Quotes: Great

Great
Quotes
On Business, Entrepreneurship,
Marketing and Sales
1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group
Our plan is to invent some sort of

doohickey that everyone wants to
buy.
A visionary in a Dilbert cartoon strip
Innovation is not about

saying yes to everything.
Its about saying NO to all but
the most crucial features.
Steve Jobs
Co-Founder, Apple
The brave may not live forever, but

the cautious do not live at all!"
Richard Branson
Why join the Navy

when you can be a pirate.
Steve Jobs
Co-Founder, Apple
If you do build a great experience,

customers tell each other about that.
Word of mouth is very powerful.
Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO, Amazon
I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars:

I look around for 1-foot bars that I
can step over.
Warren Buffett
Expect the best. Prepare for the

worst. Capitalize on what comes.
Zig Ziglar
One finds limits

by pushing them.
Herbert Simon
If you have always done it that way,

it is probably wrong.
Charles Kettering
Success breeds complacency.

Complacency breeds failure. Only
the paranoid survive.
Andrew Grove
A brand for a company is like a

reputation for a person. You earn
reputation by trying to do hard things
well.
Jeff Bezos
We built this company from the

customer back, not from the
company out.
Lou Gerstner, IBM

(who traveled over 1,000,000 miles
to visit customers during his nine years as CEO)
The best vision is insight.
Malcolm S. Forbes
Those who cannot remember the

past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
What we are trying to do

in marketing is not
to change minds, but to
take advantage of the perceptions
that are already there.
Ries and Trout
Bottom-Up Marketing
Anything worth having is worth

going for - all the way.
J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman),

From Dallas
The key to evangelism is a great

product. It is easy, almost
unavoidable, to catalyze evangelism
for a great product. It is hard, almost
impossible, to catalyze evangelism
for crap.
Guy Kawasaki
When you innovate, you've got to be

prepared for everyone telling you
you're nuts.
Larry Ellison,
Co-founder & CEO, Oracle
An ounce of performance is worth

pounds of promises.
Mae West
Rather than seeing the world as it is,

those in charge would rather see it
as they want it to be.
Jack Trout
The Power of Simplicity
Learn to speak
from the customer's view.
Ranjan Acharya
The more alike two products are, the

more important their differences
become.
Regis McKenna
It has been a founding principle of

our company to listen to the endusers, the consumers, and not just
guess what they want.
Montgomery Kersten
VitalSigns Software
Constant effort and frequent

mistakes are the stepping stones of
genius.
Elbert Hubbard
What can a sales person say to

somebody to get them to buy a
product that they already use every
day if they dont like it? Nothing.
Larry Ellison
CEO, Oracle
Every organization has to

prepare for the abandonment of
everything it does.
Peter Drucker
Harvard Business Review
September-October 1992
Sometimes when you innovate, you

make mistakes. It is best to admit
them quickly, and get on with
improving your other innovations.
Steve Jobs
In the future, it will become

increasingly obvious that
your competitors are just as clueless
as you are.
Scott Adams
The Dilbert Future
Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century
You can't just ask customers what

they want and then try to give that to
them. By the time you get it built,
they'll want something new.
Steve Jobs
Talk to unhappy customers.
Linda Sanford, Senior Vice President, IBM
Complexity is not be admired.

It is to be avoided.
Jack Trout
The Power of Simplicity
The secret is to make the time to

immerse yourself in the people
youre marketing to.
To live them, breathe with them and
study them from every angle.
Lisa Fortini-Campbell, Ph.D.
Hitting the Sweet Spot
Pay attention to your enemies, for

they are the first to discover your
mistakes.
Antishenes, 500 BC
Its hard to make predictions,

especially about the future.
Yogi Berra
Most products are still created in a

vacuum, driven by what is technically
feasible rather than what is needed
by customers.
Kristin Zhivago
Marketing Technology
Paying attention to simple little

things that most men neglect makes
a few men rich.
Henry Ford
You can observe a lot

just by watching.
Yogi Berra
Its better to be
first in the mind than to be
first in the marketplace.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Al Ries and Jack Trout
If you want to kill any idea in the

world, get a committee working on it.
Charles Kettering
Chase the vision, not the money, the

money will end up following you.
Tony Hsieh
Co-founder, Zappos
If we wait for the moment

when everything,
absolutely everything is ready,
we shall never begin.
Ivan Turgenev
If the other guy is getting better,

then youd better be getting better
faster than the other guy is getting
better... or youre getting worse.
Tom Peters
The most powerful concept in

marketing is owning a word in the
prospects mind.

