Peter Senge, US management author, presenter (b. 1947)
Become a role model. Like a good doctor, keep learning. Demonstrate that you are a synthesiser, or better yet a humaniser, rather than merely an analyser or energiser by participating in the interactive dialogue and defining part of your work as the development of people and teams.
Michael Maccoby, US management author, psychologist (b. 1933)
If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
Confucius, Chinese philosopher, teacher (551-479 BC)
Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary.
Warren Bennis, US academic, management author (b. 1925)
People have more need for models than for critics.
Scott Simmerman, US management consultant (b. 1948)
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)
Rules
Hey, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.
Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)
Rule No. 6:
Don’t take yourself so goddam’ seriously.
There are no other rules.
Benjamin Zander, British conductor, management author (b. 1939)
The fun isn’t in the rules, it’s in the doing.
David Firth, British management author (b. 1949)
The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, essayist (1856-1950)
Self-Confidence
For a man to achieve all that’s demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German poet, letter-writer (1749-1832)
And above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.
Anthony Trollope, British author (1815-1882)
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt, US United Nations delegate (1884-1962)
If you are always worried about how you are performing a task, about how others perceive your performance, you will never perform it well. Performance requires forgetting yourself.
Richard Saul Wurman, US architect, author (b. 1935)
The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.
Jesse Owens, US athlete (1913-1980)
When we examine our self-image we tend to find that it has been formulated by the information we have been given by others about ourselves; the art teacher who continually tells us we will never be a painter; the parent who tells us every day that we are too soft and sensitive; the bully who is praised by his bully father; and so on.
Trevor J Bentley, US facilitator, author
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Nelson Mandela, South African statesman (b. 1918)
Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with a vastly superior talent.
Sofia Villani Scicolone, known as Sophia Loren, Italian actress (b. 1934)
The real ‘haves’ are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real ‘have nots’ are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.
Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)
An individual’s self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behaviour: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change. A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.
Joyce Brothers, US TV personality, psychologist (b. 1927)
Confidence is believing you have something to teach; arrogance is the belief you have nothing to learn.
Dale Dauten, US newspaper columnist (b. 1950)
There are two types of people – those who come into a room and say: ‘Well, here I am!’ and those who come in and say, ‘Well, there you are!’
Frederick L Collins
I can say, ‘I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and awful and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won’t do that because it’s uncomfortable.’ Or I could say, ‘Get used to being uncomfortable.’ It is uncomfortable doing something that’s risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?
Barbra Streisand, US singer, actress (b. 1942)
Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.
John Donne, British poet (1572-1631)
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Samuel Johnson, British poet, critic, lexicographer (1709-1784)
Selling
If you want to buy from us we speak English, but if you want to sell to us you must speak German.
Helmut Kohl, German statesman (b. 1930)
The merchant has no country.
Thomas Jefferson, US President (1741-1826)
Production minus sales equals scrap.
John Fenton, British sales author, presenter