“When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters.”

“With regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them.”

“Pushing one’s limits beyond the current level permits difficult tasks to become less complex.”

“The way to deal with an impossible task was to chop it down into a number of merely very difficult tasks, and break each one of them into a group of horribly hard tasks, and each of them into tricky jobs, and each of them…”

“The more the process of development becomes familiar and a mere matter of calculation to all concerned, and the weaker the obstacles become in the course of time, the less the “leadership” that will be needed to call forth innovations. Hence the less pronounced will become the swarm-like appearance of entrepreneurs and the milder the cyclical movement.”

“It only takes one mistake and nothing else you ever do will matter. No matter how hard you work or how smart you become, you'll always be known for that one poor choice.”

“One can imagine the future shape of companies by stretching them until they are pure network. It will be hard at times to tell who is working for whom.”

“It is vital for a leader to carefully dialogue with people to set goals that stretch them and grow the organization. He or she can push—but the goals must also be achievable and supported with adequate resources. The worst thing a leader can do if people react negatively to an unrealistic goal is ignore their concerns simply tell them to ‘do whatever it takes.’ What too often happens is that the people take the leader at face value and begin cutting corners, which may in turn lead to stretching or reshaping the truth, to that point that good people make bad and possibly illegal or unethical choices.”

“If one is but secure at the foundation, he will not be pained by departure from minor details or affairs that are contrary to expectation. But in the end, the details of a matter are important. The right and wrong of one's way of doing things are found in trivial matters.”

“So hard and huge a task it was to found the Roman people.”
Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem!