If you’re going to build a lean enterprise, you can test and measure how often the company ships iterations, how often it fails, how often it is putting things in front of people that don’t work.
- Seth Godin
Notable Quotables
A great business is seldom if ever built up, except on lines of the strictest integrity. A reputation for cuteness and sharp dealing is fatal in great affairs. Not the letter of the law, but the spirit, must be the rule. The standard of commercial morality is now very high. A mistake made by any one in favor of the firm is corrected as promptly as if the error were in favor of the other party. It is essential to permanent success that a house should obtain a reputation for being governed by what is fair rather that what is merely legal. A rule which is adpoted and adhered to has given greater returns than one would believe possible, namely; always give the other party the benefit of the doubt. This course does not apply to the speculative class (the stock market). An entirely different atmosphere pervades that world. Men are only gamblers there. Stock gambling and honorable business are incompatible. In recent years it must be admitted that the old fashioned banker, like Julius S. Morgan of London has become rare.
- Andrew Carnegie
The Group has always adhered to prudent financial management principles.
- Lee Shau Kee
Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged.
- Russell Simmons
It’s absolutely a necessary and inevitable evolution in retailing (of Wal-Mart putting small stores out of business), as inevitable as the replacement of the buggy by the car, and the dissappearance of the buggy whip makers. The small stores (and DJs) were destined to dissappear, at least in the numbers they once existed., because the whole thing is driven by customers, who are free to choose where to shop.
- Sam Walton
A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.
- Mark Zuckerberg
Accessible design is good design.
- Steve Ballmer
Cuando usted se enfrente a obstáculos de tamaño gigante en su propia vida—desengaños, reveses, cosas que no funcionan—, no se desaliente, pues esa adversidad podría ser precisamente lo que Dios utilizará para ascenderle. Eso podría ser donde usted vea a Dios acelerar el tiempo, y logrará algo que debería haberle tomado toda la vida. Al.
- Joel Olsteen
Investing in courage and determination was an easy decision for me.
- Ben Horowitz
If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
- Thomas Edison
If you’ve invented something new but you haven’t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business—no matter how good the product.
- Peter Thiel
There is plenty capital available, just a shortage of good ideas
- Napoleon Hill
You must develop a verification system for anything in your business that you expect to happen.
- Clay Clark
Most people think companies are basically evil. They get a bad rap. And I think that’s somewhat correct.
- Larry Page
Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility.
- Herb Kelleher
Good relations with the Wookiees, I have.
- Yoda
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.
- Winston Churchill
Well I think any author or musician is anxious to have legitimate sales of their products, partly so they’re rewarded for their success, partly so they can go on and do new things.
- Bill Gates
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
- Winston Churchill
it was necessary to bait the hook to suit the fish.
- Dale Carnegie
The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.
- Napoleon Hill
Leadership is not dictatorship
- Tony Hsieh
What we need to do is always lean into the future, when the world changes around you and when it changes against you – what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind – you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn’t a strategy.
- Jeff Bezos
Interestingly, self-employed people make up less than 20 percent of the workers in America but account for two-thirds of the millionaires. Also, three out of four of us who are self-employed consider ourselves to be entrepreneurs.
- The Millionaire Next Door
I’m not an actor who appears on the stage and gives people advice on how to live or what to do and entertains them. It is not my specialty.
- Vagit Alekperov
The best—perhaps even the only—way to predict the future is to create it.
- Peter Drucker
Networking is one of the most valuable uses of your time in terms of return—and not just in monetary terms.
- Business Insider.com
We thought we ought to put that in because it’s the truth but the (like-for-like) number even with those factors taken into account is still very disappointing.
- Simon Wolfson
There’s no magic line between an application and an operating system that some bureaucrat in Washington should draw.
- Bill Gates
Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.
- Bill Gates
You create your own universe as you go along.
- Winston Churchill
The successful leader must be in sympathy with his followers. Moreover, he must understand them and their problems.
