Focus on your own business goals rather than external comparisons. By being clear on what success looks like for you, independent of other companies' growth, you maintain a healthier perspective and direction.

In examining the history of visionary companies, we were struck by how often they made some of their best moves not by detailed strategic planning, but rather by experimentation, trial, and error, opportunism, and – quite literally – accident.

Hopefully others will do the same for you. And be up front with people— especially your reports— about the kind of relationship you’d like to build and the kind of manager you want to be

The challenge here is to create a mechanism for empowering innovation teams out in the open. This is the path toward a sustainable culture of innovation over time as companies face repeated existential threats.

Getting the right people in the right roles in support of your goal is the key to succeeding at whatever you choose to accomplish.

You’re in a state of self-deception when you know or want to do the right thing but don’t do it. By not acting, you betray yourself, then feel guilty or frustrated by your behavior. To justify it, you blame the other person for causing a problem. You’re deceiving yourself about your behavior and motivations.

People are going to enjoy more positive affect to the extent that they have more status, power, and success.

One central character strength that emerges again and again in the lives of gritty people is self-control.

His heart is too bound up with yours.

Even if you do everything right, other investors can ignore your favorite stock; management can squander the company’s opportunities; government can change the rules; or nature can serve up a catastrophe.