12 Team Behaviors That Drive Team Performance

6 Task Behaviors - to get the job done right.

1. Initiating:   Proposing goals, tasks, new definitions to problems and suggesting procedures or new ideas that initiate action within the team.

2. Information seeking and giving:  Asking for or offering relevant information, opinions, or suggestions.

3. Clarifying and elaborating:  Clearing up confusion, interpreting comments, developing suggestions, building on ideas, defining terms, and envisioning how something might work.

4. Summarizing:  Putting ideas and contributions together and presenting them to the team in an understandable way.  Restating information and ideas in a condensed form.

5. Coordinating:  Managing the flow of ideas or information.  Developing plans for how to proceed and keeping people focused on the task.

6. Decision Testing:  Checking with the team to see whether agreement has been reached and if team members are ready to move to decision making.  Ensuring enough alternatives have been considered.  Asking for clarification on which decisions are to be made by the team.  Ensuring that a decision has been made.

6 Maintenance Behaviors  – to develop the relationships and atmosphere needed to work well together.  

1. Encouraging:  Acknowledging, praising others and their contributions, encouraging participation by being responsive, friendly, and respectful of others.  Demonstrating acceptance and openness to others’ ideas.

2. Active Listening:  Suspending judgment and listening carefully in order to fully understand the ideas of others. Paying attention to non-verbal messages. Checking for understanding by paraphrasing.

3. Tension Reduction:  Easing tension and helping create an enjoyable atmosphere in which the team can stay focused on its tasks, suggesting fun approaches to work, and reminding the team to take breaks when needed.

4. Gatekeeping:  Increasing participation and communication by encouraging less talkative members to contribute or directly asking their opinions.  Controlling “air time” of more talkative members.  And suggesting procedures that encourage full participation and getting out all ideas.

5. Problem Solving:  Working to resolve or mediate conflict among team members. Admitting own errors, finding common ground, and communicating willingness to modify your own position.

6. Observing and Facilitating:  Observing your team’s processes (how team members are working together) and sharing your observations to help your team become aware of its effectiveness. Expressing your own feelings and asking others how they are feeling.

8 types of tasks you should be delegating in order to propel your startup forward in the most efficient way.

1. Tasks that keep you from growing your business
When Levey and his team realized that the hours they spent on a bike en route to product samplings were not enabling them to scale to a nationwide platform, they hired a demo team. “Getting customers to trial something is important, but we also realized it wasn’t a good use of our time, because it wasn’t conducive to our long-term growth,” he says.

Independent contractors were brought on to handle sampling and inform customers about the products’ nutritional facts; that freed Field Trip’s founders to pursue new accounts, which today include several major grocery chains, as well as JetBlue Airways, Vitamin World and Costco.

2. Activities that will help speed up cash flow
As a small company represented in huge grocery stores with more than 50,000 SKUs, Field Trip found that its relatively modest invoices often would get overlooked. “Checks for $100 get lost against the $10,000 checks pretty easily, so we were hounding the stores just to get paid,” Levey explains.

The founders discovered that hiring distributors not only got them paid faster, it also enabled them to get paid with a few large checks rather than many small ones. The company now employs more than 25 distributors.

“By delegating that work to distributors, our accounts receivable have significantly improved, as has the timing of our working capital,” he says. “We’re getting our money faster, and we’re also getting checks that were previously going unpaid because we didn’t have time to follow up on them.”

3. Areas that are out of your wheelhouse
Ryan Fleming, co-founder of Long Beach, Calif.-based RemindGrams.com, delegates tasks that would require too much time for him to learn and master. That is one of the factors to which he credits the success of his 24/7 concierge service, which keeps a virtual eye on the well-being of loved ones.

Fleming has turned to services such as Elance and Fiverr to outsource web design, creation of video and web content, SEO, social media activities and PR. “The SEO stuff is well over my head, but when you have someone who can help you understand how the Google algorithm works, it’s a game-changer,” Fleming says, adding that he attributes many of his company’s 400-plus users to the success of the keyword “RemindGrams.” “It would take me about five years to create [animation] online, so delegating out those types of digital assets is a no-brainer for me. It definitely pays for itself.”

