I’ve come to see institutional decline like a staged disease: harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages, easier to detect but harder to cure in the later stages. An institution can look strong on the outside but already be sick on the inside,”
- James C. Collins
Notable Quotables
I don’t want to hear the specials. If they’re so special, put ’em on the menu.
- Jerry Seinfeld
The sad truth is, if you push hard enough, and if you’re so stubborn that you must have things your way, God will sometimes allow you to undertake a project without His blessing or at the wrong time. The problem with that, of course, is when you start something in your own strength and in your own timing, you’re going to have to finish it and maintain it in your own strength.
- Joel Olsteen
Structure a deal and create a plan around it.
- Jack Nadel
After my death, I want to be remembered as Africa’s greatest industrialist.
- Aliko Dangote
Americans move more than 10 times over the course of a lifetime.
- Bill Gates
The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.
- Jeff Bezos
Clear your mind must be, if you are to find the villains behind this plot.
- Yoda
Humans, particularly those who build things, only listen to leading indicators of good news.
- Ben Horowitz
You are here to enrich.
- Woodrow Wilson
Well, in war, you can only be killed once. But in politics, many times.
- Winston Churchill
Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism – and wars.
- Dale Carnegie
When you have the right staff, potential skyrockets.
- Napoleon Hill
You’ve got to take a big jump to make it. You’ve got to have great big balls.
- Forrest Ray
I don’t have any opinions about Russians. There are celebrity persons in each country. Different people do different things.
- Alexei Mordashov
One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.
- John C. Maxwell
Churchill kept perspective on the crowds that gathered to hear him speak by conceding they would be twice as big if gathered to see him hanged.
- Winston Churchill
When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world. Now I am.
- Elon Musk
The nuclear approach I’m involved in is called a traveling-wave reactor, which uses waste uranium for fuel. There’s a lot of things that have to go right for that dream to come true – many decades of building demo plants, proving the economics are right. But if it does, you could have cheaper energy with no CO2 emissions.
- Bill Gates
Long-range planning does not deal with the future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.
- Peter Drucker
There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.
- Warren Buffett
Getting knocked down in life is a given. Getting up and moving forward is a choice.
- Zig Ziglar
Throughout my whole life, as a performer, I’ve never played with a band. I’ve always played alone, so I was never required to stay in rhythm or anything. So it was a real different experience for me to start playing with a band. There were so many basic things for me to learn.
- Steve Martin
Role play with yourself to answer questions to a cynic, optimist, and be able play devil’s advocate.
- Maurice Kanbar
The new information technology… Internet and e-mail… have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications.
- Peter Drucker
Failure is not attached to outcome, but in not trying. This way, it is about answering to yourself.
- Sara Blakely
You have to be constantly reinventing yourself and investing in the future.
- Reid Hoffman
As a company gets big, the information that informs decision-making gets massive. Depending upon the prism through which you view the business, your perspective will vary. If two people are in charge, this variance will cause conflict and delay.
- Ben Horowitz
There is more treasure in books then in all pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.
- Walt Disney
Play the game for more than you can afford to lose . . . only then will you learn the game.
- Zig Ziglar
Time – the one asset none of us are ever gonna get more of.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
- Zig Ziglar
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
I was lucky enough to co-found a business in college that ended up with 400 employees, and I launched 20 different projects while I was there – a project a week.
- Seth Godin
My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions…. The dove is my emblem…. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it…. I am proud of the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill….
- Thomas Edison
Countries which receive aid do graduate. Within a generation, Korea went from being a big recipient to being a big aid donor. China used to get quite a bit of aid; now it’s aid-neutral.
- Bill Gates
Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.
- Bill Gates
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.
- Steve Jobs
Allowing your kids to watch TV doesn’t have to mean they have no choice but to see commercials for junk food and alcohol.
- Charles Ergen
There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.
- Elon Musk
I DECLARE a legacy of faith over my life. I declare that I will store up blessings for future generations. My life is marked by excellence and integrity. Because I’m making right choices and taking steps of faith, others will want to follow me. God’s abundance is surrounding my life today. This is my declaration.
- Joel Olsteen
I think growth covers up mistakes.
- Howard Schultz
I really like reading books
- Dale Carnegie
Three out of four of us who are self-employed consider ourselves to be entrepreneurs. Most of the others are self-employed professionals, such as doctors and accountants.
- Thomas J Stanley
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
- Winston Churchill
Failure is part of discovering the problem you need to be working on. If, as an entrepreneur, you are afraid to fail or to admit the failure of your efforts, then you completely lose any chance at being able to adapt and succeed at finding the problem that needs solving.
- Caterina Fake
Every choice you make has an end result.
- Zig Ziglar
Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration.
- Andrew Carnegie
Your people give their days (and sometimes their nights) to you. They give their hands, brains, and hearts. Sure, the company pays them. It fills their wallets. But as a leader, you need to fill their souls. You can do that by getting in their skin, by giving the work meaning, by clearing obstacles, and by demonstrating the generosity gene. And you can do it, perhaps most powerfully, by creating an environment that’s exciting and enjoyable.
- Jack Welch
Our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove we’ll settle for intense.
- Jeff Bezos
When the PC was launched, people knew it was important.
- Bill Gates
More people will yell and wave at you to tell you that you forgot to close the gas cap than the amount of people who will stop to tell you that you are going the wrong direction with your life.
