People tend to look at their businesses from the inside out - that is, they get so focused on making and selling their products that they lose awareness of the needs and buying behaviors of their customers.

If you can't describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven't got a plan. 'But,' people may say, 'I've got a complex strategy. It can't be reduced to a page.' That's nonsense. That's not a complex strategy. It's a complex thought about the strategy.

Execution is the job of the business leader.

I saw that leaders placed too much emphasis on what some call high level strategy, on intellectualizing and philosophizing, and not enough on implementation. People would agree on a project or initiative, and then nothing would come of it.

In its most fundamental sense, execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it. Most companies don't face reality very well. ... Realism is the heart of execution, but many organizations are full of people who are trying to avoid or shade reality. Why? It makes life uncomfortable.

At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.

Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes. It enables you to keep growing.

Complexity has nothing to do with intelligence, simplicity does.