4. Tasks that are already streamlined
Hard work goes into developing processes that allow employees to increase their efficiency while still meeting in-house quality metrics. But once those processes are in place, there’s no reason to be the person who implements them on a day-to-day basis. After launching Venice, Calif.-based online inventory and order-management software Lettuce in 2012, CEO Raad Mobrem saw his staff expand from two people who did everything to 13 within three months.

While exciting, the period was fraught with organizational headaches and growing pains. So he divided the company into sales, marketing, customer support and product. In each of those areas, processes were put in place so managers could easily delegate tasks when needed.

“When something needs to be done, we can walk an employee through our current processes and say, ‘Here’s what we like to do, and this is how we do it.’ It’s a clear path of where we’re going and how we do things,” Mobrem says, noting that Lettuce now has 15 employees and thousands of users. “As a result, we went from chaos to really well-delegated processes and tasks that everyone is able to complete in a timely manner.”

5. Tasks in areas with often-changing regulations 
Brian Fox, president and founder of Brentwood, Tenn.-based Confirmation.com, is a CPA who tries to stay up to date on the latest changes in the field. But he says he “wouldn’t even think about” doing the accounting for his electronic audit confirmation services firm, even in the leanest of the startup days.

“The rules change so often that if you’re not in it day to day, you’ll miss something, from a tax standpoint or an accounting application standpoint,” he says. “You need somebody who does that as their full-time job.”

Fox outsources his legal, accounting and insurance needs to outside agencies that are current on specific regulations.

Waverly Deutsch, professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, says delegating to a specialist is a good call when the cost of making a mistake might be high. “When you’re dealing with a government agency like the IRS, EPA or immigration, you don’t have any power, and the risk of doing it wrong–and facing stiff consequences–is enormous. Those are areas where you definitely should delegate to an expert,” she says.

6. Projects that impede development
While Fox enjoys the product development side of his business, he has trouble presenting his thoughts in enough detail for a technology team to take over. Instead, he hands off that part of the process to avoid becoming a bottleneck within his own operation.

“I was holding up our development, so we brought in a product person that I could share the idea with, but then they could do all the legwork,” he explains.

Today the company has a team that takes ideas for new products, enhancements and modifications and writes detailed specs so the technology team can create them.

7. Anything you want your team to learn
Bob Marsh–CEO of Detroit-based Level-Eleven, which creates motivational software for sales teams–says one of the best ways to get employees to internalize something he wants them to learn is to let them complete the task themselves. While he could simply tell his sales team how he’d like them to do a specific task, he finds that it’s more effective to ask someone to take the lead on the activity so they can get the team together and come up with best practices.

“It helps people internalize it, because they’ve made their own thoughts and decisions on it,” Marsh says.

8. The stuff you simply hate to do
Many ‘treps agree that handing off the tasks they can’t stand helps them maintain their drive and enthusiasm, which is critical to their company’s success. After all, that’s why they work for themselves.

“I really believe you should do the things you enjoy and have fun doing, and delegate the rest,” says Fox of Confirmation.com. “That’s what excites you when you wake in the morning, and what you’re thinking about when you wake in the middle of the night with a brand-new idea. It’s not: ‘Oh my gosh, here’s a new tax law I can apply.’

 

 

7 Bad Habits That Made Me a Terrible Boss

It's no secret. I've written many times about the mistakes of my youth. No, not the perm I had when I was a teenager or the time I jumped off a bridge into carp-infested waters. I'm talking about my early days as a middle manager just out of college, working as a shift manager in a shoe store when I was barely old enough to be legally married.

 

You can read all about my issues on my personal blog, byjohnbrandon.com, but suffice it to say: I learned a few things about how to be a terrible leader. By the time I "graduated" to a larger company working as a writing manager with a large team in an IT department, I had put most of my bad habits to rest. But not all of them. Here are a few that lingered longer than they should have.

 

1. I expected good communication from employees but didn't communicate well myself.

 

I had this mixed up view of communication: I wanted my project leads to give me regular status updates and send routine emails. I expected them to let me know if they were slipping on any project budgets or had a temperamental employee. Sadly, I did not pay them the same courtesy. I lived in a management bubble thinking, even later on in my career, that I didn't have to talk that much about my own challenges, the company vision, or budget snafus.

