I have no interest in celebrities. If all the superrich disappeared, the world economy would not even notice. The superrich are irrelevant to the economy.
In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from.
Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folkways and superstition, and of cooperation for force. It means the substitution of responsibility for obedience to rank, and of authority of performance for the authority of rank.
There’s an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.
What’s measured improves.
Institutions mistake good intentions for objectives. They say “health care”; that’s an intention, not an objective.
Do not measure your life by your goals but what you are doing to achieve them.
Schools will change more in the next 30 years than they have since the invention of the printed book.
The enterprise that does not innovate ages and declines. And in a period of rapid change such as the present, the decline will be fast.
In the Western tradition, we have focused on teaching as a skill and forgotten what Socrates knew: teaching is a gift, learning is a skill.
To make the future demands courage. It demands work. But it also demands faith.
Here I am, fifty-eight, and I still don’t know what I’m going to be when I grow up.
Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.
Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes – it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm.
If you have too many problems, maybe you should get out of business. There is no law that says a company must last forever.
Some of the best business and nonprofit CEOs I’ve worked with over a sixty-five-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses.
One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with giving money; we also feel we need to work.
The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission.
People are effective because they say ‘no,’ because they say, ‘this isn’t for me.’
The worker’s effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed.