I have lots of sources of information about what’s going on at the company. I think I have a pretty good pulse on where we are and what people are thinking.
- Steve Ballmer
Notable Quotables
I have had problems when I have had money, and I have had problems when I haven’t had money. I have learned that if you are going to have problems, it’s better to have money.
- Zig Ziglar
Everyone has the potential, but it isn’t accomplished overnight. It requires perseverance.
- John Maxwell
There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.
- Dale Carnegie
Enemy submarines are to be called U-Boats. The term submarine is to be reserved for Allied under water vessels. U-Boats are those dastardly villains who sink our ships, while submarines are those gallant and noble craft which sink theirs.
- Winston Churchill
[Less than a week after founding the forerunner to Nike] I forgot to make it part of the original agreement, but I think it ought to be made explicit: There will be no pissing on partners in the shower.
- Phil Knight
Adversity is like a strong wind. I don’t mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.
- Arthur Golden
The thing about the banjo is, when you first hear it, it strikes many people as ‘What’s that?’ There’s something very compelling about it to certain people; that’s the way I was; that’s the way a lot of banjo players and people who love the banjo are.
- Steve Martin
If we could do high-speed rail in California just half a notch above what they’ve done on the Shanghai line in China, and if we had a straight path from L.A. to San Francisco, as well as the milk run, at least that would be progress.
- Elon Musk
A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.
- George Soros
In the early days, anybody with a glue pot and a pair of scissors could get into the shoe business…
- Phil Knight
My ultimate dream is for the Irvine Ranch to be known and celebrated as much for the outstanding communities we’ve planned and built as it is for what is not developed. The beneficiary being the 50,000 acres of undeveloped land that is now permanently preserved and conserved as Open Space and parklands.
- Donald Bren
In a vacuum of feedback, there is almost no chance that your company will perform optimally.
- Ben Horowitz
Rivalry causes us to overemphasize old opportunities and slavishly copy what has worked in the past.
- Peter Thiel
Any area of achievement in your life required you to stick with the basics until you became great…it’s not about learning 4,000 moves but about doing just a handful of moves 4,000 times.
- Chet Holmes
We are interested in any sector with good growth potential.
- Dhanin Chearavanont
If you’re low-income in the United States, you have a higher chance of going to jail than you do of getting a four-year degree. And that doesn’t seem entirely fair.
- Bill Gates
Driving up the value of the advertising is a big commitment for Microsoft.
- Bill Gates
In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.
- Warren Buffett
Work as though you would live forever, and live as though you would die today. Go another mile!
- Og Mandino
Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.
- Napoleon Hill
We didn’t really know what was happening.
- John Chambers
I am amazed that CNN can’t get its act together.
- Rupert Murdoch
It’s important to supplement a great product vision with a strong discipline around the metrics, but if you substitute metrics for product vision, you will not get what you want.
- Ben Horowitz
I was afraid of the internet… because I couldn’t type.
- Jack Welch
You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.
- Zig Ziglar
People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people – and that social norm is just something that has evolved over time.
- Mark Zuckerberg
Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.
- John C. Maxwell
The problem is not getting rid of fear, but using it properly.
- Zig Ziglar
I’m a physician. I’ve been blessed with ideas and resources to use technology to make the world a better place. That’s what I would like to leave behind.
- Patrick Soon-Shiong
Hip-hop is a voice for voiceless poor people.
- Russell Simmons
My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.
- Steve Jobs
I love being the underdog.
- Howard Schultz
Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money.
- Donald Trump
If you don’t agree with the core principles, which are the premise of that compromise, then you have to have what I call principled confrontation. And so that is the thing that we do that I think can rub some people the wrong way.
- Travis Kalanick
All a bliss state like California does is spoil you.
- Phil Knight
You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind.
- Zig Ziglar
Your story is a symphony, not a note.
- Seth Godin
The industry growth is there, and it’s there probably for the next decade. So how well we execute will determine what role we play.
- John Chambers
With the right pitch, you’ll get no argument. This is where the salesmanship comes in…It requires of you a substantial degree of self-confidence to pull it off, but your belief in your own project will help you muster that.
- Michael Levine
The world is facing a new networked, digital lifestyle, and we will ensure that Canon remains ahead of the game.
- Fujio Mitarai
We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.
- Bill Gates
To build a successful business, you must start small and dream big.
- Aliko Dangote
When you marry operating excellence with innovation, you multiply the value of your creativity.
- James C. Collins
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.
- John C. Maxwell
The implications of so many people connected to the Internet all the time from the standpoint of education is incredible.
- Ben Horowitz
For now, if the Hong Kong environment doesn’t change, then in the long term, investing in Hong Kong is best.
- Lee Shau Kee
I own my business. My business doesn’t own me.
- Cherie Ve Ard
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.
- Timothy Ferriss
Hong Kong has remained a strong financial centre. It has a solid business environment and geographically, it is well located, being next to China. During this time, there is no city that can match it.
- Lee Shau Kee
We’re running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere… can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.
- Elon Musk
One person seeking glory doesn’t accomplish very much.
- Sam Walton
Every great business is built on friendship.
- JC Penney
Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.
- John D. Rockefeller
After the decline in the past few years, the worst moment in the economy of Hong Kong is now behind us. The local property market is expected to show a steady upward trend as from this point.
