The real challenge is not to return to the level of mediocrity that the prevailing social consciousness agrees on merely because we don’t see anyone else doing what we are doing.

Realize that in life and business, it’s always what stands out that gets remembered. If everyone competes on price, but you are the only one raging about your incredible customer service, then that’s what we’ll remember.

We spend too much time trying to be “good” when good is often merely average. To be great we must be different. And that doesn’t come from trying to follow society’s vision of what is best, because society doesn’t always know what it needs.

But what makes something interesting? What makes for something newsworthy? Those are the essential questions for which I’ll give you an easy answer: The most newsworthy thing to do is usually the one you’re most afraid of. The thing you joke, “But of course, we can’t do that.” (One of my most famous stunts began with those exact words.) And then yo