The short-seller crisis had made our stock extremely cheap, and instead of fixating on that as bad, we focused on achieving a good outcome.

From that perspective, the share price was manna from heaven, and we decided to buy back $2 billion worth of our stock.

No one's ever done something like that.

Just because we were the first company to buy back... See more

"What's the worst that can happen, and how would I cope with that?"

Or, "If a friend had a similar worry, how would I advise them to handle it?"

What's your single best idea to improve our company?"

and

"What's the stupidest thing we're doing as a company?"

I find that slightly understaffed teams are more focused and spend less time doing redundant busywork.

While the rental industry overall was slow to computerize, the larger regional players were more tech-savvy.

By 1997, nearly all of them were running on software developed by a company called Wynne Systems.

This told me that the software was capable of managing hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment flowing on and off jobsites.

I bought... See more

Make your hiring choices as perfect as they can be because there are few mistakes costlier than hiring the wrong person.

An empty seat is less damaging than a poor fit.

The deals I've avoided have contributed more to my success than the deals I've done.

Problems are an asset—not something to avoid but something to run toward.

Big ambitions often beget even bigger problems.

If your initial reaction to a major setback is overwhelming frustration, that's counterproductive.

(You should be excited)

I imagine that person coming into my office and quitting without warning.

Just by imagining this scenario, I can immediately tell from my own inner response whether the person is an A, B, or C player.

If my first thought is, "I was going to fire this person sooner or later anyway, so no big deal and now we won't have to pay severance," that's a C... See more