“Large organizations often don’t want entrepreneurs.” But let’s look at their performance as a result: Over 30 years, out of the Fortune 25, only 6 remain. Over 10 years, 13 of the 25 have fallen. So the half life of the Fortune 25 is 10 years. They are disrupted by entrepreneurs or transacted out of business. None of you can tell me you can run one business model through your life and career. You have to systematically be going to war with your business model and reinventing it 3-5 times in your career.”

“Focusing on economic outcomes to the exclusion of any other variable is a problematic construct. The notion that we can address economic issues separately, and then only deal with sustainability and social issues if there is anything leftover, doesn’t work. You can’t deal with those things sequentially, but have to do so simultaneously. That requires significant invention and entrepreneurship.”

“Peter Drucker, who shows up in this Summit all the time, says: ‘Most of what you hear about entrepreneurship is all wrong. It’s not magic, it’s not mysterious, it’s a discipline, and like any discipline, it can be learned.’ We are all entrepreneurs, only too few of us get to practice. My job now is to show you how easy it is to practice it.”

Some posts now from Len Schlesinger, President, Babson College, Harvard Professor, Former Vice-Chair, Limited Brands

“The leader is committed to a reality that doesn’t exist yet; everyone else is quite content in the world as it exists now.”

“Everyone shows the Martin Luther King ‘I Have a Dream Speech,’ and then sits down and wonders how they can develop a vision just as articulate and compelling. What they forget is that King took 3 years smashing the way things were before he could get people energized about an alternative future. You can’t get ‘there’ until you are very clear about aspects of ‘here’ that you find unacceptable.”

“What is unacceptable about how things are now? The fact that 2 billion people live on less than $2 per day.”

“Entrepreneurship goes a long way toward enabling the kind of future we want to have.”

Hybels’ words to a church that said “if we could just hire two more people, everything would change. Until then, we’re stuck”:

He said essentially: “If you are sick enough of being stuck, you get on the solution side of the problem and take action. You will find the resources and do what you have to do to make it happen.”

They were a bit frustrated at first! But a few days later they called and said: “We were making excuses for being stuck, instead of making bold new solutions to problems.”

“Your job as a leader is not to pontificate or preside over your organizations’ demise, but to move from here to there. And you have to believe from the core of your being that God is willing and eager to help you move from here to there. If you don’t believe that anymore, step aside. Make room for a leader who believes God can enable you to move from here to there.”

“Summits exist to ring your bell. There is too much at stake in this world for leaders to have a defeatist mindset.”

“Good story of a recent discussion on why the next five years at the church should be the best five years. That is what they believe and are seeking. Why not think and seek the same thing at your church? It really comes down to whether you want this and believe it. Why go out with a whimper? Why hobble to the end? How you finish is how you will always be remembered. Why not take a full sprint to the finish line?

“My challenge to you is: Don’t end it with a whimper.

“It really all comes down to whether you want your next five to be your best five.”

More from Hybels message right now:

“No one ever questions a church leader’s judgment if they fire someone for a clear values violation.”

But if you sit down with someone who has contributed for years and years, but it seems they no longer have the elasticity to keep being effective in the role required in the future, he gives 6 – 12 months. The first thing they do is redeploy the person to another role — the issue may be the role. So they try another role. (And maybe even another after that.) But then if it’s not resolved in 12 months, then it is time to move on.

If you don’t deal with underperformers, you discourage and demotivate your best people. “Fantastic people do not want to be dragged down by whiners and underperformers.”

“Difficult people, deep down, are usually not happy people.”

About 3 years ago, they had some cultural issues that had developed in the organization that needed addressed. They got to the bottom of it and now Willow Creek is officially recognized as one of the best Christian places to work by an organization that has established those best practices. So there is hope for any organization — if you have cultural issues that need to be addressed, you can do so.

Three months.

“The reasons for underperformance are complicated and multi-dimensional. May even be poor management.”

But as soon as you identify a pattern, you address it. Then there is 3 months to resolve the issue.