Simon Sinek | How to Win the Infinite Game

When we treat people like human beings, the whole process becomes human. When we treat people like robots or like numbers, the whole process becomes inhuman. And in this day and age, humanity is something we're struggling to find.

Ideas don't happen when we're connected; ideas happen when our minds have an opportunity to wander.

Allowing ourself these disengaged times is absolutely essential for innovation; it's absolutely essential for problem-solving; it's absolutely essential for creativity.

The best organizations give their frontline employees the discretion to make decisions.

Most shoplifting happens by employees. The numbers that I've heard are astonishing—that the average retail store suffers 10% losses from shoplifting, most of which is by employees ... If you look at the best led organizations, they suffer like 2 and 3% shoplifting numbers, like they're much, much lower.

I'm probably my own worst critic, for sure ... I think anybody who's satisfied with the job that they're doing isn't growing.

The reason employees really want to take care of us is because, usually, those employees really feel taken care of.

...Connecting somebody with a human being, even though they might be an additional cost on the call center side, pays dividends on the back end.

I consider myself an optimist. I believe that I have a vision of the world that does not yet exist, and I'm trying to build it. And whatever it takes for me to advance that vision—speaking, writing, teaching, whatever it is—I'll do it.

Some of the highest performers I know are very hyper-critical of themselves—more hyper-critical of themselves than they are of other people or other people can be of them.

I think one of the things we can all do, regardless if you have a 9-to-5 job or if you have more control of your own schedule... is build in time for ourselves.

I think that's one of the big tricks of being an effective public speaker, which is: The audience is rooting for you... and they're pretty forgiving, and the more that you point out the stuff that's wrong, the more it's gonna go bad. The message is what matters; that's why the people are there.

There's nothing wrong with capitalism; there is something wrong with the form of capitalism that we practice now.