"By the time we reach puberty, the world has reached us and shaped us to a greater extent than we realize. Our family, friends, school, and society in general have told us - by word and example - how to be.

But people begin to become leaders at that moment when they decide for themselves how to be.

Knowing thyself, then, means separating who you are and who you want to be from what the world thinks you are and wants you to be.

To free ourselves from habit, to resolve the paradoxes, to transcend conflicts, to become the masters rather than the slaves of our own lives, we must first see and remember, and then forget. That is why true learning begins with unlearning - and why unlearning is one of the recurring themes of our story."