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Business Quotes

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

We see annoying billboards touting that size matters. Various businesses try to convince us that only a massive dinosaur of a company can provide the service or product we deserve. They will have us assume that bigger firms are always better.

It’s the measure of success. We admire industry titans like John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk. The size of the companies they founded is almost as important as the profits they produced.

But anyone who has ever tried to contact a live person at a massive, unresponsive business or organization knows that isn’t the case. At the beginning of The Essential Drucker, Peter Drucker asks us to consider that bigger isn’t always better.

Bigger isn't always better: a quote by Peter Drucker: "It is not necessary of a business to grow bigger; but it is necessary that it constantly grow better." from "The Essential Drucker: The best of Sixty years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management
Categories
Business motivation Quotes

Why is Humility Good Business?

A quote from The Millionaire Mind, by Thomas Stanley, answered my question, “Why is humility good business?” The author interviewed an entrepreneur that owns and runs an auto junkyard. He asked the owner what made him successful.

The owner replied that at first, he got a lot of pushback from his family. he said his mother asked him, “Anyone can own a junkyard. Why did you go to college—not to own junk!”

Yet, this owner was a deca-millionaire. The author noted that many people overlook opportunities because social status and concern about appearances keep many from noticing opportunities. That led to Thomas Stanley’s quote:

"Snobs do not make great entrepreneurs." Thomas Stanley
Why is humility good for Business
From The Millionaire Mind by Thomas Stanley
Categories
motivation Quotes

Does Everyone Have a Destiny?

In today’s quote, Henry Miller claims everyone has a destiny. If it is true, that can be a scary proposition. If life isn’t going the way we hoped, if we are going through a tough time right now, we tend to believe that is our lot in life and to just accept it.

Quote from Henry Miller: "Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.
From Brainyquote.com

But should we? If our vision and values are misaligned with our current situation, should we just accept that’s the way things are?

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Quotes

Wisdom and Humility

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.”

Winston Churchill

It is too easy to write someone off because they have been foolish in the past. We put labels on those we don’t agree with because it is easier than carefully considering if there is some truth in their assertions.

We may even feel threatened that a group we don’t agree with has a good idea that we haven’t thought of. Surely if it was a good idea, we would have thought of it, right?

Wisdom takes humility. Every person can teach us something. It takes discernment to listen and consider other points of view. The echo chamber we are tempted to live in eventually makes us deaf.

Even fools are right sometimes. Humility makes us consider that to someone else, we may look like a fool and we are right sometimes too.

Categories
holiday Quotes

A Prayer of Gratitude

Today, in the United States, most of us will be gathering around a table and offering a prayer of gratitude. The two simple words of thank you can do amazing things.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

Meister Eckhart

A prayer of thanks changes us. We can come to God with no agenda and just simply express gratitude. It reminds us of what we do have and humbles us enough to realize we are more dependent than we would like to think.

All of us have wants and needs. On the other hand, if someone only comes to us when they want something, we start to dread the next encounter. None of us like a relationship where the other person is a taker.

Today, let us give thanks. Give thanks in prayer, and also give thanks to those around us. We rely on others much more than we would like to admit. Let us give thanks in prayer and in the words we give to others.

Think about why someone dear to you is so dear. Tell them. If it is too hard, we can just say, “Thank you.” If they ask what for, just tell them that they mean so much to us. A memory of past generosity is good, but not necessary. Just thank someone for the blessing they are. It does our heart, and the heart of the recipient of our gratitude, a good thing.