Simplification is one of the most

difficult things to do.
Jonathan Ive
vice-president of industrial design at Apple
Designer of iPod and iMac
Better to do something imperfectly

than to do nothing flawlessly.
Robert H. Schuller
Dividing meager resources across a

host of medium term operational
goals creates mediocrity on a broad
scale.
Hamel and Prahalad

Harvard Business Review, 1993
We watch our competitors,

learn from them, see what they are
doing for customers and copy those
things as much as we can.
Jeff Bezos
I cannot give you the formula for

success, but I can give you the
formula for failurewhich is, Try to
please everybody.
Herbert Bayard Swope
In the end, all business operations

can be reduced to three words;
people, product and profits. Unless
you've got a good team, you can't do
much with the other two.
Lee Iacocca
Get someone else to blow your horn

and the sound will carry twice as
far.
Will Rogers
20 years from now, you will be more

disappointed by the things you didnt do
than by the ones you did do. So throw off
the bow line. Sail away from the safe
harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail.
Explore. Dream Discover
Mark Twain
In Confusion there is Profit.
Lt. Nicholas Holden (Tony Curtis),

From Operation Petticoat, (1959)
If we dont succeed,
we run the risk of failure.
Dan Quayle
If at first you dont succeed,

try again. Then quit. No use being a
damn fool about it.
W. C. Fields
If I had to live my life again,

I would make the same mistakes
ONLY SOONER.
Tallulah Bankhead
Theres nothing wrong with market

research as long as you remember
that marketing is a game of the
future. Most market research is a
report on the past.
Ries and Trout

Bottom-Up Marketing
Customers buy on price because

they cant find extraordinary quality,
convenience, service and value.
Warren Greshes
Supercharged Selling
Genius is one percent inspiration

and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas A. Edison
Half the money I spend on

advertising is wasted,
and the trouble is,
I dont know which half.
John Wanamaker
I have always found that if I move

with seventy-five percent or more of
the facts that I usually never regret it.
It's the guys who wait to have
everything perfect that drive you
crazy
Lee Iacocca
9 out of 10 products are introduced

to fill a void in the companys product
line, not to fill a void in the market.
Ries and Trout
A rejection is nothing more than a

necessary step in the pursuit of
success.
Bo Bennett
When youre up against a clearly

superior product, you can forget
about marketing. You cannot win a
war with vastly inferior weapons.
Ries & Trout
In the business world, everyone is

paid in two coins: cash and
experience. Take the experience
first; the cash will come later.
Harold S. Geneen
Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule

No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
Warren Buffett
There is no reason for any individual

to have a computer in their home.
Kenneth Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Corp,

1977
You have to pretend you're 100

percent sure. You have to take
action; you can't hesitate or hedge
your bets. Anything less will
condemn your efforts to failure.
Andy Grove
Business opportunities are like

buses, there's always another one
coming.
Richard Branson
Sometimes when you innovate, you

make mistakes. It is best to admit
them quickly, and get on with
improving your other innovations.
Steve Jobs
All things being equal, people will do

business with a friend; all things
being unequal, people will still do
business with a friend.
Mark Mccormack
Your most unhappy customer is

your greatest source of learning.
Bill Gates
Co-founder, Microsoft
Success is going from failure to

failure without a loss of enthusiam.
Winston Churchill
You need to keep your head down,

and build a great product before you
raise money.
Dina Kaplan,
Co-founder, BLIP.TV
Our success has really been based

