Quotes from Daniel H. Pink

Regret is not dangerous or abnormal, a deviation from the steady path to happiness. It is healthy and universal, an integral part of being human. Regret is also valuable. It clarifies. It instructs. Done right, it needn't drag us down; it can lift us up.

the intrinsic motivation principle of creativity, which holds, in part: "Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity."11

To reprise language from the previous chapter, the solution isn't algorithmic (following a set path) but heuristic (breaking from the path to discover a novel strategy).

framing regret as a judgment of our underlying character—who we are—can be destructive.

He demonstrates that meaning is possible in spite of suffering—indeed, that meaning can sometimes grow from suffering. But he also emphasizes that suffering is not a prerequisite to finding meaning. The search for meaning is a drive that exists in all of us—and a combination of external circumstances and internal will can bring it to the surface.

solved the puzzles simply because they found it gratifying to solve puzzles. They enjoyed it. The joy of the task was its own reward.

That same year, Fuller salesmen, all of them independent dealers working on straight commission

How to stay afloat amid that ocean of rejection is the second essential quality in moving others. I call this quality "buoyancy.

For most of history, our lives were defined by scarcity. Today, the defining feature of social, economic, and cultural life in much of the world is abundance.

intrinsically motivated purpose maximizers, not only extrinsically motivated profit maximizers.

Our left brains have made us rich. Powered by armies of Drucker's knowledge workers, the information economy has produced a standard of living in much of the developed world that would have been unfathomable to our great-grandparents.

Try to pick a profession in which you enjoy even the most mundane, tedious parts. Then you will always be happy.

Select one day a week and remove yourself from the maw. Stop working. Don't answer your email. Ignore your voice mail. Turn off your mobile phone. Most Western religions have established a Sabbath—the seventh day of the week—as a time of peace, reflection, and prayer.

All deep structure regrets reveal a need and yield a lesson. With boldness regrets, the human need is growth—to expand as a person, to enjoy the richness of the world, to experience more than an ordinary life.

the "first step in salesmanship" was "autosuggestion," "the principle through which the salesman saturates his own mind with belief in the commodity or service offered for sale, as well as in his own ability to sell.

Ultimately, Type I behavior depends on three nutrients: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Type I behavior is self-directed. It is devoted to becoming better and better at something that matters. And it connects that quest for excellence to a larger purpose.

Science and Buddhism are very similar," the Dalai Lama told some of us at a press conference before the main event, "because they are exploring the nature of reality, and both have the goal to lessen the suffering of mankind.

United States spends more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on everything. In other words, the receptacles of our waste cost more than all of the goods consumed by nearly half of the world's nations.

Type I" behavior, a way of thinking and an approach to business grounded in the real science of human motivation and powered by our third drive—our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it. It would be an impoverished existence if you

But abundance has produced an ironic result: the very triumph of L-Directed Thinking has lessened its significance. The prosperity it has unleashed has placed a premium on less rational, more R-Directed sensibilities—beauty, spirituality, emotion.

Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, is a legend one day and a laggard the next. Retail video rental is a cash cow—until Netflix carves the industry into flank steak. All the while, the business cycle itself swooshes without much warning from unsustainable highs to unbearable lows like some satanic roller coaster.

Stories amuse; facts illuminate. Stories divert; facts reveal. Stories are for cover; facts are for real. The trouble with this view is twofold. First, as that pop quiz gave us a quick glimmer, it runs counter to how our minds actually work. Second, in the Conceptual Age, minimizing the importance of story places you in professional and personal peril.

Praise and positive feedback are much less corrosive than cash and trophies.