In some organizations, it is easy to say mistakes are okay when in truth it is a zero-defect organization. You will be remembered more for your mistakes than your successes in those organizations.

Everyone has addictions and my problem is that I have 5,000 of them. If it's not drinking, it's gambling; if it's not gambling, it's eating anything from burgers, doughnuts to M&Ms. The only addiction I don't suffer from is chasing women.

General personal principle: You are generally successful to the degree others want you to succeed. So get adopted! And, even more importantly, it's amazing how much you can get done when you let other people take credit for it.

[The greatest barriers to forming alliances] are not figuring out what would make others want to join with you. Assuming that what excites you excites others. Spend more time assuming people have good reasons for what they do or say and then figure out those good reasons.

Most change initiatives either fail or fall far short of original (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. More often than not, resistance is cultural in nature, the result of what James O'Toole so aptly characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom."

Everybody goes through divorces. There's millions of people that have drinking problems. There's people that their weight goes up and down, just like mine. It's just life. And I think people relate to that. I really do.

There are probably some things I could do to keep my flexibility up, but I'd rather smoke, drink diet Cokes and eat.