The only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive.

Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.

Recruit entrepreneurial leaders and give them freedom to determine the best path to achieving their objectives. On the other hand, individuals must commit fully to the system you use and be held rigorously accountable for their objectives. You give them freedom, but freedom within a framework.

Look, I don't really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great.

In determing "the right people," the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience.

Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.