Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.

We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge workers should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.

It is willingness of people to give of themselves over and above the demands of the job that distinguishes the great from the merely adequate.

Unless the power of the corporation can be organized on an accepted principle of legitimacy, it will be taken over by a Central government

Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer.

The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question.

Unless a decision has degenerated into work, it is not a decision; it is at best a good intention.