It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.

Invert, always invert. Many hard problems are best solved by asking: what would guarantee failure? Avoid that, and success becomes far more likely than if you'd chased it directly.

The best businessmen I know didn't start out trying to build a business. They started out trying to solve a problem that bugged them. The company was just the side effect of the obsession.

Invert, always invert. Many hard problems are best solved when you turn them around in reverse. It is not enough to think about what you want — think equally hard about what you want to avoid, and you will find that removing stupidity is often more valuable than adding brilliance.

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. Déceler, c'est créer. To detect is to create.

Invert, always invert. Many hard problems are best solved when you turn them around in reverse. It is not enough to think about what you want to achieve — ask yourself what would guarantee failure, then avoid it.

Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backwards. What happens if all our plans go wrong? Where do we not want to go, and how do you get there? Instead of asking how to succeed, ask how to guarantee failure—then avoid it.

The best thing that can happen to a human being is to find a problem that he can spend his life working on.

The difference between a business that's working and one that isn't is that the working one has solved the hard problem, and the non-working one hasn't. Most people spend all their time on easy problems.