A visionary company doesn't simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable. A visionary company doesn't simply balance between preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to an extreme.

If your company disappeared, would it leave a gaping hole that could not easily be filled by any other enterprise on the planet?

I am not failing - I am growing! Do you have the ability to reframe failure as growth in order to achieve your goals?

The greatest leaders build organizations that, in the end, don't need them.

The best CEOs in our research display tremendous ambition for their company combined with the stoic will to do whatever it takes, no matter how brutal (within the bounds of the company's core values), to make the company great. Yet at the same time they display a remarkable humility about themselves, ascribing much of their own success to luck, discipline and preparation rather than personal genius.

Most people will look back and realize they did not have a great life because it's just so easy to settle for a good life.

Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.