You Don’t Need to Know It All
As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON, ESSAYIST AND POET
No Experience Necessary
People always overestimate how complex business is. This isn’t rocket science—we’ve chosen one of the world’s most simple professions.
—JACK WELCH, FORMER CEO OF GENERAL ELECTRIC
The limits of my language are the limits of my world.
—LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, PHILOSOPHER AND LOGICIAN
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
—ISAAC ASIMOV, FORMER PROFESSOR OF BIOCHEMISTRY AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY AND AUTHOR OF OVER FIVE HUNDRED BOOKS
Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.
—DAN ROAM, AUTHOR OF THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HAMLET
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
—ROBERT HEINLEIN, AUTHOR OF STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND AND THE
MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS
Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
—WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY AND ONE OF THE WEALTHIEST INDIVIDUALS IN THE WORLD
Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing—it was here first.
—MARK TWAIN, GREAT AMERICAN NOVELIST
Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil.
—HENRY FIELDING, EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY NOVELIST AND SATIRIST
Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.
— MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
The joy that isn’t shared dies young.
—ANNE SEXTON, PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING POET
I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.
—HERBERT BAYARD SWOPE, PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING JOURNALIST
A successful business is either loved or needed.
—TED LEONSIS, FORMER EXECUTIVE AT AOL AND OWNER OF THE WASHINGTON WIZARDS AND WASHINGTON CAPITALS
these common values in terms of two primary characteristics: convenience and fi delity.Things that are quick, reliable, easy, and flexible are convenient.Things that offer quality, status, aesthetic appeal, or emotional impact are high-fi delity.
One of the things that make interpersonal Conflict challenging is that we can never truly control the actions of another human being. We can influence, persuade, inspire, or negotiate, but we can never directly act upon another person’s perceptions or directly change their Reference Levels.
Attempting to resolve a Conflict bysimply calling attention to unacceptable behavior is ineffective in the same way that willpower can’t change behavior directly—it’s not addressing the root cause of the Conflict.
We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
—MARK TWAIN
If not controlled, work will flow to the competent man until he submerges.
—CHARLES BOYLE, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSIONAL LIAISON FOR THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA)
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
—T. S. ELIOT, POET AND PLAYWRIGHT
Here’s a fascinating quirk about asking people to do something: they’ll be far more likely to comply with your request if you give them a reason to do what you ask.
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
—GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON
Hofstadter’s Law: it always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
—FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The Art of Exceptional Living,“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
—ANATOLE FRANCE, NOBEL PRIZE–WINNING NOVELIST AND POET
Show respect to all men, but grovel to none.
—TECUMSEH, EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LEADER OF THE SHAWNEE TRIBE
We find comfort among those who agree with us, and growth among those who don’t.
—FRANK A. CLARK, MINISTER AND NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
—PETER DRUCKER, FATHER OF MODERN MANAGEMENT THEORY
The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
—THEODORE RUBIN, PSYCHIATRIST AND COLUMNIST
If you don’t understand something, it’s because you aren’t aware of its context.
—RICHARD RABKIN, PSYCHIATRIST
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
—GEORGE SANTAYANA, PHILOSOPHER, ESSAYIST, AND APHORIST
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
—ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.
—HENRY FORD, FOUNDER OF THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY AND ASSEMBLYLINE PIONEER
Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
—THOMAS J. WATSON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF IBM