Top 38 Best Quotes From Abraham Lincoln
One of the most famous people of all time, Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865) served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis.
Tolstoy called Lincoln “so great he overshadows all other national heroes”.
The most popular biography of Abraham Lincoln, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln written by American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, is not only a biography of Lincoln, but also of his three key rivals for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 1860, William Seward, Edward Bates and Salmon Chase.
When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. However, Lincoln’s extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men and to understand their motives and desires, enabled him, as president, to bring these opponents together, creating the most unusual cabinet in the history of the U.S., and using their talents to preserve the Union and win the war.
Abraham Lincoln’s Top 38 Quotes
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
― Abraham Lincoln
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves”
― Abraham Lincoln,
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to
succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“No man is poor who has a Godly mother.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all. ”
― Abraham Lincoln
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar”
― Abraham Lincoln
“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“All I have learned, I learned from books.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Top 32 Best Quotes From Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D. (1905 – 1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, an existential analysis founded upon the belief that striving to find meaning in life is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans (will to meaning). It is considered the “Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy”, the first and second schools being Freud’s psychoanalysis and Adler’s individual psychology who based their Psychoterapy respectively on the will to pleasure and the will to power.
His book Man’s Search for Meaning (first published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism) relates his experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describes his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then imagining that outcome.
According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. The book intends to answer the question “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?”
My Favorite Top 32 Quotes from Search for Meaning
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. ” —Viktor Frankl
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” —Viktor Frankl
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” —Viktor Frankl
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it” —Viktor Frankl
“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” —Viktor Frankl
“But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.” —Viktor Frankl
“Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.” —Viktor Frankl
“An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.” —Viktor Frankl
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” —Viktor Frankl
“In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.” —Viktor Frankl
“So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!” —Viktor Frankl
“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.” —Viktor Frankl
“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.” —Viktor Frankl
“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” —Viktor Frankl
“The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest. What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? No, thank you,’ he will think. ‘Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, although these are things which cannot inspire envy.” —Viktor Frankl
“I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.” —Viktor Frankl
“To draw an analogy: a man’s suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the “size” of human suffering is absolutely relative.” —Viktor Frankl
“Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.” —Viktor Frankl
“A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how”.” —Viktor Frankl
“By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. I have termed this constitutive characteristic “the self-transcendence of human existence.” It denotes the fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself–be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself–by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love–the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” —Viktor Frankl
“But today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness. If one is not cognizant of this difference and holds that an individual’s value stems only from his present usefulness, then, believe me, one owes it only to personal inconsistency not to plead for euthanasia along the lines of Hitler’s program, that is to say, ‘mercy’ killing of all those who have lost their social usefulness, be it because of old age, incurable illness, mental deterioration, or whatever handicap they may suffer. Confounding the dignity of man with mere usefulness arises from conceptual confusion that in turn may be traced back to the contemporary nihilism transmitted on many an academic campus and many an analytical couch.” —Viktor Frankl
“Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” —Viktor Frankl
“It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.” —Viktor Frankl
“I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsiblity on the West Coast.” —Viktor Frankl
“A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes – within the limits of endowment and environment- he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.” —Viktor Frankl
“For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.” —Viktor Frankl
“What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms.” —Viktor Frankl
“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.” —Viktor Frankl
“Dostoevski said once, “There is only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.” These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of the their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful.” —Viktor Frankl
“A man’s concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.” —Viktor Frankl
“The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes.” —Viktor Frankl
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances – to choose one’s own way.” —Viktor Frankl
———————————————————————-
Top 48 Best Quotes From Peter Drucker
Peter Ferdinand Drucker (1909 – 2005) was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education and he created the concept of management by objectives. He has been described as “the founder of modern management”.
Most popular books by Peter Drucker
Drucker’s books and scholarly and popular articles explored how humans are organized across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors of society. He is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers on the subject of management theory and practice.
Peter Drucker apparently wrote 39 books, probably more than anybody would want to read. I list below three of his best sellers that are worth reading, at least to start.
The Effective Executive
Managing Oneself
Essential Drucker
Top 48 Best Quotes From Peter Drucker
Reading quotes is not a good substitute for reading the books, but they are a concentrate of wisdom and quick to read.
“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” –Peter Drucker
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” –Peter Drucker
“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old” –Peter Drucker
“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” –Peter Drucker
“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” –Peter Drucker
“No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.” –Peter Drucker
“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” –Peter Drucker
“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” –Peter Drucker
“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” –Peter Drucker
“There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.” ––Peter Drucker
“What’s measured improves” –Peter Drucker
“Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation.” –Peter Drucker “Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.” –Peter Drucker
“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” –Peter Drucker
“Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” –Peter Drucker
“Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. ” –Peter Drucker
“This defines entrepreneur and entrepreneurship – the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” –Peter Drucker
“Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around you.” –Peter Drucker
“The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.” –Peter Drucker
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” –Peter Drucker
“People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete – the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.” –Peter Drucker
“The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission.” –Peter Drucker
“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.” –Peter Drucker
“Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship…the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” –Peter Drucker
“Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.” –Peter Drucker
“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window. ” –Peter Drucker
“When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course. ” –Peter Drucker
“Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.” –Peter Drucker
“The problem in my life and other people’s lives is not the absence of knowing what to do but the absence of doing it.” –Peter Drucker
“A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge. ” –Peter Drucker
“A person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all.” –Peter Drucker
“It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem – which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday.” –Peter Drucker
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” –Peter Drucker
“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” –Peter Drucker
“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” –Peter Drucker
“The “non-profit” institution neither supplies goods or services not controls. Its “product” is neither a pair of shoes nor an effective regulation. Its product is a changed human being. The non-profit institutions are human-change agents. Their “product” is a cured patient, a child that learns, a young man or woman grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether.” –Peter Drucker
“We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge workers should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.” –Peter Drucker
“Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results.” –Peter Drucker
“Entrepreneurship is “risky” mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing.” –Peter Drucker
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the
product or service fits him and sells itself.”
