Three Priorities Maximum Then Bet Everything

"This mixture of stubbornness and inspiration illuminates the essence of Masa’s character and his approach to business. Convinced of his own techno-centric world view, he truly believes he can see into the future and make it reality in the present. ‘Masa thinks that if something could happen, it should happen. And if it should happen, it will happen,’ says a long-time SoftBank colleague, ‘and if it will happen, then in Masa’s mind, it’s already happened. He’s already visualized it.’[16](private://read/01jg9b8njt7zc5haz30afb9n29/#ch02_16)"

"a seductive blend of humility and hubris, common sense and insane risk-taking for whom national borders, technological frontiers and ethical boundaries are there to be crossed."

"SoftBank’s CEO and founder was drawn irresistibly to historical analogies. He often compared himself to the nineteenth-century samurai warrior and reformer Ryoma Sakamoto, whose rebellion swept away the old feudal order in Japan, paving the way for the restoration of the Emperor’s authority in 1868. In the decades that followed, Japan rapidly modernized, spawning thousands of new businesses and spurring its ascent as the leading economic power in Asia. Masa’s internet evangelism was, however, more than about making Japan great again; it was a bid to revive animal spirits in a Japanese economy still semi-comatose after the collapse of the real-estate bubble."

"Priorities are the few things that you’re going to spend a lot of time and a lot of capital on. Not only do you undermine their significance by having too many, but nobody is going to remember them all. “You’re going to seem unfocused,” he said. “You only get three. I can’t tell you what those three should be. We don’t have to figure that out today. You never have to tell me what they are if you don’t want to. But you only get three.”"

"there’s a way to convey that while also conveying that you trust the people who work for you, and preserving in them an entrepreneurial spirit. Dan Burke taught me that exact lesson early on in a way that couldn’t have been more opposite from the Strat Planning approach. I can’t recall exactly what it was in response to, but in one of our conversations about some initiative I was considering, Dan handed me a note that read: “Avoid getting into the business of manufacturing trombone oil. You may become the greatest trombone-oil manufacturer in the world, but in the end, the world only consumes a few quarts of trombone oil a year!” He was telling me not to invest in projects that would sap the resources of my company and me and not give much back. It was such a positive way to impart that wisdom, though, and I still have that piece of paper in my desk, occasionally pulling it out when I talk to Disney executives about what projects to pursue and where to put their energy."

"You have to convey your priorities clearly and repeatedly. If you don’t articulate your priorities clearly, then the people around you don’t know what their own should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted. You can do a lot for the morale of the people around you (and therefore the people around them) just by taking the guesswork out of their day-to-day life. A lot of work is complex and requires intense amounts of focus and energy, but this kind of messaging is fairly simple: This is where we want to be. This is how we’re going to get there."