“Is this still worth doing? And if it isn’t, he gets rid of it so as to be able to concentrate on the few tasks that, if done with excellence, will really make a difference in the results of his own job and in the performance of his organization.”

Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.

Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.

Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.

A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.

Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results.

Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.

One cannot hire a hand – the whole man always comes with it.

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.

Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.

The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission.

This defines entrepreneur and entrepreneurship – the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.

Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.

A well-managed factory is boring. Nothing exciting happens in it because the crises have been anticipated and have been converted into routine.

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.

The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.

An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.

The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable.

The only difference between Hitler and Bush is that Hitler was elected.

I want to make a difference.

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.