If timing ain't everything, it's damn close

Think about the market, think about the design, and think about who is going to design for that market. Hit the mark.

The company's most urgent task is to learn to welcome, beg for, demand - innovation from everyone.

Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.

Unless you walk out into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low.

Forget all the conventional 'rules' but one. There is one golden rule: Stick to topics you deeply care about and don't keep your passion buttoned inside your vest. An audience's biggest turn-on is the speaker's obvious enthusiasm. If you are lukewarm about the issue, forget it!

Leaders trust their guts. "Intuition" is one of those good words that has gotten a bad rap. For some reason, intuition has become a "soft" notion. Garbage! Intuition is the new physics. It's an Einsteinian, seven-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. Bottom line, circa 2001 to 2010: The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and to trust their intuition.