It occurs to me,Jim,that you spend too much time trying to be interesting. Why don't you invest more time being interested?" Collin's advice from John Gardner that he took to heart.

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.

The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake. The best people don't need to be managed. Guided, taught, led-yes. But not tightly managed.

Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.

Good is the enemy of great. That's why so few things become great.

True leadership has people who follow when they have the freedom not to.

The difference between a good leader and a great leader is humility.

If you have more than three priorities then you don't have any.

The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.

The past is not a package one can lay away.

That's the nature of any kind of rot. If you don't stop it, it keeps going. It will keep going until it destroys the very organism that feeds it.

I took it upon myself to be more aggressive. I wanted the ball. Coach gave me the ball and I just tried to attack (and) make plays, just take it to the rim and see what happens.

Everybody is connected to everybody else, all data that can be shared will be shared: get used to it.

To a crazy ship, all winds are contrary.

For the first time in a long time, our leaders in Washington understand what Americans of all religious backgrounds have long held to be true: through faith, all things are possible.

Promise me you will appreciate every moment because we are the lucky ones

People are self-centered to a nauseous degree. They will keep on about themselves while I'm explaining me.

If you want to have a lot of success, you need to have a lot of failure

One of the hardest things a person who is new to the way of business thinking has to go through is the countless number of people who will say to you: "You can't do that.