1. Between 1900 and 1920 there were almost two thousand firms involved in automobile production. Obviously, not many survived to tell their story (Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction, and Economics [New York: Pantheon Books, 2005]; see also Wikipedia, “List of Automobile Manufacturers of the United States.”
2. According to Marketdata Enterprise Inc., in a 2012 report titled “The U.S. Market for Self-Improvement Products and Services,” as quoted by John LaRosa, Research Director, BS, MBA, Marketdata Enterprises, Inc., Tampa, FL, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9323729.htm.
3. The average firm lasts just fifteen years, and only 5 percent make it to year fifty (Claudio Feser, Serial Innovators: Firms That Change the World [Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011], xiii). Up to one-fourth of all US commercial software projects were canned in 2000, costing firms a staggering 67 billion dollars (Robert Buderi, “Can Software Be Saved?” Technology Review, November 1, 2003, http://www.technologyreview.com/news/402237/can-software-be-saved, accessed May 2013).
4. Wikipedia, “Pet Rock,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Rock, accessed October 2012.
5. See the works of Jim Collins and Peter Drucker for insights into the similarities and differences between leading a nonprofit and a for-profit organization. Particular insight can be found in Jim Collins, Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany “Good to Great” (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), and Peter F. Drucker, Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Principles and Practices (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).
6. Joel Arthur Barker was the first to point out that the insights of Thomas Kuhn regarding scientific paradigms and discoveries also applied to the paradigm pioneers in the business world. His early videos and his book Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future (New York: HarperCollins, 1992) offers helpful insights into how social and organizational paradigms change, and into the people who change them.
7. Anthony Wing Kosner, “Jeff Bezos on How to Change Your Mind,” Forbes.com, October 19, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/10/19/jeff-bezos-on-people-who-are-right-a-lot-vs-wrong-a-lot-has-he-got-it-right/.
8. Peter Drucker, Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management, Harvard Business Review Books (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003), 55.
9. “About Post-It Brand,” Post-It Brand Products website, http://www.post-it.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Post_It/Global/About/.
10. Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang, Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time (New York: Hyperion, 1999).
11. Peter Troxler, “Not Invented Here!” Peter Troxler (blog), June 2009, 7, http://petertroxler.net/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/4.2-NotInventedHere.pdf, accessed May 2013.
12. The story of Jethro advising Moses is found in Exodus 18.
13. Kevin B. O’Reilly, “Doctors Use Formula One Pit Crews as Safety Model,” American Medical News, October 4, 2010, http://www.amednews.com/article/20101004/profession/310049933/6/, accessed April 2013.
14. For the entire passage, see 1 Corinthians 9:19 – 27.
15. The Winchester House was built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Winchester. It was under constant construction from 1894 until Sarah’s death in 1922. Many of the rooms make no sense. There are stairs to nowhere and many other oddities. After her death it became a tourist attraction, known for its purposeless construction.
16. Matthew 22:36 – 40.
17. Peter Burrows, “Apple’s Jobs Told Cook Not To Ask ‘What Would Steve Do?’ ” Bloomberg, October 25, 2011, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-25/apple-s-jobs-told-successor-cook-not-to-ask-what-would-steve-do-tech.html, accessed April 2013.