Motivational Quotes

Business

Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts, or to empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their history shows, for the above reason of individual merit being its great hatred. Empires flourish till they become commercial, and then they are scattered abroad to the four winds.

- Blake, William

Best Quotes about Business

Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.

Allen, Fred A.

Blake, William

I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't.

Rothschild, Sir Nathan

It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away.

Geneen, Harold S.

Conducting your business in a socially responsible way is good business. It means that you can attract better employees and that customers will know what you stand for and like you for it.

Burns, M. Anthony

What's good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa.

Wilson, Charles E.

Our planning system was dynamite when we first put it in. The thinking was fresh; the form mattered little. It was idea oriented. We then hired a head of planning, and he hired two vice presidents, and then he hired a planner; and the books got thicker, and the printing more sophisticated, and the covers got harder, and the drawings got better.

Welch, John

Location, location, location.

Dillard, William

Concentrate your strengths against your competitor's relative weaknesses.

Henderson, Bruce

10.

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.

Onassis, Aristotle

11.

The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.

Jefferson, Thomas

12.

Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he's hired to do.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

13.

It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a fourth class person in a first class job.

Dunn, Paul H.

14.

Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.

Dickens, Charles

15.

You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business what a man doesn't know does hurt.

Lewis, E. St. Elmo

16.

Business has only two functions -- marketing and innovation.

Drucker, Peter F.

17.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

Maurois, Andre

18.

Every business is built on friendship.

Penney, J. C. (James Cash)

19.

If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.

Marcinko, Richard

20.

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business.

Brown, Derby

21.

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication

Gerber, Michael E.

22.

If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.

Ogilvy, David

23.

Far too many executives have become more concerned with the four P's -- pay, perks, power and prestige -- rather than making profits for shareholders.

Pickens, T. Boone

24.

Business is like war in one respect. If its grand strategy is correct, any number of tactical errors can be made and yet the enterprise proves successful.

Woods, General Robert E.

25.

Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

26.

You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart.

Watson, Thomas J.

27.

People will go right on preferring to do business with friends.

28.

Good design can't fix broken business models.

Jeffrey Veen

29.

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

Ritz, Cesar

30.

I ran the wrong kind of business, but I did it with integrity.

Sydney Biddle Barrows

31.

If you have lower than a ten percent turnover, there is a problem. And if you have higher than, say 20%, there is a problem.

Mcgovern, William

32.

Leisure for people of business, and business for people of leisure would cure many problems.

33.

The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.

Hook, Harold

34.

Anything that you do to increase job security automatically does work for you. It makes your employees a closer part of the unit.

Smith, Roger

35.

Only as long as a company can produce a desired, worthwhile, and needed product or service, and can command the public, will it receive the public dollar and succeed

Carlson, Curtis

36.

Few great men could pass personal.

Goodman, Paul

37.

I don't want to do business with those who don't make a profit, because they can't give the best service.

Bristol, Lee

38.

HereÆs my theory about meetings and life; the three things you canÆt fake are erections, competence and creativity. ThatÆs why meetings become toxic they put uncreative people in a situation in which they have to be something they can never be. And the more effort they put into concealing their inabilities, the more toxic the meeting becomes. One of the most common creativity-faking tactics is when someone puts their hands in prayer position and conceals their mouth while they nod at you and say,'Mmmmmm. Interesting.'If pressed, theyÆll add,'IÆll have to get back to you on that.'Then they donÆt say anything else.

Douglas Coupland

39.

The first thing the secretary types is the boss.

40.

I buy when other people are selling.

Getty, J. Paul

41.

In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running, if you stand still, they will swallow you.

Knudsen, William

42.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

Warren Buffett

43.

Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.

Luce, Henry

44.

As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.

Hawken, Paul

45.

The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without and to depart.

Morley, John

46.

Show me the business man or institution not guided by sentiment and service; by the idea that he profits most who serves best and I will show you a man or an outfit that is dead or dying.

Harris, B. F.

47.

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

Blanchard, Ken

48.

To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.

Patterson, John H.

49.

Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work. Condition your people to avoid compromise.

Townsend, Robert

50.

Designing your product for monetization first, and people second will probably leave you with neither.

Tara Hunt