiful dream the white folks were having, a lie they were telling themselves: that goodness can come from badness, that it's possible to be civilized with one another without treating as human beings those whose blood, sweat, and mother's milk made possible the life of privilege they led.

Why are you not smarter? It's only the rich who can't afford to be smart. They're compromised. They got locked years ago into privilege. They have to protect their belongings. No one is meaner than the rich. Trust me. But they have to follow the rules of their shitty civilised world. They declare war, they have honour, and they can't leave. But you two. We three. We're free.

Too much may be the equivalent of none at all.

Once you've figured out where you want to go, what's your plan, focus on the minimum worst outcome. Turn inwards and focus on whether you can deliver.

I invite competition. I enjoy a good competitive encounter. I enjoy the challenge and watching it unfold. I dig deeper and I challenge our people to dig deeper. I pay attention to when my people need support and coaching. I was always competitive. I'm not competitive about sports, but I'm competitive intellectually. My competition is me, I always try to be better.