All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.
- Peter Thiel
Notable Quotables
Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.
- P.T. Barnum
IN A NUTSHELL SIX WAYS TO MAKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU PRINCIPLE 1 Become genuinely interested in other people. PRINCIPLE 2 Smile. PRINCIPLE 3 Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. PRINCIPLE 4 Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. PRINCIPLE 5 Talk in terms of the other person’s interests. PRINCIPLE 6 Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely.
- Dale Carnegie
Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term.
- Jack Welch
If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right. I take that one step further. You shouldn’t do anything unless you do it right.
- George Foreman
Unless they invest in the difficult task of creating new things, American companies will fail in the future no matter how big their profits remain today.
- Peter Thiel
When you have got a thing where you want, it is a good thing to leave it where it is.
- Winston Churchill
A blow that would kill a civilized man soon heals on a savage. The higher we go in the scale of life, the greater is the capacity for suffering.
- Dale Carnegie
When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves.
- Dale Carnegie
Success is doing what you want, where you want, when you want, with whom you want and as much as you want.
- Tony Robbins
Europe has always represented a major strategic opportunity to achieve our goal of creating and building an enduring global brand.
- Howard Schultz
Selling your company to the media is a necessary part of selling it to everyone else.
- Peter Thiel
In the simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up and goes.
- John Erskine
The world’s major metropolitan cities are more or less the same.
- Tadashi Yanai
This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.
- Winston Churchill
Inspiration can be found in a pile of junk. Sometimes, you can put it together with a good imagination and invent something.
- Thomas Edison
We believe that it is better to give one a rod to fish rather than just dole out fish to them.
- Henry Sy
Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.
- Winston Churchill
Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
- Warren Buffett
Philanthropy should be voluntary.
- Bill Gates
I cut the feet out of my control top pantyhose one night, threw them on under my white pants and realized that the toning and shaping was perfect and that the hosiery material is thin enough that I could make shape wear out of it.
- Sara Blakely
I’m very, very bullish about our prospects, and as I tell our board, as I tell our employees, this is the time to invest. There’s so much opportunity. Let’s just invest in that opportunity, and really get after it.
- Steve Ballmer
I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you’re an idiot.
- Steve Martin
For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.
- Winston Churchill
During their lifetimes, every man and woman will stumble across a great opportunity. Sadly, most of them will simply pick themselves up, dust themselves down and carry on as if nothing ever happened.
- Winston Churchill
They must be plans for learning rather than plans for implementation.
- Clayton M. Christensen
For those that have fixed exchange-rate regimes, you will need a greater amount of foreign reserves. That’s the case in Belize, it’s the case in the Eastern Caribbean zone and it’s also the case in Barbados. In those cases, the level of reserve coverage is one of credit weakness. Where you have a bit more flexibility in the exchange rate ? for instance, Jamaica ? you would require a smaller amount of international reserves.
- John Chambers
To boil water, the MED is 212°F (100°C) at standard air pressure. Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it more boiled.” Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive.
- Timothy Ferriss
You have to be responsible when you’re running an organization, and firing people who are your friends is part of that responsibility.
- Ben Horowitz
A waitress goes up to Winston Churchill and says, ‘Sir, your drunk.’ To which he replies, ‘I may be drunk, miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
- Winston Churchill
As long as a person doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, he doesn’t grow.
- John Maxwell
It is not enough that we do our best, sometimes we must do what is required.
- Winston Churchill
Forty is when you actually begin even deserving to be on stage telling people what you think.
- Jerry Seinfeld
Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do.
- Malcolm Forbes
If you’re a surfer, you just want to surf. You don’t know if anyone’s going to see you, and you don’t really care if they see you. You just live for that feeling.
- Jerry Seinfeld
There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Don’t wait for the right answer and the golden path to present themselves.This is precisely why you’re stuck. Starting without seeing the end is difficult, so we often wait until we see the end, scanning relentlessly for the right way, the best way and the perfect way.The way to get unstuck is to start down the wrong path, right now.Step by step, page by page, interaction by interaction. As you start moving, you can’t help but improve, can’t help but incrementally find yourself getting back toward your north star.You might not end up with perfect, but it’s significantly more valuable than being stuck.Don’t just start. Continue. Ship. Repeat.
- Seth Godin
I’m not an economist and we all know economists were created to make weather forecasters look good.
- Rupert Murdoch
Comprehensive after-sale property management service is as important as building quality.
- Lee Shau Kee
Arguing over process has become a way to endlessly defer making concrete plans for a better future.
- Peter Thiel
Madness is rare in individuals—but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule,” Nietzsche wrote (before he went mad).
- Peter Thiel
Your job isn’t to do your job. Your job is to decide what to do next.
- Seth Godin
Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged.
- Russell Simmons
You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.
- Andrew Carnegie
When overtaken with the temporay feelings of potential failure, burn all of your bridges of retreat, thus making retreat impossible.
- Napoleon Hill
Who you attract is not determined by what you want. It’s determined by who you are.
- John Maxwell
The world is facing a new networked, digital lifestyle, and we will ensure that Canon remains ahead of the game.
- Fujio Mitarai
The social network is the paradigm of the modern service application.
