There are two categories of high-quality people: there is the ammunition, and then there are the barrels. You can add all the ammunition you want, but if you have only five barrels in your company, you can literally do only five things simultaneously. If you add one more barrel, you can now do six things simultaneously…Finding those barrels that you can shoot through — someone who can take an idea from conception to live and it’s almost perfect — are incredibly difficult to find…Whenever you find a barrel, you should hire them instantly, regardless of whether you have money for them or whether you have a role for them.

– Keith Rabois

Introducing an invention is a time fraught with combating stupidity and jealousy, inertia and venom, furtive resistance and an open conflict of interests, an appalling time spent battling with people, a martyrdom to be overcome, even if the invention is a success.

– Rudolf Diesel

Management is tasked with moving an army from point to point, while leadership moves an army to where it never thought possible.

– Colin Powell

Every company faces a Malthusian process: the better it is at solving problems it’s good at, the more its fate is determined by the problems it’s bad at.

– Byrne Hobart

Technological progress requires above all tolerance toward the unfamiliar and the eccentric.

– Joel Mokyr

The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you’re learning, you’re not old.

– Rosalyn Yalow

There are many sources of pricing power—brand names, network effects, cost advantages, unique technology. One of the most volatile is when a product has limited supply elasticity, is an essential input into a product with growing demand, and is a small proportion of the total price of that product.

– Byrne Hobart

Steve used to say to me, and he used to say this a lot. Hey Jony, here’s a dopey idea. And sometimes they were. Really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful. But sometimes they took the air from the room. And they left us both completely silent. Bold, crazy, magnificent ideas. Or quiet, simple ones. Which in their subtlety, their detail, they were utterly profound.

– Jony Ive

If you focus on the goal, you will overcome all obstacles. If you focus on the obstacle, you will never reach your goal.

– Mukesh Ambani