Great by Choice

10Xers constantly consider the possibility that events could turn against them at any moment. Indeed, they believe that conditions will—absolutely, with 100 percent certainty—turn against them without warning, at some unpredictable point

In short, we found that the 10X companies took less risk than the comparison cases.

The solution to this dilemma lies in replacing the simplistic mantra “innovate or die” with a much more useful idea: fire bullets, then fire cannonballs.

Indeed, the original statement of Moore’s Law, written by Moore in 1965, focused not just on doubling the complexity of integrated circuits per year (the innovation element) but also doing so at minimum cost. Adhering

Achieved with high consistency: check.

Certainly, the 10X leaders took risks,

Of all the luck we can get, people luck—the luck of finding the right mentor, partner, teammate, leader, friend—is one of the most important.

Then, fully four years after Jobs returned to Apple, came a small, empirically validated shot.

Contrary finding: The best leaders we studied did not have a visionary ability to predict the future. They observed what worked, figured out why it worked, and built upon proven foundations. They were not more risk taking, more bold, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons. They were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoi