Excellence can be attained if you:
What I admire in Columbus is not his discovery of a world but his having gone in search on the faith of an opinion.
People wish to learn to swim and at the same time keep one foot on the ground.
You fought the good fight. You were in it right up to the beginning.
Be a risk taker when it comes to trusting others.
Winners win and lose more frequently than losers because they stay in the game.
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face . . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Our senior managers try to be explicit about our vulnerability and failings. We talk to people about the bad decisions we've made. It demystifies senior management and remove the stigma traditionally associated with taking risks. We also talk about the limitations of our knowledge, mostly by inviting other people's perspectives.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Don't fall victim to what I call the "ready-aim-aim-aim-aim" syndrome. You must be willing to fire.
Behold the turtle! He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.
The country needs bold persistent experimentation. Take a method and try it; it if fails, admit it, and try another. But above all, try something.
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly!
You don't have to be a rogue interpersonally to be a risk taker.
- Care more than others think is wise
- Risk more than others think is safe
- Dream more than others think is practical
- Expect more than others think is possible
- A. Robert Turgot
- Marcel Proust
- Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior
- James Kouzes & Barry Posner
- Terry Paulson
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Robert D. Haas, CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.
- Robert F. Kennedy
- General George S. Patton, Jr.
- James B. Conant
- Helen Keller
- FDR, 1932
- Ralph Stayer
- Doug Smith
The risk of losing is part of winning, but never losing means never getting what we want.
- John Roger & Peter McWilliams
You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.
- John Roger & Peter McWilliams
Better it is to TRY and FAIL than to FAIL by not TRYING.
Opportunity is ever worth expecting; let your hook be ever hanging ready, the fish will be in the pool where you least imagine it to be.
Take risks. You can't fall off the bottom.
Build it and they will come!
- Field of Dreams
Don't be afraid to go out on a limb ... that's where the fruit is.
Don't wait for your ship to come in ... swim out to it.
A mistake at least proves that somebody stopped talking long enough to DO something.
What kind of man would live where there is no daring? I don't believe in taking foolish chances but nothing can be accomplished without taking any chance at all.
- Charles Lindbergh
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
- Aryn Rand
The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them.
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
Persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite.
Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business.
- Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Every time we've moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.
- T. J. Watson, Jr.
You've got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down.
- Ray Bradbury
Don't listen to those who say, 'You're taking too big a chance.' Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says. 'They're all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections. I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respects.
- Neil Simon
Remember the turtle - He never makes any progress till he sticks his neck out.
Of course we all have our limits, but how can you possibly find your boundaries unless you explore as far and as wide as you possibly can? I would rather fail in an attempt at something new and uncharted than safely succeed in a repeat of something I have done.
- A.E. Hotchner
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
- Albert Einstein
You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.
- Charles Kettering
The good thing about being young is that you are not experienced enough to know you cannot possibly do the things you are doing.
I am convinced that one of the biggest factors in success is the courage to undertake something.
- James A. Worsham
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
Do you see difficulties in very opportunity or opportunities in every difficulty?
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
- Edison (He tried 10,000 different materials for the light bulb)
Do Something,
If It Works,
Do More Of It
If It Doesn't,
Do Something Else.
- FDR
We are only born with two fears: loud noises and falling. All others are LEARNED.
COMFORT ZONES:
Zones that correspond to our current self-image in any particular area of life, within which we effectively and efficiently perform tasks & exercise skills.
We feel very uncomfortable outside of that comfort zone.
Example # 1: $100 bill at end of 14' board, 14" wide, laying on floor. We would have no problem walking to end of board and retrieving $100. However, if board was extended from the edge of a building, 50 stories up in air, most of us would not attempt to retrieve the $100!
Example # 2: Driving across a bridge over a canyon. Bridge has railings along side, yellow lines showing lanes, etc.- we feel comfortable. What if we remove the yellow lines and take down the railings. We now feel uncomfortable and probably would not drive across bridge - BUT WHAT HAS CHANGED? It is all based on our mental perceptions.
Sometimes "rules" and "guidelines" can present a false sense of security. When taken out of their comfort zones, people tend to recreate their old comfort zone.
Example: Tear down slums and put up high-rise; high-rises become high-rise slums!
The way to SUCCEED is to double your FAILURE rate.
- T.J.Watson, Sr.
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
- Babe Ruth
MISTAKES are the stepping stones that lead to future accomplishments.
Do you have days when everything seems to go wrong? Well, when you read what happened some years ago to a man in Barbados perhaps your problems will not seems so bad at all. His letter to his employers explained what happened when he went to repair a building damaged by a hurricane:
"I rigged up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building and hoisted up a couple of barrels full of bricks. When I had fixed the building, there was a lot of bricks left over. I hoisted the barrel back up again and secured the line at the bottom, and then went up and filled the barrel with extra bricks. Then I went to the bottom and cast off the line. Unfortunately, the barrel of bricks was heavier than I was and before I knew what was happening the barrel started down, jerking me off the ground. I decided to hang on and halfway up I met the barrel coming down and received a severe blow on the shoulder. I then continued to the top, banging my head against the beam and getting my finger jammed in the pulley. When the barrel hit the ground it burst its bottom; allowing all the bricks to spill out. I was now heavier than the barrel and so started down again at high speed. Halfway down, I met the barrel coming up and received severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground I landed on the bricks, getting several painful cuts from the sharp edges. At this point I must have lost my presence of mind, because I let go the line. The barrel then came down giving me another heavy blow on the head and putting me in the hospital. I respectfully request sick leave."
You miss a 100% of the shots you never take!
Some days you're the bug. Some days you're the windshield.
| End of Quotes on "Risk" |