Burnley: ‘Only the person who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.’

Discipline is not the same as regimentation. Discipline is not the same as measurement. Discipline is not the same as hierarchical obedience or adherence to bureaucratic rules. True discipline requires the independence of mind to reject pressures to conform in ways incompatible with values, performance standards, and long term aspirations.

What makes them remarkable is that they possess the ability to focus ferociously on the things that matter. Or as the American economist J. K. Galbraith put it: ‘All of

Jack Welch’s phrase, that you ‘don’t overbrain things to the point of inaction’. Overbrain! Great verb.

‘People want to see you, the leader – to look at how you behave and see whether your actions match your words.’

We have gone from a vertical society to a horizontal society where everybody has an opinion about every decision you make, everybody has an opinion on the Internet straight away. Basically the respect for people who make decisions is gone because every decision is questioned. So one of the most important qualities of a good leader now is massive

Joan Didion says: ‘I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.’

Think in ink,

winners have to make the weather, even when surrounded by storms.