Stop being conned by the old mantra that says, ‘Leaders are cool, managers are dweebs.’ Instead, follow the Peters Principle: Leaders are cool. Managers are cool too!
TOM PETERSMomentum is a fragile force. Its worst enemy: procrastination. Its best friend: a deadline (think Election Day). Implication no. 1 (and there is no no. 2): Get to work! NOW!
More Tom Peters Quotes
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Now that I have adopted into my own daily life a device that makes music and spoken-word files easy to access from anywhere, I have tempered my skepticism.
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Today brands are everything, and all kinds of products and services – from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants – are figuring out how to transcend the narrow boundaries of their categories and become a brand surrounded by a Tommy Hilfiger-like buzz.
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Leaders’ careers will usually be determined by their handling of one or two critical events that no one could possibly anticipate or plan for.
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David Ogilvy contends that the greatest ad copywriters are marked by an insatiable curiosity ‘about every subject under the sun.’
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Develop a respect and reverence for the principle of variation: the idea that the message ain’t in the mean, the mode or the median – it’s in the differences that occur throughout a population.
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Your calendar never lies. All we have is our time. The way we spend our time is our priorities, is our strategy. Your calendar knows what you really care about. Do you?
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You can’t think your way out of a box; you’ve got to act.
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Rewards should go to teams as a whole.
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I still read quite a few printed books, but if something is available in digital format I do not print it before I read it.
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Some people have argued that listening to a work of literature does not really promote literacy in the same way that reading does.
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Excellence is not an aspiration. Excellence is what you do in the next five minutes.
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I find digital content much easier and more rewarding to interact with on screen than printed on paper.
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Customers perceive service in their own unique, idiosyncratic, emotional, irrational, end-of-the-day, and totally human terms. Perception is all there is!
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Bold botches are to be cherished.
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The widespread availability of information is the only basis for effective day-to-day problem solving, which abets continuous improvement programs.
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Appreciation, applause, approval, respect – we all love it!
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What gets measured gets done.
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If no one is pissed-off with you then you are dead but just haven’t figured it out yet.
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Who comes first? Don’t be silly, says King Hal; it’s employees. That is – and this dear Watson, is elementary – if you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first.
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The idea of intimately entwining with customers [to get ideas] is an idea whose time has come.
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The common wisdom is that … managers have to learn to motivate people. Nonsense. Employees bring their own motivation.
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A passive approach to professional growth will leave you by the wayside.
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For me, reading is reading.
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Passion. The life of an entrepreneur is occasionally exhilarating, and almost always exhausting. Only unbridled passion for the concept is likely to see you through the 17-hour days (month after month) and the painful mistakes that are part and parcel of the start-up process.
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What you decide not to do is probably more important that what you decide to do.
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The best leaders are the best notetakers, best askers, and best learners.
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