Favorite Quotes
Throughout my career, I kept a list of quotes that I found useful along the way. Here are my favorites - some for fun and others very practical.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change." -- Charles Darwin
"During periods of significant change, either you change the people, or you change the people." Jack Welsh - GE
A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear" - Buddhist saying
"The hardest thing to predict is the future" - Yogi Berra
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." - Henry David Thoreau
Plan your work; work your plan.
Failure to plan is a plan for failure.
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
"There is a place in the world for anyone in the world who says: 'I'll take care of it'." Harvey Mackay
... "And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new." From The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469 - 1527
"Ride the horse in the direction it's going." - Werner Erhard
From a lecture by Richard Leider:
When change is to be introduced into an organization, the people affected generally split apart into the following groups:
- 70-90% will 'wait and see', the Passive group
- 5-15% constitute the Reactant group, who will actively resist the change, or at least try to undermine the change from succeeding.
- 5-15% constitute the Proactive group.
He asked us where we would concentrate our efforts to achieve the change.
The answer was on the Proactive group. The reasoning is that this group will become the yeast that affects the Passive group. The Reactants will eventually convert or leave. This answer is based on a lot of research in this area of achieving change.
10 Characteristics of Leadership -from a course by Bennis and Nannus.
- Clear sense of purpose
- Persistence
- Self knowledge - being self aware
- Perpetual learners
- Love for work
- Ability to attract and energize people
- Emotional Maturity
- 7a. Accept people the way they are
- 7b. Centered in the present - give others many chances
- 7c. Don't take people for granted
- 7d. Trust people
- 7e. Get along without approval and praise
- Risk taker
- Are fail-safe - failure doesn't exist
- Are the best followers
"It is military doctrine that an encircling force must leave a gap to show the surrounded troops there is a way out, so that they will not be determined to fight to the death." Tu Mu, from "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, ca 500 BC.
The wicked leader is he who the people despise.
The good leader is he who the people revere.
The great leader is he who the people say, "We did it ourselves."- Lao Tsu
"We trained hard...but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization." Petronius (256 B.C.)
"How can you govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese?" - Charles De Gaulle
