Quotes from Harry Beckwith

Acquaintances give us moments; friends give us hours; good friends give us days.

When outsiders criticize Americans, they regularly note that we seem self-centered, which we are. But few contend we are selfish, and with good reason; we are not.

Don't charge by the hour. Charge by the years.

Are you enviable? How can you make yourself enviable?

Building your brand doesn't take millions. It takes imagination.

If I had booked a car service, it would have delivered me to Princeton ten minutes before the meeting. Instead, I chose to save $115, and lost a $125,000 opportunity in the process.

If I had booked a car service, it would have delivered me to Princeton ten minutes before the meeting. Instead, I chose to save $115, and lost a $125,000 opportunity in the process. You have to invest. The investments you make, of both time and money, demonstrate your confidence in what you are offering. The premium prices you pay are literally that: premiums. They are your insurance in your success. I overlooked that once. I never have again.

Product distinctions, the historic centerpiece of product marketing, exist only briefly—and in the prospects' minds, often not at all.

Every prospect hopes you will heed the old New England proverb: "Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.

Remember the Butterfly Effect. Tiny cause, huge effect. A

Buying things is only sometimes about owning the things. Buying often is simply about what 50 Cent observed: being ABLE to buy. Having less means hearing "No, you cannot have that," and we loathe being told what we can and cannot do.

When companies discuss their problems, they talk about themselves. It's not ego at work. It's just that people talk about what they know, and what people know is their company. But what people really need to know—what you really need to know—is your customers and prospects. Get out, climb out, have someone pull you out of the tunnel.

Education does more than prepare us for careers and expand our minds. It enlarges our world—the number of people with whom we can connect. Because education covers so much ground, it helps us find more of the ground that is common to others whom we meet. The more you learn, the more people you can engage. All education is relevant, all education is practical, all education helps us grow. Keep reading, keep listening, keep learning.

Decades ago, Rudolph Flesch discovered that readers were not just attracted to words, but to the breathing room between sentences and paragraphs. Long sentences should be followed by short ones, and large paragraphs should be followed by short ones, he decided.

Great brands, however, are authentic. They have endured because people have learned they are credible and have come to trust those brands to be what they say they are; great brands have integrity. What they say is integrated—integrated and integrity are related expressions—with what they do. No one responds to our efforts to be other than who we are. They respond to the good but bad, excellent but flawed person across the table from them.

We view Big Business as business but equate small business with art; we call it entrepreneurship.

There's little point in killing an idea by saying it might fail. Any idea might fail. If you're doing anything worthwhile at all, you'll suffer a dozen failures. Start failing so you can start succeeding

Like every company, every person has a dozen good stories that reveal that person. A talent in marketing is to discover your stories—some the enterprise has forgotten, ignored, or overlooked—and tell them well. That's your task, too. What is your story—the true story? How can you tell it best?

Write a mission statement, but keep it private.

People know that Jacks of All Trades are Masters of None, and people seek out masters. They trust specialists. Try to appeal to thousands, and you will appeal strongly to no one. Find a niche.

As in golf, so in the rest of our lives. We practice our strengths but ignore our weaknesses. You can see the waste. You can only improve your strengths so much, if at all. Even if you improve them, there's a good chance no one will notice; slight improvements are hard to spot. What people do notice are your weaknesses; if you can improve those, your improvement can be dramatic, and visible to everyone. Find your weaknesses and work on them.