you have no idea where your power, if you have any power, comes from and then, when it vanishes, you have no idea why it’s vanished.

The stroke cut out a lot of my external trips: my sports car and golf and my cello. This [ points to hand ] is just not much use with a cello, and I was—forced inside, and finding myself living in my inside. And that has made me be part of my soul. And that's perceiving my incarnation from here [ points to heart ], rather than from here [ points to head ]. And since this is words, I start from here, go over there.

I was forced to think very hard about what it meant to be me, what it means to be a person who is only a brain. Pascal's 'thinking reed' really does capture it, because I'm just a bunch of dead muscles thinking.

The problem is I'm older now, I'm 40 years old, and this stuff doesn't change the world. It really doesn't. That's going to break people's hearts. I'm sorry, it's true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die.

George and I have been there for each other since we were two years old and for most of life's most poignant moments.

We have made many investments in our history. Not all have succeeded. As entrepreneurs willing to take some risk, we have made many mistakes. But when we are successful, we leave the company better than we found it.

One person that is my role model is my father. ... He’s a man who taught me something very important. And that was — give back to society what you’ve taken out.

As I reflect on my journey, I am forever grateful to have always had George by my side. As I said in the beginning, my story is really our story. George influenced almost every decision I made in life and my friendship and kinship with him deeply influenced the man I am today.

I'd argue that while no doubt mistakes have been made, including by us and KKR, many have misunderstood (or greatly simplified) the model. They have overlooked how value is created -- and for whom.

I also developed an unhelpful aversion to asking for favors. Frankly, if I had sought help from others, I would have made far fewer mistakes.