“Like so many brilliant people, he believes that ideas move mountains. But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show where the bulldozers should go to work.” –Peter Drucker
“Effectiveness must be learned.” –Peter Drucker
“Effective executives know that their subordinates are paid to perform and not to please their superiors.”
“Every enterprise is a learning and teaching institution. Training and development must be built into it on all levels—training and development that never stop.”
“The computer is a moron. ”–Peter Drucker
“A man should never be appointed to a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths. The man who always knows exactly what people cannot do, but never sees anything they can do, will undermine the spirit of his organization.”
“Working on the right things is what makes knowledge work effective.” –Peter Drucker
“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” –Peter Drucker
“The companies that refused to make hard choices, or refused to admit that anything much was happening, fared badly. If they survive, it is only because their respective governments will not let them go under.” –Peter Drucker
Neal A. Maxwell: 25 Inspiring Quotes From his Books
Neal Ash Maxwell (July 6, 1926 – July 21, 2004) was an American scholar, educator, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1981 until his death.
Some of Neal A. Maxwell’s books
1- All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience
2- Not My Will, but Thine
3- If Thou Endure It Well
4 -The Promise of Discipleship
5- Notwithstanding my Weakness
25 inspiring Quotes from Neal A. Maxwell
“We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.”
“The laughter of the world is merely loneliness pathetically trying to reassure itself.”
“Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God’s purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives, on His timetable.”
“God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.”
“Faith in God includes Faith in God’s timing.”
“The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we ‘give’ are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us.”
“Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus!”
“If we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us to do those very things which are most difficult for us to do.”
“When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time.”
“If, in the end, you have not chosen Jesus Christ it will not matter what you have chosen.”
“No love is ever wasted. Its worth does not lie in reciprocity. ”
“God’s extraordinary work is most often done by ordinary people in the seeming obscurity of a home and family.”
“Never give up what you want most for what you want today.”
“Let us have integrity and not write checks with our tongues which our conduct cannot cash.”
“We cannot improve the world if we are conformed to the world.”
“Empathy during agony is a portion of divinity.”
“Coming unto the Lord is not a negotiation, but a surrender.”
“Perfect love is perfectly patient.”
“If the kingdom of God is not first, it doesn’t matter what’s second.”
“I testify that He is utterly incomparable in what He is, what He knows, what He has accomplished and what He has experienced. Yet, movingly, He calls us His Friends”
“When we rejoice in beautiful scenery, great art, and great music, it is but the flexing of instincts acquired in another place and another time.”
“Even if work were not an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity.”
“It is extremely important for you to believe in yourselves not only for what you are now but for what you have the power to become. Trust in the Lord as He leads you along. He has things for you to do that you won’t know about now but that will unfold later. If you stay close to Him, You will have some great adventures. You will live in a time where instead of sometimes being fulfilled, many of them will actually be fulfilled. The Lord will unfold your future bit by bit.”
“In the economy of Heaven, God does not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough, or a prophet if a priest can do the job.”
“The acceptance of the reality that we are in the Lord’s loving hands is only a recognition that we have never really been anywhere else.”
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman – Book Review
Many years ago, not long after I got married, I remember listening to a talk given in Church about love in marriage. Since the talk was in Italian and was given 30 years ago, I cannot remember the exact words that were used, but the concept was clear then and it is even more clear now: to love someone is not like getting a virus.
People who give up too easily on relationships because – they say – have fallen out of love, don’t really understand the real meaning of loving someone. We don’t fall in love as if we were getting a virus, and then fall out of love as if we were cured. Love is not a virus over which we don’t have any control. Real love requires action.
Keeping the Relationship Alive
In the #1 New York Times bestseller The 5 Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, Dr. Gary Chapman explains how couples can keep their relationship alive and growing in spite of the demands, conflicts, and even some boredom of everyday life. It is an effective approach that help couples to “stay in love” and not “fall out of love” too easily.
Some couples believe that the end of the “in-love” experience means they have only two options: to live a dull life with their current spouse or to find another spouse. However, there is another better alternative: they can pursue real love and understand that the in-love experience is mostly a temporary emotional high that don’t have the power to sustain a long term relationship.
In order to be successful in the pursuit of lasting love, however, it is important to recognize that people speak different love languages. Chapman believes that there are 5 Love Languages, or 5 ways to communicate love to one another. If we want a long-lasting and loving marriage, we need to identify and learn to speak our spouse’s primary love language. While they may all be important, there is one love language that is the most dominant and vital for each person to feel loved consistently.
