Quotes from David F. D'Alessandro

You must learn to take risks in a calculated way. The worst sin is not to be able to understand the risks you face, either because you are so risk-averse that you say "No" to everything or because you have no risk filter whatsoever.

Playing safe is often the riskiest thing you can do in a career. If you stand still, the odds are overwhelming that the world will leave you behind.

Good luck often takes the form of having the right skills at the right moment.

There is no such thing in this world as a pure meritocracy.Nobody gets to the top without being lucky. Luck happens to the most deserving of people and some of the most undeserving.

In order to build a good reputation, you have to view your own actions in the same way that the people judging you will view them.

The first rule of your relationship with your boss is to understand that it's a business transaction.

The relationship you have with your immediate boss is one of the oddest you'll have in life. You generally don't choose this person, you generally don't care for this person, yet you have to honor and obey this person.As you rise, that relationship only becomes odder and more slippery.

You have to manage an incredibly tricky network of relationships, simultaneously, in private and in public, and in a way that announces your ability to lead.

No matter what bosses say, it's all about them. You are just an instrument to them. They'll treat you well as long as you're useful.

Most ambitious people are not naturally team players. They're ruthlessly competitive individualists.

The real rivals among your peers will be room-changers. Certain people, when they walk into a room, alter the atmosphere. Everybody else adjusts their posture, their willingness to listen, their ideas. This is not a full definition of leadership, only its most obvious symptom.

Never ask one of your peers to carry bad news for you. If there's going to be a disaster in any part of the organization that you're running, whether it's a personnel issue or a financial issue, always inform the boss yourself.

Keep your personal life private. Take the risk of people not knowing you. Anything you do reveal, trust me, will eventually come back to haunt you.

If you try to fit the mold of your organization too much, the rap will be that you are too dull or too dry or too sycophantic. So you might as well be yourself and get points for having the courage of your own style.

Be yourself, but disarm potential critics where you can by being self-deprecating.

A strong brand is the only thing that can tip the balance of power between distributors and a manufacturer back into the manufacturer's favor.

Good brands do three things for highly stressed out consumers: 1. They save time. 2. They project the right message. 3. They provide an identity.

The great lesson of the Internet revolution is not that people never want personal service, just that they won't pay for personal service that does not add real value to the transaction.