Green Ink Notes Instead of Meetings

"Don’s favorite form of communication was a handwritten note penned in green ink. When Electronic Arts had fallen behind plan and its burn rate had climbed, Don took the company’s most recent balance sheet, circled the entry for the cash balance, and wrote in the margin ‘6 months of cash left.’ This he then mailed to Trip Hawkins, Electronic Arts’ CEO."

"Not everyone knew the source of these handwritten notes. At one Cisco board meeting, the company’s VP of sales, Terry Eger, noticed that Don was unhappy and asked him why. ‘He said,’ Eger recalled, ‘you never do anything I ask you to do.’ I noticed he was writing in green ink. I then said, ‘You’re the one who has been sending me the notes in green ink. I have been crumbling them up and throwing them away. You have to sign your name!’"

"He would clamp onto burn rates and the line in the income statement that he would always circle in green would be G&A, which nowadays seems ironic given how crucial a role many people working in these functions have for Sequoia."