'You look at things you enjoy in your life, but much more important is what you can do to make the world a better place.' - Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen (1953 - 2018)

'In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next success—if you are willing to learn from it.'

'You will never feel proud of your work if you find no joy within it; your best work is always joyful work.'

A quote by Magic Johnson

'My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.'

Read Sam Altman's life advice from before he became CEO of OpenAI, from 'don't lose touch with old friends' to 'occasionally stay up until the sun rises talking to people.'

'We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves.'

Bill Gates and Paul Allen were childhood friends before founding Microsoft

'Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.'

'No big challenge has ever been solved, and no lasting improvement has ever been achieved, unless people dare to try something different.'

'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.' - Anne Frank

'If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.'

'Follow your enthusiasm. It's something I've always believed in. Find those parts of your life you enjoy the most. Do what you enjoy doing.'

'To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.'

'The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.'

Some of the robber barons, including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, were among America's greatest philanthropists.

A quote by award-winning actor Tom Hanks

'The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts.'

Read an email Steve Jobs wrote himself in 2010

'Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a persons own mind—than on the externals in the world.'

'One man can make a difference and every man should try.'

'A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.'

'Reputation is what others think about you. What's far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.'

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos emphasizes worrying about customers rather than competition

A quote from Robin Williams

A quote by athlete Walter Payton

'Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.'

'I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning ... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.'

'I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot ... The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.'

Listen to Sam Altman's 17 startup principles, including 'take risks on high-potential candidates.'

'At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don't. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.'

'Keep working on a plan. Make no little plans. Make the biggest one you can think of, and spend the rest of your life carrying it out.'

'I just enjoy the moment I'm in. For me, life is a whole experience, not just a series of isolated moments. It's like submerging yourself into a warm bath rather than sticking your toe under the faucet.'

'When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.''

'Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.'

By 2005, Microsoft may have made as many as 12,000 millionaires

Early in his career, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dreamed of working for Google.

'Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.'

'You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.'

'Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.'

Lessons learned from Steve Jobs

Former Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is among the world's most generous philanthropists, having given away more than $68B.

Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham keeps a public archive of his insightful essays

'Everybody has talent and it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is. A talent is a combination of something you love a great deal and something you can lose yourself in.'

'I don't know what you can say about a day when you see four beautiful sunsets.'

'Unfortunately, many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda. For me, that was always a high priority in whatever I was doing.'

'The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.'

Microsoft's initial successes came from promising products that did not yet exist

A quote from Mark Cuban

'It's those who lie outside ordinary experience who have the most to teach us.'

The case for optimism