on partnerships from the very
beginning.
Bill Gates
Everyone who's ever taken a

shower has an idea. It's the person
who gets out of the shower, dries off
and does something about it that
makes a difference.
Nolan Bushnell
Everyone who's ever taken a

shower has an idea. It's the person
who gets out of the shower, dries off
and does something about it who
makes a difference.
Nolan Bushnell,
Founder, Atari, Androbot, Chuck E. Cheeses
Our company has, indeed, stumbled

onto some of its new products. But
never forget that you can only
stumble if youre moving.
Richard P. Carlton
3M Corporation, 1950
Surround yourself with the best

people you can find, delegate
authority, and dont interfere.
Ronald Reagan
Having a partner definitely allows

you to take more risks.
Arianna Huffington
Co-founder, The Huffington Post
You miss 100% of the shots

you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
Nothing is ever gained by winning

an argument and losing a customer.
C.F. Norton
Make mistakes faster.
Andrew Grove
Co-founder, Intel
You cannot design better products

by staying in the office.
Tom Kelley
The Art of Innovation
People dont ask for facts in making

up their minds. They would rather
have one good, soul-satisfying
emotion than a dozen facts.
Robert Keith Leavitt
A child of five would

understand this.
Send someone to fetch a
child of five.
Groucho Marx
You cannot innovate by copying.
Larry Ellison
I have always believed you cannot

run a successful enterprise from
behind a desk.
Lou Gerstner, IBM

(who traveled over 1,000,000 miles
to visit customers during his nine years as CEO)
Your best customers are worth far

more than your average customers.
Seth Godin
It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is

one of the greatest arts in the world.
Charles Kettering
You can have brilliant ideas but if

you cant get them across, your ideas
wont get you anywhere.
Lee Iacocca
If youre not embarrassed by the first

version of your product, then youve
launched too late .
Reid Hoffman
Founder, LinkedIn
A good plan, violently executed now,

is better than a perfect plan next
week.
General George S. Patton
Nothing will ever be attempted if all

possible objections must be first
overcome.
Samuel Johnson
The ultimate measure of a man is

not where he stands in moments of
comfort, but where he stands at
times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I never get the accountants in before

I start up a business. It's done on gut
feeling, especially if I can see that
they are taking the mickey out of the
consumer.
Richard Branson
It had always made sense to me

to build a business based on
what people really wanted, rather
than guess what we thought they
might want.
Michael Dell
Few things are harder to put up with

than a good example.
Mark Twain
Before you build a better mousetrap,

it helps to know if there are any mice
out there.
Mort Zuckerman
Things may come to those who wait,

but only things left by those who
hustle.
Abraham Lincoln
Nothing endures but change.
Herectilus
The best decision is the right

decision. The next best decision is
the wrong decision. The worst
decision is no decision.
Scott McNealy
Be a yardstick of quality. Some

people aren't used to an environment
where excellence is expected.
Steve Jobs
I don't know the key to success, but

the key to failure is trying to please
everybody.
Bill Cosby
Build momentum by accumulating

small successes.
Unknown
Never trust anyone you dont

understand.
Jack Trout
I am convinced that if the rate of

change inside an organization is less
than the rate of change outside, the
end is in sight.
Jack Welch
Make your product easier to buy

than your competition, or
you will find customers buying from
them, not you.
Mark Cuban,
Co-founder, HDNET
Decisiveness is a characteristic of
high-performing men and women.
Almost any decision is better than no
decision at all.
Brian Tracy
We will either find a way or make

one.
Hannibal
If you do not know where you are

going, every road will get you
nowhere.
Henry Kissinger
Nothing focuses the mind better

than the constant sight of a
competitor who wants to wipe you off
the map.
Wayne Calloway
Whatever made you

successful in the past
wont in the future.
Lew Platt, CEO

Hewlett-Packard
You cannot sell a man who isnt

listening; word of mouth is the best
medium of all; and dullness wont sell
your product, but neither will
irrelevant brilliance.
Bill Bernbach
DDB Advertising
(1911-1982)
Marketing begins before the product