- Napoleon Hill
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw
The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.
- Phil Knight
It is no ordindary desire that survives disappointment, discouragement, temporary defeat, criticism, and the constant reminding of waste of time. It is a burning desire an obsession! – Napoleon Hill (on leadership)
- Napoleon Hill
Don Juan in Carlos Castaneda’s A Separate Peace: “The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse.
- Michael Gerber
Monopolists can afford to think about things other than making money, non-monopolists can’t.
- Peter Thiel
If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.
- Jack Welch
Decide you must, how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could; but you would destroy all for which they have fought, and suffered.
- Yoda
Make the decision and say, I’m not letting that worry in. I’m done being upset when my plans don’t work out. I’m not letting that stress in.” Negative thoughts will still come to your mind, but you don’t have to let them into your spirit.
- Joel Olsteen
It’s always good to be underestimated.
- Donald Trump
Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
- Elon Musk
I want to own the New York Jets, that’s what I want. And I absolutely believe I am going to own the Jets.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
You can expect what you inspect.
- W. Clement Stone
Kickstarter isn’t a profit center, it’s an organizer and an instigator.
- Seth Godin
Say ‘Hello’ in tones that bespeak how pleased you are to have the person call.
- Dale Carnegie
Work hard and persevere.
- Lee Shau Kee
I DECLARE God’s dream for my life is coming to pass. It will not be stopped by people, disappointments, or adversities. God has solutions to every problem I will ever face already lined up. The right people and the right breaks are in my future. I will fulfill my destiny. This is my declaration.
- Joel Olsteen
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
- Henry Ford
We have a very high churn rate, but as soon as we turn on email marketing to our user base, people will come back.” Yes, of course. The reason that people leave our service and don’t come back is that we have not been sending them enough spam. That makes total sense to me, too.
- Ben Horowitz
I used to have this debate with Steve Jobs, and he would always say, ‘You guys are doing too much stuff.’ He did a good job of doing one or two things really well. We’d like to have a bigger impact on the world by doing more things.
- Larry Page
Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.
- Steve Jobs
God accepts you. God approves you. And He has something better in store.
- Joel Olsteen
No one can make you jealous, angry, vengeful, or greedy — unless you let him.
- Napoleon Hill
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.
- Harvey Mackay
Going the extra mile is the action of rendering more and better service than that for which you are presently paid. When you go the extra mile, the Law of Compensation comes into play.
- Napoleon Hill
When you do more than you’re paid for, eventually you’ll be paid for more than you do.
- Zig Ziglar
The few who knew what might be learned, Foolish enough to put their whole heart on show, And reveal their feelings to the crowd below, Mankind has always crucified and burned.
- Peter Thiel
His strategy would be to subjugate one part of the battlefield, consolidate his forces, then move briskly on to the next conquest. His victory over the Cleveland refiners would be the first but alos the most controversial compaign of his career.
- Ron Chernow
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
- Dale Carnegie
I was raised with ‘Laurel and Hardy’ and ‘I Love Lucy’ and Jerry Lewis, and I just loved it. And I had a friend in high school and we would just laugh all day and put on skits. You know, it’s the Andy Kaufman thing or the Marty Short thing where you’re performing in your bedroom for yourself.
- Steve Martin
Faith is about trusting God when you have unanswered questions.
- Joel Olsteen
To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
- Thomas Edison
Le Reve’ may be one of the three best pictures Pablo Picasso ever painted.
- Stephen Wynn
We all prospect, and don’t even know we’re doing it. When you start the dating process, you are actually prospecting for the person you want to marry. When you’re interviewing employees, you are prospecting for someone who will best fit your needs.
- Zig Ziglar
[On Twitter] We believe that fundamentally we are building a utility.
- Jack Dorsey
What is the 20% of my belongings that I use 80% of the time? Eliminate the other 80% in clothing, magazines, books, and all else. Be ruthless – you can always repurchase things you can’t live without.
