Lessons in business and management

It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.
~Gertrude Stein


An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.
~Jack Welch


There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why.
 I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
~Robert Kennedy


Anyone who stops learning is old,
 whether at twenty or eighty.
 Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
~Henry Ford


If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure,
stop trying to balance them.
Instead make your work more pleasurable.
~Donald Trump

Find a problem, then solve it: Why?
I will bet the  military.com guy was in the military.
I will bet the woman who started the makeup company really likes lipstick.
--Stig Leschly, founder of exchange.com

 Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problem, you don’t get any seeds.
--Norman Vincent Peale

Humor in oneline

Live the longest: Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.



“You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today.
 They left a little note on the windscreen; it said 'Parking Fine.'”

Laziness is your enemy -- Nehru 

Love your enemy -- Gandhi

You know you are now middle-aged when people stop saying you look good and start saying you look good for your age.

My girlfriend told me that she was seeing another man. I told her to rub her eyes. 

--Emo Philips

You can make a lot of money in this game.

 Just ask my ex-wives.

 Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work.

--Lee Trevino

Humor in Words

The Accident Note: *****

A lawyer returns to his parked BMW to find the headlights broken and considerable damage. There's no sign of the offending vehicle but he's relieved to see that there's a note stuck under the windshield wiper.

The Note said: "Sorry. I just backed into your car, the witnesses who saw the accident are nodding and smiling at me because they think I'm leaving my name, address and other particulars. But I'm not."

Going Fishing: *****

A man phones home from his office and says to his wife . . . "I have the chance to go fishing for a week. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. I have to leave right away. Pack my clothes, my fishing equipment, and my blue silk pajamas. I'll be home in an hour to pick them up."

The man rushes home to grab everything. He hugs his wife, apologizes for the short notice, and then hurries off.

A week later, the man returns and his wife ask, "Did you have a good trip, dear?"

The man replies, "Yep, the fishing was great...but you forgot to pack my blue silk pajamas."

His wife smiles and says, "Oh, no I didn't...I put them right in your tackle box!

Man Dealing With Wife: *****

Man and wife traveling. Wife is nagging husband. A man marries the meanest woman in town. Everyone tells the man: man you’re crazy, that woman is the meanest woman in town. Every man she marries she drives him crazy. So the man says I have something for that. So they get on with their trip. The man and the woman are on one mule riding to their house.

On the way down the road the donkey slips up and stumbles and the man says "that's one time."

They get a little further down the road the donkey slips up again; the man says "that's two times."

They get a little further down the road and the donkey stumbles again, the man says "that's three times."

Then the man and wife got off the donkey and the man shoots it. The wife gets mad and says "man are you crazy that was our only transportation you son of a bitch!!

The man says, "That’s one time."

What Do You Do All Day? *****

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was piled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out of the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.

He looked at her bewildered and asked, “What happened here today?”

She again smiled and answered, “You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me sarcastically what in the world I do all day?”

“Yes,” was his incredulous reply.

She answered, “Well, today, I didn’t do it.”

Happy Words

gusto: great enjoyment, energy, and enthusiasm

— usually used in the phrase "with gusto".

Examples:

She ate her dinner with gusto.

He played the role of the villain with gusto.

Eureka Moment

Life lessons

Happiness Quotes

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

The mind is everything. What we think we become.

--Gautama Buddha

What we think, we become.

--Gautama Buddha

Words have the power to both destroy and heal when words are both true and kind, they can change our world.
--Gautama Buddha

Do not dwell in the past;
 do not dream of the future,
 concentrate the mind on the present moment.
--Gautama Buddha

I'm happy tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man.

--Martin Luther King Jr.

April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated

The ultimate measure of a man is not

where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,

but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

--Martin Luther King Jr.

Whatever your life's work is,

do it well.

A man should do his job so well

that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

--Martin Luther King Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;

only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate;

only love can do that.

--Martin Luther King Jr.

You are the author of your own life story.

--Anonymous

It is better to fill life in years,

then filling years in life.

--Anonymous

Be who you are

and say what you feel,

because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind.

--Dr. Seuss

You're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.
--Dr. Seuss

Never play with the feelings of others,

because you may win the game,

but the risk is that you will surely loose the person for life time.

