Most large mistakes in organizational design come from putting the individual ambitions of the people at the top of the organization ahead of the communication paths for the people at the bottom of the organization.

There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.

Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.

It's pretty clear that [customers] know what their budgets are now, and what they want to spend it on.

Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand.

Nothing motivates a great employee more than a mission that's so important that it supersedes everyone's personal ambition.

The bigger you get, the harder this gets because the more aggressive the people working for you are.