Motivational Quotes

Business

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

Best Quotes about Business

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

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

Ford, Henry

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.

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

The morality of compromise' sounds contradictory.Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat.Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

Handy, Charles

The first thing the secretary types is the boss.

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

Gerber, Michael E.

The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.

Peters, Thomas J.

10.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

11.

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

12.

There's a lot more business out there in small town America than I ever dreamed of.

Walton, Sam

13.

In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success.

Scrutton, T. L.

14.

The business of the country is business.

Coolidge, Calvin

15.

It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by -- Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.

Mulford Jr., Ren

16.

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.

Franklin, Benjamin

17.

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Benjamin Franklin

18.

Frankly, I don't want to see a rapid upturn.I want it to hold until some of these idiotic competitors go bust.

Bamford, Joe

19.

It is not the employer who pays wages -- he only handles the money. It is the product who pays the wages.

Ford, Henry

20.

The very best financial presentation is one that's well thought out and anticipates any questions... answering them in advance.

Collins, Nathan

21.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

Geneen, Harold S.

22.

We are all manufacturers. Making good, making trouble, or making excuses.

Adolt, H. V.

23.

Cut your losses and let your profits run.

Proverb, American

24.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

Churchill, Winston

25.

Don't try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can't be done, except by liars.

Baruch, Bernard M.

26.

The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent -- for every effect a perfect cause -- and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

27.

If you don't drive your business you will be driven out of business.

Forbes, B. C.

28.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

Maurois, Andre

29.

It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties.

Wilde, Oscar

30.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

Buffett, Warren

31.

Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.

Perot, H. Ross

32.

Markets change, tastes change, so the companies and the individuals who choose to compete in those markets must change.

Wang, An

33.

Blessed is he who talks in circles, for he shall become a big wheel.

Dane, Frank

34.

Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it.

Seth Godin

35.

Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.

Grove, Andrew

36.

Business is more exciting than any game.

Beaverbrook, Lord

37.

The purpose of a business is to create a customer.

Drucker, Peter F.

38.

You can employ men and hire hands to work for you, but you must win their hearts to have them work with you.

Riorio

39.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out -- either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.

Ogilvy, David

40.

No sale is really complete until the product is worn out, and the customer is satisfied.

Bean, L.L.

41.

You never really hear the truth from your subordinates until after 10 in the evening.

Jurgen Schrempp

42.

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

Patterson, John H.

43.

The commercial class has always mistrusted verbal brilliancy and wit, deeming such qualities, perhaps with some justice, frivolous and unprofitable.

Nevill, Dorothy

44.

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

45.

You can't run a business without taking risks.

Drexler, Millard

46.

It doesn't matter to me if a man is from Harvard or Sing Sing. We hire the man, not his history.

Ford, Henry

47.

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

48.

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.

49.

Never let an inventor run a company. You can never get him to stop tinkering and bring something to market.

Little, Royal

50.

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

Carnegie, Dale