--Shakespeare

Laughing faces do not mean that there is absence of sorrow!

But it means that they have the ability to deal with it.

--Shakespeare

The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people,

but because of the silence of good people!

--Napoleon

I am thankful to all those who said NO to me, its because of them I did it myself.

--Albert Einstein

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

--Albert Einstein

It takes a touch of genius,

and a lot of courage

to move in the opposite direction.

--Albert Einstein

A clever person solves a problem.

A wise person avoids it.

--Albert Einstein

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

--Albert Einstein

There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.

--Albert Einstein

If friendship is your weakest point then

you are the strongest person in the world.

--Abraham Lincoln

You can have anything you want;

if you want it badly enough.

You can be anything you want to be,

do anything you set out to accomplish

if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.

--Abraham Lincoln

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
--Abraham Lincoln

Opportunities are like sunrises,

if you wait too long you can miss them.

--William Arthur

When you are in the light, everything follows you,

but when you enter into the dark,

even your own shadow doesn't follow you.

--Adolf Hitler

It is very easy to defeat someone,

but it is very hard to win someone.

--Dr Abdul kalaam

It always seems impossible,

until it is done.

--Nelson Mandela

The difference between

a successful person and others

is not a lack of strength,

not a lack of knowledge,

but rather in a lack of will.

--Vince Lombardi

We would accomplish many more things

if we did not think of them as impossible.

--Vince Lombardi

There will be plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.
 Life is for living, so wake up and perform.

--Benjamin Franklin

Without continual growth and progress,

such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

--Benjamin Franklin

Content makes poor men rich;

discontentment makes rich men poor.

--Benjamin Franklin

Success; it 's what you do,

with what you've got.

--Woody Hayes

It had long since come to my attention

that people of accomplishment rarely

sat back and let things happen to them.

They went out and happened to things.

--Leonardo da Vinci

The most successful people are

those who do all year long

what they would otherwise do

on their summer vacation.

--Mark Twain

I dreamed impossible dreams.

And the dreams turned out beyond

anything I could possibly imagine.

--Hugh Hefner

Choice, not chance, determines your destiny.

--Aristotle

Anyone can become angry. That is easy.

But to be angry with the right person,

to the right degree,

at the right time,

for the right purpose and in the right way;

that is not easy.

--Aristotle

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
--Aristotle

You know you are on the road to success

if you would do your job,

and not be paid for it.

--Oprah Winfrey

The biggest adventure you can ever take

is to live the life of your dreams.

--Oprah Winfrey

Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

--Oprah Winfrey

Do the one thing you think you cannot do.

Fail at it. Try again.

Do better the second time.

The only people who never tumble

are those who never mount the high wire.

This is your moment. Own it.

--Oprah Winfrey

What God intended for you

goes far beyond anything you can imagine.

--Oprah Winfrey

The greatest discovery of all time is that

a person can change his future

by merely changing his attitude.

--Oprah Winfrey

Surround yourself with only people

who are going to lift you higher.

--Oprah Winfrey

Be thankful for what you have;

you'll end up having more.

If you concentrate on what you don't have,

you will never, ever have enough.

--Oprah Winfrey

If you give people tools,

[and they use] their natural ability and their curiosity,

they will develop things in ways

that will surprise you very much

beyond what you might have expected.

--Bill Gates

If you're not making mistakes,

then you're not doing anything.

--John Wooden

Our obligation is to give meaning to life.

--Elie Wiesel

If my mind can conceive it,

and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it.

--Muhammad Ali

It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out;

it's the pebble in your shoe.

--Muhammad Ali

It's the repetition of affirmations

that leads to belief.

And once that belief becomes a deep conviction,

things begin to happen.

--Muhammad Ali

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

--Wayne Gretzky

You get treated in life the way

you teach people to treat you.

--Wayne Dyer

The future starts today, not tomorrow.

--Pope John Paul II

It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.

--Babe Ruth

When it is obvious that

the goals cannot be reached,

don't adjust the goals,

adjust the action steps.

--Confucius

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

--Confucius

Just as a cautious businessman avoids

investing all his capital in one concern,

so wisdom would probably admonish us

also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.

--Sigmund Freud

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.

Live the life you have imagined.

