A comprehensive theory of entrepreneurship should address all the functions of an early-stage venture: vision and concept, product development, marketing and sales, scaling up, partnerships and distribution, and structure and organizational design.

Perform good deeds anonymously.

Practice your values and principles under pressure

The first job of a leader—at work or at home—is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people by entrusting them with meaningful stewardships, and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity and possibility.

Growing a business is much harder if you are constantly having to replace customers you’ve lost. Which would you prefer, after all—making fifty sales in a year and having a 100 percent customer retention rate, or making a hundred sales a year and having a 50 percent retention rate?

If the overall team fails, everyone fails, even if a specific member or an element within the team did their job successfully.

A confirmation “yes” is generally innocent, a reflexive response to a black-or-white question; it’s sometimes used to lay a trap but mostly it’s just simple affirmation with no promise of action.

You are not being mean when you say no. Instead, you may be saving yourself or even the relationship from harm.

This is what I must do, this is what I've got to have. This is who I am…

Cohesion happens not when members of a group are smarter but when they are lit up by clear, steady signals of safe connection.