Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must get people excited about something they've never seen before, something that does not yet exist.

"No" is always an easier stand than "Yes.

One of the symptoms of a losing streak is a turnover of top executives. It's a revolving door.

To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.

A great idea is not enough.

Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must get people excited about something they've never seen before, something that does not yet exist.

Too many people let others stand in their way and don't go back for one more try.

Cheap labor is not going to be the way we compete in the United States. It's going to be brain power.

Leaders must pick causes they won't abandon easily, remain committed despite setbacks, and communicate their big ideas over and over again in every encounter.

The commune movement is part of a reawakening of belief in the possibilities for utopia that existed in the nineteenth century and exist again today, a belief that by creating the right social institution, human satisfaction and growth can be achieved.

Ambivalence about family responsibilities has a long history in the corporate world.

The Martha Stewart trial makes clear how far women have risen in the business world. America can be proud of our equal-opportunity prosecution and conviction.

Power is the ability to get things done.

I've found that small wins, small projects, small differences often make huge differences.

The boomers' biggest impact will be on eliminating the term 'retirement' and inventing a new stage of life... the new career arc.

Companies used to be able to function with autocratic bosses. We don't live in that world anymore.

The goal of winning is not losing two times in a row.

I was determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons taught us we were entitled to, no matter what the sacrifice.

Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation.

A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.

I've been looking at companies that are on a positive path vs. a negative path and I've come to use the language of sports, winning streaks and losing streaks.

Business requires understanding financial matters, but management is different from running the financial aspects of the business - it requires understanding complex systems, how they operate, the nature of organisations, what happens when people interact in groups and how to motivate and guide people.

Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism, and it's not a character attribute. It's the expectation of a positive outcome.

Friendly people are caring people, eager to provide encouragement and support when needed most.

I see the level of sophistication and knowledge about business growing dramatically. Several decades ago, only a few companies thought about international business.

Nations need to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and India's tradition of dissent and democratic debate is a positive aspect.

Organizational structures that allow divisions and departments to own their turf and people with long tenure to take root creates the same hardened group distinctions as Congressional redistricting to produce homogeneous voting blocs - all of which makes it easier to resist compromise, let alone collaboration.

Some social scientists say that in-group/out-group biases are hard-wired into the human brain. Even without overt prejudice, it is cognitively convenient for people to sort items into categories and respond based on what is usually associated with those categories: a form of statistical discrimination, playing the odds.

Throughout human history, people have developed strong loyalties to traditions, rituals, and symbols. In the most effective organizations, they are not only respected but celebrated. It is no coincidence that the most highly admired corporations are also among the most profitable.

Tribalism reflects strong ethnic or cultural identities that separate members of one group from another, making them loyal to people like them and suspicious of outsiders, which undermines efforts to forge common cause across groups.

We have a large pool of talented and educated women, and yet workplaces haven't necessarily changed to accommodate the reality of their lives.

When you fail at something, the best thing to do is think back to your successes, and try to replicate whatever you did to make them happen.

Our future will be shaped by the assumptions we make about who we are and what we can be.

The middle of every successful project looks like a disaster.

The most radical thing we can do is connect people to one another. That starts conversations toward a vision for change.

Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation.

Winning becomes easier over time as the cornerstones of confidence become habits.

I do believe there are leaders who are like lightning and they come along and they lead. The Lincolns of the world, the Alexander the Greats, they do exist. They have existed.

They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have not used this facility of free election. You tend to lose the habit.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.

Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation, and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political, intellectual, and cultural leaders in Asia.

Almost the only persons who may be said to comprehend even approximately the significance, principles, and purposes of Socialism are the chief leaders of the extreme wings of the Socialistic forces, and perhaps a few of the money kings themselves.

I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.

While Kuwait is not a democracy, giving only half the population a voice in their government is not a policy this Congress should support and one that I am glad that Kuwait's leaders are changing.

We don't have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats.

Through persistent dedication, Susan B. Anthony, and other remarkable leaders, women were finally granted the right to vote in 1920.

The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give, it to them.

Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d'etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again.

Many hard comments have been made on my efforts in India from the side of the Congress party, yet I feel content in the deep conviction that the offer I traveled 22,000 miles to discuss with Indian leaders was a real contribution to a solution of our differences.