Confidence means non-paralysis, a willingness to act, and act decisively, to start new things and cut failing ventures off.
TOM PETERSIf 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.
More Tom Peters Quotes
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Vision is dandy, but sustainable company excellence comes from a huge stable of able managers.
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Authority never matches responsibility. That’s one of the great myths and delusions of all times. Winning managers and individual performers at all levels know that effectiveness means building your own network and creating your own authority.
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Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.
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Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of the excellent companies.
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TRUST, not technology, is the issue of the decade.
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What have you done lately – this week – to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait?
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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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Garbage! Intuition is the new physics. It’s an Einsteinian, seven-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. Bottom line, circa 2001 to 2010: The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and to trust their intuition.
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What is my personal strategy for the next 10 hours? Who can I talk with or what can I volunteer for to learn something new?
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The race will go to the curious, the slightly mad, and those with an un-satiated passion for learning and dare-deviltry.
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Leaders trust their guts. “Intuition” is one of those good words that has gotten a bad rap. For some reason, intuition has become a “soft” notion.
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The dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible.
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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?”
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A completely free library is as rare as a truly free lunch.
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Celebrate what you want to see more of.
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Quite simply, no matter how hard you try, no matter how “open” you are, you’ll end up surrounded by “yes people.” It’s hard not to believe people who are repeating your own ideas. Resist the temptation.
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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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Winners must learn to relish change with the same enthusiasm and energy that we have resisted it in the past.
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Effective listening is a professional achievement-achieved only through hard work.
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Cost does not equal value… and low cost parts decrease brand equity for a very long time.
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Integrity may be about little things as much or more than big ones.
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For me, reading is reading.
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Fact is, the work place to a great extent is “where we live.” We need star accountants. Boffo saleswomen. Over-the-top creatives in marketing and new product development.
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The number one premise of business is that it need not be boring or dull. It ought to be fun. If it’s not fun, you’re wasting your life.
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Public Speaking is a skill that can be studied, polished, perfected. Not only can you get good at it, you can get damn good at it and it makes a heck of a difference.
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Ultimately, I think that the growth and sustainability of the e-book movement depends on authors and end-users (readers).
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