The Cul-de-Sac ( French for “dead end” ) … is a situation where you work and work and work and nothing much changes.
- Seth Godin
Notable Quotables
I swore I would never get involved in another startup ever again in my entire life.
- Larry Ellison
It used to be the case, like you’d switch jobs, and then maybe you wouldn’t keep in touch with all the people that you knew from that old job, just because it was too hard. But one of the things that Facebook does is it makes it really easy to just stay in touch with all these people.
- Mark Zuckerberg
Bob Dylan has said that he who is not busy being born is busy dying.
- Peter Thiel
The lizard brain is hungry, scared, angry, and horny.The lizard brain only wants to eat and be safe.The lizard brain will fight (to the death) if it has to, but would rather run away. It likes a vendetta and has no trouble getting angry.The lizard brain cares what everyone else thinks, because status in the tribe is essential to its survival.A squirrel runs around looking for nuts, hiding from foxes, listening for predators, and watching for other squirrels. The squirrel does this because that’s all it can do. All the squirrel has is a lizard brain.The only correct answer to ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’ is ‘Because it’s lizard brain told it to.’ Wild animals are wild because the only brain they posses is a lizard brain.The lizard brain is not merely a concept. It’s real, and it’s living on the top of your spine, fighting for your survival. But, of course, survival and success are not the same thing.The lizard brain is the reason you’re afraid, the reason you don’t do all the art you can, the reason you don’t ship when you can. The lizard brain is the source of the resistance.
- Seth Godin
Management always bears in mind to ‘lend a hand’ to Hong Kong and Mainland China while we are working hard for shareholders’ benefits.
- Cheng Yu-tung
Did we not all grow up saying we had to have four glasses of whole milk a day for healthy bones? It’s ridiculous. It’s liquid cholesterol.
- Stephen Wynn
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- Winston Churchill
People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then.
- Bill Gates
I don’t believe in saturation. We’re thinking and talking worldwide.
- Ray Kroc
Life’s a journey. It’s a journey about discovering limits.
- Larry Ellison
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Let your motto then always be ‘Excelsior’, for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.
- P.T. Barnum
What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.
- Donald Trump
Ill Health (though not taking care of one’s body).
- Napoleon Hill
Our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek.
- Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Alsaud
The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships. The quality of your business is no different.
- Harvey Mackay
Surround yourself only with those that uplift you.
- Oprah Winfrey
The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy’s aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.
- Winston Churchill
Magnesium and calcium are easiest to consume in pill form, and 500 milligrams of magnesium taken prior to bed will also improve sleep.
- Timothy Ferriss
If we are so contemptibly selfish that we can’t radiate a little happiness and pass on a bit of honest appreciation without trying to get something out of the other person in return – if our souls are no bigger than sour crab apples, we shall meet with the failure we so richly deserve.
- Dale Carnegie
I just wanted to be in show business. I didn’t care if I was going to be an actor or a magician or what. Comedy was a point of the least resistance, really. And on the simplest level, I loved comedy.
- Steve Martin
I still get real nervous when I go in front of more than two people.
- Phil Knight
The first four months of 2001 were extremely challenging, … This may be the fastest deceleration any company of our size has ever experienced.
- John Chambers
My supply of Scotch caution never has been small; but I was apparently something of a daredevil now and then to the manufacturing fathers of Pittsburgh. They were old and I was young, which made all the difference.
- Andrew Carnegie
True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
- Helen Keller
Apart from consolidating our position as a major property developer in Hong Kong, we have also been diversifying into other activities such as hotel businesses, construction and engineering, container terminal services and television industry…
- Cheng Yu-tung
Who told you that something was wrong with you?
- Joel Olsteen
Growth inside fuels growth outside.
- John C. Maxwell
It’s not enough to use information for something”—it needs to be immediate and important.
- Timothy Ferriss
For those already successful, money can become a controlling factor in life and make you a slave to it. One way to avoid that – Philanthropy.
- Lee Shau Kee
Good talkers often choose to become sales professionals. Unfortunately, they don’t understand that selling well means listening well.
- Jerry Vass
Now everyone takes it for granted that you can look up movie reviews, track locations, and order stuff online. I wish there was a way we could take it away from people for a day so they could remember what it was like without it.
- Bill Gates
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
- John Wooden
You can’t have a rigid view that all new taxes are evil.
- Bill Gates
It didn’t matter how bleak the situation or how stultifying their mediocrity, they all maintained unwavering faith that they would not just survive, but prevail as a great company. And yet, at the same time, they became relentlessly disciplined at confronting the most brutal facts of their current reality.
- James C. Collins
Few startup advisers and venture capitalists have any experience.
- Ben Horowitz
Nobody is going to delegate a lot of power to a secretary that they can’t control.
- Michael Bloomberg
Don’t marry too early in life. It’s better to work hard when young and establish a career first.
- Lee Shau Kee
People say that what we are seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think this is what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.
- Joseph Campbell
Unfortunately, the highly curious student is a small percentage of the kids.
- Bill Gates
We want Google to be the third half of your brain.
- Sergey Brin
It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem – which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday.
- Peter Drucker
Before I left China, I was educated that China was the richest, happiest country in the world. So when I arrived Australia, I thought, ‘Oh my God, everything is different from what I was told.’ Since then, I started to think differently.
- Jack Ma
Being flooded with information doesn’t mean we have the right information or that we’re in touch with the right people.
- Bill Gates
When you are committed to doing what’s right, you are sowing seeds for God’s blessings. You will never go wrong by taking the high road and doing more that is required.