The five ways (love languages) to express and experience love according to Gary Chapman are:
- Words of Affirmation (compliments and verbal praises)
- Quality Time (undivided attention and meaningful activities together)
- Receiving Gifts (gift like flowers, chocolates, cards, notes, etc)
- Acts of Service (something that “shows” the love like cleaning the house, doing the dishes or the laundry, helping with projects, etc)
- Physical Touch (holding hands, being kissed, hugging, touches, etc)
The Love Tank
When people don’t feel loved, when their “love tank” is empty, that’s when their relationship is most in danger. Gary Chapman shares many examples of couples who were able to save their marriages by simply discovering their respective love languages and by learning to focus on making their partner feel loved through a particular “language”.
A question partners should regularly ask is: On a scale from 1-10, how full is your love tank right now?
Relationships have a higher probability of being successful when we focus on making our partner feel more loved. Identifying and then using their love language when interacting with them will substantially increase the success of the relationship.
Overall, this is a great book that will have a very positive impact on many troubled relationship or will help strengthen even more already successful ones.
3 Quotes from the 5 Love Languages
“People tend to criticize their spouse most loudly in the area where they themselves have the deepest emotional need.”
― Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate
“Real love” – “This kind of love is emotional in nature but not obsessional. It is a love that unites reason and emotion. It involves an act of the will and requires discipline, and it recognizes the need for personal growth.”
― Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate
“For love, we will climb mountains, cross seas, traverse desert sands, and endure untold hardships. Without love, mountains become unclimbable, seas uncrossable, deserts unbearable, and hardships our lot in life.”
― Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate
———————–
To check out The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman on Amazon.com, click here.
Top 25 Best Quotes From Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t is the natural extension of Start with Why, expanding his ideas at the organizational level. Determining a company’s WHY is crucial, but it is only the beginning. The next step is how do you get people on board with your WHY? Through powerful and inspiring stories, Sinek describes how to support an organization’s WHY while continually adding people to the mix.
The book was inspired by a conversation Sinek had with a Marine Corps general who told him that ‘officers eat last’. When they go to eat, junior marines eat first while the most senior officers take their place at the back of the line in the chow hall. In other words, great leaders sacrifice their own comfort for the good of those in their care.
My Favorite Top 25 Quotes From Leaders Eat Last
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“As the Zen Buddhist saying goes, how you do anything is how you do everything.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“Returning from work feeling inspired, safe, fulfilled and grateful is a natural human right to which we are all entitled and not a modern luxury that only a few lucky ones are able to find.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“And when a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers, then people will follow, solve problems and see to it that that leader’s vision comes to life the right way, a stable way and not the expedient way.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“It is not the genius at the top giving directions that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“Stress and anxiety at work have less to do with the work we do and more to do with weak management and leadership.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“The rank of office is not what makes someone a leader. Leadership is the choice to serve others with or without any formal rank.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“Integrity is when our words and deeds are consistent with our intentions.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“All the perks, all the benefits and advantages you may get for the rank or position you hold, they aren’t meant for you. They are meant for the role you fill. And when you leave your role, which eventually you will, they will give the ceramic cup to the person who replaces you. Because you only ever deserved a Styrofoam cup.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“Leaps of greatness require the combined problem-solving ability of people who trust each other.” ― Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
“The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull together as a team.”
“Good leadership is like exercise. We do not see any improvement to our bodies with day-to-day comparisons. In fact, if we only compare the way our bodies look on a given day to how they looked the previous day, we would think our efforts had been wasted. It’s only when we compare pictures of ourselves over a period of weeks or months that we can see a stark difference. The impact of leadership is best judged over time”
“Leadership takes work. It takes time and energy. The effects are not always easily measured and they are not always immediate. Leadership is always a commitment to human beings.”
“It is not the demands of the job that cause the most stress, but the degree of control workers feel they have throughout their day. The studies also found that the effort required by a job is not in itself stressful, but rather the imbalance between the effort we give and the reward we feel. Put simply: less control, more stress.”
“And that’s what trust is. We don’t just trust people to obey the rules, we also trust that they know when to break them.”
“Leadership is not a license to do less; it is a responsibility to do more.”
“Truly human leadership protects an organization from the internal rivalries that can shatter a culture. When we have to protect ourselves from each other, the whole organization suffers. But when trust and cooperation thrive internally, we pull together and the organization grows stronger as a result.”
“I know of no case study in history that describes an organization that has been managed out of a crisis. Every single one of them was led.”
“The cost of leadership,” explains Lieutenant General George Flynn of the United States Marine Corps, “is self-interest.”
“What this means is that the converse is also true. A supportive and well-managed work environment is good for one’s health. Those who feel they have more control, who feel empowered to make decisions instead of waiting for approval, suffer less stress. Those only doing as they are told, always forced to follow the rules, are the ones who suffer the most. Our feelings of control, stress, and our ability to perform at our best are all directly tied to how safe we feel in our organizations. Feeling unsafe around those we expect to feel safe—those in our tribes (work is the modern version of the tribe)—fundamentally violates the laws of nature and how we were designed to live.”
“A 2011 study conducted by a team of social scientists at the University of Canberra in Australia concluded that having a job we hate is as bad for our health and sometimes worse than not having a job at all.”
