Accomplishments in themselves bring little meaning or lasting satisfaction, but the pursuit of accomplishment arm in arm with the right people can produce tremendous satisfaction.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Most of us are familiar with situations where people are unwilling or afraid to present unpleasant truths. In many cases, who can blame them? The unspoken rule in all too many companies is: We don’t want to see anything negative, even if it is true; we like our rose-colored glasses. Ignoring facts,

If you define success by money, you always lose. The real scorecard in life is how well you build meaningful relationships and how well you live to your core values. This means that values come before goals, before strategy, before tactics, before products, before market choices, before financing, before business plans, before every decision. I

You might try making a decision and living with it for 24 hours without telling anybody. This lets you observe how the decision feels before making it public.

“When I was being wheeled into the operating room,” Bill began to explain, “I bet they saw a smile on my face. I realized that if this was to be the end of my life, well, so be it. Dorothy and I had had a fabulous run, a wonderful life. To know that—I mean, to really feel it—while heading into the operating room . . . that’s the moment I knew I’d

The development of the tank, for example, was not part of the allied war strategy at the start of World War I. However, the invention of the tank altered the allied strategy at the end of the war. The generals didn’t say, “Our strategy calls for a tank. Build us one.” No, the tank was invented by a British War Department skunk-works and presented

In his book Building a Champion, Bill Walsh wrote: The stylish, graceful, easy-going, affable, “players’ coach” will get you up to 80 percent of the job done. The final 20 percent is attributable to making tough decisions, demanding a high standard of performance, meeting expectations, paying attention to details, and “grabbing and shaking” when

“If we believe in our culture,” they said to themselves, “why not bet big on it?” So, they bought a retail company, Lojas Americanas, and a beer company, Brahma. Their thesis proved correct: If they had the right people with the right cultural DNA, they could deploy those right people into acquired businesses and win big. Lemann and his partners

Vision forms the basis of extraordinary human effort. Vision provides a context for strategic and tactical decisions. Shared vision creates cohesion, teamwork, and community. Vision lays the groundwork for the company to evolve past dependence on a few key individuals.