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Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.

Tom Peters

Like it or not – and often we don’t – power is a pervasive phenomenon. From midnight decisions in the Oval Office that risk the lives of young Americans to quarrels over the kitchen table, power is part of every human equation.
TOM PETERS

Business Country Numbers Power Risk
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.
TOM PETERS

Buzz Figure Sneakers Today Transcend
Oh Lord, there it is again. The question;” What kind of business should I start?” Incidentially, it has a twin that also sets me off: “What should I specialize in during the second year of my MBA studies?”
TOM PETERS

Business Incidentally Sorry Specialization Years
David Ogilvy contends that the greatest ad copywriters are marked by an insatiable curiosity ‘about every subject under the sun.’
TOM PETERS

Copywriters Curiosity Subject Sun
Usage tends to be global, while funding tends tobe local. When we allow it to happen, usage of a digital library is remarkably diverse and widespread.
TOM PETERS

Digital Library Usage Widerspread
For me, reading is reading.
TOM PETERS

Good Knowledge Learn Read Reading
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.
TOM PETERS

Differences Educational Ideas Mean Occur
The whole secret to our success is being able to con ourselves into believing that we’re going to change the world because statistically we are unlikely to do it.
TOM PETERS

Believe Secret Statistically World
With most competitors moving ever faster, the race will go to those who listen (and respond) most intently.
TOM PETERS

Faster Moving Race
One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.
TOM PETERS

Human Lovely Pay Tribute
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?
TOM PETERS

Calendar Care Lying Priorities
Don’t let the vision be shot through with holes, but be damn sure some of your best and brightest are shooting at it — with bazookas as well as sniper’s rifles.
TOM PETERS

Bazookas Rifles Vision
I’m fundamentally not interested in the Fortune 500 companies – in US, Mexico, anywhere. The real backbones of economic growth are small and medium businesses.
TOM PETERS

Business Country Growth Real
Those who succeed always reach far beyond formal deputation, take initiatives, and take the heat when things go awry. That’s true in the military in times of war, true for 200 person manufacturing firms, and true at giant automakers or software companies.
TOM PETERS

Initiatives Manufacturing Reach Reputation
Cost does not equal value… and low cost parts decrease brand equity for a very long time.
TOM PETERS

Cost Elapsed Long
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing… layout, processes, and procedures.
TOM PETERS

Business Design Poor Process Quality
Listen to Everyone. Ideas come from everywhere
TOM PETERS

Everyone Everywhere Ideas Listen
Even a poor, out-of-datecollection reflects in its own way the values of the people who created it and the community it serves.
TOM PETERS

Community People Way
Bold botches are to be cherished.
TOM PETERS

Botches Cherished Country People
I find digital content much easier and more rewarding to interact with on screen than printed on paper.
TOM PETERS

Digital Easier Paper
Formula for success: under promise and over deliver.
TOM PETERS

Educational Inspirational Success
Ultimately, I think that the growth and sustainability of the e-book movement depends on authors and end-users (readers).
TOM PETERS

Book Growth Thinking
Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.
TOM PETERS

Leader Right Timer Version War Winning
Something mysterious happens to a curious, fully engaged mind – and it happens as often as not, subconsciously. Strange little sparks are set off, connections made, insights triggered
TOM PETERS

Connections Littles Mind
You are who you go to lunch with! Break bread with cool and you will become more cool. Conversely: break bread with dull and well, you can figure it out.
TOM PETERS

Business Dull Lunch
Effective listening is a professional achievement-achieved only through hard work.
TOM PETERS

Achievement Effective Hard Listening Work
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.
TOM PETERS

Concept Exhilarating Mistake Occasionally Passion Peace

Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.

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Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.

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