Top Highlights

• behaviorally at least, the opposite of success is not failure, but mediocrity.
• the strategy paradox: the same behaviors and characteristics that maximize a firm’s probability of notable success also maximize its probability of total failure.
• the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference;
• The most successful strategies are those based on commitments made today that are best aligned with tomorrow’s circumstances.
• Firms that avoid strategic risk survive but do not prosper. Firms that accept strategic risk reap either great reward or utter ruin.