Leonardo

"There are five interlinked components of Olympian expectations: •  Expectations are set much higher than is normal. •  Thinking big – not concerned with details but with changing the big picture. •  Being unreasonably demanding of self and others – the standards had jolly well better be met, without exceptions or excuses. •  Progressive escalation of expectations over time – no resting on laurels; more like an ever-expanding sliver of razored ice1 in the soul demanding ever-greater success. •  The expectations are unique to the individual and can be succinctly expressed. For instance, Leonardo – ‘perfect paintings’; Churchill – ‘stop Hitler’; Thatcher – ‘reverse national decline’."

"Einstein, Leonardo, Keynes, Dylan. The first couple are perhaps more likeable than the last two, but they all have this in common – the highest possible regard for what they could beget, and a sense of greatness. They were iconoclasts; bold and self-possessed; expecting and requiring nothing from themselves except that what was beyond the reach of ordinary mortals. They expected to produce work of the highest originality and importance. It’s hard to imagine how anyone can be great without having similar reach and vision. In our own league, whether the premier division or something worthwhile but less grand, great expectations are still the midwife of great creation."

"Leonardo expected painters not only to record nature, ‘but also infinite things that nature never created’28 – including cannons, armoured vehicles, flying machines (one of which resembled the modern helicopter), lizards that turned into dragons, and dozens of other fantasies."

"For reasons that are still a bit mysterious today, Columbia signed Dylan before he had any significant following, and that contract drew attention to him. Before long, however, it was the inherent authority of his music and lyrics which gave Dylan his success. In this he was like the thinkers. He was like Frankl, Leonardo, Einstein and Keynes – their personal vehicles were their dramatic insights, expressed in unforgettable images and words."

"The new governance is also disliked by some board members, they see it as a return to the past, the abandonment of the best practices that had made Leonardo an enlightened model of entrepreneurship."

"The goal of the guys from Leonardo is to keep you in their digital universe for any need in vision, in the future also that in augmented reality."

"Certificate number 14638 states that "Del Vecchio Leonardo, son of Leonardo and Rocco Grazia born in Milan, is from a poor family.""

""Essilor and Delfin," the holding company of the Del Vecchio family, "create a global and integrated player in the eyewear industry with the combination of Essilor and Luxottica," reads the press release with an attached photograph of Hubert and Leonardo shaking hands, smiling and seemingly happy."

"powers of observation; he could reproduce with exactitude something which today we would take a magnifying glass to; he could catch movement as the camera does now, and at the same time he gave the illusion of life to his sketches, some- thing that photography is unable to do. “It is by observation that one can penetrate into the nature of things. If a man like Leonardo became a military engineer, he would be an expert at it; his advice on any subject would be invaluable, and his ideas on the matter would be highly original."