Favorite quotes

As a CEO, one of my key responsibilities is to give my team, my shareholders, my customers, faith, encouragement, and inspiration. Sometimes, that is a responsibility easily fulfilled. Sometimes, I need to stand on the shoulders of giants and borrow from their words of wisdom. Here are some of my favorite quotes from people whom I admire and wish I knew, or had known. Funnily enough, compiling these made me realize they can be grouped into themes… themes of my life.

On the importance of being yourself

Your time it limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Steve Jobs

Happiness is what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi

It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. Moliere

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. Sir Cecil Beaton

On perseverance (aka making it in business)

I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. John D. Rockefeller

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. Dale Carnegie

When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word “succeed”; you find that it simply means to follow through. F. W. Nichol

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity. Louis Pasteur

Tough times don’t last; tough people do. Unknown

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises. Mae West

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. Albert Einstein

To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping. Chinese Proverb

On priorities (and not getting them confused)

The key is not to prioritize what’s on the schedule, but to schedule your priorities. Stephen Covey

Things which matter the most must never be at the mercy of things which matter the least. Goethe

It is not enough to conquer; one must also know how to seduce. Voltaire

On risk-taking

You miss 100% of the shots you never take. Wayne Gretzky

If not you, who? If not now, when? Tim Sanders

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as well as labor does the body. Seneca

On the power of dreams

Formulate and stamp indelibly in your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture. Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. Norman Vincent Peale

The starting point for all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Napoleon Hill

On the elusiveness of happiness

Happiness is the struggle towards a summit and, when it is attained, it is happiness to glimpse new summits on the other side. Fridtjof Nansen

On keeping it all in perspective… Unemployment at a record high; People coming, people going, people born to die Don’t ask me, because I don’t know why But it’s like that, and that’s the way it is. Run DMC

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place. Mark Twain

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein

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