is launched.
Seth Godin
You can't have a better tomorrow if

you are thinking about yesterday all
the time.
Charles Kettering
Implement solutions,
not features.
John Geleynse, Apple
Conversations among the members

of your marketplace happen whether
you like it or not.
Seth Godin
If I had to sum up in a word what

makes a good manager, I'd say
decisiveness. You can use the
fanciest computers to gather the
numbers, but in the end you have to
set a timetable and act.
Lee Iacocca
You cant fool all the people, not

even most of the time. And people,
once unfooled, talk about the
experience.
Seth Godin
Time is free, but it's priceless. You

can't own it, but you can use it. You
can't keep it, but you can send it.
Once you've lost it, you can never
get it back.
Harvey Mackay
t's always too soon to quit.
Norman Vincent Peale
The optimist sees opportunity in

every danger; the pessimist sees
danger in every opportunity.
Winston Churchill
There are two kinds of companies,

those that work to try to charge more
and those that work to charge less.
We will be the second.
Jeff Bezos
Even if you are on the right track,

you will get run over if you just sit
there.
Will Rogers
Four steps to achievement: Plan

purposefully. Prepare prayerfully.
Proceed positively. Pursue
persistently.
William A. Ward
Don't let the mistakes and

disappointments of the past control
and direct your future.
Zig Ziglar
If you dont ask, the answer is

always no.
Tony Robbins
Please all, and you will please

none.
Aesop
Stay committed to your decisions;

but stay flexible in your approach.
Tony Robbins
Standing in the middle of the road is

very dangerous; you get knocked
down by the traffic from both sides.
Margaret Thatcher
Whenever you see a successful

business, someone once made a
courageous decision.
Peter Drucker
One thing is sure. We have to do

something. We have to do the best
we know how at the moment... if it
doesn't turn out right, we can modify
it as we go along.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Success is going from failure to

failure without a loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
A product for everyone rarely

reaches much of anyone.
Seth Godin
Good marketers measure.
Seth Godin
If you want to succeed,

youve got to be okay to just lose
control.
Alexis Ohanian
Co-founder, REDDIT
Prepare for the unknown by

studying how others in the past have
coped with the unforeseeable and
the unpredictable.
George Patton
If Id asked my customers
what they wanted,
theyd have said
a faster horse.
Henry Ford
Anything that won't sell, I don't want

to invent. Its sale is proof of utility,
and utility is success.
Thomas A. Edison
I have not failed. I've just found

10,000 ways that won't work.
Thomas A. Edison
You cannot afford to wait for perfect

conditions. Goal setting is often a
matter of balancing timing against
available resources. Opportunities
are easily lost while waiting for
perfect conditions.
Gary Ryan Blair
Innovation distinguishes between a

leader and a follower.
Steve Jobs
Marketing is not a battle of products,

its a battle of perceptions.

Having the best product

means nothing if the people wont
buy it.
Donald A. Norman
The Invisible Computer
All lasting business is built on

friendship.
Alfred A. Montapert
The buck stops with the guy who

signs the checks.
Rupert Murdoch
Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the

only ones in this industry making
money. They make it by being WalMart. We make it by innovation.
Steve Jobs
If you must use more than ten slides

to explain your business, you
probably dont have a business.
Guy Kawasaki
A corporation is a living organism; it

has to continue to shed its skin.
Methods have to change. Focus has
to change. Values have to change.
The sum total of those changes is
transformation.
Andy Grove
Our reputation is more important

than the last hundred million dollars.
Rupert Murdoch
In order to be irreplaceable,
one must always be different.
Coco Chanel
If advertisers spent the same

amount of money on improving their
products as they do on advertising
then they wouldn't have to advertise
them.
Will Rogers
Have a vision. Be demanding.
Colin Powell
Leadership is solving problems. The day