- Joel Olsteen
Most people believe that results matter. The idea that results matter is one that you have to keep letting go of. And most of the time, I believe it.
- Russell Simmons
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.
- Mark Twain
Disneyland will never be the completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.
- Walt Disney
Tell your lizard (brain) to shut up.
- Seth Godin
[In June 2011] We’re focused on building a product and a business. Going public is an instrument and tool to help sustain the company. In the future, there may be an IPO, but I don’t know what the timing is.
- Jack Dorsey
Cherish each hour of this day for it can never return.
- Og Mandino
If standard of living is your major objective, quality of life almost never improves, but if quality of life is your number one objective, your standard of living almost always improves.
- Zig Ziglar
Quality is much better than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.
- Steve Jobs
the only way to influence people is to talk in terms of what the other person wants.
- Dale Carnegie
I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.
- Sam Walton
The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.
- Elon Musk
Look at what caused people to make a lot of money and you will see that usually it is in proportion to their production of what the society wanted.
- Ray Dalio
A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.
- Harvey Mackay
Without passion, you don’t have energy; without energy, you have nothing. Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
- Donald Trump
In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed.
- Sid Caesar
Wally Amos is the classic example of a man who gets up again and again.
- Zig Ziglar
Know what your brand stands for an exaggerate it in everything you do.
- David Novak
I think I’m less afraid of failure than some others.
- Russell Simmons
I encourage active skepticism – when people are being skeptical because they’re trying to identify the best course of action. They’re trying to identify the next step for themselves or other people.
- Timothy Ferriss
Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.
- Elon Musk
A remarkable and definite victory. The bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers and warmed and cheered all our hearts.
- Winston Churchill
I’m personally a moderate and a registered independent, so I’m not strongly Democratic or strongly Republican.
- Elon Musk
A great business is defined by its ability to generate cash flows in the future. Investors expect Twitter will be able to capture monopoly profits over the next decade, while newspapers’ monopoly days are over.
- Peter Thiel
Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score.”
- Sam Walton
Success doesn’t make you and failure doesn’t break you.
- Zig Ziglar
I don’t want any more concentration camps for animals that are cruelly treated, force-fed to fatten themselves up for our consumption.
- Stephen Wynn
No, markets weren’t “efficient” at finding the truth; they were just very efficient at converging on a conclusion—often the wrong conclusion.
- Ben Horowitz
If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?
- Timothy Ferriss
I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I’m really good at email.
- Elon Musk
We all have done something unethical.
- John C. Maxwell
What would have happened to me if I would not have believed I would see the goodness of God?
- Joel Olsteen
Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
- Napoleon Hill
I finally realized that being grateful to my body was key to giving more love to myself.
- Oprah Winfrey
I very much believe the Internet is indeed all it is cracked up to be.
- Jeff Bezos
Men don’t care what’s on TV. They only care what else is on TV.
- Jerry Seinfeld
Everything in our society is so purposeful.
- Sara Blakely
My belief and goal is that every professional in the world should be on a service liked LinkedIn.
- Reid Hoffman
There is no substitute for hard work. There is no such thing as overnight success or easy money.
- Henry Sy
You can’t jump to vegan if you’re not. Some people are absolute. Some people are able to be gradual.
- Russell Simmons
In order to sell a product or a service, a company must establish a relationship with the consumer. It must build trust and rapport. It must understand the customer’s needs, and it must provide a product that delivers the promised benefits.
- Jay Conrad Levinson
Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.
- Winston Churchill
I prefer the old theaters because the audience is… trapped.
- Jerry Seinfeld
You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do. You want to be focused on it.
- Steve Martin
There’s always been a lot of information about your activities. Every phone number you dial, every credit-card charge you make. It’s long since passed that a typical person doesn’t leave footprints.
- Bill Gates
If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you’ll never end up with a nag.
- Zig Ziglar
Tip #17 – Perceived value is what sells. Real value is what repeats.
- Jack Nadel
You may think you’re getting the short end of the stick, but when it’s all said and done, God will make sure that you don’t lose anything truly valuable. Moreover, He’ll make sure you get your just reward. Your responsibility is to remain calm and peaceable even when those around you are not.
- Joel Olsteen
In 20 years from now we will all be able to click and watch TV.
- Reed Hastings
[On signing up Michael Jordan in 1984 when he was just 21 years old] We could see that he was a charismatic guy who jumps over the moon and is very competitive, but nobody could have predicted what he would become to our culture.
- Phil Knight
I think the most productive thing to do during times of change is to be your best self, not the best version of someone else.
- Seth Godin
People tend to over-weigh risks on a personal level. It’s one thing if you’ve got a mortgage to pay and kids to support, so that if you were to deviate from your job, well, how are you going to feed your family and pay the rent? That’s understandable, but let’s say you’re young and you’re just coming out of college, what are your risks? You’re not going to starve, certainly not in any kind of modern economy. It’s so easy to earn enough money just to live somewhere and eat food. Very easy to do. So I don’t know what they’re afraid of. Mostly afraid of failure, I think, but people should be less risk averse, when there’s not much at risk.
- Elon Musk
Look, I’m a passionate entrepreneur. I’m like fire and brimstone sometimes. And so there are times when I’ll go—I’ll get too into the weeds and too into the debate, because I’m so passionate about it.
- Travis Kalanick
Product orders grew year-over-year faster than revenues.
- John Chambers
If a job doesn’t excite you on some level—just because of the stuff of it—don’t settle.
- Jack Welch
