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Benjamin Carson
Pediatric Neurosurgeon
My mother used to say, "If you walk into an auditorium full of racist, bigoted people," she said, "you don't have a problem, they have a problem." Because when you walk in, they're all going to cringe and wonder if you're going to sit next to them, whereas you can sit anywhere you want. And, that was a philosophy that I sort of carry through life. You know, if somebody else was having problems with the way I look, that's too bad. You know? I have more important things to do than to invest my energies in their problem.
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Benjamin Carson
Pediatric Neurosurgeon
Benjamin Carson: Sometimes people have said that I tackle things that other people won't tackle and so on and so forth, and it has nothing to do with that. It simply has to do with me asking the question: "What's the best thing and what's the worst thing that happens if I do something, what's the best thing and what's the worst thing that happens if I do nothing?" On the basis of those four questions, I can determine whether I should do something or not. If the best thing that's going to happen if I do nothing is that they're going to die, then I certainly don't have anything to lose by doing something. And, you can go through the combinations and you can see that they really would tend to lead you in the right direction. So, it's not a matter of being radical or daring. It's a matter of being logical, I think.
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Benjamin Carson
Pediatric Neurosurgeon
Benjamin Carson: It can sometimes be challenging because sometimes people put obstacles in your way and certainly, I remember one case where a very well known neurologist said that I shouldn't do something and wrote letters to everybody -- and this was early in my career -- including the dean and the president of the hospital. But, I took advantage of the fact that he left the country to go to a conference, and I did the operation and it turned out to be very successful. But, the reason that I was willing to do it, at the risk of my career in this situation, was because I had studied it very well, and I think that's a crucial element here. You really need to know what you're talking about. You can't sort of go off half cocked. So, you need to prepare yourself. And also, because I had a tremendous amount of faith in God, I asked God to give me wisdom.
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Jimmy Carter
Nobel Prize for Peace
Jimmy Carter: What people forget is that the original treaty with Panama was written and signed without any Panamanian ever seeing it. It was never fair to the Panamanians, and most people recognize that. President Johnson gave his word of honor to the Panamanians, "We will have a new treaty." So did President Nixon and President Ford. But it was only when I got into office that I was foolish enough to push it to a conclusion. The treaty is very fair to our country and to the Panamanians. It gives us first priority in using the Canal. It gives us the right to defend the Canal against external threats, not only in this century but even in the next century. And it forms a sharing partnership in operating the Canal. When I was there during the Panamanian elections, which we helped to conduct, I visited the Canal and the American leaders there, and they told me that the Canal was in better shape than it had been in many, many years. Because the Panamanians, knowing that they now have a share in the future of the Canal, were much more enthusiastic in upkeep and maintenance and learning how to be the leaders in ways that they hadn't been before. This was the worst political battle I ever got into. It was more difficult to get the Panama Canal Treaties ratified by two-thirds of the Senate of the United States than it was for me to get elected President in the first place. It was a very deep and bitter political battle, and many people still haven't gotten over it. I never go through a week of my life now that I don't get letters from people condemning the Panama Canal Treaties. Still, and this is I don't know how many years later. 1978? Thirteen years later. But it was a good thing to do.
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Steve Case
Co-Founder, America Online
We had just lived through -- earlier, in the 1980s -- the costs and the tragedy really of kind of going out on your own, but the Apple alliance blowing up kind of forced us, and that's actually when we renamed that service. Instead of AppleLink we called it America Online. We said, "We have to create our own name. We have to create our own brand. Even though it's hard, even though it's expensive, even though it's risky, we've got to figure out a way to be successful on our own two feet. We can no longer just piggy back on other people's efforts." So, again that was a crisis. Everybody, myself included, was very nervous about walking away from the strategy of private label partnerships that was working and setting out on our own and taking more risks, but we felt like we had to do it, and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us. Because then it really propelled us, because we had the flexibility to do exactly what we wanted without getting permission, and we were able to really drive AOL into a position of great prominence.
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