Book Titles

Whatever you do, don’t play it safe. Don’t do things the way they’ve always been done. Don’t try to fit the system. If you do what’s expected of you, you’ll never accomplish more than others expect.

Nothing truly great can ever be achieved without taking risks.

Holding yourself to a higher standard is expensive and time-consuming. It requires you to spend an enormous amount of time and money dealing with issues that many other companies would comfortably ignore. When the problems seem unsolvable, you have to keep after them.

To be an enduring, great company, you have to build a mechanism for preventing and solving problems that will long outlast any one individual leader.

The head of a company can’t, and shouldn’t, always be the cheerleader.

When the chips are down… People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is, and how it will be implemented.

…if you level with your employees in bad times, they will trust you more when you say things are going well.

A good chief executive keeps the broader picture in mind when everyone else is focusing on the details.

A decision to cut costs or raise efficiency will add value only if it is consistent with the overall long-term goals the company is trying to achieve.

History… shows that the biggest danger for retail and restaurant operators is a loss of focus.