- Clay Clark
It really matters whether people are working on generating clean energy or improving transportation or making the Internet work better and all those things. And small groups of people can have a really huge impact.
- Larry Page
The dangers of unchecked bureauracy are a constant thorn in the CEO’s side.
- Jack Welch
I always joke and say I want to invent a comfortable stiletto and then retire.
- Sara Blakely
I think our leadership team is a highly accountable leadership team.
- Steve Ballmer
No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.
- Andrew Carnegie
Don’t marry too early in life. It’s better to work hard when young and establish a career first.
- Lee Shau Kee
Everyone deserves at least a chance to make things better. And besides people can surprise you.
- David Novak
If you have a lot of [visionaries], you’ll have a lot of great ideas, something awesome that people will love; but you never get it done. It doesn’t ship. Nothing happens. If you have too many [execution oriented] people on your team, you’re executing like mad, things are getting built, and you’re shipping like crazy – but you’re building something that nobody wants. If you have a good balance of both in your company, you’re more likely to stay on track. Those people compliment each other.
- Caterina Fake
If you talk about Cabernet and Merlot-based value between $10 and $25, I will tell you that Bordeaux is the best value in the world.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
Our job as founders as entrepreneurs is to distribute the future that’s already here.
- Jack Dorsey
When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.
- Carlos Slim Helu
John, never lend money to your friends; it will spoil your friendships.
- John D. Rockefeller
Don’t fight change; embrace it, and you will step into the fullness of what God has in store.
- Joel Olsteen
And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.
- Richard Branson
We’ve announced an Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance, a bunch of low-cost commodity servers running Linux, integrated in our case, with InfiniBand – connected with InfiniBand vs. the traditional Ethernet.
- Larry Ellison
More than trends, consumers need functionality. Everything needs an element of fashion, but that’s more like a spice.
- Tadashi Yanai
I’m born into the cycle of giving that we’re all born into, and I recognize it. So just because something is a good business, I’m not a business guy. I’m a creative guy.
- Russell Simmons
No matter what’s happening, choose to be happy. Don’t focus on what’s wrong. Find something positive in your life. Thank God for the small things.
- Joel Olsteen
Don’t think small when you pray. God has a way to bring your dreams to pass if you’ll dare to be bold enough to ask.
- Joel Olsteen
Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.
- Dale Carnegie
The only career worth pursuing is the one that turns your crank.
- Jack Welch
While a definitely optimistic future would need engineers to design underwater cities and settlements in space, an indefinitely optimistic future calls for more bankers and lawyers.
- Peter Thiel
Profit and growth are stimulated primarily by customer loyalty. Loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is largely influenced by the value of services provided to customers. Value is created by satisfied, loyal, and productive employees.
- Putting the Service-Profit Chain To Work - Ja
We didn’t really know what was happening.
- John Chambers
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
- Winston Churchill
It is my practice to try to understand how valuable something is by trying to imagine myself without it.
- Herb Kelleher
That’s why it is important to enjoy the journey not just the destination. In this world, we will never arrive at a place where everything is perfect and we have no more challenges. As admirable as setting goals and reaching them maybe, you can’t get so focused on accomplishing your goals that you make the mistake of not enjoying where you are right now.
- Joel Olsteen
A right delayed is a right denied.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
- Seneca
The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake- you can’t learn anything from being perfect.
- Adam Osborne
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
- Winston Churchill
Thee may be some concern about rising inflation, shortage of labour and increased trade protectionism but the economy is generally in good shape.
- Cheng Yu-tung
You should know now that a man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, not by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting. A man of knowledge chooses a path with heart and follows it.
- Carlos Castaneda
America, for me, is the country where, if you have something great to offer, you’ll be valued highly.
- Tadashi Yanai
The values of life are most important.
- Leonardo Del Vecchio
Have you ever heard of Gmail? Ever used it? If so, it’s not because Gmail ran a lot of TV ads (they didn’t). It’s because the manifesto of free email got to you.
- Seth Godin
I had been trained by him. I knew him. I loved him. I simply never took it personally. If I had anything to say about it, he was not going to leave.
- Phil Knight
Watered-down feedback can be worse than no feedback at all because it’s deceptive and confusing to the recipient.
- Ben Horowitz
If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.
- Jeff Bezos
That doesn’t mean the opposite ideas are automatically true: you can’t escape the madness of crowds by dogmatically rejecting them. Instead ask yourself: how much of what you know about business is shaped by mistaken reactions to past mistakes? The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.
- Peter Thiel
I do think this next century, hopefully, will be about a more global view. Where you don’t just think, yes my country is doing well, but you think about the world at large.
- Bill Gates
I believe great people to be those who know how they got where they are, and what they need to do to get where they’re going. Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating each and every day. They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives. Their lives are spent living out the vision they have of their future, in the present. They compare what they’ve done with what they intended to do. And where there’s a disparity between the two, they don’t wait very long to make up the difference.
- Michael Gerber
Throw it all up on the wall and see what sticks.
- Timothy Ferriss
I don’t know what can be so dangerous about giving people hope. Causing people to have better relationships. I’m not leading them to some false God or something like that.
- Joel Olsteen
Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe 10% to business thinking. Business isn’t that complicated. I wouldn’t want that on my business card.
- Bill Gates
[Introducing himself to Sony co-founder Akio Morita] I have six of your TVs in my house.
- Phil Knight
The challenge of the retail business is the human condition.
- Howard Schultz





