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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.

Tom Peters

Leaders’ careers will usually be determined by their handling of one or two critical events that no one could possibly anticipate or plan for.
TOM PETERS

Careers Leadership Two
How do you achieve excellence?…Stop doing non-excellent stuff!
TOM PETERS

Achieve Excellence Stuff
Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.
TOM PETERS

Inspirational Inspiring Life
Swipe from the best, then adapt.
TOM PETERS

Business Innovation Innovative
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
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
The common wisdom is that … managers have to learn to motivate people. Nonsense. Employees bring their own motivation.
TOM PETERS

Common Motivation People
Gandhi and Mandela and Churchill and JFK and Reagan and Thatcher and Sarkozy and Franklin and Washington set the tone to an incredible degree-their “personal style” was their “brand.” (“It” starts with personal style of the tip-top leadership team.
TOM PETERS

Degree Leadership Sorry Team
Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders live to serve. Period.
TOM PETERS

Entrepreneur Leader Organization
But there’s no substitute for getting smarter faster. And the way you get smarter is to screw around vigorously. Try stuff. See what works. See what fails miserably. Learn. Rinse. Repeat.
TOM PETERS

Miserable Stuff Trying Way
Be guided by the axiom: There are no limits to the ability to contribute on the part of a properly selected, well-trained, appropriately supported, and, above all, committed person.
TOM PETERS

Ability Appropriate Committed Limits
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
The difference between great and average is, mostly, having the imagination and zeal to re-create yourself daily.
TOM PETERS

Average Differences Imagination
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
…high end does not necessarily equal high price. It’s a matter of attitude.
TOM PETERS

Attitide Attitude Matter
Execution Excellence! (Show up on time! Leave last!)
TOM PETERS

Entrepreneur Excellence Lasts

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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Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Tom Peters Quotes