El Jocko 

--Leadership. That’s what it’s all about. Always has been, always will be.  

--Precisely. The greatest single cause for failure is lack of leadership. Bar none. No matter the enterprise. Take Enron. Take WorldCom. Take Iraq. Leadership. 

--This Partagas. Something’s not right. I think it might be a phony. Smells funny.  

--Take your average CEO. What’s his essential idea? Grow the stock. That’s not leadership. That’s not even business. That’s the short view. 

--Evelyn wants to go to Gstaad this year. I told her I was bored by Gstaad. She said she was bored by people who are bored by Gstaad. 

--I was over at Synco last week talking with Roy about the Mimsco deal and he gave me the finest Arturo Fuente I’ve ever smoked. He knows somebody I don’t. But he doesn’t know shit about Mimsco. 

--I can’t get my shirts anymore. The guy just shut his doors. Thirty-five years I’ve been wearing those shirts. That’s what things are coming to. 

--I decided I wanted a new vehicle. Barbara said I had enough vehicles. I said you can’t have enough vehicles. She said if I bought another vehicle she’d buy another Harry Winston. I said buy all the fucking Harry Winstons you want but I’m getting another vehicle.  

--Had the annual last week. I think my doctor is queer. He lingers. He says this won’t hurt then it hurts. My bad cholesterols were high, but not as high as my systolic. I put him onto some Synco. That shut him up. 

--What do you think of this shirt? I think it looks like somebody’s still sewing it. I don’t know what I’m going to do for shirts. 

--They want me to direct more toward charity. These charities are like barracudas. They’ll eat anything. This artist. They brought him in. Said he was the next Picasso or Van Dyke or somebody. Had more metal in his tongue than I have in every vehicle in my garage. 

--The way it works is like this. You start small. You work your butt off. You kiss some ass. You lose your shirt. You start small again. You find better-connected ass to kiss. You buy yourself a boat. You take the wife to Venice. You discover your lawyer is a crook and your CFO is dealing drugs and you cooperate with the committee. Then your fucking shirt-maker goes under. Sometimes, I tell Phyllis, I wish I’d never left the Church.  

--And leadership can’t do a thing for you.