Creative leadership impact increases in your 50's. When I turn 50 I want to say, "Nice start!"

Start a 'Stop Doing' list. I'll leave it as an existential dilemma on whether to put that task on your To Do list

The critical question is not whether you'll have luck, but what you do with the luck that you get.

You must ask, "What do we mean by great results?" Your goals don't have to be quantifiable, but they do have to be describable. Some leaders try to insist, "The only acceptable goals are measurable," but that's actually an undisciplined statement. Lots of goals-beauty, quality, life change, love-are worthy but not quantifiable. But you do have to be able to tell if you're making progress.

The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.

Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious-but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.