I have a journal on my bedside and a notes page on my phone to jot down great sayings whenever they find me. Today I thought I would share a few which strongly influence my decisions and might help inform yours. I have aggregated hundreds of these, but here are 16.
"The best way to get what you want is to try to deserve it."
Focus on becoming worthy of your aspirations rather than trying to game or shortcut your way to them. Build the skills, character, and capabilities that naturally lead to what you desire.
This is the golden Rule.
"The time it takes to build something is its half life."
The effort and time invested in creating something often mirrors how long it will remain relevant or valuable. Great works that take years to build often last decades, while quick projects may have similarly brief utility. Remeber, great thing are built brick by brick, board by board. Rome wasn't built in a night.
"You should only expect to make money in things you understand."
Stay within your circle of competence. Investment success comes from deep knowledge of what you're investing in, not from chasing trends or opportunities you can't fully grasp. It's easy to look good and make money in good times but your outperformance is proportional to your degree of preparedness for the bad times.
"When hiring, look for integrity, energy, and smarts."
These three qualities are fundamental and irreplaceable. You can teach skills, but you cannot instill basic honesty, drive, or intelligence. Without integrity you might as well forget the last two. If someone doesn't have it you want them dumb and lazy.
"Something that isn't fair, in the end, can never be good."
Sustainable success requires ethical foundations. Unfair practices or arrangements will eventually collapse or corrupt, regardless of short-term benefits.
"In life and business, look for win-wins."
The best relationships and deals benefit all parties. Zero-sum thinking is limiting; look for ways to expand the pie rather than just dividing it. Don't take pride in getting the better of a counter party; thinking ha-ha, I showed them. Take pride when you've constructed a good deal for everyone. A Win-Win.
"Great things happen when simple good ideas are taken very seriously."
Excellence often comes from deep commitment to basic principles rather than complex innovations. Profound impact can come from executing simple ideas with extraordinary dedication. Don't get cute and stick to the basics.
"Don't risk something you have and need for something you don't have, want, but don't need."
Preserve what's essential. Never jeopardize your fundamental needs for optional gains, no matter how appealing they might be.
"Show me the incentives and I'll give you the result."
Human behavior follows incentives. Understanding and properly aligning incentives is key to achieving desired outcomes in any organization. I've come to learn that truly crazy people are very rare, more often crazy behavior is the result of a sane person being subject to perverse incentives.
"Make friends among the imminent dead."
Learn from those near the end of their lives or who have immortalized their wisdom through their works (texts, videos, stories). We are who we associate with; why not associate with history's greats?
"Focus on the hard rights and avoid the easy wrong."
Choose what's right even when it's difficult, and be wary of convenient but unethical shortcuts. Character is built by making tough choices. You make your decisions and then they make you.
"It is a moral duty to stamp out your own ignorance."
We have an obligation to learn and grow. Willful ignorance is a form of ethical failure; continuous learning is a responsibility and should be a source of pride.
"Be very rigid on your vision and very flexible on the details."
Maintain unwavering commitment to your core goals while remaining adaptable about how to achieve them. The destination matters more than the exact path.
"Society grows great when we old men plant trees they will never enjoy the shade of."
True greatness comes from working for future benefits we won't personally experience. Long-term thinking and sacrifice for future generations builds lasting value and sets a great example.
"You must avoid the abc's of business: Arrogance, Bureaucracy, and Complacency."
Success often breeds these three killers of continued excellence. Stay humble, agile, and hungry even as you achieve your goals.
"Great businesses die when they focus more on competitors than customers."
Success lies in careful attention to small things and a maniacal focus on the customer. The accumulation of many small improvements creates excellence in retail.
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