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Excellence is not an aspiration. Excellence is what you do in the next five minutes.

Tom Peters

Make an extensive table of project ‘deliverables’. Label one column ‘as requested’. Create another column labeled ‘could be’. Make each ‘could be’ wild and woolly!
TOM PETERS

Column Impact Labels Make Tables
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
I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you’ve got two kids, to start a coffee shop.
TOM PETERS

Coffee Kids Passion
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
Momentum 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!
TOM PETERS

Enemy Procrastination Thinking Worst
If no one is pissed-off with you then you are dead but just haven’t figured it out yet.
TOM PETERS

Knowledge Learning Off Pissed
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
The idea of intimately entwining with customers [to get ideas] is an idea whose time has come.
TOM PETERS

Customers Ideas Intimately
Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.
TOM PETERS

Misreading Odds Persistent
We’re going to see leadership emerge as the most important element of business – the attribute that is highest in demand and shortest in supply.
TOM PETERS

Demand Elements Important
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
Accept change as a friend. And don’t take yourself too seriously.
TOM PETERS

Accepting Change
Dot the i’s, cross the t’s, answer the phones promptly, send out errorless invoices, and in general never forget that the devil is in the details.
TOM PETERS

Devil Entrepreneur Phones
If there is a single tragic flaw that mars our biggest enterprises, it is conservatism – the failure to fail, and fail big, in an era of unprecedented volatility and ambiguity.
TOM PETERS

Ambiguity Era Flaws Mars Unprecedented Volatility
Knowing when to take your losses is an essential part of eventual success.
TOM PETERS

Essentials Knowing Loss
Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.
TOM PETERS

Inspirational Leader Ultimate

Excellence is not an aspiration. Excellence is what you do in the next five minutes.

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Excellence is not an aspiration. Excellence is what you do in the next five minutes.

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Popular Authors

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