- Larry Ellison
Every time I went on stage I was so terrified I almost threw up.
- Sara Blakely
I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.
- Jeff Bezos
The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
- Henry Ford
While there’s always room for improvement, … we were very pleased with our results in what is a seasonally-challenging quarter.
- John Chambers
It’s Almost Impossible to Overinvest in Becoming the Market Leader.
- Seth Godin
Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman.
- George Soros
Librarians who are arguing and lobbying for clever e-book lending solutions are completely missing the point. They are defending the library-as-warehouse concept, as opposed to fighting for the future, which is librarian as producer, concierge, connector, teacher, and impresario.
- Seth Godin
Automotive franchise laws were put in place decades ago to prevent a manufacturer from unfairly opening stores in direct competition with an existing franchise dealer that had already invested time, money and effort to open and promote their business.
- Elon Musk
We live in an age where everything is based on the short term.
- Howard Schultz
Courage is on display every day, and only the courageous wring the most out of life.
- Zig Ziglar
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
- Thomas Jefferson
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
- Napoleon Hill
With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.
- Zig Ziglar
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney
I just want to retire before I go senile because if I don’t retire before I go senile, then I’ll do more damage than good at that point.
- Elon Musk
We’ve all been guilty at one point or another in our careers of boasting of perfect hindsight. It’s a terrible sin. If you don’t make sure your questions and concerns are acted upon, it doesn’t count.
- Jack Welch
When I jumped off a roof in Cannes in a bee costume, I looked ridiculous. But this is my business; I have to humiliate myself.
- Jerry Seinfeld
On all open platforms, regardless of whether it’s Facebook or the Apple App Store, the largest segment is entertainment and games. It’s the largest revenue segment. And it’s the same for Tencent.
- Ma Huateng
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
- Benjamin Franklin
Today is our most precious possession. It is our only sure possession.
- Dale Carnegie
Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.
- Andrew Carnegie
Jeremy Stoppelman started Yelp. Max Levchin started Slide. I started LinkedIn. It was a mininova explosion of folks jumping out to doing other entrepreneurial activities.
- Reid Hoffman
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without vicory there is no survival.
- Winston Churchill
Everybody understands the market in this area is consolidating.
- John Chambers
The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.
- Walt Disney
Anyone who says failure is not an option has also ruled out innovation.
- Seth Godin
The thing about information is that information is more valuable when people know it. There’s an exception for business information and super timely information, but in all other cases, ideas that spread win.
- Seth Godin
I learned early on that one of the secrets of campus leadership was the simplest thing of all: speak to people coming down the sidewalk before they speak to you. I would always look ahead and speak to the person coming toward me. If I knew them I would call them by name, but even if I didn’t I would still speak to them.
- Sam Walton
Most people think the future of the world will be defined by globalization, but the truth is that technology matters more.
- Peter Thiel
Stopped they must be; on this all depends. Only a fully-trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor.
- Yoda
Winners Evaluate Themselves In A Positive Manner And Look For Their Strengths As They Work To Overcome Weaknesses.
- Zig Ziglar
In terms of mathematics textbooks, why can’t you have the scale of a national market? Right now, we have a Texas textbook that’s different from a California textbook that’s different from a Massachusetts textbook. That’s very expensive.
- Bill Gates
I discourage passive skepticism, which is the armchair variety where people sit back and criticize without ever subjecting their theories or themselves to real field testing.
- Timothy Ferriss
Be careful with whom you associate, especially when you feel emotionally vulnerable, because negative people can steal the dream right out of your heart.
- Joel Olsteen
I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.
- Michael Bloomberg
A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it.
- Seth Godin
I can become someone’s miracle.
- Joel Olsteen
The idea flow from the human spirit is absolutely unlimited. All you have to do is tap into that well. I don’t like to use the word efficiency. It’s creativity. It’s a belief that every person counts.
- Jack Welch
There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the real labor of thinking.
- Thomas Edison
TweetDeck is a very interesting client, because it presents a view that no other client in the world presents, which is this multicolumn, massive amounts of information in one pane. And people really, really enjoy that.
- Jack Dorsey
I don’t focus on the critics. Everyone who is making any difference in any field has critics. As long as I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, then I don’t worry about it.
- Joel Olsteen
I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.
- Steve Martin
India has the potential to be our biggest market in Asia, bigger than China, in as much as two to five years.
- John Chambers
I think they are fine. I don’t think you have a choice between iPad models so that’s just saying that the iPad is good … that’s a very different statement (and contrary to the implication) that, if I chose not to upgrade now, less than a year after my last upgrade, then I, Woz, am saying that the new Apple iPad is bad.
- Steve Wozniak
I have never met a geologist or leading scientist who believes adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere will have any significant effect on climate change.
- Gina Rinehart
When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not, hmmmm?
- Yoda
God will not pour fresh, creative ideas and blessing into old attitudes.
- Joel Olsteen
Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will be doing things absolutely differently from everybody else.
- Sara Blakely
Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view.
- Yoda
Being a great leader means sometimes pissing people off.
- Colin Powell
Customers will not come just because you build it. You have to make that happen, and it’s harder than it looks.
- Peter Thiel
Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.
- John F. Kennedy
