Quotes About Influence

The world, I started to see, was a different world, depending on what you said about it, and how you said it. By honing the sentences you used to describe the world, you changed the inflection of your mind, which changed your perceptions.

Is some of our media very stupid? Hoo boy. Does stupid, near-omnipresent media make us more tolerant toward stupidity in general? It would be surprising if it didn't. Is human nature such that, under certain conditions, stupidity can come to dominate, infecting the brighter quadrants, dragging everybody down with it?

The contractor's performance was described in terms of what he could do, Yashka's in terms of what he caused his listeners to feel.

the people who used to ask, "Is it news?" now seem to be asking, "Will it stimulate?" And the change is felt, high and low, throughout the culture.

I define word of mouth as "the exchange of information about a product or service among people who are independent of the producer".

Central to the concept of word of mouth is the idea that the producer of the product does not control the information, which is, accordingly, presumed to be more free of bias, more relevant, more complete, more trustworthy, and thus more accurate than commercial information. Commercial communication or advocacy, such as advertising, is, in contrast, information from a source that has a vested interest in presenting the information in a particular way. Word of mouth and traditional advertising

Word-of-mouth marketing is the deliberate attempt to encourage and facilitate the transmission of such third-party communication.

Many studies have shown that a satisfied customer is likely to tell approximately three people about a product, whereas a dissatisfied customer is likely to tell approximately eleven people. This is often because the positive experiences are expected and soon forgotten, but the unresolved negatives get people angry and frustrated, provoking word of mouth.

But this also explains why word of mouth is often negative. When people ask someone about a product, they are likely to ask, "Have you had any trouble with X?" They know that they are likely to get a straight answer from an independent source. Another reason that word of mouth is often negative is that people are three to ten times more likely to tell others about a negative experience than a positive one.

Word of mouth is the most effective way of making decisions easier and simpler in an overwhelmingly difficult and complex world.

Focused word of mouth from the right sources in the right sequence at the right level in the right form at the right pace is going to lead them through a very easy-to-make series of decisions, without wasting time, effort, and money.

My main concern is with the world order

The main difference between me and other people who have amassed this kind of money is that I am primarily interested in ideas, and I don't have much personal use for money. But I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't made money: My ideas would not have gotten much play.

Everybody says that I have a lot of power. But what does that power consist of?... Can I influence governments? I am beginning to be able to... (1995)

En efecto, los multimillonarios se vuelven cada vez más comunes entre los jefes del hampa de la Rusia poscomunista, los magnates del petróleo de Oriente Medio, los malabaristas de los fondos de inversión y los banqueros planetarios.

For the late-twentieth-century reader, says Borges, Joyce comes before Homer, and the Odyssey is a late commentary on Ulysses .

Los creadores, los descubridores científicos, quienes reinan en la política y en la guerra, forjan nuestro mundo. No son como nosotros. De ahí nuestra furibunda esperanza de olfatear algún defecto en su magnitud; de reducirlos a nuestro propio, insignificante tamaño.

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.

You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.

But the truth is that I never had to search for a role model. I was the son of George Bush.

Lincoln discovered Generals Grant and Sherman. Roosevelt had Eisenhower and Bradley. I found David Petraeus and Ray Odierno.

Boston Mayor James Michael Curley once summarized the philosophy of many politicians as, "There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.

Whatever the verdict on my presidency, I'm comfortable with the fact that I won't be around to hear it. That's a decision point only history will reach.

George W. Bush