Quotes About Progress

So here we are. We live in a world where we have the

Are you one of those people? One of the people with too many good ideas? The folks who have notebooks filled with notions, or daydreams filled with the future? You've certainly met these people. They're too busy taking notes to get anything done, too busy inventing to actually instigate. To stop this process, one needs to do only two things: Start. And then . . . Ship. Can't

If you never fail, either you're really lucky or you haven't shipped anything.

We're all obsessed with ideas because ideas, not products, are the engine of our new economy.

You need editors, not brand managers,who will push the envelope to make [a brand media property] go forward.

We run our schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches (called grades), and work very hard to make sure there are no defective parts. Nobody standing out, falling behind, running ahead, making a ruckus. Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure.

Twenty years ago, the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 either dug something out of the ground or turned a natural resource (iron ore or oil) into something you could hold. Today, fewer than half of the companies on the list do that. The rest make unseemly profits by trafficking in ideas.

Ten times as much polishing is definitely not ten times as good. Whether you're polishing a piece of furniture or an idea, the benefits diminish quickly. The polishing turns into stalling.

REDO THE MISSION STATEMENT AND THE BUSINESS PLAN EVERY THREE MONTHS

You need a formal business reinvention process. Put it in your calendar. Every three months, take your most trusted advisers, employees, backers, and even customers and get away from the phones for a little while. Start from scratch. "If we were starting over—no office, no employees, no customers—would we choose to be where we are today?" If the answer isn't, yes, then it's time to take a hard look at the path you took and the impact it has had on your business.

You've certainly met these people. They're too busy taking notes to get anything done, too busy inventing to actually instigate. To stop this process, one needs to do only two things: Start. And then . . . Ship. Can't

You don't have to like change to take advantage of it.

There are two ways to grow: by stealing from the competition or by growing the market. The first path is slow and painful and difficult. The second path is where the magic of fast growth kicks in.

Your business has to work when it's small in order to survive to the point where it gets big.

insulation prevents you from making the change and finding the understanding you set out to achieve in the first place.

you also need to quit all the Cul-de-Sacs that you're currently idling your way through. You must quit the projects and investments and endeavors that don't offer you the same opportunity. It's difficult, but it's vitally important.

The essential thing to know about the Dip is that it's there. Knowing that you're facing a Dip is the first step in getting through it.

The value we create is directly related to how much valuable information we can produce, how much trust we can earn, and how often we innovate.

The time to look for a new job is when you don't need one. The time to switch jobs is before it feels comfortable. Go. Switch. Challenge yourself; get yourself a raise and a promotion. You owe it to your career and your skills. If

The secret of being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal. The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.

change is the first sign of risk.

So we take the deal. We agree to do a job in exchange for a set of instructions. And for the hundred years that it led to increasing standards of living, it seemed like a very good deal.

the best ideas require significant change. They fly in the face of the status quo, and inertia is a powerful force.

Marketers make things better by making change happen.