The really important things are said over cocktails and are never done.

Listening is not a skill; it is a discipline.

Successful leaders don't start out asking, 'What do I want to do?' They ask, 'What needs to be done?' Then they ask, 'Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?'

Effective people are not problem minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems. They think preventively.

The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product.

An employer has no business with a man's personality. Employment is a specific contract calling for a specific performance... Any attempt to go beyond that is usurpation. It is immoral as well as an illegal intrusion of privacy. It is abuse of power. An employee owes no "loyalty," he owes no "love" and no "attitudes" - he owes performance and nothing else. .... The task is not to change personality, but to enable a person to achieve and to perform.

Here I am, fifty-eight, and I still don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up.