Business Quotes

Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.

It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by - Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.

Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.

'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all... good design must primarily serve people.

The business of art is to reveal the relation between man and his environment.

The great leaders are like the best conductors - they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.

A man should never neglect his family for business.

If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.

The business of America is business.

Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.

Everyone is your best friend when you are successful. Make sure that the people that you surround yourself with are also the people that you are not afraid of failing with.

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.

I admire the courage and self-reliance it takes to start your own business and make it succeed.

If I had learned more about business ahead of time, I would have been shaped into believing that it was only about finances and quality management.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.

In business or in life, don't follow the wagon tracks too closely.

In a way, fraud in business is no different from infidelity in marriage or plagiarism in scholarly work. Even people committed to high moral standards succumb.

It's not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.

There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time!

When you are in any contest, you should work as if there were - to the very last minute - a chance to lose it. This is battle, this is politics, this is anything.

Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.

Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.

Money is a strange business. People who haven't got it aim it strongly. People who have are full of troubles.

Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

What's the subject of life - to get rich? All of those fellows out there getting rich could be dancing around the real subject of life.

Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart.

Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to.

Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.

Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

I've never felt like I was in the cookie business. I've always been in a feel good feeling business. My job is to sell joy. My job is to sell happiness. My job is to sell an experience.

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate.

All lasting business is built on friendship.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Finding good partners is the key to success in anything: in business, in marriage and, especially, in investing.

Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.

Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

Ask five economists and you'll get five different answers - six if one went to Harvard.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.

An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it.

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures.

Details create the big picture.

When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.

Architecture is not an inspirational business, it's a rational procedure to do sensible and hopefully beautiful things; that's all.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

Wise are those who learn that the bottom line doesn't always have to be their top priority.

The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind ahead even more than teamwork.

It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.

The movies are the only business where you can go out front and applaud yourself.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

The invisible hand of the market always moves faster and better than the heavy hand of government.

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.

Failure doesn't mean you are a failure it just means you haven't succeeded yet.

I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can't truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.

So little done, so much to do.

An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15 percent commission.

Word of mouth is the best medium of all.

Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business.

If you don't drive your business, you will be driven out of business.

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.

In both business and personal life, I've always found that travel inspires me more than anything else I do. Evidence of the languages, cultures, scenery, food, and design sensibilities that I discover all over the world can be found in every piece of my jewelry.

Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves.

Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.

Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.' Never forget this message when working with people.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

Carpe per diem - seize the check.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.

An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.

Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman - not the attitude of the prospect.