Quotations
The following quotations have been selected because they inspire me and reflect my values and leadership style
“In the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then you might gain that great tranquility that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.”
—Jim Collins, Good to Great
“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”
—John Wooden
“Control your own destiny or someone else will.”
—Jack Welch
“Change before you have to.”
—Jack Welch
“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
—Jack Welch
“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do.”
—Benjamin Franklin
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
—Benjamin Franklin
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
—Benjamin Franklin
“He who never makes mistakes never did anything that’s worthy”
—Fortune Cookie
“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”
—Jack Welch
“People are buying only one thing from you: the way the engagement (hiring you, working with you, dating you, using your product or service, learning from you) makes them feel.”
—Seth Godin
“The very thing you fear could be the best thing to ever happen to you”
—Michael Dell , Direct from Dell
“The womb of perseverance gives birth to hope and the passion to act”
“Don’t allow your talent to take you where your character can’t keep you”
“Every organization is the product of the way its members think”
“Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.”
—Herodotus
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.“
—Confucius
“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
—G.W.F. Hegel
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
—Henry Ford
“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”
—Henry Ford
“The only way to predict the future is to invent it.”
—Jim Walker, CEO Priceline.com
“How do you achieve excellence?…Stop doing non-excellent stuff!”
—Tom Peters
“We cannot solve the problems by thinking at the level at which we’ve created them.”
—Einstein
“The secret to life is to have a task… Something you bring everything to… And the most important thing is - It must be something you cannot possibly do.”
—Henry Moore
“We get distracted by what is outside our control…[Success] begins by trying to make each day count …If you sincerely try to make each day a masterpiece, angels can do no better.”
—John Wooden
“You are your Rolodex”
—Tom Peters
“I am my clients. I am defined by who I do business with.”
–Tom Peters
“Knowledge isn’t power until it’s applied.”
—Dale Carnegie
“All art is autobiographical. You can only create what you are.”
—Dale Carnegie
“It does not take great intelligence to capitalize on success. However, it takes great ingenuity to transform failure into success. Profit from your losses.”
—William Belitho (paraphrased)
Integrity
Strict adherence to a moral code, steadfast. The quality of being whole or undivided, completeness
Focus
The center of interest or activity, close attention, concentration
Flexible
Responsive to change, adaptable
Genuine
Free from hypocrisy or dishonesty; sincere, actual, real, authentic
“Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.”
—Schopenhauer
Effective Managers
Manage themselves and the people the work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence
—The One Minute Manager
“Always do right. That will gratify some people and astonish the rest”
—Mark Twain
“If you don’t know where you’re going - You could wind up somewhere else.”
—Yogi Berra
“Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
—George Hewell
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.”
—Abraham Lincoln
“Act as though it is impossible to fail.”
—Dorothea Brande
“You cannot have something you don’t currently have without doing something you are not currently doing.”
“Put everything you have into everything you do and excellence will define you.”
—Mary K
“Be willing to do the little things because it is the little things done daily that lead to big accomplishments.”
—Mary K
“A problem is nothing but an opportunity in disguise.”
“Success has many fathers while defeat is an orphan child”
Eternal vigilance is the price of mastery
“Vision without Strategy is little more than a daydream.”
—John Maxwell , 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
“Persistence is nothing more than Concentrated Effort mixed with Determination and Faith.”
—Napoleon Hill , Selling Yourself
“Success is never final”
—Winston Churchill
“The devil is in the details, but success is in the systems.”
—JW Marriott Jr. , The Spirit to serve - Marriot’s Way
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”
—Alfred North Whitehead
“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.”
—Demosthenes
“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“It is not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position.”
—Stanley Huffty
“Integrity is the value we place on ourselves.”
—Stephen Covey
“When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
—R. Buckminster Fuller
“Put all your eggs in one basket —and watch that basket!”
—MARK TWAIN , The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.”
—Heinlein’s Razor
What you get by reaching your destination isn’t nearly as important as what you become by reaching that destination
—Zig Ziglar
I’m no miracle worker. I’m just a guy who rolls up his sleeves and goes to work.
—Don Shula
Anybody who thinks that they are a leader and doesn’t have anyone following them is just out for a walk.
—John Maxwell
As long as a person doesn’t admit he is defeated, he is not defeated - he’s just a little behind and isn’t through fighting.
—Darrell Royal
If anything is worth trying at all, it’s worth trying at least ten times.
—Art Linkletter
Remember you will not always win. But there is always tomorrow - after you have done your best to achieve success today.
—Maxwell Maltz
There’s always room at the top.
—Daniel Webster
The atmosphere of expectancy is the breeding ground for miracles.
—Rodney L. Parsley
The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer everyone else up.
—Mark Twain
The important thing to remember is that if you don’t have that inspired enthusiasm that is contagious - whatever you do have is also contagious.
—Danny Cox
The best way to escape a problem is to solve it.
—Anonymous
Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?
—Frank Sculley
When you’re green, you’re growing. When you’re ripe, you rot.
—Ray Kroc
Life is not a dress rehearsal - every day is opening night.
—Peter Daniels
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
—Vince Lombardi
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
—Henry Ford
Motivate them, train them, care about them and make winners out of them…
—J.W. Marriott, Jr.
Don’t wrestle with pigs; you get dirty and they enjoy it.
—Anonymous
There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
—Sam Walton
You’re not finished when you’re defeated…you’re finished when you quit.
—Van Crouch
Don’t ever talk until you know what you are talking about.
—Sam Rayburn
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
—Thoreau
Any man who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved has already defined his own limitations.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
I do not fear failure. I only fear the “slowing up” of the engine inside of me which is pounding, saying, ‘Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?’
—George S. Patton
Predictability can lead to failure.
—T. Boone Pickens
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
—Albert Einstein
If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
—Buddy Ryan