“PONDERing Business Quotes to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing”

Every human being has four basic inherent endowments – self-awareness, creative imagination, conscience, and independent will. These qualities give us some of the ultimate human freedoms we continuously exercise every day... The power to choose, to respond, to change.

You’ve probably heard some of these thought-provoking phrases below thrown around in many different presentations you have attended and articles you have read over the years, but it might be worth looking at a few of these again; and contemplating the new ones you have never heard, taking into consideration your current business circumstances. Most of these came from some of the most successful business consultants and motivational speakers. You never know… it might trigger something amongst your key management team members to help the business get over one of those plaguing headache hurdles that all businesses face from time-to-time. These aren’t my quotes, so if you don’t like any of them, please don’t shoot the messenger.

Check out the different categories below and ponder the illimitable, amaranthine, multitudinous possibilities:

Management & Leadership

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

“Everyone thought it was a good idea; except for everyone.”

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”

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

“Most of what some people call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.”

“Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs.”

“Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.”

“The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.”

“A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.”

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”

“More people will like you if you believe that people are good until proven bad.”

Sales & Marketing

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service ‘fits’ them and sells itself.”

“Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not, and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.”

“Don’t just spray and pray; or smile and dial.”

“Timid salespeople have skinny kids.”

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t like where you end up.”

“Success is ready when you are; it will not attack you.”

“If you have a big enough WHY, you’ll find the HOW.”

“It doesn’t take much water to make good coffee.”

“Good things come to those who wait, but here’s a rule that’s slicker; he who goes for what he wants gets it that much quicker.”

Communication & Instruction

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.”

“Teaching is the only major occupation for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the 'naturals', the ones who somehow know how to teach.”

“Today, knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.”

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”

“Why is it that when a subject becomes totally obsolete, we make it a required course?”

“Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer.”

“Listen with your eyes for feelings.”

“Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

Business Planning & Risk Management

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”

“Sometimes your greatest strength as a manager is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.”

“Most discussions of decision-making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.”

“Don’t polish the brass rails on a sinking ship.”

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

“People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

“The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management system as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product.”

“Don’t muddy the water. You cannot get the water to clear up until you get the pigs out of the creek.”

“If you don’t invest in risk management, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in; because it’s a risky business.”

“Green light, STOP – If you want to see where you are taking the most risk, look where you are making the most money.”

“Some risks that are thought to be unknown, are not unknown. With some foresight and critical thought, some risks that at first glance may seem unforeseen, can in fact be foreseen. Armed with the right set of tools, procedures, knowledge and insight, light can be shed on variables that lead to risk, allowing us to manage them.”

“Be smart, but don’t outsmart the process and look for shortcuts.”

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans.”

Business Purpose

“The (main) purpose of a business is to create a customer.”

“Every product and service is sold on the promise of a better future. The purpose of business is to deliver on the promise, and profit is the reward for doing so.”

“The sole purpose of business is service. The sole purpose of advertising is explaining the service which business renders.”

“Since the purpose of business is to satisfy existing desires, or stimulate new ones, if everyone were genuinely happy, there would be no need for business any longer.”

“To be truly successful, companies need to have a corporate mission that is bigger than making a profit.”

“The blind pursuit of profit at all costs is untenable. It is essential that we make money the right way. After all, if communities suffer as a result of a company’s actions, those returns are not sustainable.”

“Money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can move the body and influence the mind, but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and morality.”

“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.”

“Winners are people with definite purpose in life.”

“If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion; for your passion will lead you right into your purpose.”

Business / Job Duties Execution

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

“Inch by inch it’s a cinch; yard by yard it’s hard.”

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

“Management by objective works - if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don't.”

“Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information.”

“The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

“Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition - such as lifting weights - we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.”

If you can’t fly, then run; if you can’t run then walk; if you can’t walk then crawl; but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

“I think if the people who work for a business are proud of the business they work for, they’ll work that much harder, and therefore, I think turning your business into a real force for good is good business sense as well.”

“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”

“Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.”

“There is no such thing as being lucky. LUCK is Laboring Under Correct Knowledge”.

The Future of the Business

“Change before you have to.”

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

“The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.”

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”

“Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.”

“No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses, Superman or Wonder Woman to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.”

“The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.”

“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

“When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That's when you can get more creative in solving problems.”

“We are swimming in data but dying for information.”

“Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.”

“We may not know for sure exactly where we’re going, but we’ve already left where we’ve been.”

“A lot of dirt may fly before your mountain moves.”

“The difference between a pebble and a mountain lies in whom you ask to move it.”

Remember… Take some time to ponder (a verb in the Thesaurus that means “think about seriously or examine attentively and deliberately”) the different aspects of your business, from different angles. Synonyms for ponder include:

Consider

Contemplate

Deliberate

Evaluate

Examine

Mull Over

Noodle

Perpend

Reflect

Speculate

Weigh

Appraise

Brood

Cerebrate

Cogitate

Daydream

Debate

Dwell

Excogitate

Figure

Meditate

Mind

Moon

Muse

Reason

Revolve

Ruminate

Study

Think Out

Woolgather

And, don’t be too quick to do any of these antonyms of ponder (discard, disregard, forget, ignore, neglect) so people won’t think of you as a petty Lilliputian…

But, rather as one of the Brobdingnagian's among your business peers.

And finally… “Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do.”

To schedule a call with me to see how we can better support your business, click here: talk-to-ron.com, or email ron.beltz@go-bluestreak.com. Ron Beltz, Throughput Bluestreak | Bright AM