Visualize a specific employee walking into your office and quitting without warning. Your immediate, visceral gut reaction tells you exactly what kind of "player" they are:

• C-Players (Relief): If your internal reaction is a secret sense of relief or a feeling that "the problem solved itself," they are a C-player.

• B-Players (Annoyance): If you feel annoyed because you know you’ll have to spend time and energy finding a replacement, but you aren't devastated, they are a B-player.

• A-Players (Panic): If your heart sinks and you feel a sense of panic or a desperate need to keep them at all costs, they are an A-player. Jacobs argues you should "overpay" these people because their ROI is exponential.

Jacobs on one of his secrets to success: "Execs don't learn enough from their employees. I ask my employees two questions and it has a huge impact on how I lead: 

1. What's your best idea for this company?
2. What's the stupidest thing this company does?"

"Get the long term trend right. What's the top long term trend of the last million years? Humans make tools."

"You have to rearrange your brain...Business is problems, it is solving problems again and again so you have to get your mindset into a place to like having and solving problems, and you have to find ways to handle the stress [Jacobs meditates twice a day]."

“Go all in. Go deep on a project and do the best work you’ve ever done. Put your whole heart and soul into a project. You have it in you to create something fantastic and really achieve something. It’s a critical moment in your life, when you understand that it’s up to you. You can diddle daddle through life and just kind of sleepwalk, or you can have big dreams and find your passion and go all in.”