Humility

For in learning how to be a nobody, you will learn how not to be a jerk. You will tip well. You will empathize. You will be a mentor, and a generous one.

This is not about you.

You have to be confident in your potential, and aware of your inexperience. And that's really tough.

Success leads to the greatest failure, which is pride. Failure leads to the greatest success, which is humility and learning. In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself.

A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment, luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and probably income, luckiest in their educational and career opportunities — those are the folks who reap the largest rewards.

Make no mistake about it, you are dumb. You're a group of incredibly well-educated dumb people. There are some screwups headed your way. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

The more I thought about myself, the weaker I became. The more I recognized that I was serving a purpose larger than myself, the stronger I became.

You are not special. You are not exceptional.

If everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.

The great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special. Because everyone is.

Even if you know you are right, you may be wrong.

Sometimes your highest pay isn't money. Wisdom is another name for humility.