What I'm trying to do is get this message out about self-empowerment entrepreneurial spirit and true Americanism - the way we were when we changed the world when Edison was alone failing his 2 000th time on the lightbulb.

You could say in a vulgar Freudian way that I am the unhappy child who escapes into books. Even as a child I was most happy being alone. This has not changed.

We are the children of a technological age. We have found streamlined ways of doing much of our routine work. Printing is no longer the only way of reproducing books. Reading them however has not changed.

One of my grandfathers actually having gone out there as a minister decided he would better serve the people as a doctor. So at a very late age - at the age of 38 in fact - he changed course and decided to become a doctor.

My dad encouraged us to fail. Growing up he would ask us what we failed at that week. If we didn't have something he would be disappointed. It changed my mindset at an early age that failure is not the outcome failure is not trying. Don't be afraid to fail.

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes but you don't change at all. And that of course causes great confusion.