I surround myself with brilliant people who are wise and whose advice I can lean on at every possible moment. The Genome Project is a wonderful team effort. It’s not my project, this is a project that involves close to 1,000 scientists at institutions all over the world. The United States is taking a larger role than any other country, but many other countries are participating. In the U.S. we have a large number of genome centers. We have experts in almost every area. I have advisors who are willing to give up their time and energy to making sure we get there responsibly. It is a heavy load of responsibility, but I can share that load with people who are every bit as committed to the future of this endeavor as I am.

My wife, my children, my friends, myself. I’m my own strongest critic. I am much tougher on myself than anybody I know, consistently.

But I need to show my work during the process. In the editing room, very often I invite friends and I do some test screenings with friends or people I know: editors, journalists sometimes. I ask them, Is it boring? Is it too long? What do you think?

It’s been amazing to be able to spend so much time with her. I’ve joined a couple of tours last year and I’m going to visit her in Denver soon. And that sense of trust we were talking about, I mean, she really pushes me to do anything I want to do. She’s really helping to instill a new kind of confidence in me, whether that’s collaborating with a certain musician or visual artist, or indulging in a different style of improvisation…

She'll show you what it means to be truly courageous and selfless. And you'll spend the rest of your life working to make her sacrifices worth it.

Trust your instincts.

Thank goodness, too. Because that was a long-term investment in myself.

Because there, between those syrupy bites of waffles, you're gonna realize that you're meant to be an entrepreneur, not a lawyer.

The whole ordeal gives you a wisdom at a young age — to realize what matters in life are the people and experiences (not things) one acquires along the way.

I'm lucky now because I get to see firsthand someone who is one-of-a-kind at her craft