“Children are better off having a parent who works into the night in a job they love than a parent who works shorter hours but comes home unhappy. This is the influence our jobs have on our families. Working late does not negatively affect our children, but rather, how we feel at work does. Our jobs don’t just affect us. They affect our families.”
Buy on Amazon: Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
Top 20 Best Quotes from How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is an old classic, a timeless bestseller. Dale Carnegie’s advice has already helped countless people to become better people and better leaders. I loved reading this book and I should read it again.
Dale Harbison Carnegie (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer. He developed famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people’s behavior by changing one’s behavior toward them first.
———————————————————————
My Favorite Top 20 Quotes from How To Win Friends and Influence People
“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
“Don’t be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.”
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
“Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”
“Everybody in the world is seeking happiness—and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.”
“Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.”
“Actions speak louder than words, and a smile says, ‘I like you. You make me happy. I am glad to see you.”
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”
“Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and said: “Wouldn’t you like to have that?”
Why not use the same common sense when fishing for people?”
“A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still”
“The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.”
“You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.”
“To be interesting, be interested.”
“Names are the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
“I have come to the conclusion that there is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument— and that is to avoid it. Avoid it as you would avoid rattlesnakes and earthquakes.”
“If You Want to Gather Honey, Don’t Kick Over the Beehive”
“All men have fears, but the brave put down their fears and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to victory.”
“Why talk about what we want? That is childish. Absurd. Of course, you are interested in what you want. You are eternally interested in it. But no one else is. The rest of us are just like you: we are interested in what we want.”
“Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurt his sense of importance and arouse resentment.”
“Winning friends begins with friendliness.”
Top 45 Best Quotes from Grit by Angela Lee Duckworth
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein, physicist, 1879-1955.
Angela Lee Duckworth (born 1970) has an impressive background as a global management consultant, inner-city teacher, and research psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her PhD. She also has a BA in neurobiology from Harvard and a MSc in neuroscience from Oxford. Duckworth believes that what really drives success is not talent, intelligence or even a particular set of skills, but instead a combination of passion and long-term perseverance she defines as Grit.
According to Angela Duckworth, Grit is the combination of passion and perseverance. Through years of research, she found grit to be a stronger predictor of high-achievement than intelligence, talent and other personality traits.
Angela Duckworth’s 2016 book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance surveys a range of challenging endeavors, including the difficult process of writing and rewriting novels, the physically and emotionally struggles of surviving the seven-week “Beast Barracks” at West Point, or the training needed to become a successful swimmer or even to win spelling bees competition.
In all of these activities, Duckworth finds that those who stand out have more grit. Too many quit what they start far too early and far too often, but the gritty people don’t give up easily and continue what they have started, improving through deliberate practice, often becoming better than those who are more talented in the same area.
But what makes one person grittier than another? Duckworth recognizes several components that help make people grittier. The first is a great passion for something. “Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it.” The second component is a tolerance for the mundane. “The most dazzling human achievements are, in fact, the aggregate of countless individual elements, each of which, in a sense, ordinary,” The third component is a connection to like-minded communities. “If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture and join it.” The last component is a willingness to face failure.
I still remember a comment made by one of the professors when I was starting my PhD Program in Marriage, Family and Human Development at Brigham Young University. Since I had obtained a Master in Business Administration a couple of years before, he was convinced that I considered myself smarter than the average student in their PhD program. So, in his comment, he stressed that to be successful and finish a PhD program, perseverance (or grit) is a lot more important than being smart. I absolutely agree, and Duckworth would agree too.
My Favorite 45 Quotes from Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
“Learning from mistakes is something babies and toddlers don’t mind at all. . . . Watch a baby struggle to sit up, or a toddler learn to walk: you’ll see one error after another, failure after failure, a lot of challenge exceeding skill, a lot of concentration, a lot of feedback. . . . Very young children don’t seem tortured while they’re trying to do things they can’t yet do.”
“Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”
“Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”
“It soon became clear that doing one thing better and better might be more satisfying than staying an amateur at many different things:”
“There are no shortcuts to excellence. Developing real expertise, figuring out really hard problems, it all takes time―longer than most people imagine….you’ve got to apply those skills and produce goods or services that are valuable to people….Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it…it’s doing what you love, but not just falling in love―staying in love.”
“I won’t just have a job; I’ll have a calling. I’ll challenge myself every day. When I get knocked down, I’ll get back up. I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I’ll strive to be the grittiest.”
“As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.”
“Nobody wants to show you the hours and hours of becoming. They’d rather show the highlight of what they’ve become.”
“Grit grows as we figure out our life philosophy, learn to dust ourselves off after rejection and disappointment, and learn to tell the difference between low-level goals that should be abandoned quickly and higher-level goals that demand more tenacity. The maturation story is that we develop the capacity for long-term passion and perseverance as we get older.”
“When you keep searching for ways to change your situation for the better, you stand a chance of finding them. When you stop searching, assuming they can’t be found, you guarantee they won”
“Interests are not discovered through introspection. Instead, interests are triggered by interactions with the outside world. The process of interest discovery can be messy, serendipitous, and inefficient. This is because you can’t really predict with certainty what will capture your attention and what won’t…Without experimenting, you can’t figure out which interests will stick, and which won’t.”
“most dazzling human achievements are, in fact, the aggregate of countless individual elements, each of which is, in a sense, ordinary.”