- Lee Shau Kee
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
- John Buchan
Establish a core value that drives the business and helps promote it in perpetuity.
- Ben Horowitz
We have a big opportunity in China. We think the number of stores here can rival the number in North America.
- Howard Schultz
I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see And pursuing that vision.
- Howard Schultz
You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.
- Walt Disney
Direct your energy toward achieving a goal, and tackle the problems with an emphasis on edging closer to a successful result.
- Harvey Mackay
There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.
- Oprah Winfrey
I care about our employees more than anybody in my company. I care about my kids, too, but that doesn’t mean I give them everything that they want.
- Charles Ergen
We do lots of Stuff. The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first.
- Sergey Brin
I don’t generally read a lot of fiction.
- Bill Gates
Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and that leads to more fear. We’ll break out of it. It takes time.
- Warren Buffett
Even if you have a world class idea and want to give it away for the good of humanity, you will have to sell the concept. If you can’t sell it, you’ll be stuck with your idea, poorer for your brilliance and generosity.
- Jerry Vass
There has never been a statue erected in honor of a critic.
- Zig Ziglar
The public is upset. If they haven’t lost their job, they know somebody that has. If they haven’t lost their house, they know somebody that has. What do you do? When something’s wrong, it’s government’s job to fix it, it must be government that’s responsible for causing it.
- Michael Bloomberg
There’s no substitute for a full-time dad. Dads who are fully engaged with their kids overwhelmingly tend to produce children who believe in themselves and live full lives.
- Tony Dungy
I was so mad I ran a personal record.
- Phil Knight
If you give people tools, [and they use] their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.
- Bill Gates
Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.
- Napoleon Hill
The only time to buy these is on a day with no ‘y’ in it.
- Warren Buffett
Demand is best measured in terms of spending. You know, I think in traditional economics, it’s a mistake to measure it in terms of the quantity of goods.
- Ray Dalio
Stand by your principles and be comfortable with confrontation. So few people are, so when the people with the red tape come, it becomes a negotiation.
- Travis Kalanick
To reach your full potential, you have to set goals that will stretch you.
- Zig Ziglar
There’s plenty about God that I don’t understand and can’t explain. But I come back to my core belief that God is good, that He’s for us.
- Joel Olsteen
What’s also missing is a sense of relationship. People suffer in isolation from one another. In a world without purpose, without meaningful values, what have we to share but our emptiness, the needy fragments of our superficial selves? As a result, most of us scramble about hungrily seeking distraction, in music, in television, in people, in drugs. And most of all we seek things. Things to wear and things to do. Things to fill the emptiness. Things to shore up our eroding sense of self. Things to which we can attach meaning, significance, life. We’ve fast become a world of things. And most people are being buried in the profusion. What most people need, then, is a place of community that has purpose, order, and meaning. A place in which being human is a prerequisite, but acting human is essential. A place where the generally disorganized thinking that pervades our culture becomes organized and clearly focused on a specific worthwhile result. A place where discipline and will become prized for what they are: the backbone of enterprise and action, of being what you are intentionally instead of accidentally. A place that replaces the home most of us have lost. That’s what a business can do; it can create a Game Worth Playing.
- Michael Gerber
You must not ever think that anything is common sense.
- Clay Clark
I’m not a big believer in trying to jam stuff down somebody’s throat: ‘You’re going to do it my way.’ I’d rather show by example and live my life and have people say, ‘You know what, I want to live like Joel has. He’s got peace and joy, and he seems content.’
- Joel Olsteen
Don’t do anything that you wouldn’t feel comfortable reading about in the newspaper the next day.
- Joel Olsteen
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert Kennedy
I think any statement about stock prices is always suspect unless it’s made by Warren Buffett.
- Bill Gates
Desire is what takes the hot water of mediocrity and turns it into the steam of outstanding success.
- Zig Ziglar
Keep in mind, just because you don’t know the answer doesn’t mean that one does not exist. You simply haven’t discovered it yet.
- Joel Olsteen
I used to believe that a good product sold itself.
- Phil Knight
Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.
- Seth Godin
Therefore, every startup should start with a very small market. Always err on the side of starting too small. The reason is simple: it’s easier to dominate a small market than a large one. If you think your initial market might be too big, it almost certainly is.
- Peter Thiel
If standard of living is your #1 objective, then quality of life almost never improves. But, if quality of life is your #1 objective, then standard of living improves.
- Zig Ziglar
Men like a ref decision because they just want to get back to the game.
- Jerry Seinfeld
Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future..
- Yoda
You got to be rigorous in your appraisal system. The biggest cowards are managers who don’t let people know where they stand.
- Jack Welch
In general, the apparel industry isn’t about continual process improvement or making the perfect piece of denim; it’s about chasing trends.
- Tadashi Yanai
Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.
- Dale Carnegie
The companies that work are the ones that people really care about and have a vision for the world so do something you like.
- Mark Zuckerberg
All successful people ‘think on paper.’
- Brian Tracy
The lesson is that, No. 1, this management has to be at the highest class possible. No. 2, they have to have a succession plan.
- Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Alsaud
I never worry because I know who I am and I know Whose I am.
- Zig Ziglar
Whether you’re 9 or 90, stop trying to fix the things you’re bad at, and focus on the things you’re good at.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
