We need to have mentors. I think I've always been pretty shameless about seeking out people much smarter and much more experienced than me from the very beginning. Michael Seibel and other people. And the more successful I got, the more leaders I started seeking out, whether it was investors, or Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook, or I got the opportunity to spend time with Warren Buffett and he became a close mentor of mine.

Sherry offered me a list of research options: the one project that intrigued me the most consisted of finding out the environmental fate of certain very inert industrial chemicals – the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) – which had been accumulating in the atmosphere and which at that time were thought to have no significant effects on the environment. This project offered me the opportunity to learn a new field – atmospheric chemistry – about which I knew very little; trying to solve a challenging problem appeared to be an excellent way to plunge into a new research area.

From these remarks it will be evident that, allowing only ordinary ability and opportunity, we may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!! Not transient and fitful effort, but patient, enduring, honest, unremitting and indefatigable work, into which the whole heart is put, and which, in both temporal and spiritual affairs, is the true miracle worker. Every one may avail himself of this marvellous power, if he will. There is no royal road to perfection.

When I decided to sell my company, I already had enough. I live simply. I don’t own a house, a car, or even a TV. The less I own, the happier I am. The lack of stuff gives me the priceless freedom to live anywhere anytime. So I didn’t need or even want the money from the sale of the company. I just wanted to make sure I had enough for a simple comfortable life. The rest should go to music education, since that’s what made such a difference in my life.

Yes, for a lot of my life actually. It’s always been something I’ve struggled with, even now. My relationship with sleep and nighttime has affected me in so many ways, in more ways than I knew. So, I decided to write about it.

But there's a big difference between being ungrateful and being a human being going through things. That took me a while to accept. Once you do, I think it's a lot more comforting to know that it's absolutely okay to feel whatever it is you're feeling, no matter how positive your life seems.

Of course you start to question yourself and ask “Is this really the right thing?” but my gut feeling always seems to lead me in the right direction and I just knew I needed to do this.

People think that to be a pop star you have to look a certain way. I want to show people that there’s an alternative.

I wanted to have one part of my social media that was just for me to post pictures. If you like it, you can like it. If not, I don't have to know that you don't like it because people have a lot of opinions, which is fine, but I think there's a difference between having an opinion and just being mean for no reason.

If you're not taking care of yourself, it's almost impossible to try to help others take care of themselves.