Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.

Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support network so their pioneers will flourish. This point is so important it's hard to overstress. No support systems, no champions. No champions, no innovations.

The common wisdom is that ... managers have to learn to motivate people. Nonsense. Employees bring their own motivation.

The manager, in today's world, doesn't get paid to be a steward of resources, a favored term not so many years ago. He or she gets paid for one and only one thing: to make things better (incrementally and dramatically), to change things, to act - today.

Business isn't some disembodied bloodless enterprise. Profit is fine - a sign that the customer honors the value of what we do. But "enterprise" ( a lovely word ) is about heart. About beauty. It's about art. About people throwing themselves on the line. It's about passion and the selfless pursuit of an ideal.

An era similar to the one in which the black rotary phone dominated its product category may not recur anytime soon.

Smile if it kills you. The physiology of smiling diffuses a lot of anger and angst. It makes your body and soul feel better.