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A while back, I came across a line attributed to IBM founder Thomas Watson. If you want to achieve excellence, he said, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.
Tom Peters
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Tom Peters
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: November 7
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More quotes by Tom Peters
To grasp organizational life as it is, read novels (!) .... It is my fervent belief that we will never design rational processes that overcome such irregularities-don't bother telling that to a consultant. Hence, we should embrace the real, nonrational, nonlinear world with vigor and glee-and develop enterprise and career strategies accordingl
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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.
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Divas do it, golfers do it, pilots do it, violists do it, sprinters do it, soldiers do it, surgeons do it, astronauts do it...only business people think it isn't necessary to train.
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Business, life itself, is damned hard work if you wanna be good at it. Actually, that's precisely wrong. Business ceases to be work when you're chasing a dream that has engorged you. (Work should be more fun than fun - Noel Coward.) And if the passion isn't there. then biotech and plumbing will be equal drags.
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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.
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Books were rare,expensive, time-consuming to create and copy, and difficult to transport. That is why collections ofprint-based books developed around centers of religious belief, learning, and wealth. It was cheaper andeasier for people to come to the collection than for the collection, or parts of the collection, to go to thepeople.
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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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Lavish credit on anyone and everyone who helped you the least bit.
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Collections of books and other documents, either printed or electronic, are a form of congregation.
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Only pissed-off people change the world.
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The world has not just turned upside down. It is turning in every which way at an accelerating pace.
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The principal reason, invariably, most successful giant companies rather quickly become also-rans, or just amorphous blobs on the competitive landscape, is their failure to re-tool in anything like a fundamental way. In fact, the worse things get, typically, the more they dig in their heels and defend yesterday's turf.
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With most competitors moving ever faster, the race will go to those who listen (and respond) most intently.
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Some people have argued that listening to a work of literature does not really promote literacy in the same way that reading does. Having tried this for several months, however, I can report from the trenches that, for me, immersive listening is as intellectually challenging, stimulating, and rewarding as immersive reading.
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As far as I'm concerned, the first business leader who was able to establish a cult of personality around his tenure was Lee Iacocca.
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My half-baked reading of history is that we continue to go through these waves of entrepreneurial explosion followed by merger mania and consolidation. Out of that come big sluggish companies that eventually collapse under the weight of what they've created, and are killed off by the next wave of entrepreneurs.
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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?
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I am my clients. I am defined by who I do business with.
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Even a poor, out-of-datecollection reflects in its own way the values of the people who created it and the community it serves.
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If not excellence, what? If not excellence now, when?
Tom Peters
