For no matter what we achieve, if we don't spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life.
The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.
Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.
Great vision without great people is irrelevant.
Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.
Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.
A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.
For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.
By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.
I don't know where we should take this company, but I do know that if I start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great.
A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness.
The most effective leaders of companies in transition are the quiet, unassuming people whose inner wiring is such that the worst circumstances bring out their best. They're unflappable, they're ready to die if they have to. But you can trust that, when bad things are happening, they will become clearheaded and focused.
It is better to first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then figure out where to drive.
This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary market insights. Nor even is it about having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies.
Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems. In
Most businesses -— like most of anything else in life -— fall somewhere between mediocre and good. Few are great. When you compare great companies with good ones, many widely practiced business norms turn out to correlate with mediocrity, not greatness. So, then, why would we want to import the practices of mediocrity into the social sectors?
