Archive for Quotes
Loose Hands Hold More Cookies
“Loose Hands Hold More Cookies”. I got this from my high school friend Chapman Godbey, currently a Commander in the US Naval Service. He had offered (via Facebook) to a friend who is new at managing corporate staff. I suspect that Chap is an excellent leader. For more Chap-flavored wisdom, see here for his Navy [...]
Tight on Goals. Loose on Methods
Be tight on goals, loose on methods.* I share this advice frequently with clients who are learning to be good managers and leaders. If you tell your staff exactly how do to their jobs, you stifle your company on every front. Your staff won’t have a reason to think, grow or contribute. They won’t have [...]
…While Working
I remember the story of two Zen monks, both prodigious smokers. Concerned about the question of smoking during their prayer time, they agreed to consult their superiors. While one received a stern reprimand from his abbot, the other was given a pat of encouragement. The unlucky one, greatly puzzled, asked his friend exactly how he [...]
Ted Williams on Marketing Focus
One of Ted Williams’ principles of hitting was that an average hitter swinging at a good pitch to hit is better than a great hitter swinging at a bad pitch to hit. – Reggie Jackson in Sixty Feet, Six Inches, by Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson (2009) One of my former clients had an above-average [...]
Be Quick But Don’t Hurry
“Be Quick But Don’t Hurry” — John Wooden’s top advice to his UCLA basketball team that won ten national championships in twelve years. Adds the coach: there is never enough time to be sure (and if you are sure, you’re probably too late), but you must always keep your balance. Wise words in any time, [...]
Steve Jobs and the Quality Yardstick
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. – Steve Jobs
Samuel Butler on Praise
The advantage of doing one’s praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places. – Samuel Butler (1835-1902), from The Way of All Flesh
Opinions x 5
At the back of each issue, Forbes magazine collects a carefully selected set of quotes on a theme. Not long ago they theme was Opinions. Here are a couple of their choices: I don’t like my music, but what is my opinion against that of millions of others? — Frederick Loewe A point of view [...]
Churchill, Britain and Business
The maxim of the British people is “Business as usual.” – Winston Churchill, Speech, 9 November 1914
Truth in Labeling
At Roman law, if a one-eyed dog was sold as sound, the product sold was a sound one-eyed dog. – J.A.C. Thomas, Textbook of Roman Law, 283-88 (1976).