“At its core, the idea of purpose is the idea that what we do matters to people other than ourselves.”
“Stop reading so much and go think.”
“One form of perseverance is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday. So,”
“It isn’t suffering that leads to hopelessness. It’s suffering you think you can’t control.”
“Without effort, your talent is nothing more than unmet potential. Without effort, your skill is nothing more than what you could have done but didn’t.”
“Passion for your work is a little bit of discovery, followed by a lot of development, and then a lifetime of deepening.”
“As soon as possible, experts hungrily seek feedback on how they did. Necessarily, much of that feedback is negative. This means that experts are more interested in what they did wrong—so they can fix it—than what they did right. The active processing of this feedback is as essential as its immediacy.”
“Well okay, that didn’t go so well, but I guess I will just carry on.’ ”
“Staying on the treadmill is one thing, and I do think it’s related to staying true to our commitments even when we’re not comfortable. But getting back on the treadmill the next day, eager to try again, is in my view even more reflective of grit. Because when you don’t come back the next day—when you permanently turn your back on a commitment—your effort plummets to zero. As a consequence, your skills stop improving, and at the same time, you stop producing anything with whatever skills you have.”
“In other words, we want to believe that Mark Spitz was born to swim in a way that none of us were and that none of us could. We don’t want to sit on the pool deck and watch him progress from amateur to expert. We prefer our excellence fully formed. We prefer mystery to mundanity.”
“There’s a vast amount of research on what happens when we believe a student is especially talented. We begin to lavish extra attention on them and hold them to higher expectations. We expect them to excel, and that expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Passion begins with intrinsically enjoying what you do.”
“Three bricklayers are asked: “What are you doing?” The first says, “I am laying bricks.” The second says, “I am building a church.” And the third says, “I am building the house of God.” The first bricklayer has a job. The second has a career. The third has a calling.”
“When I am around people,” Kat wrote, “my heart and soul radiate with the awareness that I am in the presence of greatness. Maybe greatness unfound, or greatness underdeveloped, but the potential or existence of greatness nevertheless. You never know who will go on to do good or even great things or become the next great influencer in the world—so treat everyone like they are that person.”
“Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius,” Nietzsche said. “For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking. . . . To call someone ‘divine’ means: ‘here there is no need to compete.”
“Grit depends on a different kind of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. “I have a feeling tomorrow will be better” is different from “I resolve to make tomorrow better.”
“To be gritty is to resist complacency.”
“The bottom line on culture and grit is: If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture and join it. If you’re a leader, and you want the people in your organization to be grittier, create a gritty culture.”
“People assume you have to have some special talent to do mathematics,” Sylvia has said. “They think you’re either born with it, or you’re not. But Rhonda and I keep saying, ‘You actually develop the ability to do mathematics. Don’t give up!”
“A fixed mindset about ability leads to pessimistic explanations of adversity, and that, in turn, leads to both giving up on challenges and avoiding them in the first place. In contrast, a growth mindset leads to optimistic ways of explaining adversity, and that, in turn, leads to perseverance and seeking out new challenges that will ultimately make you even stronger.”
“Optimistic young adults stay healthier throughout middle age and, ultimately, live longer than pessimists.”
“Optimists are more satisfied with their marriages.”
“trying to do things they can’t yet do, failing, and learning what they need to do differently is exactly the way that experts practice.”
“When it comes to how we fare in the marathon of life, effort counts tremendously.”
“I’m not going to lie,” he replied. “I never really enjoyed going to practice, and I certainly didn’t enjoy it while I was there. In fact, there were brief moments, walking to the pool at four or four-thirty in the morning, or sometimes when I couldn’t take the pain, when I’d think, ‘God, is this worth it?’ ” “So why didn’t you quit?” “It’s very simple,” Rowdy said. “It’s because I loved swimming. . . . I had a passion for competing, for the result of training, for the feeling of being in shape, for winning, for traveling, for meeting friends. I hated practice, but I had an overall passion for swimming.”
“What we accomplish in the marathon of life depends tremendously on our grit—our passion and perseverance for long-term goals.”
“Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
“Most of us become more conscientious, confident, caring, and calm with life experience.”
“Have a fierce resolve in everything you do.” “Demonstrate determination, resiliency, and tenacity.” “Do not let temporary setbacks become permanent excuses.” And, finally, “Use mistakes and problems as opportunities to get better—not reasons to quit.”
“In the most general sense, talent is the sum of a person’s abilities—his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character, and drive. It also includes his or her ability to learn and grow.”
“If you want to bring forth grit in your child, first ask how much passion and perseverance you have for your own life goals. Then ask yourself how likely it is that your approach to parenting encourages your child to emulate you.”
“Since novelty is what your brain craves, you’ll be tempted to move on to something new, and that could be what makes the most sense. However, if you want to stay engaged for more than a few years in any endeavor, you’ll need to find a way to enjoy the nuances that only a true aficionado can appreciate. “The old in the new is what claims the attention,” said William James. “The old with a slightly new turn.”