 

2. I promoted people before they were ready.

 

I'm not sure why I had this bad habit, and it's the hallmark of a terrible boss. Maybe my intentions were good--I wanted my team leads to succeed. But here's the real reason I promoted employees: I was scared they would leave the company. That's a ridiculous reason to put someone in charge of something when they aren't ready for it. It makes everyone on the team look bad, and it's really creating a monster, one that has my own bad habits.

 

3. I charged in with guns blazing.

 

When I worked at a small software startup years ago, I had this cocky attitude about conflict. I wasn't about to let anyone get away with anything. If there was any sign of trouble, I'd arrange a meeting and drop a few bombs right away on people, suggesting they were in danger of being fired or even raising my voice loudly to make a point. I should have asked questions and looked for resolution to problems, easing people into the solution. Cracking the whip never worked.

 

4. I bought hardware I liked without knowing if there was a need.

 

Have you ever seen this problem in the workplace? The boss suddenly totes in some new laptop that's going to be distributed to every employee--probably one with an Apple logo on it. It's decked out with loads of RAM and storage. Yet, you're suspicious: The laptop is just the one that everyone wants and has some illustrious new features. I made this mistake more than once, getting caught up in the latest marketing pitches. The problem with this approach is that the gear might not match the current project requirements. The worse problem is that I didn't talk to my employees enough about what they really needed and if they could do their jobs adequately.

 

5. I took too much pride in my role.

 

This isn't a problem I've dealt with completely. There's good pride and bad pride. The good kind makes us free to lead others because we have the most experience. The bad kind is where we get value and purpose in life solely from our lofty position. It's just a job. Bad bosses always act like they're on a pedestal looking downward. Which leads to another problem...

 

6. I thought I knew everything.

 

My kids still tell me I'm a know-it-all. Part of the problem, of course, is that I really do know more about how to drive a car or clean a fish than they do. But in my years working as a corporate manager, I tended to treat my employees like they were peons who didn't know anything. Leaders often have a hard time giving up control to a more experienced officer, but that's where servant-leadership comes in--bowing to the knowledge of someone who performs a task better than you can, letting others have control, and overseeing the progress.

 

7. I didn't share my vision enough.

 

Perhaps the worst thing I did as a boss during those years was that I didn't hit home the whole point of the team. My last role involved leading a writing and design team, and I had some great ideas about how to make sure end users understand complex applications. My transition to the writing field worked smoothly because it's essentially the same thing--distilling complexity. But I didn't share the vision enough, and people often rebelled. They didn't know where the team was going, and I expected them to read my mind. That was my biggest mistake of all.

 

5 Ways to Build a Truly Resilient Company

Although it sounds paradoxical, with the economy improving now is a great time to prepare your company for the inevitable bumps (or worse) that it's bound to encounter at some point. By being positive, focused, and forward looking, you can inspire your employees (and yourself) in a way that makes your company more profitable and more competitive. To imbue your business with the invaluable quality of resiliency, take these five actions.

1. Renew Your Focus and Revise Your Goals

All performance starts with clear goals and expectations. In tough times, bosses need to prioritize and reevaluate company and employee goals--ideally, by working closely with those most responsible for them--to ensure that everyone is focused on the things that matter most. No doubt you've heard the truism that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. There's a business corollary: continuing to do the same things even though the environment you operate in has significantly changed. Doing things differently begins with reviewing and revising those goals and monitoring the company's progress against them.

2. Be Generous With Information

During difficult times, people want to know what's going on and how it affects their work--and their continued employment. Too often, however, leaders err on the side of becoming more tightlipped, maybe even secretive. Sometimes they don't want to alarm their employees, and sometimes they don't want to appear as if they are not in control of the situation. But you need to communicate more during hard times, not less. And this communication needs to be both strategic ("Here’s what the organization is confronting and here's what we're doing about it") and personal ("What questions or concerns do you have about the situation we are in, and your role in helping us deal with it?”).

3. Involve Your People

Once people know the full picture, channel their efforts in ways that will make an immediate and significant difference to the company’s focus and fortunes. This involvement goes far beyond the cursory invitation of “We need your ideas.” Instead, employee involvement requires a level of rigor that shows the company is serious about doing things differently and tapping into every employee's potential so that the entire company can do things differently: better, faster, cheaper, and smarter.

4. Encourage Autonomy and Flexibility

Instead of barking orders, remember that all employees need to have a say in how they do their work to make it more meaningful. That's how they become more engaged and effective, which is essential when things get rocky. Indeed, it's critical that they go beyond their job descriptions and do whatever they can to make a difference. Don't simply encourage them to offer ideas for improvements; encourage them to run with those ideas, taking responsibility for them and championing them through to completion.

