The book Zero to One was written by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and investor in hundreds of start-ups, including Facebook and SpaceX, and Blake Masters, one of Thiel’s students. The book tells of entrepreneurial start-up and about building companies to create something singular and new. Yet, according to the book, there is no one formula, because every innovation is new and unique; the single most powerful pattern is that successful people find value in unexpected places.  "A startup is the largest endeavor over which you can have definite mastery. Yo...

The Confidence Code is a must-read for every woman who is looking to excel and every mother, especially of daughters. The authors, journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, raise hard questions and meticulously research the subject of "womenomics" and self-assurance, offering some very astute suggestions for self-awareness and improvement.  Their bottom line is that confidence is a key factor in the ability of women to succeed and building confidence is something you need to work at: "You won’t get it if you don’t work at it, because all of our self-generated confidence comes...

"From early childhood I have considered the freedom of my body essential to the rhythm of movement." Isadora Duncan   My first visit to New York in my twenties was a unique experience. Like every first-timer, I went through a mixture of so many feelings: the meeting between expectation and reality, the anti-climax deriving from over anticipation, the frustrated plans when confronted with constraints and the dreams, some coming true and some being left for the imagination. New York was, however, everything I expected. In addition to walking along almost all of the avenues,...