Walking around naked...not knowing how to walk

There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once. There are no rules. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it’s because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over. It’s the greatest thrill in the world and it runs away screaming at the first sight of bullet points.

by Richard Branson from Business Stripped Bare

Photo: Kontrapunkt, with courtesy of design studio Fiktiv

He knew what corporations know

One man is a single; two, a pair; three, a trio. A pair and a trio make a five, which is a squad; two squads make a section; five sections, a platoon; two platoons, a company; two companies, a battalion; two battalions, a regiment; two regiments, a group; two groups, a brigade; two brigades, an army. Each is properly trained. Thus one may manage a host of a million men just as he would a few. 

by Sun Tzu from The art of war