Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.

By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.

Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless.

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

It occurs to me,Jim,that you spend too much time trying to be interesting. Why don't you invest more time being interested?" Collin's advice from John Gardner that he took to heart.

"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 main point is first get the right people on the bus (and wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it. The second key point is the degree of sheer rigor in people decisions in order to take a company from Good to Great.