Employees represent an opportunity to inspire not a burden to carry.

A leader is the one who speaks last and acts first.

TiVo and other digital recording devices have confounded advertisers. The ad industry sees the technology as a threat to their product.

Leaders are the ones who have the courage to go first, to put themselves at personal risk to open a path for others to follow.

Any parent who tells their kids that they can't attend a school play or go to a soccer match because they have to work is kidding themselves. It's OK to miss a game or two or a performance here and there, but it's not all right to miss the majority of them.

Wal-Mart's size and scale is so vast they literally have the ability to change the face of the entire country. If Wal-Mart were to make a decision tomorrow to refuse to sell a single product made with partially hydrogenated oils, for example, we'd probably see rates from heart disease decline a few years later. That's how powerful Wal-Mart is.

When you explain to people what you're trying to do, as opposed to just making demands or delegating tasks, you can build instant trust, even if it's just for that short time you're on the phone.