Pete Gallego

There's no such thing as anybody who can't be beat; everybody can be beat. It's a question of how hard you're willing to work. It's a question of the environment, the surroundings. Frankly, there's a lot of issues with timing.

I didn't leave home until 27. I was an only child raised in Philadelphia by my mother and grandmother. My grandmother controlled the stove. She made a lot of potato meals - mashed potato, potato souffle, potato pancakes. When we didn't have electricity, we ate romantically by candlelight.

I want to tell mayors, county chiefs and heads of big companies: don't just chase GDP growth; don't chase the biggest profits at the expense of our children and grandchildren and at the cost of sacrificing our ecological environment.