20th-century Businessman Quotes

The Robertson family and bad ideas go together like biscuits and jam.

Willie Robertson

Independent thinking is not just helpful in becoming a successful investor, it's required.

Like sheep that get lost nibbling away at the grass because they never look up, we often focus so much on ourselves and our problems that we get lost.

When you start thinking about leaving, choose your moment carefully. Go out while you're still on top, not when you're no longer in control of events.

Finding an excuse not to buy a brand can be just as enjoyable as finding an excuse to buy one. That, too, is human nature.

David F. D'Alessandro

The market has a simple way of whittling all excessive pride and overblown egos down to size. After all, the whole idea is to be completely objective and recognize what the marketplace is telling you, rather than try to prove that the thing you said or did yesterday or six weeks ago was right. The fastest way to take a bath in the stock market or go broke is to try to prove that you are right and the market is wrong.

It's not going to happen if you wait for the boss to tell you to make it happen.

If reality is not what you want it to be, change it. You should not accept anything blindly, not death, not immortality.

Hannu Rajaniemi

The greater the handicap, the greater the triumph.

John H. Johnson

It is rare to find an established community of Christians that encourages radical expressions of following Jesus. The natural conservatism of institutions is deeply rooted in the desire to survive, and that desire colors and limits the way they read the Bible and how they see God functioning in the world.

Michael Spencer

When I think about who influenced my life the most as a Leader, I think of my Mother. She, more than anyone, taught me how to lead with love.

Colleen Barrett

When you embrace the uncertain, life opens up unusual new paths. Seeds sown way back bloom as flowers, in ways one can never fathom.

Perhaps the clearest and deepest meaning of brotherhood is the ability to imagine yourself in the other person's position, and then treat that person as if you were him or her. This form of brotherhood takes a lot of imagination, a great deal of sympathy, and a tremendous amount of understanding.

Obert C. Tanner

Ask ourselves: How can we serve, nurture and sustain the planet and its people in our business ventures?

Horst Rechelbacher

The more communities in which you are an active participant, the more likely it is that you'll be happy.

Principle is okay up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose.

In short, ISIS is composed of religiously motivated psychopaths,

Only 20 countries — whose populations are smaller than Taiwan's — in the world recognize the Republic of China (ROC). What is the meaning of their recognition of the ROC?

I sometimes compare my brainstorming on paper to the drilling of oil wells. The only way to strike oil is to drill a lot of wells.

A hot air balloon requires a great deal of fuel to keep it aloft, so that you can't fly it even for one day. A gas balloon, which usually uses helium, has the problem that the helium cools at night when the sun is not on it, and you have to throw ballast overboard to keep it from going to the surface.

Wall Street sometimes gets confused between risk and uncertainty, and you can profit handsomely from that confusion. The low-risk, high-uncertainty [situation] gives us our most sought after coin-toss odds. Heads, I win; tails, I don't lose much.

All a company report and balance sheet can tell you is the past and the present. They cannot tell future.

The point is... you'd better figure out what your Customers - the Customers you want - value. Because that's what they'll buy. Anything else is a waste of their money, and they'll figure that out in a hurry.

One can only wonder when the advocates of progressive economics will realize that, despite their best efforts, you cannot regulate your way to economic prosperity.

Show me a chief executive who's on five boards and who lends his or her name, prestige and time to 15 community activities - and I'll show you a company that's underperforming. A chief executive is paid to run the company. That's the CEO's job.

Albert J. Dunlap