Oh, absolutely. I think most overachievers are driven, not so much by the pursuit of success, but by the fear of failure. Unless failure gets very close and very nearby that fear doesn’t reach profound levels, but it drives us. It drives me to work very hard.

But there’s always a way. Sometimes restrictions are a big blessing.

But after one year of medical school I fled. I realized I would be a very unhappy doctor and I really did not want to be responsible for the inadvertent death of my patients. Leaving medical school was a very unusual decision, especially in Nigeria where it is very difficult to get into medical school. Later, people told me that it had been very courageous of me, but I did not feel courageous at all. What I felt then was not courage but a desire to make an effort. To try.

I had such failure for the first ten years in Silicon Valley. General Magic — over a billion dollars invested in 1990 dollars! Could you imagine what that is today? The best team in the world. We were told we were gonna topple Microsoft and all these companies.

Based on how the scene felt I completely switched the dynamics.

People just were the mysterious sum of their actions.

I guess you’ve just got to take each day at a time

I don’t think places have essences any more than people do.

Beyond that, editing an anthology gives me a chance to find a few new readers for my colleagues’ excellent work.

I’m actually suspicious of people who have a lot of friends.