Being a decent person.

My friendships.

Chekhov said, any idiot can weather a crisis, it’s the day-to-day living that wears you out. I think the same is true for great achievements. It’s not a big thing, but one ought to feel proud about the small moments in which you might have helped, cared for, or done something good for others.

Holding on to my sanity.

Our business everyday is to make money for people. And I take it as seriously as doctors who are trying to cure cancer, because by giving people financial freedom, we allow them to do great things in their lives - from retire to send their kids to college, to buy their first house, to fund a business that they might want to start.

So I started with this idea of could we do private equity totally differently than had been done? One of the major features of what we do is something called demand aggregation, where we go to corporations and what we call the CPO, the purchasing officers of those - chief purchasing officers. We developed a council of Fortune 500 companies.

I literally said to them - all of our faces were on the - in the boxes on Zoom. And I welled up. And I said, oh my God, this is my dream. This is what I want - I've wanted to see my whole life of working at Ariel and all the things we've built, and making sure we all have a shot at this - narrowing this wealth gap, and putting our stamp on the industry and society.

And all the while I was growing up, of course, there were just constant conversations about money and money being tight and how are we going to make ends meet and sometimes not having enough money. And it really just made me committed to living a life with much more financial security.

I could be strong and not tough. I could be kind without being soft. ... But in that moment, that olive branch of kindness was actually one that became a physical hug, and I think it taught me and the room a lot. And I said: You know what? I think this is an advantage.

I really appreciate the fact, and I constantly tell Reverend Jackson and Reverend Sharpton that I appreciate the fact that they're fighting for us, because I am an accident of birth.