Think big, think new, and think again:  It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see.
--Henry David Thoreau
 

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.

--Walt Disney

I dream,

I test my dreams against my beliefs,

I dare to take risks,

and I execute my vision to make those dreams come true.

--Walt Disney

All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them.
--Walt Disney

Insist on yourself. Never imitate.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Make the most of yourself,

for that is all there is of you.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

With the past, I have nothing to do;
 not with the future. I live now.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is not the strongest of the species that survive,

nor the most intelligent,

but the one most responsive to change.

--Charles Darwin

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,

but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

--Maria Robinson

I became an optimist when I discovered

that I wasn't going to win any more games

by being anything else.

--Earl Weaver

Your present circumstances

don't determine where you can go;

they merely determine where you start.

--Nido Qubein

An optimist is the human personification of spring.

--William Blake

Are you doing what you're doing today

because you want to do it,

or because it's what you were doing yesterday?

--Dr. Phil

In the business world,

the rear view mirror is always clearer

than the windshield.

--Warren Buffett

You want someone,

who can think about problems

that haven't yet existed before.

--Warren Buffett

A business has to be involving;

it has to be fun,

and needs to exercise your creative instincts.

--Richard Branson

Know the difference:

financially stable & financially independent

--Unknown

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

--Unknown

"In life/work we say

'Never say never and never say always.'

because funny things happen.

All you can do is give a statistical opinion."

--Mr R.

Improvement is always possible.

--The Satir Change Model

“What do you expect from me?” and

“What can I expect from you?”

This conversation topic works well

for any discussion on relationships.

If you think you can, you can.

And if you think you can't, you're right.

--Mary Kay Ash

Pretend that every single person

you meet has a sign around his or her neck

that says: "Make me feel important.",

Not only will you succeed in sales,

you will succeed in life.

--Mary Kay Ash

Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly,
 but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.
--Mary Kay Ash

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak,

Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

--Sir Winston Churchill

We make a living by what we get,

but we make a life by what we give.

--Sir Winston Churchill

Life isn't about finding yourself.

Life is about creating yourself.

--George Bernard Shaw

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable

but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

--George Bernard Shaw

Some men see things as they are and ask why.
 Others dream things that never were and ask why not.
--George Bernard Shaw

If you don’t know where you are going,

any path will take you there.

--Ancient Sioux Indian Proverb

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

--Mahatma Gandhi

Keep your thoughts positive, they become your words.
Keep your words positive, they become your behavior.
Keep your behavior positive, it becomes your habits.
Keep your habits positive, they becomes your value.
Keep your values positive, they becomes your destiny.

--Mahatma Gandhi


The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
--Mahatma Gandhi
The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of the questions that you dare to ask. Are you asking the right questions? Are you asking the right people? You can’t get answers, without questions; you can’t make progress, without an inquiring mind.

Enthusiasm is excitement

with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.

--Bo Bennett

Ask yourself what makes you come alive.

And then go and do that.

Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

--Harold Whitman

Life is full of obstacle illusions.

--Grant Frazier

All things are possible until they are proved impossible

and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.

--Pearl S. Buck

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence.

To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

--Pearl S. Buck

The mind is its own place,

and in itself,

can make heaven of Hell,

and a hell of Heaven.

--John Milton

Of all the things you wear,

your expression is the most important.

--Janet Lane

"Promise me you'll always remember

You're braver than you believe,

and stronger than you seem,

and smarter than you think." Christopher Robin to Pooh

--A. A. Milne

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being,

you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

--Abraham Maslow

Every child is an artist.

The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

--Pablo Picasso

Good judgment comes from experience;

experitence comes from bad judgment.

--Frederick P. Brooks

The day you take complete responsibility for yourself,

the day you stop making any excuses,

that's the day you start to the top.

--O. J. Simpson

If you limit your choices

only to what seems possible or reasonable,

you disconnect yourself from what you truly want,

and all that is left is compromise.

--Robert Fritz

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

--George Eliot

No matter what the problem is,

it's always a people problem.

--Geraldm Weinberg, The Psychology of Computer Programming

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders.

Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

-- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Take chances, make mistakes.

That's how you grow.

Pain nourishes your courage.

You have to fail in order to practice being brave.