soldiers stop bringing you their problems
is the day you have stopped leading
them. They have either lost confidence
that you can help or concluded you do not
care. Either case is a failure of
leadership.
Colin Powell
The chief condition on which, life,

health and vigor depend on, is
action. It is by action that an
organism develops its faculties,
increases its energy, and attains the
fulfillment of its destiny.
Colin Powell
There are no secrets to success. It

is the result of preparation, hard
work, and learning from failure.
Colin Powell
Goals must never be from your ego,

but problems that cry for a solution.
Robert H. Schuller
The world hates change, yet it is the

only thing that has brought
progress.
Charles Kettering
When you can't solve the problem,

manage it.
Robert H. Schuller
Success does not consist in never

making mistakes but in never making
the same one a second time.
George Bernard Shaw
Dont find fault, find a remedy;

Anybody can complain.
Henry Ford
Every time we've moved ahead in

IBM, it was because someone was
willing to take a chance, put his head
on the block, and try something
new.
Thomas J. Watson
The majority of men meet with

failure because of their lack of
persistence in creating new plans to
take the place of those which fail.
Napoleon Hill
Good design is good business.
Thomas J. Watson
In order to succeed, your desire for

success should be greater than your
fear of failure.
Bill Cosby
In business, when things aren't

working it's time to mix it up.
Donald Trump
If you cant make it good,

at least make it look good.
Bill Gates
What separates the winners from

the losers is how a person reacts to
each new twist of fate.
Donald Trump
Willingness to change is a strength,

even if it means plunging part of the
company into total confusion for a
while.
Jack Welch
If you do build a great experience,

customers tell each other about that.
Word of mouth is very powerful.
Jeff Bezos
We see our customers as invited

guests to a party, and we are the
hosts. It's our job every day to make
every important aspect of the
customer experience a little bit better.
Jeff Bezos
Your most unhappy customers are

your greatest source of learning.
Bill Gates
Never stop testing, and your

advertising will never stop
improving.
David Ogilvy
One fails forward toward success.
Charles Kettering
When you innovate, you've got to be

prepared for everyone telling you
you're nuts.
Larry Ellison
Price is what you pay. Value is what

you get.
Warren Buffett
Failure is a detour, not a dead-end

street.
Zig Ziglar
We don't have a monopoly. We

have market share. There's a
difference.
Steve Ballmer
And while the law of competition

may be sometimes hard for the
individual, it is best for the race,
because it ensures the survival of the
fittest in every department.
Andrew Carnegie
The way to succeed is to double

your error rate.
Thomas J. Watson
Contact Information:
Stephen Davis
Interim COO/VP Sales & Marketing |
Business Consultant | Sales Channel and
Business Development Expert | Author &
Speaker
Partnering With Clients to Drive
Sustainable Profitable Growth
Phone:
Email:
Websit
Linkedin:
Twitter:
(508) 528-7571
sdavis@cxoadvisorygroup.com
www.cxoadvisorygroup.com
www.linkedin.com/in/stephendavis
twitter.com/stephendaviscxo

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Great

Our plan is to invent some sort of

A visionary in a Dilbert cartoon strip

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Innovation is not about

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

The brave may not live forever, but

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Why join the Navy

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

If you do build a great experience,

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars:

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Expect the best. Prepare for the

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

One finds limits

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

If you have always done it that way,

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Success breeds complacency.

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

A brand for a company is like a

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

We built this company from the

Lou Gerstner, IBM

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

The best vision is insight.

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Those who cannot remember the

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

What we are trying to do

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Anything worth having is worth

J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman),

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

The key to evangelism is a great

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

When you innovate, you've got to be

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

An ounce of performance is worth

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Rather than seeing the world as it is,

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

The more alike two products are, the

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

It has been a founding principle of

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Constant effort and frequent

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

What can a sales person say to

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Every organization has to

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Sometimes when you innovate, you

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

In the future, it will become

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

You can't just ask customers what

1999 - 2010 CXO Advisory Group

Talk to unhappy customers.

Linda Sanford, Senior Vice President, IBM