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.

"Growth!" is not a Hedgehog Concept. Rather, if you have the right Hedgehog Concept and make decisions relentlessly consistent with it, you will create such momentum that your main problem will not be how to grow, but how not to grow too fast.

The essence of profound insight is simplicity.

A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.

The people who don't have a great life are the ones who settle for a good one.

If I'm going really, really fast, I can do a page of finished text a day, on average.

The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is inconsistency.