A child is most frustrated just before they master a new stage or skill. Before they can walk, talk, think, write, be sexual, be independent, they’re at their most brittle.

The true test for a good brief is not whether the senior officers are impressed. It’s whether or not the troops that are going to execute the operation actually understand it.

The way you get into a box, or become trapped by self-deception, in the first place is by betraying yourself. You betray yourself when you choose not to do what you know you should do or actually want to do—for instance, not holding an elevator for someone, or feeling that you should apologize to someone but not doing so.

The Commandment of Control: Your business should give you full control. Make sure you’re the one offering franchises and affiliate programs, or collecting rent and royalties.

Most people have never even decided what matters most to them. They haven’t developed the criteria that will inform and govern all other decisions, and now we’re trying to do it for an entire group, team or organization.

Nothing defuses the negative energy of a conflict faster than to say, ‘You see things differently. I need to listen to you.’ And mean it.

If you are going to eat shit, don’t nibble.

Practice your values and principles under pressure

Small customers are the backbone of a solid, stable, profitable business—especially a service business.

Trusting the process, even without knowing how things will happen, allows the Universe to orchestrate outcomes in ways far beyond our imagination.