5. Don't Forget to Say Thank You

You are, in essence, encouraging new behaviors, and to do that successfully you have to understand the importance of employee recognition. Positive consequences drive positive results. In difficult times, you may not have the budget to do lavish celebrations and rewards, but nothing should prevent you from recognizing the hard work of your employees in a timely, sincere, and specific way.

 

5 Hallmarks of Well-Oiled Teams

Great team strategies are sometimes counterintuitive. For example, teams that make the fastest decisions do not always make the best decisions. Back-and-forth debate among team members takes longer, and it sometimes gets messy, but professional argument is also healthy and necessary when making important decisions.

Another misconception is that great teams always reach consensus. Not true. Great teams reach commitment. They understand the value of giving people the chance to share their insights and opinions--and be genuinely heard.

So, if healthy teamwork is not always what it appears to be, how do you know if your team is as effective as possible?

Rick Packer, a colleague and longtime Table Group principal consultant who has worked with hundreds of teams over the years, compiled this list of the markers of great teams:

1. No elephants.

Great teams talk about their most difficult topics as a team. If there's an elephant in the room, it doesn't stay there long, because someone will bring it up and the team will constructively deal with the underlying (and often distracting) issue at hand.

2. Micro, not macro.

As Rick says, you cannot solve problems with generic, third-person language ("Some people might think that we're not being decisive"; "People lose their patience in meetings"). So when team members get specific or micro, we know they're on the right path. It's OK to use names ("When the debate gets a little messy and Tyler pushes us to move forward without a resolution, the whole department suffers").

3. Get serious about meetings.

Great teams know how to meet and follow a rigorous meeting structure. They have worked hard at finding the right balance of meetings for their specific team. And they keep it up.

4. Close the backdoor.

Team members don't "take it offline" as an excuse to exclude part of the team from sticky discussions. They know that if anyone on the team will be impacted by the issue being discussed, it probably needs to be addressed at the team level. A simple question to ask: Does anyone feel that it would be appropriate to join this conversation?

5. Who's Team No. 1?

Great teams make decisions horizontally, not vertically. In other words, they are not strictly thinking about their individual department or project; they're thinking about the good of the whole team. And when they leave the meeting, they support team decisions because they value the whole team.

Bonus track. Members of great teams often say, “I feel like team members have my back.” This is more a result than a hallmark, and it’s one benchmark for determining whether your team is on the right track.

 

10 Tricks : How to Get Paid Faster

Slow-paying or deadbeat clients are the bane of small businesses. How are you supposed to pay your bills, much less grow your company, when the money you've worked for isn't coming in the door?

Here are some ideas on how to deal with unpaid invoices.

1. Make each client sign a contract before beginning work.

A signed contract that delineates deliverables and details how much and when you'll be paid protects both you and your client. It also makes taking legal action easier if it ever comes to that.

2. Offer incentives for paying early.

My local dentist, for example, gives 5 percent off to people who pay with cash or check on the day they receive treatment. Advertise this perk on invoices, in the client contract, or on signage if you have a physical location.

3. Encourage customers to pay by credit card or electronic bank transfer.

"Sometimes this is as easy as saying, 'How would you like to pay: by credit card or wire transfer?'" suggests Inc. columnist Jeff Haden.

4. Make a client pay significant costs upfront.

"When we work for clients, my company pays for travel costs and other fees that can sometimes be as much as or more than the payment for our work," writes serial entrepreneur Eric Holtzclaw. "To stay solvent, we must collect these out-of-pocket expenses as soon as possible."

5. Don't charge a late fee.

If the client is someone with whom you want to continue doing business a penalty isn't going to help your relationship.

"In addition, if someone isn't in a hurry to pay your bill, they probably won't be in a hurry to pay your late fee either," writes Nellie Akalp, CEO of online incorporation filing service CorpNet.com, on the FreshBooks Blog. "And a small penalty can just be written off as a cost of doing business and almost legitimizes the delay."

6. Don't delay invoicing.

Invoicing can be a bother but Akalp notes that putting it off sends the message that getting paid isn't a priority for you. Make sure to spell out when a bill needs to be paid, such as "Please pay within 21 days." This wording is important. It turns out invoices that employ the word "days" instead of "net" get paid faster and more often.

