My parents couldn't be looser. It was the ultimate laissez faire upbringing.

Children of worst parents, grow up to become best parents.

I worked in 40 restaurants over a five-year period.

I took the obligatory economics classes in school, but I've long been a fan of the Milton Friedman philosophy and its libertarian bent: One must be free to do what one wants to do, as long as you don't harm another. This is the seminal treatise on free-market economics.

Any fool can be happy. What I'm interested in is satisfaction. There's got to be more to life than just being happy. You've got to be fulfilled. You've got to be satisfied; philosophically satisfied is what I mean.

What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone.