Quotes About Impact

The evidence does not support the idea that you need an outside leader to come in and shake up the place to go from good to great. In fact, going for a high-profile outside change agent is negatively correlated with a sustained transformation from good to great.

Even though many people think that being a great leader means being ambitious and having a certain reputation, this is not true at all.

If you have charisma, you can still build an enduring great company. But never forget: If your company cannot be great without your personal charisma to inspire, then it is not yet a great company.

Don't underestimate the extent to which your actions influence those who work for you. Manners of speech, decision-making style, ways of behaving, and other attributes will rub off.

For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquillity that comes from knowing that you've had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.

If you could pick one and only one ratio—profit per x (or, in the social sector, cash flow per x)—to systematically increase over time, what x would have the greatest and most sustainable impact on your economic engine?

Leading as a charismatic visionary—a "genius with a thousand helpers" upon whom everything depends—is time telling. Shaping a culture that can thrive far beyond any single leader is clock building.

generally to do something which is of value.1

The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better long-term results than their more

We defined a "luck event" as one that meets three tests: First, you didn't cause it; second, it has a significant potential consequence, good or bad; and third, it has an element of surprise, some aspect of the event is unpredictable before it happens.

the Mach3—leaving hundreds of millions of people to a more painful daily battle with stubble.19

È difficile sopravvalutare l'importanza della sedentarietà e dell'affollamento che ha reso possibile: significa che in pratica tutte le malattie infettive causate da microorganismi specificatamente adattati all' homo sapiens hanno iniziato a esistere soltanto diecimila anni fa, forse molte di loro solo negli ultimi cinquemila anni; che sono un «effetto della civiltà» nel vero senso della parola.

It took about one century for them [the negative consequences] to show up clearly. Many

As the biologist J. B. S. Haldane metaphorically described the advantages of smallness: "You can drop a mouse down a thousandyard mineshaft; and on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. A rat is killed, a man broken, a horse splashes."3

When the Dragons belch, all Hong Kong defecates.

Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem. —Ronald Reagan

There is no proportion. Pearl Harbor took care of that.

Language liberates as it offends. Confidential taught me that.

Head-on impact. The frontseat men sustain massive chest wounds. Their hearts explode. The backseat men sustain downward-thrust trauma and are thus disemboweled.

When men speak, they should say that which does not go in at one side of the head and out at the other. Their words shouldn't be feathers, so light that a wind which does not ruffle the water can blow them away.

Advice on lyrics given me years ago by the conductor Mark Elder seems worth pondering: if it shouts well, he said, it will probably sing well.

The secret to kicking ass in dumbshit Hollywood... Every time you meet someone, make a fucking impression. Make them think you're the hottest shit in the world. Make them think they're gonna lose their job if they don't give you one. Look 'em in the eye, and never look away. Be confident and calm, be fucking bold. That sounds more like the secret to kicking ass in life. It is, but I was gonna wait and tell you that some other time.

Its not just a smile of momentary happiness. When it disappears from my face, it will stay with me.

I can run fast when I want to run fast, and I've always been good at destroying things.