7. Show up in person.

It's pretty easy to ignore a phone call, email, or bill sent via snail mail. Why not stop by in person? Be friendly and genuinely ask your client how everything's going. Maybe there's some reason for the non-payment. If so, suggest some kind of payment plan. If not, cordially ask to settle up, which is easier to do if you use a mobile payments solution such as Square or PayPal Here.

8. Use certified mail.

If an invoice has gone unpaid for several months try sending another via certified mail, which always gets people's attention and gives you proof of receipt. Include a threatening letter written by an attorney for an even more effective punch. "Remember, though: This gambit may be too strong in some cases. You have to weigh such 'motivational' tactics against the circumstances of the late payment and the nature of your relationship with the client," writes Inc. columnist Howard Greenstein.

9. Stop working.

It can feel hard core, but stopping a project in its tracks is a remarkably effective way to open a customer's purse strings.

10. Re-evaluate your relationship with chronic late payers.

If getting paid is consistently a battle, talk to the client's bookkeeper or CEO and ask what you can do to help, such as changing the timing and frequency of your invoices or how you deliver them.

On the other hand, it may be a good time to seek out new clients who won't compromise the stability of your company.

 

 

9 Things Successful People Do Right Before Bed

Here are nine things successful people do before retiring for the night:

1. Read. Experts agree that reading is the very last thing most successful people do before going to sleep.

Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of "You Can't Be Serious! Putting Humor to Work," says he knows numerous business leaders who block off time just before bed for reading, going so far as to schedule it as a "non-negotiable item" on their calendar. "This isn't necessarily reserved just for business reading or inspirational reading. Many successful people find value in being browsers of information from a variety of sources, believing it helps fuel greater creativity and passion in their lives."

For example, while some successful people use this time catch up on news stories from the day, skim tech blogs, or browse Reddit and Twitter, others enjoy reading fiction novels and ancient philosophy just before bed.

2. Meditate. Many successful people use the 10 minutes before bed to meditate. Dale Kurow, a New York-based executive coach, says it's a great way to relax your body and quiet your mind.

3. Reflect on the day. Kerr says many successful people take the time just before bed to reflect on, or to write down, three things they are appreciative of that happened that day. "Keeping a 'gratitude journal' also reminds people of the progress they made that day in any aspect of their life, which in turn serves as a key way to stay motivated, especially when going through a challenging period."

Vanderkam adds: "Taking a few moments to think about what went right over the course of the day can put you in a positive, grateful mood."

4. Make your to-do list. "Clearing the mind for a good night sleep is critical for a lot of successful people. Often they will take this time to write down a list of any unattended items to address the following day, so these thoughts don't end up invading their head space during the night," Kerr says.

5. Disconnect from work. Truly successful people do anything but work right before bed, Kerr says. They don't obsessively check their email, and they try not to dwell on work-related issues.

Woodward agrees. "The last thing you need is to be lying in bed thinking about an email you just read from that overzealous boss who spends all their waking hours coming up with random requests driven by little more than a momentary impulse." Give yourself a buffer period between the time you read your last email and the time you go to bed. The idea is to get your head out of work before you lay down to go to sleep.

6. Spend time with family. Woodward says it's important to make some time to chat with your partner, talk to your kids, or play with your dog.

Vanderkam says this is a common practice among the highly successful. "I realize not everyone can go to bed at the same time as his or her partner, but if you can, it's a great way to connect and talk about your days."

7. Plan out sleep. "Much has been written around the dangers busy people face running chronic sleep deficits, so one habit I know several highly successful people do is to simply make it a priority to get enough sleep - which can be a challenge for workaholics or entrepreneurs," Kerr says. One way to do that is to go to bed at a consistent time each evening, which is a key habit all sleep experts recommend to help ensure a healthy night's sleep.

Vanderkam further suggests that you plan out when you're going to wake up, count back however many hours you need to sleep, and then consider setting an alarm to remind yourself to get ready for bed. "The worst thing you can do is stay up late then hit snooze in the morning," she says. "Humans have a limited amount of willpower. Why waste that willpower arguing with yourself over when to get up, and sleeping in miserable nine-minute increments?"