-–Mary Tyler Moore

If you don’t go after what you want,

you’ll never have it.

If you don’t ask,

the answer is always no.

If you don’t step forward,

you’re always in the same place.

-−Nora Roberts

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.

I've lost almost 300 games.

Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life.

And that is why I succeed.

-−Michael Jordan

Do what you can with what you have where you are.
--Theodore Roosevelt

Nobody can make you feel inferior,

without your consent.

-−Eleanor Roosevelt

It took me a long time,

not to judge myself,

through someone else's eyes.

-−Sally Field

I quit being afraid when my first venture failed

and the sky didn't fall down.

-−Allen H. Neuharth

Hope never abandons you,

you abandon it.

-−George Weinberg

Life is 10% of what happens to me

and 90% of how I react to it.

-−John Maxwell

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards;

they try to have more things,

or more money,

in order to do more of what they want,

so they will be happier.

The way it actually works is the reverse.

You must first be who you really are,

then do what you need to do,

in order to have what you want.

--Margaret Young

Success is no accident.

It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice

and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.

--Pele

No act of kindness,
 no matter how small,
 is ever wasted.
--Aesop, from The Lion and the Mouse


Laugh and the world laughs with you,
 weep and you weep alone.
--Unknown

Choose the life that is most useful,
 and habit will make it the most agreeable.
--Sir Francis Bacon

It is the mind that maketh good or ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.
--Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599)

Being strong means rejoicing in who you are, complete with imperfections.
--Margaret Woodhouse

The only place you find success before work is in the dictionary.
--May V. Smith

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.
--Mikhail Gorbachev

So do not worry about tomorrow,
 for tomorrow will worry about itself.
 Each day has enough troubles of its own.
--Matthew 6:34

If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved, worrying will do you no good.
--Shantideva

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.
--Richard Carlson


If you completely put aside every form of belief, then there is no fear whatsoever.
--Jiddu Krishnamurty

Fear is there simply because you are not living with life, you are living in your mind.
--Sadhguru(Jaggi Vasudev)

Don't move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move.
--Osho

You are either in the past or in future;
 both are non-existent.
 You can’t do anything with the past, nor with the future.
 All that you can do is with the present,
 and if you are engaged somewhere else,
 it simply slips by and you have missed the train.
--Osho

There is no such thing as bad weather,
 just different kinds of good weather.
--Colonel Sanders

Too many people overvalue
 what they are not and
 undervalue what they are.
--Malcolm S. Forbes


Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.


Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
--Satchel Paige (Major League Baseball rookie at age 42. Pitched at age 60)


Go to the people.
 Learn from them.
 Live with them.
 Start with what they know.
 Build with what they have.
 The best of leaders when the job is done,
  when the task is accomplished,
  the people will say we have done it ourselves.
--Lao Tzu


When you choose to be pleasant and positive in the way you treat others,
 you have also chosen, in most cases, how you are going to be treated by others.
--Zig Ziglar

Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves week, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.

--Swami Vivekananda

Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.

--Confucius

Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for God rather than for people.
--Ephesians

None of our men are ‘experts’. We have most unfortunately found it necessary to get rid of a man  as soon as he thinks himself an expert because no one ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job. The moment one gets into the ‘expert’ state of mind a great number of things become impossible.
--Henry Ford Sr.

The moment one gets into the “expert” state of mind a great number of things becomes impossible.

--Henry Ford Sr.

In beginners’ mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.

--Shunryu Suzuki

The important thing is to strive towards a goal which is not immediately visible. That goal is not the concern of the mind, but of the spirit.
--Antoine de Saint – Exupery

Ours is a divine journey; therefore,
this journey has neither a beginning nor an end.
This journey has a goal,
but it does not stop at any goal,
for it has come to realize that today’s goal is only the starting point of tomorrow’s journey.
--Sri Chinmoy

Beautiful crafted words have the power to captivate the mind. A sweet-tongued man is loved by one and all. Audience is always attracted towards those who can speak efficiently and effectively.
--Sama Veda

Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.
--Rudyard Kipling

The ways to think about this big idea may just be ...infinite.
--Kid's book "Infinity and Me" by Kate Hosford and Gabi Swiatkowska

To be a champion you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.
--Sugar Ray Robinson 

Happiness Quotes