- Timothy Ferriss
If you don’t have a voice that forces you back to basics, you’re a dangerous person. Or to put it another way: You’re at risk, and the people with you are at risk. I’m not a daredevil. I don’t fly without a safety net.
- Stephen Wynn
I try to help people with management stuff a lot.
- Ben Horowitz
My father left me with a clear sense that the media was something different.
- Rupert Murdoch
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
- Steve Jobs
Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit
- Napoleon Hill
No man has a right to expect to succeed in life unless he understands his business, and nobody can understand his business thoroughly unless he learns it by personal application and experience.
- P.T. Barnum
People ask me what’s the most important function when you’re starting an organization or setting up the kind of culture and values that are going to endure. The discipline I believe so strongly in is H.R., and its the last discipline that gets funded.
- Howard Schultz
Arguing over process has become a way to endlessly defer making concrete plans for a better future.
- Peter Thiel
When you go through difficult times, make sure you pass the test. Don’t be stubborn and hardheaded. Recognize that God is refining you, knocking off some of your rough edges. Stand strong and fight the good fight of faith. God has called each of us to be champions; you are destined to win. If you will work with God and keep a good attitude, then no matter what comes against you, the bible says that all things – not just the good things in life, but all things – work together for your good.
- Joel Olsteen
I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
- Warren Buffett
Hong Kong has, throughout it’s history, experienced periods of uncertainties… I believe that the virtues of Hong Kong people – diligent, flexible and entrepreneurial – will once again overcome the obstacles before us.
- Cheng Yu-tung
I would rather have people think we’re confused than let our competitors know what we’re going to do.
- Larry Page
When you cease to dream you cease to live.
- Malcolm Forbes
The choice to have a great attitude is something that nobody or no circumstance can take from you.
- Zig Ziglar
When overtaken with the temporay feelings of potential failure, burn all of your bridges of retreat, thus making retreat impossible.
- Napoleon Hill
I like sports, and I enjoy playing basketball and lifting weights.
- Joel Olsteen
We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.
- Jeff Bezos
I’ve already figured out when I’m going to be No. 2 and No. 1.
- Sheldon Adelson
An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
- Henry Ford
If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.
- Seth Godin
A lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional. A lot of people in the financial system did a lot of damage without intending to.
- George Soros
The flexibility of Hong Kong businessmen should soon twist a way to success again.
- Cheng Yu-tung
Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.
- Sergey Brin
Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.
- Bill Gates
When you simplify… When you get down to the essence, you fix so many things.
- Jack Dorsey
People at Facebook are fairly used to the press being nice to us or not nice to us.
- Mark Zuckerberg
There is a good chance India may become our largest total sales market in the whole of Asia.
- John Chambers
We are in control of the one asset that we all give the most f#%ks about, and that is time.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
Customers won’t care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way. And if you can’t monopolize a unique solution for a small market, you’ll be stuck with vicious competition.
- Peter Thiel
Great foresight is required to run a multinational corporation. A magnificent blueprint, a loyal team and a well-coordinated organization are the three indispensable factors, and the same applies from ruling a country to maintaining a family.
- Cheng Yu-tung
You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. On all sides they are guarded by masses of armed men, cannons, aeroplanes, fortifications, and the like – they boast and vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts; words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home – all the more powerful because forbidden – terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. They make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words; they are afraid of the workings of the human mind. Cannons, airplanes, they can manufacture in large quantities; but how are they to quell the natural promptings of human nature, which after all these centuries of trial and progress has inherited a whole armoury of potent and indestructible knowledge?
- Winston Churchill
If a person makes a statement that you think is wrong—yes, even that you know is wrong—isn’t it better to begin by saying: Well, now, look. I thought otherwise, but I may be wrong. I frequently am. And if I am wrong, I want to be put right. Let’s examine the facts.” There’s magic, positive magic, in such phrases as: I may be wrong. I frequently am. Let’s examine the facts.
- Dale Carnegie
No one’s going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude.
- Rupert Murdoch
