Sublime

If you get a foot in the door at a growing company, you’ll find opportunities to grow,

Andy Grove will always be my model of CEO competence. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, wrote the best management book I’ve ever read (High Output Management), and tirelessly refined his craft.

The productivity of any function occurring within it is the output divided by the labor required to generate the output.

Even big projects within a company should have a mini-board—a collection of helpful execs who can work to guide a project lead and step in if things go sideways.

Build Your Business

There is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done.

But if you feel that you have already heard everything, that all sides of the issue have been raised, it is time to push for a consensus—and failing that, to step in and make a decision.

But when you have to depend on someone else, the results are likely to be less predictable.

Bill Gurley, the incredibly smart, wry, contrarian Silicon Valley VC and Texan deal maker, puts it this way: “I can’t make you the smartest or the brightest, but it’s doable to be the most knowledgeable. It’s possible to gather more information than somebody else.”