Be rigorous about your HR decisions. There is a difference between rigorous and ruthless.

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.

Be rigorous about your HR decisions. There is a difference between rigorous and ruthless.

Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.

I am completely Socratic.

Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.

The only way to remain great is to keep on applying the fundamental principles that made you great.