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I’m always working, and I meditate a great deal.

If I push on a wall, physics tells me that the wall pushes back with equivalent force. In a biological system, if one individual acts on another, the action will tend to be reciprocated in kind. And of course, human beings act with intense reciprocity demonstrated as well.

Use persuasion checklists like CLASSR and SUCCES.

As we grew bigger, we started planning for longer time frames. We still plan precisely for a quarter to a year and have longer-term plans. In reality, we try to do it, but it never works because something always comes up, such as resource constraints.

[Why is decision-making important?] Making decisions—or more properly, participating in the process by which they are made—is an important and essential part of every manager’s work from one day to the next.

[What mix of expertise is needed in decision-making?] Decision-making should occur in the middle ground, between reliance on technical knowledge on the one hand and judgment developed through experience on the other.

[What happens to knowledge-based power over time?] A young person entering a technical organization possesses a good deal of knowledge-based power, but as he is promoted and time passes, his position power grows while his intimate familiarity with current technology fades.

What you believe determines what you think. What you think determines what you prioritize, and what you prioritize determines of what you do, and what you do determines whether or not you're successful.

I’m wrong all the time; as Yoda says in The Last Jedi—“The greatest teacher, failure is.” When I realize I’m wrong about an investment decision, for example, I try to learn not only from the things I missed at the time, but also from what I didn’t anticipate. What ended up happening that I failed to imagine? Once you’ve made up your mind, it’s difficult to go back and revisit those preconceived ideas. But that’s how you avoid the same traps next time.

When I started managing, I felt a strong obligation to be the best lead I could for the team. Managing is a big responsibility — and it’s especially challenging when some of your reports are 10 years older than you. It seemed to me that the best way to meet this responsibility was to wake up earlier and read something every day before I came in.