Don't let others define you. You define yourself.

I strongly believe that through dedication and perseverance, one can overcome adversity to achieve success. It is a privilege to accept membership in the Horatio Alger Association, an organization which promotes this principle.

Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we'll augment our intelligence.

Growth and comfort do not coexist.

Be first and be lonely.

The only way you survive is you continuously transform into something else. It's this idea of continuous transformation that makes you an innovation company.

Today when I think about diversity, I actually think about the word 'inclusion.' And I think this is a time of great inclusion. It's not men, it's not women alone. Whether it's geographic, it's approach, it's your style, it's your way of learning, the way you want to contribute, it's your age - it is really broad.

Never love something so much that you can't let go of it.

Ask yourself when you learn the most. I guarantee it's when you felt at risk.

Someone once told me growth and comfort do not coexist. And I think it's a really good thing to remember.

You build your own strategy. You don't define it by what another competitor is doing.

I've always looked for challenges, and I have found plenty.

If I have learned nothing else in all my years here, my biggest lesson is you have to constantly reinvent this company. That's how you get to be 103 years old.

It will not be a world of man versus machine. It will be a world of man plus machines.

Artificial intelligence is one of 50 things that Watson does. There is also machine learning, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and different analytical engines - they're like little Lego bricks. You can put intelligence in any product or any process you have.

You've got to keep reinventing. You'll have new competitors. You'll have new customers all around you.

Every day I get to 'Think' and work on everything from digitizing electric grids so they can accommodate renewable energy and enable mass adoption of electric cars, helping major cities reduce congestion and pollution, to developing new micro-finance programs that help tiny businesses get started in markets such as Brazil, India, Africa.

Steward for the long term. It's not always easy, but you do it.

You have to stick up for what you believe in. And that, to me, is the biggest thing you can do about driving inclusion.

I learned to always take on things I'd never done before.

The ultimate competitive advantage is being cognitive.

If we would change the basis and align what is taught in school with what is needed with business... that's where I came up with this idea of 'new collar.' Not blue collar or white collar.

Watson augments human decision-making because it isn't governed by human boundaries. It draws together all this information and forms hypotheses, millions of them, and then tests them with all the data it can find. It learns over time what data is reliable, and that's part of its learning process.

Everyone talks about how much data's in the world. Except, actually, 80% of it is pretty blind to computers. I mean, it can store it. But if it's a movie, a poem, a song, it doesn't know what it's actually saying or doing.

If you ask me, 'So what is your business model?' Our business model's always about shifting to higher value opportunities.

Digital, it is not the destination.

As I say to our own team: 'Never protect your past, never define yourself by a single product, and always continue to steward for the long-term. Keep moving towards the future.'

I'm the kid that tried to take Latin in school because I felt if I could understand the root of everything, then I could understand why it worked. That was what took me into engineering. And the reason I stayed is, engineering teaches you to solve problems. It teaches you to think.

I have a great job at a great company.

When you manage your company for long-term shareholders, and you manage the company for clients, two of the biggest stakeholders, you will make the right decisions.

What has always made IBM a fascinating and compelling place for me is the passion of the company, and its people, to apply technology and scientific thinking to major societal issues.

No matter what it is, you put too much, your heart and soul in it, you have to be passionate about it. You make too many sacrifices.

We should prepare our future workforce differently. It isn't just advanced STEM degrees. There are many jobs you can do without advanced degrees.

As I tell all our folks, the only reason we exist - make no mistake - is our clients.

So what it means is when you don't believe in the inevitable, it means you don't expect that that's how things have to turn out. You can change them.

I ask everyone's opinion when they don't speak up. And then when they have an opinion, I'll ask others to talk about it.

IBM's long-standing mantra is 'Think.' What has always made IBM a fascinating and compelling place for me, is the passion of the company, and its people, to apply technology and scientific thinking to major societal issues.

I've made lots of mistakes. Probably the worst one - I would say they tie. It's either when I didn't move fast enough on something, or I didn't take a big enough risk.

And the reason I came to IBM was I think - I always say at a really early age, I learned you've got to be passionate about what you do. No matter what it is, you put too much, your heart and soul in it, you have to be passionate about it. You make too many sacrifices.

If it's digital, it will be cognitive. If you think that, you're going to change the way you run a business.

India will not be at the center - it will be the center of this fourth technology shift.

One of the most important topics I think for us all to work on is job creation.

You make the right decision for the long run. You manage for the long run, and you continue to move to higher value. That's what I think my job is.

The recommendation when I'm mentoring folks, I always tell them - and we talked about this last year - take a risk.

Whatever business you're in - it doesn't matter - it's going to commoditize over time. It's going to devalue. You've got to keep moving it to a higher value.

We have started something called the Corporate Services Corps. Now, it was modeled after the Peace Corps from long ago, the 1960s. And the idea was in this modern day and age, how do you get IBM'ers around the world to be global citizens? You know, globally aware, contribute, understand how to work in that environment, but do it on scale.

If you're clear on what you believe, you have a great foundation to go make a market.

And so when I moved to IBM, I moved because I thought I could apply technology. I didn't actually have to do my engineer - I was an electrical engineer, but I could apply it. And that was when I changed. And when I got there, though, I have to say, at the time, I really never felt there was a constraint about being a woman. I really did not.

I've been head of strategy at IBM and together with my colleagues built our five-year plan. My priorities are going to be to continue to execute on that.

I think 'Actions speak louder than words' is one thing, I think, I always took from my mom. And to this day, I think about that in everything I do.