I consider myself a frequent flyer, flying roughly 200 times a year on mostly mainstream airlines.

There is no prize in sales for second place. It's win or nothing. The masters know this and strive for - they fight for - that winning edge.

The key in mastering any kind of sales is switching statements about you and how great you are and what you do, to statements about them, and how great they are and how they will produce more and profit more from ownership of your product or service.

I grew up in an upper-middle-class town with a population around 12,000. My high school held around a thousand kids. All smart. We had a strict dress code. If you wore blue jeans to school, they sent you home.

As technology keeps improving, the price of oil keeps rising, and the ice keeps melting, Arctic energy is bound to be an increasingly bigger part of the global mix.

For people like me, books are something solid and real, whereas digital stuff is a bit more ethereal. I like the trophy on my shelf, the presence in my home. A nice book is just as valuable as a decoration as a beautiful porcelain urn - and, let's face it, a hell of a lot more useful.

I'm like the Christina Aguilera of the Internet.

If you think the technology is infeasible, you don't worry about what it might do and what its potential is.