Quote

Businessmen... were not born chief executives. They were often people first.

I think that business leaders today have to be more rounded than they used to be, they have to be completely multi-functional and fast-moving.

Before Booker T. Washington, we have small business owners but we do not have a philosopher of black entrepreneurship, and that's what Washington was.

I feel that business leaders with their ability to create businesses, with their ability to scale, need to play an important role in social service.

When did it become a problem to be a small businessman and become successful? The small businessman - like my father, or like me?

The biggest start-up successes - from Henry Ford to Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg - were pioneered by people from solidly middle-class backgrounds. These founders were not wealthy when they began. They were hungry for success, but knew they had a solid support system to fall back on if they failed.

Absolute identity with one's cause is the first and great condition of successful leadership.

Furthermore, and a point I really want to make very strongly, is that this is the first Administration since Herbert Hoover not to create a net gain in jobs in the course of its Administration.

As for leadership, I am the kind who leads reluctantly and more by example than anything else. Someone had to be on the incorporation papers as president.