Motivational Quotes

Business

The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture.

- Plautus, Titus Maccius

Best Quotes about Business

If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail man to somebody on his behalf.

Kettering, Charles F.

The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.

Ogilvy, David

The big will get bigger; the small will get wiped out.

Riklis, Meshulam

Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work. Condition your people to avoid compromise.

Townsend, Robert

The City's reluctance to take a stand on an issue like the British Gas pay row makes a mockery of corporate governance and shareholders' ability to influence annual general meetings.Institutions should be obliged to make public how they vote at such events.They should be obliged to provide customers with a record of how they vote on every kind of issue.

Donovan, Patrick

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks.

Trump, Donald

When you are skinning your customers you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.

Khrushchev, Nikita

Utility is our national shibboleth: the savior of the American businessman is fact and his uterine half-brother, statistics.

Dahlberg, Edward

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

Geneen, Harold S.

10.

The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.

Jefferson, Thomas

11.

Business is like war in one respect. If its grand strategy is correct, any number of tactical errors can be made and yet the enterprise proves successful.

Woods, General Robert E.

12.

To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.

Patterson, John H.

13.

Show me the business man or institution not guided by sentiment and service; by the idea that he profits most who serves best and I will show you a man or an outfit that is dead or dying.

Harris, B. F.

14.

A consumer is a shopper who is sore about something.

Coffin, Harold

15.

The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

16.

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business.

Brown, Derby

17.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out -- either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.

Ogilvy, David

18.

Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.

Dickens, Charles

19.

The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.

Leavitt, Theodore

20.

Don't worry about your physical shortcomings. I am no Greek god. Don't get too much sleep and don 't tell anybody your troubles. Appearances count: Get a sun lamp to keep you looking as though you have just come back from somewhere expensive: maintain an elegant address even if you have to live in the attic. Never nickel when short of cash. Borrow big, but always repay promptly.

Onassis, Aristotle

21.

Never let an inventor run a company. You can never get him to stop tinkering and bring something to market.

Little, Royal

22.

I am the world's worst salesman, therefore, I must make it easy for people to buy.

Woolworth, F. W.

23.

If you don't do it with excellence, don't do it at all! Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?

Townsend, Robert

24.

I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't.

Rothschild, Sir Nathan

25.

I believe Mrs. Thatcher's emphasis on enterprise was right.

Blair, Tony

26.

If you have lower than a ten percent turnover, there is a problem. And if you have higher than, say 20%, there is a problem.

Mcgovern, William

27.

Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he's hired to do.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

28.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

Maurois, Andre

29.

If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.

Ogilvy, David

30.

It is not the employer who pays wages -- he only handles the money. It is the product who pays the wages.

Ford, Henry

31.

Few great men could pass personal.

Goodman, Paul

32.

We are all manufacturers. Making good, making trouble, or making excuses.

Adolt, H. V.

33.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

Ford, Henry

34.

We have yet to see the full impact of the open, global marketplace. By 1997 all raw materials and technology will be available everywhere in the world. The only differences between countries and markets will be skill levels, education, and the level of empowerment of the workplace.

Pritchett, Lew

35.

HereÆs my theory about meetings and life; the three things you canÆt fake are erections, competence and creativity. ThatÆs why meetings become toxic they put uncreative people in a situation in which they have to be something they can never be. And the more effort they put into concealing their inabilities, the more toxic the meeting becomes. One of the most common creativity-faking tactics is when someone puts their hands in prayer position and conceals their mouth while they nod at you and say,'Mmmmmm. Interesting.'If pressed, theyÆll add,'IÆll have to get back to you on that.'Then they donÆt say anything else.

Douglas Coupland

36.

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

Kiam, Victor

37.

If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.

Marcinko, Richard

38.

The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without and to depart.

Morley, John

39.

You never really hear the truth from your subordinates until after 10 in the evening.

Jurgen Schrempp

40.

There's no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting.

David Letterman

41.

Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want.

Bond, Alan

42.

One of the vices of the virtue of decentralization is that people don't share ideas.

O'Reilly, Anthony J. F.

43.

Quality, service, cleanliness, and value.

Ross, Steven J.

44.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

Galvin, Robert

45.

Talk of nothing but business, and dispatch that business quickly.

Aldus Manutius

46.

Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it.

Seth Godin

47.

In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks.

Mcnealy, Scott

48.

A generation which has passed through the shop has absorbed standards and ambitions which are not of those of spaciousness, and cannot get away from them. Everything with them is done as though for sale, and they naturally have in view the greatest possible benefit, profit and that end of the stuff that will make the best show.

Herzen, Alexander

49.

Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.

Grove, Andrew

50.

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Beene, Geoffrey