“The scientific research is very clear that experiencing trauma without control can be debilitating. But I also worry about people who cruise through life, friction-free, for a long, long time before encountering their first real failure. They have so little practice falling and getting up again. They have so many reasons to stick with a fixed mindset. I see a lot of invisibly vulnerable high-achievers stumble in young adulthood and struggle to get up again. I call them the “fragile perfects.” Sometimes I meet fragile perfects in my office after a midterm or a final. Very quickly, it becomes clear that these bright and wonderful people know how to succeed but not how to fail.”
BUY ON AMAZON: Angela Duckworth’s 2016 book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
HOW GRITTY ARE YOU? ABOUT CHAPTER FOUR OF THE BOOK “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance“
Top 41 Best Quotes from Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
The title and the message of the book by Brené Brown Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, are inspired by a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt in 1910, where Roosevelt said:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
According to Brené Brown, Roosevelt’s words perfectly summarize her research into why people find being vulnerable such a hard thing to do.
BRENÉ BROWN
Casandra Brené Brown PhD LMSW (born November 18, 1965) is a research professor at the University of Houston.
She has spent her career studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of five #1 New York Times best sellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and her latest book, Dare to Lead, which is the culmination of a seven-year study on courage and leadership.
Brown’s TED talk – The Power of Vulnerability – is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 35 million views.
My Favorite Top 41 Quotes from Daring Greatly
“When we spend our lives waiting until we’re perfect or bulletproof before we walk into the arena, we ultimately sacrifice relationships and opportunities that may not be recoverable, we squander our precious time, and we turn our backs on our gifts, those unique contributions that only we can make,” says Brown. “Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don’t exist in the human experience.”
“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can’t survive.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordinary. I see the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“What we know matters but who we are matters more.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“I carry a small sheet of paper in my wallet that has written on it the names of people whose opinions of me matter. To be on that list, you have to love me for my strengths and struggles. You have to know that I’m trying to be Wholehearted, but I still cuss too much, flip people off under the steering wheel, and have both Lawrence Welk and Metallica on my iPod.”
“We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.”
“Raising children who are hopeful and who have the courage to be vulnerable means stepping back and letting them experience disappointment, deal with conflict, learn how to assert themselves, and have the opportunity to fail. If we’re always following our children into the arena, hushing the critics, and assuring their victory, they’ll never learn that they have the ability to dare greatly on their own.”
“Numb the dark and you numb the light.”
“The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.”
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.”
“Connection is why we’re here; it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives. The power that connection holds in our lives was confirmed when the main concern about connection emerged as the fear of disconnection; the fear that something we have done or failed to do, something about who we are or where we come from, has made us unlovable and unworthy of connection.”
“Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.”
“The real questions for parents should be: “Are you engaged? Are you paying attention?” If so, plan to make lots of mistakes and bad decisions. Imperfect parenting moments turn into gifts as our children watch us try to figure out what went wrong and how we can do better next time. The mandate is not to be perfect and raise happy children. Perfection doesn’t exist, and I’ve found what makes children happy doesn’t always prepare them to be courageous, engaged adults.”
“I’ve found what makes children happy doesn’t always prepare them to be courageous, engaged adults.”
“Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.”
“I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. With that definition in mind, let’s think about love. Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow—that’s vulnerability.”
“Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.”
“Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting.”
“To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.”
“Worrying about scarcity is our culture’s version of post-traumatic stress. It happens when we’ve been through too much, and rather than coming together to heal (which requires vulnerability) we’re angry and scared and at each other’s throats.”
“We live in a world where most people still subscribe to the belief that shame is a good tool for keeping people in line. Not only is this wrong, but it’s dangerous. Shame is highly correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression, eating disorders, and bullying.”
“Those who feel lovable, who love, and who experience belonging simply believe they are worthy of love and belonging. I often say that Wholeheartedness is like the North Star: We never really arrive, but we certainly know if we’re headed in the right direction.”
“Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engaging. It’s being all in.”
“Only when we’re brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
“Living a connected life ultimately is about setting boundaries, spending less time and energy hustling and winning over people who don’t matter, and seeing the value of working on cultivating connection with family and close friends.”
“…In its original Latin form, sacrifice means to make sacred or to make holy. I wholeheartedly believe that when we are fully engaged in parenting, regardless of how imperfect, vulnerable, and messy it is, we are creating something sacred.”
“Belonging: Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”
“Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?”
“Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.”
“One of the biggest surprises in this research was learning that fitting in and belonging are not the same thing. In fact, fitting in is one of the greatest barriers to belonging. Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be in order to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”
“Shame resilience is the ability to say, “This hurts. This is disappointing, maybe even devastating. But success and recognition and approval are not the values that drive me. My value is courage and I was just courageous. You can move on, shame.”
“When we stop caring about what people think, we lose our capacity for connection. When we become defined by what people think, we lose our willingness to be vulnerable. If we dismiss all the criticism, we lose out on important feedback, but if we subject ourselves to the hatefulness, our spirits gets crushed. It’s a tightrope, shame resilience is the balance bar, and the safety net below is the one or two people in our lives who can help us reality-check the criticism and cynicism.”
“We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.”
“Connection is why we’re here. We are hardwired to connect with others, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering.”
“There is no intimacy without vulnerability. Yet another powerful example of vulnerability as courage.”
“Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving for excellence. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth. Perfectionism is a defensive move. It’s the belief that if we do things perfectly and look perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame.”
“When we feel good about the choices we’re making and when we’re engaging with the world from a place of worthiness rather than scarcity, we feel no need to judge and attack.”
