“He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”

“Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them.”

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

“So often, people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.”

 “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”

“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.”

The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; …
Continue reading Barack Obama

“Some people dream of success while others wake up and work.”

“Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.”

“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.”

“Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.”

“The highest of distinctions is service to others.”

“There are no office hours for leaders.”

“The history of the world is but the biography of great men.”

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

“The golden rule for every business man is this: ‘Put yourself in your customer’s place.”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

“A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.”

“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure–It is: Try to please everybody.”

“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”

“Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.”

“You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.”

“If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.”

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

“Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face.”

“Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and youre in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.” 

“Poor people have big TV. Rich people have big library.”

What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.”

“Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.”

“The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears, and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the …
Continue reading George Orwell

“I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.”

“Finding good partners is the key to success in anything: in business, in marriage and, especially, in investing.”

“A leader…is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed …
Continue reading Nelson Mandela

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”

The things we fear most in organizations–fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances–are the primary sources of creativity.

“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”

“Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” 

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

“Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.”

“I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.”

“Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.”

“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

“You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.”

“Many of lifes failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

If you can dream it, you can do it.”

“The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.”

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.”

The things we fear most in organizations–fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances–are the primary sources of creativity.

“If you’re not sure where you are going, you’re liable to end up someplace else.”

“Truth builds trust.” 

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not …
Continue reading Jim Rohn

 “Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important.” 

“Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.”

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.”

“Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.”

“Being good is good business.”

“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”

“A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.”

“Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting …
Continue reading Charles F. Kettering

“Life is about making an impact, not making an income.”

“Stay self-funded as long as possible.”

It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.”

“I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.”

“Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.”

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

“The things we fear most in organizations–fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances–are the primary sources of creativity.”

“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of      a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of               a personality beyond its normal limitations.”

 “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”

“The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.”

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” 

“The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.”

“They told me computers could only do arithmetic.”

“Theres no luck in business. Theres only drive, determination, and more drive.” 

“Truth builds trust.” 

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

“Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life; it’s about what you inspire others to do.”

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

 “Don’t blow off another’s candle for it won’t make yours shine brighter.” 

“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” 

“Always deliver more than expected.”

 “Almost all quality improvements come via simplification of design, manufacturing … layout, processes, and procedures.”

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they …
Continue reading Theodore Roosevelt

“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.”

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”

“Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things”

“Leadership is an ever-evolving position.”

“It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.”

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.”

“If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization.”