You hang around with good people, you play a lot of golf, and you have a pretty good life. That's what success is all about. It's getting people you like, who want to take the hill with you, who want to win, who have the passion. This is not rocket science.

Take the middle 70 percent and tell them what they need to do to get into the top 20 percent.

Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.

Cash is king. Get every drop of cash you can get and hold onto it.

Shareholder value is the result of you doing a great job, watching your share price go up, your shareholders win, and dividends increasing. What happens when you have increasing shareholder value? You're delivering better employees to their communities and they can give back. Communities are winning because employees are involved in mentoring and all these other things. Customers are winning because you're providing them new products.

If you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel?

Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete.