No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.
William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister (1809-1898)
He who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
Samuel Smiles, British author (1812-1904)
Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you somebody who has never achieved much.
Joan Collins, British actress (b. 1933)
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader (1869-1948)
To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.
Leo Burnett, US advertising executive (1891-1971)
Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.
Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, analytical psychologist (1876-1961)
From error to error discovers the entire truth.
Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)
Don’t ‘tolerate’ mistakes. Embrace them!
Tom Peters, US management author, presenter (b. 1942)
Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes.
Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, poet (1854-1900)
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
Nasreddin, Turkish cleric (c. 13th Century AD)
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.
Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (1882-1971)
A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines.
Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect (1869-1959)
Motivation
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
Plutarch, Greek biographer, essayist (46-120 AD)
A key characteristic of transformational leaders is that they motivate people to do more than they originally expected to do.
Elizabeth Chell, British academic, management author (b. 1949)
Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a dream’ to himself.
Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management presenter (b. 1939)
You know I was stumped one day when a little boy asked, ‘Do you draw Mickey Mouse?’ I had to admit I do not draw any more. ‘Then you think up all the jokes and ideas?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t do that.’ Finally he looked at me and said, ‘Mr Disney, just what do you do?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘Sometimes I think of myself as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio to another and gather pollen and sort of stimulate everybody.’ I guess that’s the job I do. I certainly don’t consider myself a businessman, and I never did believe I was worth anything as an artist.
Walt Disney, US artist, film producer (1901-1966)
Good leadership consists of motivating people to their highest levels by offering them opportunities, not obligations.
John Heider, US management author (b. 1960)
Leaders in the new organisation do not lack motivational tools, but the tools are different from those of traditional corporate bureaucrats. The new rewards are based not on status but on contribution and they consist not of regular promotion and automatic pay rises but of excitement about mission and a share of the glory and the gains of success.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, US academic, management author (b. 1943)
We don’t want satisfaction. We want creative dissatisfaction associated with excitement about the job. That’s what motivation is made of.
Daniel Quinn Mills, US academic, management author (b. 1949)
Do you want to sell sugar water all your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?
Steve Jobs, US executive, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc (b. 1955), persuading John Sculley to leave Pepsi Cola.
I’m slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can’t motivate people to do things, you can only demotivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles.
Scott Adams, US cartoonist, author (b. 1957)
The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, ‘I wish someone would come by and turn me on.’ What if they don’t show up? You’ve got to have a better plan for your life.
Jim Rohn, US motivational speaker, author (1930-2009)
Everyone needs to know what is expected of them. Expect people to be better than they are; it helps them to become better. But don’t be disappointed when they are not; it helps them to keep trying.
Merry Browne, US poet
The key to motivation is motive.
Roger Merrill, US management consultant, author
In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flames by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian theologian (1875-1965)
I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and I thought: What the hell good would that do?
Ronnie Shakes, US humorist
Opportunity
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
Milton Berlinger, known as Milton Berle, US actor (1908-2002)
Ability is nothing without opportunity.
Napoleon Bonaparte, French soldier, statesman, revolutionary (1769-1821)
When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us.
Alexander Graham Bell, British inventor (1847-1922)
There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
Douglas McArthur, US general (1880-1964)
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)
When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
John F Kennedy, US President (1917-1963)
We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.
Walt Kelly, US satirist (1913-1973)
The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving than in one where opportunities are abundant.
Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)