Business Leadership Quotes

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

I didn't follow the policies of those already in the business.

If I had, I would never have made a go of it. Instead, I started out with the determination to make a better nickel chocolate bar than any of my competitors made, and I did so.

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.

He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to.

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision.

The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

There are only two options regarding commitment; you’re either in or you’re out.

The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.

You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Leadership is not for the faint of heart

Be strong, but not rude; Be kind, but not weak; Be bold, but not bully; Be humble, but not timid; Be prooud, but not arrogant.

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

If you see a bandwagon, it's too late.

You are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

Don't sell life insurance. Sell what life insurance can do.

To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.

Leaders are people who can discern the inevitable and act accordingly.

When people talk about business acumen, discernment is a big part of it. It's a bit like gut instinct, but a little more developed.

How do you know you have won? When the energy is coming the other way and when your people are visibly growing individually and as a group.

It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.

Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn't go to hell if you take a day off.

You can build a throne with bayonets, but it's difficult to sit on it.

It's alright to be Goliath but always act like David.

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership.

Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off forever.

Remember that the six most expensive words in business are: 'We've always done it that way'

If you do not know where your competitor is, or overconfident and snobbish about your competitor, or are unable to comprehend how yourcompetitor became a real threat, you will surely fall behind him. Don't be the "they" in this idiom: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

When all think alike, then no one is thinking

The great vice of democracy is that for a generation we have been busy getting ourselves on to the list of beneficiaries and removing ourselves from the list of contributors, as if somewhere there was somebody else's effort on which we could thrive.

Innovation is the process of turning ideas into manufacturable and marketable form.

A great company in the media business needs visionary leaders, not a conglomerate structure headquartered in Columbus Circle that second guesses.

Remember the difference between a boss and a leader. A boss says, Go! A leader says, Let's go!

I believe no amount of business school training or work experience can teach what is ultimately a matter of personal character. Businesses are not dishonest or greedy, people are. Thus, a business, successful or not, is merely a reflection of the character of its leadership.

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.