“What we know matters, but who we are matters more.”
BUY ON AMAZON: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead,
Top 40 Best Quotes from The Gift of Imperfection by Brené Brown
Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are is an amazing book.
This book has sold more than 2 million copies in more than 30 different languages, and Forbes recently named one of the “Five Books That Will Actually Change Your Outlook On Life”.
The Gift of Imperfection is more than a self-help book, it is a motivational and inspiring guide to what she calls “wholehearted” living. For Brené Brown “Wholehearted Living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.”
According to Brené Brown, Wholeheartedness rests on two triads: courage, compassion, and connection; and love, belonging, and worthiness. Brown identifies ten common factors in Wholehearted people’s lives. She calls them guideposts, and each one is explained in a brief chapter. They are:
- Authenticity
- Self-Compassion
- Resilient Spirit
- Gratitude and Joy
- Intuition and Trusting Faith
- Creativity
- Play and Rest
- Calm and Stillness
- Meaningful Work
- Laughter, Song, and Dance
The 126 pages of the book are densely packed, and is a smart and challenging book.
My Favorite 40 Quotes from The Gift of Imperfection
Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”
― Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”
― Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.”
― Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“To love someone fiercely, to believe in something with your whole heart, to celebrate a fleeting moment in time, to fully engage in a life that doesn’t come with guarantees – these are risks that involve vulnerability and often pain. But, I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude and grace.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?” Perfectionism is other-focused: “What will they think?”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“If we share our shame story with the wrong person, they can easily become one more piece of flying debris in an already dangerous storm.”
― Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“We’re a nation hungry for more joy: Because we’re starving from a lack of gratitude.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Until we can receive with an open heart, we’re never really giving with an open heart. When we attach judgment to receiving help, we knowingly or unknowingly attach judgment to giving help.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“E.E Cummings wrote, “To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight- and never stop fighting.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“One of the greatest barriers to connection is the cultural importance we place on “going it alone.” Somehow we’ve come to equate success with not needing anyone. Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re very reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as if we’ve divided the world into “those who offer help” and “those who need help.” The truth is that we are both.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“E.E Cummings wrote, “To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight- and never stop fighting.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Cruelty is easy, cheap and rampant.”
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
“Courage is like—it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.”
“Sufficiency isn’t two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn’t a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.”
“To become fully human means learning to turn my gratitude for being alive into some concrete common good. It means growing gentler toward human weakness. It means practicing forgiveness of my and everyone else’s hourly failures to live up to divine standards. It means learning to forget myself on a regular basis in order to attend to the other selves in my vicinity. It means living so that “I’m only human” does not become an excuse for anything. It means receiving the human condition as blessing and not curse, in all its achingly frail and redemptive reality.”
“We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.” “Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.”
“Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it- it can’t survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy. When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes.”
“Perfectionism is not the same thing has striving to be your best. Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgement, and shame. It’s a shield. It’s a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from flight.”
“Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.”
“Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
“Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”
“Of this, I am actually certain. After collecting thousands of stories, I’m willing to call this a fact: A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all women, men, and children. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.”
“Ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth.”
“If we can find someone who has earned the right to hear our story, we need to tell it. Shame loses power when it is spoken. In this way, we need to cultivate our story to let go of shame, and we need to develop shame resilience in order to cultivate our story.”
“When I let go of trying to be everything to everyone, I had much more time, attention, love, and connection for the important people in my life.” “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.”
“Hope is really a thought.”
“If we want to live a Wholehearted life, we have to become intentional about cultivating sleep and play, and about letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth.”
“People may call what happens at midlife “a crisis,” but it’s not. It’s an unraveling—a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you’re “supposed” to live. The unraveling is a time when you are challenged by the universe to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are.”
“Now I understand that in order to feel a true sense of belonging, I need to bring the real me to the table and that I can only do that if I’m practicing self-love. For years I thought it was the other way around: I’ll do whatever it takes to fit in, I’ll feel accepted, and that will make me like myself better. Just typing those words and thinking about how many years I spent living that way makes me weary. No wonder I was tired for so long!”
“Our stories are not meant for everyone. Hearing them is a privilege, and we should always ask ourselves this before we share: “Who has earned the right to hear my story?” If we have one or two people in our lives who can sit with us and hold space for our shame stories, and love us for our strengths and struggles, we are incredibly lucky.”
BUY ON AMAZON: Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
Top 26 Quotes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Stephen R. Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide since its first publication. The audio version of this book became the first non-fiction audio-book in U.S. publishing history to sell more than one million copies.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is a self-improvement book. According to Covey, the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions. In order to change a given situation, we must change ourselves, and in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions.
Since we all want to succeed, identifying the habits that can help us on our journey is key to our success. Covey organizes his book in a series of habits, showing them as a progression from dependence through independence on to interdependence.
Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls “true north” principles based on a character ethics that he presents as universal and timeless and in opposition to what he calls the personality ethic. The personality ethic is prevalent in many modern self-help books, but this ethic is faulty and not based on timeless principles.
Covey, in his analysis, separates principles from values. He believes that principles are external natural laws, while values are internal and subjective. Our values govern our behavior, but external principles ultimately determine the consequences.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is one of the most influential books ever written.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw”
My Favorite Top 26 Quotes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
“Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
“Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It’s not logical; it’s psychological.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”
“It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”
“If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.”