8. Lay down on a positive note. It's easy to fall into the trap of replaying negative situations from the day that you wish you'd handled differently. Regardless of how badly the day went, successful people typically manage to avoid that pessimistic spiral of negative self-talk because they know it will only create more stress. "Remember to take some time to reflect on the positive moments of the day and celebrate the successes, even if they were few and far between," Woodward says.

9. Picture tomorrow's success. Many successful people take a few minutes before bed to envision a positive outcome unfolding for the projects they're working on, says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant; How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job." "For most, this is not a task or exercise; they're wired with a gift of solid resolution skills that come naturally."

 

 

How to Say No Without Losing the Customer

I can't say for sure, but here's the strategy I'm using. So far, it seems to be working.

1. Say thank you.

Nobody likes getting rejected, and when you say no, it can feel to your customer like a rejection, especially if the person has counted on your availability in the past. So do everything you can to counteract that impression. A great place to start is to sincerely thank that customer for trusting you with his or her business.

2. Make a personal connection.

On each side of every transaction is a human being. You can make the most of this by trying to engage your customer as a person, asking about his or her family and sharing a bit about your own life. I'm not suggesting you become the customer's new best friend, but you need to send the message that you like this person and set a high value on your relationship.

3. Plan to reconnect in the future.

Be as transparent as you can about why you can't take on this business right now and when you may be able to in the future. Ask if you can get back in touch in a few weeks or months when your backlog clears. Then mark that date on your calendar and make sure to give a quick call or email on that day to say hello and let your contact know whether you're open for more business. Do not expect the customer to contact you.

4. Make a referral.

It can be unsettling to send a valued customer to your competition, but that's what I've always done in this situation, and it's always worked out for me. I try to refer the work to a business that I know will fill the customer's needs, and I always contact the other business as well to let them know the work may be coming their way. It's a great way to build a better relationship with both parties. And I've sometimes gotten a referral in return.

5. Follow up with both parties.

If the customer takes you up on the referral, you shouldn't just make an introduction and walk away. Follow up once or twice with both parties to find out how things are going. Your customer will know that you're concerned about his or her welfare. And you may be able to troubleshoot any issues before they turn into real problems.

6. Send useful items.

In today's world, most people are overloaded with so much content that it's hard to know what to pay attention to. So a great way to maintain your relationships with customers you can't serve is to send links to articles or white papers that you know they won't want to miss. That will help you stay on their radar as well: Research shows that if customers don't hear from you for several months, they may forget about you.

7. Pay attention to what they're doing.

Following blogs, tweets, pins, or whatever will let you know what your customers are up to. Share their items or news with your own social network whenever appropriate. That will let your customers know that you're still interested in what they're doing. They'll appreciate your continued caring. And that appreciation might pay off later on when you're hungry for more business.

10 Checks - Are You a Boss or a Leader?

Being the boss does not necessarily mean you are leading. Here is a list of 10 characteristics that will help you determine if you are having a positive impact on your employees.

1. A boss knows it all; a leader is always learning.

2. A boss gives answers; a leader seeks solutions.

3. A boss talks more than listens; a leader listens more than talks.

4. A boss directs; a leader coaches.

5. A boss criticizes; a leader encourages.

6. A boss identifies weaknesses; a leader identifies natural gifts.

7. A boss is all about "me;" a leader is all about "we."

8. A boss places blame; a leader takes accountability.

9. A boss protects her ego; a leader reveals her vulnerability.

10. A boss demands results; a leader inspires performance.

Every team has a boss, but they really need a leader.  Start leading today!

10 Inspirational Quotes to Get You Through a Monster Workday

1. "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go." -- Theodor Seuss Geisel, author better known as Dr. Seuss

2. "Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door." -- Coco Chanel, founder Chanel

3. "Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone about you, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead." -- Charles M. Schwab, steel magnate

4. "Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us." -- David Sarnoff, radio and television pioneer

5. "You don't have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream." -- Michael Dell, founder of Dell

6. "We focus on two things when hiring. First, find the best people you can in the world. And second, let them do their work. Just get out of their way." -- Matthew Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress

7. "Twitter was not started because we had a good idea. It was started out of a failure. And that can happen today." -- Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter

8. "If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito." -- Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop

9. "The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves." -- Steven Spielberg, film director, screenwriter, and producer

10. "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default." -- J.K. Rowling, novelist