Something mysterious happens to a curious, fully engaged mind - and it happens as often as not, subconsciously. Strange little sparks are set off, connections made, insights triggered
Tom PetersI don't want an epitaph on my gravestone that says, 'He would have pursued some big dreams in his life, but other people wouldn't let him.
Tom PetersI endorse a lot of people - sometimes people say I endorse too many books. And my response has always been the same: If I can get one case study that can give me one good idea that I can implement for $25, or for these days one-third of that on Kindle, I've gotten a very good deal.
Tom PetersOnly those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead.
Tom PetersIn the great city of San Francisco, where I used to live, at 2 in the morning every other Victorian house has somebody who is writing the great American novel. And the city is not loaded with James Joyces or Virginia Woolfs. But entrepreneurship is about distorted views of reality.
Tom PetersThe top athletes are consummate pros who work obsessively at their craft. Approach yours the same way.
Tom PetersThe principal reason, invariably, most "successful" giant companies rather quickly become also-rans, or just amorphous blobs on the competitive landscape, is their failure to re-tool in anything like a fundamental way. In fact, the worse things get, typically, the more they dig in their heels and defend yesterday's turf.
Tom PetersLeadership is about tapping the wellsprings of human motivation - and about fundamental relations with one's fellows.
Tom PetersCommunity. A friend started a real estate brokerage a few years ago. By the time she'd added her second employee, she was a pillar of her 35,000-person community. No rule says that only the local banker or car dealer can organize the program to raise supplemental funds for the public library or send the high school band on a well-earned special trip. Participating in community affairs, with time more than dollars, is good business from day one. It gets your name around, adds to your distinctiveness, and, best of all, makes you an attractive employer (which is the key to sustained success).
Tom PetersI am confident that for the foreseeable future (barring some catastrophic event affecting economic, energy, electrical, and communications systems), many subpopulations that use information intensively (e.g., students, academics, library patrons, white collar workers) will be using some sort of portal information appliance.
Tom PetersIf you love your company and love what you do, you will serve your customers better-period!
Tom PetersGandhi and Mandela and Churchill and JFK and Reagan and Thatcher and Sarkozy and Franklin and Washington set the tone to an incredible degree-their "personal style" was their "brand." ("It" starts with personal style of the tip-top leadership team. Sorry to be politically insensitive, but who would give a hoot about Tibet if it weren't for the look and style of the Dalai Lama?) Boss at any level: You're either on the "it" boat-or not.
Tom PetersSend 10-TEN!!-people flowers. Today. As "Thank yous" for good things "small"-or even large-done in the last two weeks.
Tom PetersI don't read many business books. I read good fiction. Business is about people, so my favorite business books are anything by Dickens.
Tom PetersI'm about as far from being a flag-waver - you won't find any American flag pins in my drawer - as someone can be.
Tom PetersThe Chinese are quite entrepreneurial. Remember when Lenovo bought IBM's PC division. It was said that China didn't need a brand name, China didn't need to buy Lenovo to get into the PC business, I remember reading a one-liner somewhere which struck me as quite possibly true, it said the one thing that the Chinese had not been able to copy or figure out was the way, in terms of systems, that Americans - it probably would be true for Europeans as well - that Americans install and live by their management systems, while China is still quite half-assed. Perhaps that is a true statement.
Tom PetersThe dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible.
Tom PetersSkill at creating, exploiting, and exiting crucial alliances beats ownership of fixed assets
Tom PetersSteve Jobs is perhaps the most competitive human being I have ever met in my life, and yet I would argue one of the most artistic human beings I have ever met in my life. You can trash the movies all you want, but they do have an artistic component. And yet brutal competition knows no peers when it comes to Hollywood.
Tom PetersThe drive for control, or the perception thereof, is truly the strongest force in human nature.
Tom PetersThe company's most urgent task is to learn to welcome, beg for, demand - innovation from everyone.
Tom PetersIf there is a single tragic flaw that mars our biggest enterprises, it is conservatism - the failure to fail, and fail big, in an era of unprecedented volatility and ambiguity.
Tom PetersInnovation comes only from readily and seamlessly sharing information rather than hoarding it.
Tom PetersConfidence means non-paralysis, a willingness to act, and act decisively, to start new things and cut failing ventures off.
Tom PetersIf the other guy is getting better, then you'd better be getting better faster than the other guy is getting better... or you're getting worse.
Tom PetersStart by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors - or your colleagues. What have you done lately - this week - to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait?
Tom PetersNow that gigabytes of accessible, malleable information can be carried in one's pocket, we probably will start to see some widespread shifts and trends in how and where people interact with digital documents.
Tom Peters