“It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.”
“People have character strength but they lack communication skills, and that undoubtedly affects the quality of relationships as well.”
“Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.”
“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”
“At some time in your life, you probably had someone believe in you when you didn’t believe in yourself.”
“Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love the verb or our loving actions. So love her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her.”
“The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.”
“Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential.”
“Courage isn’t absence of fear, it is the awareness that something else is important”
“Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.”
“As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves.”
“Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.”
“Albert Einstein observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”
“People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them.”
“How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.”
“Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.”
“The person who doesn’t read is no better off than the person who can’t read.”
“Leadership is communicating others’ worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.”
Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change: Buy on Amazon
Top 23 Best Quotes from “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a fascinating story of the roller-coaster life and intense personality of Steve Jobs, a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries.
While Steve Jobs said that he wouldn’t interfere with the writing of his biography, he carefully chose Isaacson to write it. Isaacson is the author of biographies about famous figures like Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein or men who changed history. Steve Jobs considered himself of the same caliber of those men and therefore Isaacson was the right choice for him.
Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs is in some ways another Jobs’ carefully crafted product, because Steve Jobs is a book that seems to be narrated through the often discussed “reality distortion field” of Jobs himself.
My Favorite Top 23 Quotes from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
“One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“If you act like you can do something, then it will work.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Steve Jobs: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery. (Steve Jobs)” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Picasso had a saying – ‘good artists copy, great artists steal’ – and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden, one day, and he started talking about God. He [Jobs] said, “ Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50/50, maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more, maybe it’s because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated, somehow it lives on.”Then he paused for a second and said, “Yea, but sometimes, I think it’s just like an On-Off switch. Click. And you’re gone.” And then he paused again and said, “ And that’s why I don’t like putting On-Off switches on Apple devices.”Joy to the WORLD! There IS an after-life!”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Some people say, “Give the customers what they want.” But that’s not my approach. Out job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!'” People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done. Jobs responded by scoffing, “Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“You should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“The people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently,” he said. “The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Steve Jobs had a tendency to see things in a binary way: “A person was either a hero or a bozo, a product was either amazing or shit”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“The way we’re running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really simple.” Apple’s design mantra would remain the one featured on its first brochure: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Jobs insisted that Apple focus on just two or three priorities at a time. “There is no one better at turning off the noise that is going on around him,” Cook said. “That allows him to focus on a few things and say no to many things. Few people are really good at that.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“I think the biggest innovations of the twenty-first century will be the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning, just like the digital one was when I was his age.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“In the first 30 years of your life, you make your habits. For the last 30 years of your life, your habits make you.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Steve has a reality distortion field.” When Hertzfeld looked puzzled, Tribble elaborated. “In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organize a company. The whole notion of how you build a company is fascinating.” Steve Jobs”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“The main thing in our design is that we have to make things intuitively obvious.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
“I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
Top 25 Best Quotes From The Lean Startup by Eric Reis
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses is a book by Eric Reis that presents a method for developing and managing startups or new ventures in bigger organizations.
According to Reis, startups need to operate following their own methods in order to succeed. What works in established companies may actually damage the development of a startup. However, startups policies and procedures shouldn’t be created at random, but they should be the result of proper techniques and research. For more details see my post The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: Book Review
My Favorite Top 25 Quotes from The Lean Startup
1. “The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”
― Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
2. “We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”
― Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
3. “As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek.”
― Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
4. “A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”
5. “If you cannot fail, you cannot learn.”
6. “The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built? This places us in an unusual historical moment: our future prosperity depends on the quality of our collective imaginations.”
7. “Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop is at the core of the Lean Startup model.”
8. “Innovation is a bottoms-up, decentralized, and unpredictable thing, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be managed.”
9. “This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.”
10. “The lesson of the MVP is that any additional work beyond what was required to start learning is waste, no matter how important it might have seemed at the time.”
11. “When in doubt, simplify.”
12. “When blame inevitably arises, the most senior people in the room should repeat this mantra: if a mistake happens, shame on us for making it so easy to make that mistake.”
13. “Customers don’t care how much time something takes to build. They care only if it serves their needs.”
14. “Metcalfe’s law: the value of a network as a whole is proportional to the square of the number of participants. In other words, the more people in the network, the more valuable the network.”
15. “Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.”
16. “The point is not to find the average customer but to find early adopters: the customers who feel the need for the product most acutely. Those customers tend to be more forgiving of mistakes and are especially eager to give feedback.”
17. “If we do not know who the customer is, we do not know what quality is.”
18. “Leadership requires creating conditions that enable employees to do the kinds of experimentation that entrepreneurship requires.”
19. “The ability to learn faster from customers is the essential competitive advantage that startups must possess.”
20. “Ask most entrepreneurs who have decided to pivot and they will tell you that they wish they had made the decision sooner.”
21. “In the Lean Startup model, an experiment is more than just a theoretical inquiry; it is also a first product.”
22. “What if we found ourselves building something that nobody wanted? In that case what did it matter if we did it on time and on budget?”
23. “Peter Drucker said, “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”
24. “Failure is a prerequisite to learning.”
25. “Entrepreneurship should be considered a viable career path for innovators inside large organizations.”
Follow & like
